WikiLeaks’ Latest & Sweden’s Spin on Cablegate

The latest release of U.S. documents by self-styled whistle-blower, Julian Assange covers a wide range of policy discussions, as summarized by U.S. State Department officials and diplomatic personnel in internal cable correspondence.  In fact, the scope of the material allows for not one, but two levels of revelation, the first being the actual WikiLeaks material, and the second being the bias of the news agency covering the leaks, as there is lots of room to pick and choose.

For example, the Local, Sweden’s English-language daily, discussed the impact of the leaks on diplomacy in very general terms. The article is based largely on the responses of Rolf Ekéus, former Swedish ambassador to Washington, to the release of the diplomatic cables.

-“Ekéus said he feared WikiLeaks' publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence could result in fewer contacts being willing to provide diplomats with vital information.”

The Local notes that the relatively small amount of information dealing with Sweden includes “observations that Sweden was the leader of a handfull [sic] of European countries to oppose sanctions on Iran at a meeting in Brussels in 2009.” Note this symptom of denial.

On the various issues raised by the WikiLeaks publication, the Local breezes over substantial issues and eschews delving into details, merely saying that:

 -“Particular matters of interest to [Ekéus] were new details about the Koreas, Middle East and EU, as well as judgments on Russia and world leaders that have not been previously reported.

  “To Ekéus, the most surprising revelations in the documents were the ‘great nervousness’ expressed about the Iranian nuclear programme and whether it is moving towards manufacturing weapons.”

“Whether” Iran is moving towards nuclear weapons development? Is this really a question?

Cablegate reveals the extent that the Swedish press and the “official line” expressed by Ekéus differs from reality. In fact, the true picture shown in the cables is that leaders of several Arab states actively and repeatedly sought U.S. military action against Iran. The material was less than surprising for those who follow the Israeli press and other (non-Swedish) sources.  For quite some time the Israeli leadership has been saying publicly that the Arab world is just as unhappy as Israel is regarding Iran’s nuclear program.  The cables confirm that there has been a huge gap between the public and closed-door statements of Arab regimes regarding Iran. Even Ekéus’ characterization of “great nervousness” about Iran implies a hand-wringing attitude—which is a far cry from the Saudis urging the U.S. to “cut off the head of the snake”. 

The Swedish media is not alone in the whitewashing of these home truths about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. The left-leaning New York Times in an initial report completely omitted the Saudi call to take out Iranian nuclear facilities, although, unlike the Local, it did note that:

-“Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the ‘worst in the region’ in counterterrorism efforts.”

Admitting that terror is literally “fueled” by barrels of Saudi oil money flies in the face of the accepted leftist line that terror is the desperate choice of the downtrodden, and that revolution—Islamic or otherwise—is the uprising of the disadvantaged.  It’s a good guess that that’s why the Ekéus and the Local—which has been referred to as “Aftonbladet in English”—failed to give readers the substantive issues. 

By: Chanah Shapira

Justice Minister: Malmö Police Failed to Defend Pro-Israel Demonstrators from Illegal Mob Attack in 2009

In January of 2009, in response to Israel’s operation in Gaza, the Jewish community in Malmö organized a small demonstration in support of Israel’s right to self-defense and secured a permit to hold the demonstration. The demonstrators were peaceful and acting within their legal right when an illegal mob attacked the demonstration in the central town square. The pro-peace demonstrators were forced to flee the scene, but now the police admit that they were too passive when handling the illegal mob.

The legal pro-Israeli demonstration, ended abruptly after an angry—and considerably larger—mob had thrown eggs, stones and even fired rockets against the peaceful demonstration. Demonstrators, including elderly citizens from the Jewish community in Malmö, some of them Holocaust survivors, were compelled by the police, to flee the scene while being harangued with  anti-Semitic curse words.  Some of these elderly citizens have stated that the atmosphere was similar to that which they had experienced in Nazi Germany. 

The incident was reported to the Swedish Justice Minister who now—almost one years later—levels criticism against the action (or lack thereof) taken by the local police. In the local newspaper Sydsvenskan a quote from Justice Minister reads:

“I note the constitutionally-protected right to demonstrate, including the right to organize a counter-demonstration, but not the right to prevent the main demonstration from conveying its message. The police efforts should therefore have primarily focused on the disturbing counter-demonstrators”.

Another conclusion was that such protection might be costly but that the freedom of expression needs to be supported in a democracy, and that such behavior therefore should not be tolerated at any cost.

The demonstration is one in a row of assaults that the Jewish community has faced in the recent past. Yesterday the local newspaper Sydsvenskan ran a piece on Malmö’s Chabad rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, who is constantly faced with anti-Semitic attacks and abuse.

Kesselman states in the interview that he never feels safe in the streets of Malmö. Just in this past year he has had some (at least) 70 experiences of anti-Semitic hate crime directed towards him.  People constantly scream “fucking Jew”, “yahood” and other anti-Semitic curses at him in the streets as well as spitting and throwing cans and apple cores at him. At this point he avoids taking the bus. He also tells the reporter that he has a hard time explaining to his children why people always are spitting after them or screaming curses.

It is sad to realize how much time has gone by and that so little, if anything, has been done to counter this ongoing problem. If Ilmar Reepalu, Malmö’s Social Democrat mayor, claimed in 2009 that he had no idea that there was anti-Semitic hate crime in Malmö, this year he has no such excuse—yet Malmö’s Jews aren’t feeling safer and the abuses continues… 

Jewish Pro-Israeli Blogger Battered in Norrköping

On Monday evening a Jewish man was attacked in his own home in Norrköping. The perpetrators were two Arab men who managed to force entry into the man’s apartment where they attacked him with a wine bottle.

The attack was published in a local newspaper Monday evening and read:

“Just before 18:30 police and ambulance were called to the scene of an assault in an apartment on Trädgårdsgatan in Norrköping. Two perpetrators dressed in black and with hoods are stated to have entered an apartment and assaulted a person with a wine bottle”.

According to veteran blogger Hans C. Pettersson who writes the “Jihad I Malmö” blog the assault was purely anti-Semitic—due to the fact that the victim was a Jew who was actively and positively blogging about Israel. Pettersson also interviewed the victim who told him:

-“The first thing I heard was “Jew pig”; I was then beaten on the head with a wine bottle 4-5 times…”

The victim also said that a noise from the staircase made the attackers flee the scene while screaming “Yahood” (‘Jew’ in Arabic). When he came back from the hospital he also saw that the two men had tried to rip out his mezuzah from the doorpost.

It is still not known who the perpetrators of the attack are; the victim has reached out to the Pettersson and the readers of “Jihad in Malmö” and wants people who might have heard someone bragging about the attack to call the local Norrköping police at 011-23 63 00.

The description of the two men according to the victim is:

-Two men with Arabic accent, between 180-185 cm, brown eyes, who might have been seen running down Trädgårdsgatan alongside the tram tracks.

Andreas Lovén on the Current Situation for Malmö’s Jews

Andreas Lovén is the Swedish journalist from Skånska Dagladet, who started a heated national debate in January of this year by discussing the increased number of anti-Semitic attacks in Malmö in print. Skånska Dagbladet’s series attracted international attention and put Mayor Ilmar Reepalu in the hotseat for not one, but a series of inconvenient statements relating to the issue. It has now been almost a year since Lovén broke the story. Recently, Lovén elaborated on the current situation for Malmö’s Jews, which he claims hasn’t improved.

Andreas Lovén decided to run an op-ed in Dagens Nyheter following the recent episode in Höllviken, not far from Malmö, where Jewish children were attacked by youngsters who threw eggs and yelled anti-Semitic insults. In his article Lovén reflected on the situation for Malmö’s Jews, and wondered if after this year’s focus on the rising number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city has made any difference for Jews in Malmö.  

Lovén notes his series on hate crimes against Jews led to increased national, as well as international attention to the problem. As a result, the attacks against Jews in Malmö finally were finally acknowledged in public discourse. He also mentions that, strikingly enough, attacks on Malmö’s rabbi as well as on Jewish football players in public, had never been something that the local newspaper would consider newsworthy.

But has a positive change taken place in Malmö? According to Lovén this is not the case.  Responses to the article series were, according to Lovén, mainly negative. Colleagues from both his own newspaper as well as others in the media constantly questioned the truth of the stories.  He also states that shortly after the first article was published he got an email from a prominent Social Democrat in Skåne that read:

“A part of the population in Malmö which is of Jewish descent lives like a king on a throne. They are Zionists with all what that includes (…) Let these people emigrate to Israel and settle down in a castle on occupied land.”

According to Lovén many reacted the same way and people with leftist sympathies completely turned their backs against him. The strong reaction from the Left was something he had not expected; he was disappointed that the Left, which is supposed to oppose discrimination and bigotry.

Showing again that this is not the case, Lovén recalls a recent conversation with two men from the Muslim majority neighborhood of Rosengård where the pair claimed that a locally known Social Democrat tried to gain votes “by calling the Liberal Party the ‘Jew party’ and promised economic support to Gaza in the event that the Social Democrats won the elections.”

In his op-ed Lovén also touches upon the fact that Ilmar Reepalu has managed to play a part in aggravating the situation by not managing to differentiate between the situation in Malmö and the conflict in the Middle East. He writes:

“What Ilmar Reeplau thinks about the Jew’s exposure in Malmö I can only guess. It is not realistic to think that he is anti-Semitic but the fact that he cannot separate Malmö from the Middle East is bad enough… In a recording Ilmar Reepalu called Israel’s politics an abscess; he also equated Zionism with anti-Semitism”.  

A dialogue forum was recently initiated to better the situation for the Jews and has been accredited to Mayor Reepalu. Nonetheless, Lovén notes that:

“The idea originally came from the Imam Saeed Azam, chairman of the newly founded Fatwa Council and member of the dialogue forum”.

Moreover, according to Lovén the forum was forced into creation by the Social Democrats’ former leader Mona Sahlin.

Lovén’s op-ed comes as a reminder that there is still much to be done about the Jews’ situation in Malmö. In the beginning of the year more attention was focused on the problem but it doesn’t appear that any real change has taken place. The continuing attacks are proof that the proposed “solution” has been ineffective.  

At the end of Lovén’s op-ed he notes that it doesn’t help that Malmö’s schools recently denied the introduction of a curriculum that was to educate Malmö’s students about the evils of anti-Semitism. According to Lovén, the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism (SKMA) recently renewed their offer but it was declined again as Malmö teachers “were busy with the upcoming curriculum”.  Lovén accepts this excuse without comment.

Obviously Lovén identified a problem which is difficult for Swedes to discuss. There is a blatant conflict between the idea of Swedes as liberal and tolerant, while anti-Semitism on the other hand even erupts from the Left.  

There is also the fact that having largely adopted the Islamic and Palestinian victim narratives to define what happens in the Middle East, the Left cannot or will not see that Muslims can be oppressors.  But when we look at massacres of Christians in Iraq, the persecution of Copts in Egypt, or Muslims in Malmö—pelting Jews at a peaceful demonstration with bottles, stones, and firecrackers; trying to run the rabbi over on the street; or harassing those who identify openly as Jews, we see that there are Muslims who can be hate mongers. Yet very few in Swedish society dare to say this.

Between the fear and the hypocrisy, it seems that Malmö still has a long way to go when it comes to halting anti-Semitic attacks. It’s a constant uphill battle when Mayor Reepalu is leading the fight—because he’s neither willing nor brave enough.

More Swedish Terror—Abroad and Right at Home

As reported in both the Local and the Stockholm News, the Swedish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a Swedish national of Tunisian origin has committed a suicide bombing in Iraq.  Details are yet unclear, but a website linked with al-Qaeda had details posted regarding the 36-year-old Stockholm resident.  Apparently the bombing occurred in the city of Mosul, and several people were killed.  The information posted indicates that the man traveled to Iraq with the express intent of dying as terrorist martyr.


As the Stockholm News notes:
-“He is now hailed as a martyr and hero for this deed on Islamic websites.”
No surprises here; it’s obvious that the terrorist network is self-congratulatory.
Nonetheless, it is truly upsetting that “Anna” his Swedish wife, the mother of his four young children, knew that he left on this mission and approved of his plans.  She reported that she was informed of his death by telephone.  She describes the exchange:


-“There was a man who called me. He said very short: ‘Your husband is dead. He has become a martyr.’ And hung up,” she told the newspaper [Expressen].
 “What he has done is right. I’m proud of him.”


In another story, a bomb went off in the early hours this morning in Malmö’s Rosengård district.  There were no injuries, but there was extensive damage to an eight-story building, when the bomb destroyed a convenience store. The explosive material was apparently placed outside the building. (As opposed to the explosion which occurred this year at Malmö’s synagogue, the police characterized the device used in today’s attack as “no firecrackers”.)


The thread linking these two cases is the mentality of acceptance –and even approval—in some circles in Sweden for this kind of terrorist behavior.  In the case of the suicide bomber, his wife “Anna”, apparently a native Swede, has abandoned basic Western principles of rational behavior and not only failed to prevent her husband from succeeding in his murderous mission, but actually approves of this kind of act perpetuated in Iraq.


