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?

Inhumane Swedish Slaughter of Rabbits Acceptable, But Kosher Slaughter Illegal

Sweden, a country which prides itself on its progressive policies, has recently been rocked by the exposure of cruel and inadequate government policy regulating the slaughter of rabbits. Basically, the only legal method of rabbit slaughter, using a bolt gun, results in about one-third fail rate. This means that despite being shot in the head, the bunnies are still alive and must be shot again to finally kill them.  This is bad enough, but given that the overwhelming majority of sensory receptors in rabbits are located in the head makes Swedish mandatory use of the bolt gun even crueler.  

A graphic video showing the brutal slaughter method ran on Swedish Television’s Rapport, and generated outrage among many viewers at seeing such a thing so near to the dinner hour.  Yet the trend is that Swedes are consuming an increasing amount of rabbit meat.

Dinner, however, is not the only destination of brutalized bunnies in Sweden.  As documented a little over a year ago in the Local in an article entitled “Stockholm's bunnies burned to keep Swedes warm”

-“The bodies of thousands of rabbits culled every year from the parks in Stockholm’s Kungsholmen neighbourhood are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.”

Many of these rabbits are pets whose owners have tired of them and simply dump the bunnies in public parks where they eat the flowers, reproduce, and become pests. The solution:

-“Animal control authorities employ a special rifle to shoot the excess rabbits, with most of the culling taking place at dawn when the animals peek out from their holes.”

Here again we have what must be inhumane kills—if a confined rabbits in slaughter house have a failed kill rate of 30%, what must the fail rate be for those hopping around loose in the park? It’s probably about as bad as the animals hunted in Sweden’s wilderness areas, by both tourists and native Swedes. Sweden is a prime destination for hunters. A Google search turns up quite a number of pricey vacation packages for hunters who want to pursue game in Sweden’s northern wilderness, shooting a variety of  birds, deer , elk, wild boar, beavers, fox, etc.

This from the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management (Svenska Jägareförbundet) website :

-“Hunting is a popular sport in Sweden. There are almost 300,000 hunters, of whom nearly 200,000 have chosen to join the Svenska Jägareförbundet. “

Despite the fact that shooting animals for sport or convenience is commonly accepted practice in Sweden, Sweden is the only EU member nation to prohibit kosher slaughter.  Allegedly this is for “humanitarian reasons”, yet as we have seen, humanitarian principles do not guide the shooting of rabbits and wild animals in Sweden. This certainly contravenes the EU directive, “that the animals are spared any avoidable pain or suffering.”

Although no slaughter method is aesthetically pleasing, the point of kosher slaughter is to kill the animals as painlessly as possible with only one knife cut.  The same EU legislation cited above recognizes kosher slaughter as an acceptable alternative practice.

Mikael Tossavainen in his article  “Jewish-Muslim Relations in Sweden” notes:

-“Sweden has a longstanding ban on the religious slaughter of cattle. This ban is generally uncontroversial in Sweden, and the Animal Protection Act stands against the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion. ...The protection of animals (italics mine) has so far prevailed over any attempts to have the ban on shechita and halal slaughter lifted.”

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, in his book  Behind the Humanitarian Mask, notes that in Germany, kosher slaughter

-“was prohibited only during the Nazi period. In Norway, however, the ban was introduced three years before the Nazis took power in Germany and continues till today, whereas Muslim ceremonial slaughter (hallal) is permitted. Compassion for animals does not explain the ban on shechita [kosher slaughter], since hunting is permitted and popular in Norway...[and] hunted prey often suffers a much slower and more painful death than in Jewish ritual slaughter.”

Clearly the ban on kosher slaughter in Norway is driven not by humanitarianism, but by anti-Semitism.

Given that animal protection has been shown to be largely a sham in Sweden, and capitulation to its Muslim population is becoming increasingly the modus operandi for politicians such as the Social Democrats, how long will Sweden continue to uphold a ban on hallal slaughter? The issue is not the humane aspect of hallal slaughter, but whether Sweden’s next step will be to imitate Norway, and allow Muslims to practice hallal slaughter in Sweden, while continuing to ban kosher slaughter—à la Quisling.

This post was written by Chanah Shapira. Thanks to Dorit Jacobson for animal physiology pointers.

Daily Shootings in Malmö: The Violence Continues…

Lately shootings have become part of everyday life for the citizens in Sweden’s southern city of Malmö. During the last week, shootings have been reported almost daily and the police are still clueless as to who the perpetrator (or perpetrators) of these horrid crimes may be.
So far the victims of Malmö’s recent shootings have been restricted to individuals of foreign background, yet the shootings have not been concentrated to particular parts of the city. While the victims all have been first- or second-generation immigrants there is no further known connection between the victims—except that they have been unfortunate enough to fall victim to a violent perpetrator. The media is already talking about a second “Laser Man” (laser mannen), as the shootings are reminiscent of a serial killer who committed a series of shootings with the aid of a laser gun sight in Sweden during the 1990s.


According to journalist Gellert Tamas, author of the bestselling book Lasermannen – en berättelse om Sverige (The Laser Man – A Story About Sweden), there are several similarities to the recent shootings in Malmö and that of John Ausonius, also known as the “Laser Man”. At the time Ausonius the political party Ny Demokrati (New Democracy) had just managed to get into the Swedish government. This is a political feat recently accomplished by the controversial Sweden Democrats. Both of the parties were labeled as immigrant-hostile and were known for holding racist views, views which, ironically, the “Laser Man” admitted identifying with.


Gellert, who works as a journalist, noted that;


“Ausonius felt supported, that people stood behind him. He also felt a political support from New Democracy but also from other immigrant-hostile parties such as the Sweden Democrats”.


In addition to the possibility of racially-motivated crime, there may also be an element of gang revenge; this would be an extension of the immigrant violence which has been reported at length in this blog. In fact, one “former” gang leader vowed that “ex” gang members would take the law into their own hands and kill the shooter. As the reporting and the pattern of incidents have been less than clear (including at least one fake shooting), multiple scenarios are possible, all of which point to a growing lawlessness in Malmö.


Not surprisingly, the continuous upswing of violence in Malmö has attracted more attention for Sweden in the international media. No doubt some of this attention is sensationalist, as there seems to be a repetition of frightening, somewhat random shootings. Yet some attention is due also to the increasing attention Sweden is getting in the media as a prime example of the “multi-kulti” paradigm breaking down in Europe. Some of the newspapers which write about Malmö as a downward-spiraling city are:


the German der Spiegel and die Welt, UK-based Guardian and the US-based Washington Post. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot also decided to run a piece on Malmö this past week.


Following are descriptions of some of the most recent shootings where people have been injured:


Oct 23: A tailor hears shot outside his store and goes outside to see what is going on. Once outside he is head-butted by an unknown man.


October 21: Two women are injured when a shot is fired through a window in the Kroksbäck neighborhood. The women are only lightly injured.


October 20: Two men, 22 and 29-years-old are shot in the Lindängen neighborhood.


October 19: A 28-year-old man is shot in the back at a bus stop.


October 16: A man is shot in the shoulder during the night between Friday and Saturday at the Barcelona bar in Malmö.


It is evident that Malmö now is a city far away from the peaceful associations that most people have when they think about Sweden. The fact that Malmö has started on a downward-spiraling cycle of violence was already evident at the beginning of the year when Jewish families were attacked. Yet as this blog predicted “Jews might be the first, but they are never the last”…


Click here for a map outlining all the recent shootings in Malmö (descriptions in Swedish).