No Holds Barred: Sweden’s blood libel against Israel over the Paris terrorist attacks
According to Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström, the desperate plight of the Palestinians is to blame.
By SHMULEY BOTEACHUpdated: NOVEMBER 20, 2015 13:43Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom(photo credit: REUTERS)
After the murder of Jews by Muslim extremists in France gave a preview of what the rest of the country could expect, the usual apologists blamed the victims, suggesting these terrorists were reacting to the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians miles away.Now, predictably, Jews are again being libeled by ignoramuses, conspiracy theorists,and propagandists who suggest Israel is responsible for the Paris attacks.It is not surprising these allegations come from the Arab world. After all, many Arabs still believe the Mossad was responsible for 9/11. In the case of the Paris attacks, Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik of Palestinian Media Watch, reported that the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper blamed the Mossad for the atrocities.According to the paper, “It is not a coincidence that human blood was exploded in Paris at the same time that certain European sanctions are beginning to be implemented against settlement products, and while France leads Europe in advising the security council that will implement the two-state solution, Palestine and Israel – which the Israelis see as a warning of sudden danger coming from the direction of Europe...” The article’s author concludes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu somehow benefits from the carnage.Marcus and Zilberdik note the PA is spinning similar lies “to draw an imaginary false parallel to Israel’s alleged ‘terror’ against Palestinians and to repeat the allegation that Israel is like the Islamic State terror organization.”Where else but the Middle East could you find the Orwellian formulation that Israel is equivalent to Islamic State disseminated by a Palestinian terrorist organization – Fatah – that has engaged in international terrorism for half a century? Palestinian leaders have become masters of the “Big Lie,” perfected by the Nazis, so I was not surprised to hear one more fabrication emanating from Ramallah aimed at demonizing Israel.Although many European officials have fallen into the Palestinian trap, and not only believed their lies but repeated them, I was still surprised by the outrageous remarks by Margot Wallström, Sweden’s foreign affairs minister, suggesting the explanation for the Paris violence could be found in the plight of the Palestinians whose desperation, she believes, forces them to resort to violence. This view is inane on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start.First, the terrorists in Paris were not Palestinians, had nothing to do with their cause and attacked their targets because of their belief that all nations should be ruled by Muslims according to their interpretation of Shari’a law.As the French president said, this was an act of war, not desperation.Second, Palestinians do not resort to terrorism out of desperation. They have alternatives such as negotiations and nonviolence, which they have eschewed. Instead, their leaders incite them to violence through mosques, social and conventional media and the schools.
Third, State Department Arabists, as well as ignoramuses such as Wallström, believe all Middle East problems would evaporate if the Palestinian issue were resolved or, better yet, if Israel disappeared.Islamic State is just one example of the absurdity of this view. If Israel was destroyed tomorrow, Islamic State would still be determined to establish a world-wide caliphate and would still have attacked Paris. Furthermore, Israel’s disappearance would not halt the civil wars in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, defeat al-Qaida or erase the enmity between Shiites and Sunnis.Let’s not mince words. Wallström is no better than the conspiracy theorists who seek to blame the Jews for the world’s ills. If she read the reports of European intelligence agencies or listened to the public remarks by the directors of British intelligence she would know that radical Islamists are a serious threat.Andrew Parker, director of MI5, said last month that plots were being directed from Syria and citizens were being radicalized by Islamic State’s online propaganda.“On top of that,” he said, “in a range of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, this year we have seen greater ambition for mass casualty attacks.”Parker, a 32-year veteran of the intelligence world, added that “the threat we are facing today is on a scale and at a tempo that I have not seen before in my career.”Parker did not attribute any of this danger to Israel or the Palestinian issue.US President Barack Obama also doesn’t understand or acknowledge the source of the menace we are facing. He refuses to utter the words “Islamist extremists,” and has banned the expression from his administration. At a meeting of world leaders at the UN to develop an international strategy for defeating Islamic State and other terrorist groups, Obama insisted that “violent extremism is not unique to any one faith.”This prompted a sharp retort from British Prime Minister David Cameron who said, “Barack, you said it and you’re right – every religion has its extremists, but we have to be frank that the biggest problem we have today is the Islamist extremist violence that has given birth to ISIL [Islamic State], to al-Shabaab, to al-Nusra, al-Qaida and so many other groups.” If only the rest of the world’s leaders were as clear-eyed in their assessments.Unlike Obama, whose counterterror policy is indecipherable, if he has one at all, Cameron knows what has to be done.“We need to make sure we don’t allow the incubation of an extremist worldview even before it gets to justifying violence... We’ve got to get it out of our schools, get it out of our prisons, get it out of our universities. I believe in freedom of speech, but freedom to hate is not the same thing.”Obama needs to take Cameron’s advice by acknowledging that there is indeed radical Islam that is endangering our security.As for the Palestinian propagandists, they should be exposed as inciters of violence who will politicize the tragedies in Paris to demonize Jews. The Swedish foreign minister should be admonished by not just Israel, but her own government. Swedish Prime Minister Kjell Stefan Löfvén should realize that someone so quick to blame the Jews, and so ignorant of the real causes of the terrorist threat in Europe, has no business in the job of foreign minister.The writer is the founder of The World Values Network and author of 30 books, including his most recent, The Israel Warriors Handbook. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