Similarly, the total ineptitude of Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu, and his abysmal failure to maintain law and order in Rosengård and the rest of Malmö is in a large part responsible for the lawless climate in which today’s explosion took place.   Reepalu has in the past condoned Islamic lawlessness and hate crime directed against Jews in Malmö, justifying these crimes the basis of political ideology. When the law isn’t the law and murderous behavior is accepted as the “cultural norm” of other “equally valid” cultures, this is the result.
Unless the authorities begin to publically repudiate the terrorist ideology behind this kind of criminal activity, it will only get worse.


By: Chanah Shapira

How Did Former Nazi Become Candidate for Southern Swedish Communal Council?

According to the anti-racist magazine Expo, an unnamed former Nazi who “previously has been engaged in NSF- National Socialistic Front” (Nationalsocialistisk front) activities, was never entered on the party lists in the communal elections. Instead, he was elected via 23 blank Sweden Democrat (SD) ballots in Ronneby commune which is located in the southern part of Sweden.

For those unfamiliar with parliamentary voting, this means that the 23 votes he received were not enough to get him a seat in the communal council, but he was eligible should others with more votes drop out. Lo and behold, a series of SD individuals have left the council and some space has opened up for this write-in candidate to take a seat on the council.

According to local SD representatives, the former Nazi is not welcome on the council. Local SD representative Richard Jomshof made this statement to local newspaper Blekinke läns tidning disassociating SD from the “candidacy” of the former Nazi:

- “He has absolutely nothing to do with our party. We don’t share the same values and therefore he cannot represent us. It is sad that this group can’t manage to get in by itself”.

The same article notes that the man in question actually has a criminal past; as an ex-Nazi he ran for the former National Socialist Front in Karlskrona, and was fined for “breaching the Public Order Act in connection with the demonstrations. He has also been sentenced to prison as part of a series of thefts in Blekinge.”

Blekinge läns tidning, notes that he does not seem too eager to become the SD local representative for Ronneby commune. In fact, he denies that he had anything to do with the voting, and is not seeking political office.

One must wonder how the local elections authority failed to disqualify votes for someone with a Nazi and criminal background. Also, the article quoted here does not give the name of the “candidate”. One wonders why this information is withheld. Is it perhaps because the individual is notorious enough to be a serious embarrassment to the authorities? 

Fortunately for the elections authorities and the citizens, Mr. X. Nazi is not interested in the office. Fortunate too, that he is on the right of the spectrum, and in local politics so he can be disposed of easily.

Those on the left, such as flotilla activist Mehmet Kaplan, can also be on the scene at violent protests—those of pipe- and knife-wielding IHH jihadists on the aid-free Mavi Marmara. But in Sweden, when you associate yourself with the perpetrators of serious violence acting on behalf of the genocidal Hamas regime, you still can keep your serious job in the national parliament. In Ronneby, it’s win one, lose one.

More Palestinian News You Don’t Get in Sweden

A similar post was run a while back, just to show that there is a whole range of news that never makes it into the mainstream media in Sweden. As readers know, the MSM in Sweden is very selective—they select only the items and the facts that fit their ideology.  So here are a few quick items to illustrate what’s missing in Aftonbladet and its fellow mainstream media pals.

Item # 1: Here is a photo which was taken just this week. Many have heard about the building freeze in the “territories”—well, this is some new construction that popped up recently south of Jerusalem.  Before anyone starts ranting about settler imperialism and how Jews are living it up at the expense of the Palestinians, let me just say that this is 100% non-frozen new Arab housing. Yes, this palatial example of Palestinian architecture is located on the eastern edge of the Arab village of Husan on the Beitar Road. Take a drive and check it out! It’s a positively eye-popping 7-story extravaganza in gleaming white stone, or as they would call it in Aftonbladet, another example of the squalid hovels of the dispossessed (no photos, please).

It’s very politically incorrect to point out that there are substantial numbers of prosperous Palestinians, but it’s true. The Foreign Policy Digest notes that:

-“While the global economic recovery remains sluggish, the economy of the Palestinian Territories is growing at a breakneck pace. In 2009, as American Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank by 2.6%, the West Bank’s estimated growth rate of 7% outpaced all but ten countries worldwide. Given that the West Bank’s GDP growth rate reached 9% in the first half of 2010, its economic expansion shows few signs of slowing. The strength of the economy has also led to tangible improvements in the daily lives of some Palestinians.”

In this case, “some” would refer to the owner of the house, the contractors, laborers, and suppliers of construction materials, home furnishings, appliances, and other goods to fill this luxury home.

