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Sweden’s Recognition of “Palestine”: Do the Math

Nov. 11 2014

Muslims, who now make up about 7 percent of Sweden’s population, vote overwhelmingly for leftwing parties. In deciding to recognize a fictive Palestinian state, the Swedish government was motivated less by diplomatic considerations than by the desire to satisfy that crucial voting bloc. What can Israel learn from this by way of an appropriate diplomatic response? Wilhelm Roth writes:

Israel is a small state which needs to operate in the world like an empire, which knows how to use its sticks in the most effective possible manner. . . . Familiarity with [Sweden] would show that the ruling party is in fact a minority government: the coalition has 138 seats while the opposition has 211. An under-the-radar call for the opposition parties to demand that recognition of a Palestinian state only be done through parliament, and stressing their own opposition to such [recognition], along with a bag of goodies from Israel for Sweden as a whole . . . could shut down the issue for good. More than that: using this political tool is not only desirable for [Sweden’s] right-wing parties now; it would also strengthen ties between the two countries when the right wins the country.

Read more at Mida

More about: European Islam, Palestinian statehood, Sweden

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic