It will be a cold day in Hell before I buy a Volvo

By Vic Rosenthal

Another country has recognized the Palestinian Authority unity government:

Following Norway’s lead, Sweden announced Sunday that it will re-establish political and economic relations with the new Palestinian coalition government.

During a visit to Ramallah, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that Sweden would not differentiate between Hamas and Fatah ministers.

“Just as we wouldn’t let a foreign body interfere with our governmental issues and differentiate between ministers, we believe the Palestinian government should be treated as a single entity,” Bildt said.

Bildt promised that his government would continue making every effort to assist the Palestinians financially. — YNet

Sweden, unlike Norway, is a member of the EU. I think that we will be seeing more announcements of this type in the near future. Bildt is probably correct that it is illogical and not practical to recognize only part of a government (although I suppose this would have some symbolic value).

Let’s understand what this means.

The PA platform includes the following (from PA government has a straightforward platform):

  • The government confirms that the resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people…
  • Halting resistance depends on ending the occupation and achieving freedom and the right of return and independence…
  • The Government holds fast to the rights of Palestinian refugees, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land and belongings.

‘Resistance’ as we know, includes preparations for war as well as ongoing attempts to murder Israeli civilians. And ‘occupation’, as is evident from the above, includes all of Israel. So the government of Sweden recognizes as the legitimate government of ‘Palestine’, whatever that is, an organization which openly declares its intention to destroy another sovereign state and which tries to kill her citizens on a daily basis. And furthermore, Sweden intends to help pay for this.

I’m sure that the Swedes would explain their position with a lot of rubbish about occupation and human rights. The fact is that every day rockets are fired into Israel from unoccupied Gaza by Hamas, the major partner in the PA government, an explicitly antisemitic organization which wants to deny human rights to Jews by killing them.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 2:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “It will be a cold day in Hell before I buy a Volvo”

  1. Shalom Freedman says:
    March 27, 2007 at 7:47 am

    Sweden is one of the most anti- Israel countries in Europe. Sweden’s moral status has too been more and more undermined as the awareness increases that in many ways it was during the Second World War anything but neutral, but rather aided the Nazi German regime in critical ways.
    Israel has no real bridges to Sweden. The Jewish community is miniscule. The Muslim minority presence is significant and increasing. The Swedes themselves seem to be on a long holiday from ‘reality’ in regard not only to the Middle East, but the world – situation in general.