Item # 2: Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs reflected on the legacy of Yasser Arafat in his Jerusalem Post column this week. Not surprisingly the Swedish media did not pick up this item nor did they take the opportunity to look back at Arafat on the sixth anniversary of his death. Aftonbladet, Dagens, and Svenska Dagbladet all failed to mark the date. Rubin notes:

-“Today, the Arafat era’s lessons have been largely swept under the rug: his persistent mendacity, use of terrorism, cynical exploitation of an ‘underdog’ posture to garner sympathy and unfailing devotion to the dream of wiping Israel off the map. The placing of that last priority over creating a Palestinian state is why there is none today.”

It’s important to remember that Arafat’s popularity amongst Euro-leftists was more Euro chic than substance, remarks Rubin:

-“a British reporter who revered him admitted that Arafat didn’t have support from his people. ‘Foreign journalists,’ she recounted, ‘seemed much more excited about Mr. Arafat’s fate than anyone in Ramallah.’

“At the time of his death he was more popular in France, where almost half the population saw Arafat as a great national hero, than among his own people. In a June 2004 poll, only 23.6 percent of Palestinians named him as the leader they most trusted.”

Perhaps it’s time for Swedes to realize that although they find revolutionaries romantic, real life with terrorists is less than charming.

Item #3:  Free speech got smacked down in the West Bank when it clashed with Islamist sensibilities, as the CP and other sources reported this week. A man from the PA town of Qalkiliya was arrested on charges of blasphemy, “illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.”

Here is another case where life in the near-state of Palestine is much less appealing than left-wing apologists would have you believe. Although the leftist media is quick to portray alleged Israeli “occupation” as a threat to Palestinian freedom, this case vividly shows how “living free” in the PA is definitely less free than the life of Arab Israelis, who can say whatever they want against Israel.

Now, this man—who used an anonymous account at the local café may receive a “potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for ‘insulting the divine essence.’”

But there’s more:

-“Many in this conservative Muslim town say that isn't enough, and suggested he should be killed for renouncing Islam. Even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

-"’He should be burned to death,’ said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqiliya resident. The execution should take place in public ‘to be an example to others,’ he added.”

It all goes to show you, Sweden, real life is just not as simple as it looks in the pages of Aftonbladet.

By: Chanah Shapira

In Response to Dror Feiler’s Comments to Sweden Israel and the Jews Blog

This week a blogpost was published on the attempt of Ship to Gaza activists Dror Feiler and Swedish MP Mehmet Kaplan to enter Israel, and their subsequent deportation. Israel had requested that they apply to appeal the 10-year entry ban imposed on all flotilla participants; Feiler and Kaplan both failed to do so. We received a comment from Feiler (below) asserting that, contrary to the statement released by the Israeli Interior Ministry, he had never signed a statement agreeing to the entry ban:

I would like to inform you and your reders [sic] that I never signed any document during my forced stay in Israel in May/June (after being forced into Israel). All such statements will be chalanched [sic] in Israeli courts and the Israeli authorities will ave [sic] to show those none [sic] existing documents.

We point out again that Feiler, having renounced his Israeli citizenship, is subject to the rules of entry that any sovereign state may impose on foreign nationals seeking entry. Again, Feiler failed to apply for an exemption to the entry ban at the Israeli embassy in Sweden where he resides, a fact which he does not deny.

In my conversation today with Israeli Ministry of the Interior spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, she reaffirmed that all the flotilla participants signed a statement acknowledging the 10-year entry ban prior to their release. Additionally, she pointed out that Irish activist and flotilla participant Mairead Maguire was denied entry to Israel in September; Feiler and Kaplan certainly knew this ban applied to them as well.

Feiler is free to contradict the Ministry statements and pretend that he is seeking justice instead of publicity, but in any case, Israel as a sovereign state must reserve the right to deny access to those who ally themselves with the Hamas regime in Gaza.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

“Hamas is guilty of at least four war crimes: inciting to genocide; systematically and intentionally firing on civilians; using civilians as human shields; and preventing visits by the Red Cross to kidnapped IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit.”

In the light of these and other documented crimes committed by Hamas, especially the ongoing detention of Gilad Shalit, complaints regarding their justifiable arrest and generous release—as Feiler and Kaplan were abetting Israel’s genocidal enemy—are merely the petty provocation of hypocrites.

By: Chanah Shapira

Defeated Mona Sahlin Resigns as Party Leader of the Social Democrats

Yesterday it was announced that Mona Sahlin, Member of Parliament since1982 and party leader of the Social Democrats since 2007, has decided to resign from her position as party leader. 

