Norway, a.k.a. anti-semite #1

After a relatively long, unannounced break, I am once again back in business, writing on my blog.

As some non-Norwegians may know, but certainly all Norwegians are aware of, Norway take great pride in being a peaceful and peace-loving nation, as the whole world can see every year when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. We have also some history of brokering peace in many different places of the world, maybe most notably in Sri Lanka. But our definitive high-point in this regard is the Oslo peace accords from 1993.

When it comes to Norway having made some attempts on brokering peace in the Middle East, it is slightly amusing that Norway has been branded as one of the most anti-semitic countries in Europe, along with Sweden. This was one of the main conclusions of the 2008 symposium Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews. According to Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, "Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in Scandinavia."

I guess we cannot - and would not - deny that Norwegian media and public opinion is slightly on the Palestinian side in the conflict in Israel, and quite critical of Israeli policies with regards to the Palestinians. But to equate anything that smacks of criticism towards Israeli policy with anti-semitism is in my opinion just ridiculous. It must be possible to criticize the policies of the Israeli state without being branded an anti-semite. Our wise, elderly statesman Kåre Willoch, expressed this very eloquently when he said that the accusations made by the symposium and Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld is "traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians."

Any illegitimate accusations of anti-semitism aside, Dr Gerstenfeld & co. now have got a legitimate issue to point at, namely a gargantuan diplomatic faux pas made by Trine Lilleng, first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh. In a private email, mrs Lilleng compared the Israeli conduct of their business in Gaza with the Nazi regime in Germany before and during World War II. However much one may disagree with how the Israeli state goes ahead in respect to the Gaza area, it is very unfortunate that mrs Lilleng made a comparison such as this. It will be interesting to see how long into the future she will be staying at the Foreign Ministry...

Convoy time!!

So that was it. 2008 is over, and our calendar reads 2009. I hope you all had a great Christmas, and wish you all the best for this year.

This year, I spent Christmas in Liverpool, but I am now back home, up north. And, oh my, it really feels like up north now, with the New Year's storms blowing. Generally, the weather up here is not bad, and nowhere near as bad as most people guess when I tell them where I live. Temperatures are bearable (at least on the coast - the warm current from the Gulf of Mexico really helps to keep the temperature not too far below zero), and things are over all good, weatherwise.

But around New Year, things tends to get a bit rougher. The winds take on force, and sometimes it gets quite nasty. Working 32 km of mountain roads away from home, I will probably have to drive in a convoy to get to work in the coming week or couple of weeks, as I did for the first time this winter today. As the weather has gotten even rougher now than what it was this morning, I am stuck here at work until the weather lightens up and the road will open again. Hopefully it will happen this evening some time.

The convoys are pretty good things, though. When the weather is rough, with massive snowfall and/or limited visibility, cars are not allowed to drive unaccompanied on mountain roads. So, at certain times, there will be a convoy going, with a ploughing truck in front. So, even though the weather is quite bad, you will normally be able to drive from one place to the next. But alas, not right now...

For more on winter driving in Norway, check out this post on the blog 57 North.