The decision seems to be based mostly on the losses the party has experienced in the past two elections.  Additionally, a number of long-time Social Democrats were among those voters who made a radical shift and voted for the extreme-right Sweden Democrats.

The decision to resign was not only Sahlin’s; it has been acknowledged that her party comrades encouraged her to resign. The Social Democrats faced the worst election results in almost a century, losing even further ground as the Red-Green coalition of Social Democrats and Greens garnered only 156 votes, 17 fewer than the victorious Moderate-dominated alliance. It is obvious that Sahlin can take much responsibility for the erosion of the Social Democrats long-term hold on the Swedish political leadership. This was obvious to regional party leadership—before this past weekend seven party districts were prepared to demand her resignation.

The following is a brief list of Mona Sahlin’s (anti-) Israel policies and activities during her time as party leader for the Social Democrats:

·      Visited and gave legitimacy  to the Hamas leadership in Gaza, 2007

·      Condemned Israel for using “exaggerated violence” in the Gaza War, 2009

·      Condemned Israel in a Fatah congress in Bethlehem and expressed her support for the Palestinians,  2009

·      Participated in an anti-Israeli rally in response to the War in Gaza where “where the Jewish state's flag was burned while those of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved”, 2009

·      Defended Malmö’s Mayor Ilmar Reepalu’s anti-Semitic remarks concerning the Jews in Malmö, 2010 

Given Mona Sahlin’s record, as she has always been a strong opponent of Israel, her resignation can be nothing but positive for future political relations between Sweden and Israel.

Aftonbladet Accuses Israel of Spying in Sweden

As mentioned last week, the US has admitted to conducting surveillance operations which monitor suspicious individuals in Sweden. Shortly after, Aftonbladet also claimed—in   a totally unverified report—that the Israeli embassy, with the help of the Swedish police has been spying in Sweden.

Last week Aftonbladet claimed that not only the US embassy but also the Israeli embassy functions as a base for espionage in Sweden.  Aftonbladet writes that a “source with good insight knows that” Israel is cooperating with both Säpo as well as the Stockholm police. The source is unknown and there are no supporting facts which points towards that this is true.

According to Aftonbladet; “the Israelis have been filming and taking pictures of people outside the embassy and the residence as well as collecting registration numbers from cars. They have also received assistance from the police in order to look up people in government registries.

The base accusations continue in Aftonbladet’s article as the authors Anders Johansson and Karin Östman claim that the cooperation has been going on for several years among lower level personnel. The implication here, according to Aftonbladet, is that head of Säpo is unaware of these alleged covert operations.

According to Aftonbladet’s “secret source”, the cooperation is rewarded with gifts; with the implication in this case that Israel is bribing security personnel.  “Close to Christmas some 100 bottles of alcohol arrive for various policemen; this has been going on for several years…”

As we noted in last week’s post on the accusation against the US embassy, any liberal Western democracy with an embassy in Sweden must have vigilant security. Given Sweden’s failed integration policies, and rising, barely constrained violence among its Muslim immigrant population, the security threat is obvious. Describing American and Israeli attempts to monitor street traffic and mundane operation such as supply deliveries as “espionage” is nothing short of hysteria. And to add in unsubstantiated charges that Swedish police have been colluding with foreign powers is adding insult to injury.

Readers of this blog know that Aftonbladet is all about ridiculous reporting and spreading lies. A recent example of Aftonbladet trash-talking Israel was first and foremost seen in the libelous article from 2009 which fictitiously claimed that Israeli soldiers harvested organs from Palestinian civilians. Its former political editor in chief, Helle Klein used to, until she finally recently resigned, spend a majority of her time criticizing Israel instead of writing about Sweden, Europe or the rest of the world.

Why is Aftonbladet so obsessed with Israel? As a faithful voice of socialist society in Sweden it must be nice for the authors from Aftonbladet to make up stories about Israel; in this way public attention will be distracted from the problems inside Sweden, such as the rise of the incapable and immigrant hostile Sweden Democrats into the Swedish government, and the failure of Swedish authorities to actually implement multi-culturalism in Sweden.

When reading made-up stories about the Israel, Aftonbladet’s readers do not have to think about people being shot in the streets of Malmö—they can focus their time on hating Israel instead…

Still, we here at Sweden Israel and the Jews will not stop writing for the English-reading public, and exposing these libelous articles for what they are. For as long as we can, we will keep exposing the Swedish mainstream media’s base propaganda so that the truth about Sweden’s lies cannot be ignored.

US Spies in Sweden?

In a story which ran in the Local  today, American authorities confirmed that they do have a policy of “surveillance” which was recently exposed in Sweden. This statement came in response to Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask’s (Moderates) public contention that the Americans have been spying on Swedish citizens since 2000.  A Swedish prosecutor is looking into the legality of the American surveillance.

The American statement by State Department spokesman Philip Crowley linked the surveillance policy to the terrorist bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and described them as “customary procedure”:

-"We have acknowledged that we have a program around the world where we are
alert for people who may be surveilling our embassies because we recognize that they [the embassies] are potential targets of terrorism”.

Given that Sweden has a large and frequently lawless Muslim immigrant population, and that as we reported previously, many of these immigrants arrive without identifying documents, it would seem prudent on the part of the U.S. embassy, to take counter-terror security and surveillance measures.

In fact, don’t take our word for it—read it on Al-Jazeera.  Only last month two Swedes of Somali origin were arrested in connection with a terror plots linked to Al-Quaeda ally Al-Shabab.  Al-Jazeera is a bit heavy with the quotation marks, but gives the basic story.

In reference to the raised terror alert in the EU which occurred at the same time as the al-Shabab arrests, another source notes the remarks of terrorism expert Magnus Norell of the Swedish Defense Research Agency, “who said he didn't know the details behind the assessment but ‘I don't think it's rocket science to guess that this is about Islamist groups.’"

Given this background, it’s not hard to understand why there would be a bit of American snooping around to protect the embassy personnel and premises. The question is why the Swedes are so indignant about it, especially given the propensity of Swedes to indulge in espionage themselves. In regard to the activities of Swedish diplomats and citizens, we are not talking about security measures; we are talking about actual spying for the KGB and its successor organization in the current regime.

In March of this year, a story broke in the Swedish daily Expressen about a Swedish diplomat who was accused by a former Soviet agent, Sergei Tretyakov, of transferring classified EU documents to the Russians in the late 1990s, apparently in return for compensation. The story also appeared in English in the Local, stating that:

-      “…an investigation was opened against the Swedish diplomat in question but that the case was closed after three months due to a lack of evidence…The diplomat was summoned back to Sweden in 2002 when the suspicions over his actions came to light. He remains employed within the foreign ministry. [all italics mine]

-       According to Tretyakov, the documents provided by the Swedish diplomat…include internal EU communications that diplomats were prohibited from passing on, "especially to the Russians."
 

We have also documented here and here how Swedes spied for the KGB in the former East Germany, and how Jan Guillou, contributor to the Israel-libelling Social Democrat daily Aftonbladet worked with both the KGB and the PFLP, a terror organization. Information about Swedish involvement with these anti-democratic operations has been largely suppressed in the Swedish mainstream media, and by the authorities. 

Despite their own unsavory record in the world of espionage, the Swedes manage to complain and even attempt to prosecute the U.S. for arguably defensive measures. It’s hard to fault the Americans for conducting basic security surveillance in a country where terrorists find it fairly easy to come and go—and U.S.- and EU-hostile spies are sheltered by the establishment.

The post was written by: Chana Shapira

Feiler and Kaplan Try to Force Entry into Israel

Yesterday, artist and left-wing activist Dror Feiler, mostly recently known for his exploits in the Gaza flotilla incident and his cruise companion Mehmet Kaplan, a member of the Green Party in Sweden, tried to force their entry into Israel, counter to an agreement with Israeli authorities. 

Border control officers at Ben Gurion airport notified airport Immigration Authority representatives, who informed them that their entry had been refused .Feiler and Kaplan had travelled to Israel in order to ”leave a police report concerning what happened during the Ship to Gaza [flotilla] in May”. More specifically, they wanted to charge the army with kidnapping, robbery, obstruction of freedom and violence.

Once the pair reached Ben Gurion airport, however, they were stopped. The simple explanation for this is that after their participation in the illegal Ship to Gaza cruise, they had to sign a statement agreeing that they would  have to apply for permission if they ever wanted to visit Israel again in the future. This was noted by Sabine Hadad, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior in Israel.

Hadad also commented that both Kaplan as well as Feiler were well aware of this. She stated to French news agency AFP: ”All of the passengers on the six ships in the IHH flotilla signed an agreement to request proper authorization from Israeli embassies in their native countries before trying to enter Israel.” Participants were barred from entering Israel for 10 years. So, travelling to Israel without requesting permission to enter the country was a violation of the restrictions they agreed to; given the illegal nature of their activities on Ship to Gaza. 

 [As readers may recall, the Ship to Gaza flotilla brought a token cargo of aid on several small boats, including mostly expired or useless medicine and damaged equipment, which the Israeli authorities delivered via trucks to Gaza. The flotilla did, however, bring a large contingent of hostile IHH jihadists looking for martyrdom and supporters such as the Swedish MP Kaplan—as the sole cargo of the Mavi Marmara.]

It should be noted that despite Feiler’s sentimental claims that he has rights to enter Israel because of family ties, etc., he has completely renounced his citizenship, and is therefore a foreign national for purposes of entry.

In addition, the Israeli ambassador in Sweden sent out a press release before Feiler & Kaplan’s arrival in Israel stating that the trip was ”a provocation with the sole purpose of seeking confrontation”.

One would think MP Mehmet Kaplan would be busy working in the Swedish parliament, after the recent elections in Sweden. One can only hope that it was not the Swedish tax payers who paid for this needless ”provocation vacation” trip to the Middle East. 

Strong reactions to Shaul Mofaz

Anna Wester, of the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden, and Dror Feiler, of the organization Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, have reacted strongly to the news that Israeli MK and former IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz was invited to make an appearance at the non-governmental Swedish Institute for International Affairs (Utrikesdepartementet, UD) as the main speaker for a seminar on the subject “Possible roads to peace”. 

In a joint statement Ms. Wester and Mr. Feiler condemn the UD's decision to invite Mr. Mofaz, demanding that he be “sent to the Hague instead”. The reason? Mofaz' conduct during the Second Intifada, during which his harsh tactics were credited with freezing the Intifada, thus saving hundreds, if not thousands of lives – both Israeli and Palestinian. Ms. Wester and Mr. Feiler also claim that the IDF, under the command of Mr. Mofaz, were guilty of war crimes, as proved by the NGOs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. They do not, however, mention that the UN did not find anything to substantiate those allegations, despite Amnesty and the HRW claiming to have “proof” that such  “crimes” did take place. They also claim that Israeli forces, on Mr. Mofaz' orders, attacked, besieged and later demolished the headquarters of then-PA leader Yasser Arafat. That much, at least, is true, though once more they fail to mention one important detail; President Arafat was sheltering terrorists within his headquarters. (It may also be worth mentioning that Ms. Wester, after going to the lecture, wrote about it on her blog. Among other things, she is incensed that Mr. Mozaf calls the West Bank “Judea and Samaria”.)

The statement by Anna Wester and Dror Feiler is typical of both of their organizations, as well as a large number of other NGOs that claim to support peace between Israel and the Palestinians; rather than working towards achieving a sustainable peace, they instead devote all of their energy to spewing hatred of Israel, distorting the truth and omitting facts as they see fit in order to do so. There are only two possible explanations for this: either they are too blinded by their hatred of Israel to see that, in so doing, they are actually doing more harm than good to the peace process, as radical elements within Palestinian society feel encouraged, while moderates are undermined – or they do not really care about peace at all.

The post was written by: Adam Eberhag

Was There an Anti-Semitic Cartoon in Dagens Nyheter?

On Monday of this week one of the editors of Dagens Nyheter (DN) decided that an installment of a popular comic strip, was to be removed from the newspaper. The reason: it had arguably anti-Semitic content.

The disputed comic strip, titled “Rocky”, featured a dialogue between two dogs, which blamed the ”Jews from Bonniers” (a leading Swedish based media and publishing house founded by German Jews) for love troubles in the dogs’ life. Culture editor at DN, Björn Wiman stated, regarding the strip that “unaware readers could have easily missed the cartoon's irony and instead interpreted the cartoon as containing a purely anti-Semitic message. “

While the strip might have been seen as controversial by some, most people argue that the comic strip, written by Martin Kellerman, was in fact mocking the current spate of anti-Semitic sentiments which have been seen, for example, in statements by Malmö's major Ilmar Reepalu and the human organs-trafficking article published in Aftonbladet by Donald Boström. 

Below is the deleted strip from DN and following is a translation from Swedish to English.

 1. Rocky: At least I work well when I am unhappily in love and miserable… I’m starting to think that it is the Jews at Bonnier which are behind the fact that every girl I fall for is mean, as this increases my productivity and hence their income.

2. It’s just a theory… I could be wrong… I am just throwing it out there as a base for an important debate.
…I am raising the question.

3. It cold be a coincidence…

4: Dog no 2: It could be your own fault.
Rocky: It could be my own fault but it leans towards the Jews…

Was the strip anti-Semtic? What do you think?