Reactions to the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach have largely focused on the hateful rhetoric believed to have contributed to the violent extremism that claimed 15 lives – the deadliest attack on Jews since October 7. That focus is understandable after two years of global demonstrations under slogans such as “globalize the intifada.”
At the same time, the attack is rooted in more than a toxic debate climate. It also involves a geopolitical and security dimension that has primarily been raised by Israeli officials.
According to Israeli intelligence assessments, links had already existed for several months between Australian pro-Palestinian activists and groups such as the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Against this backdrop, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s prime minister of betraying the country’s Jews. After the attack, Netanyahu stated that he had already warned in August that recognizing Palestine would, in his words, “pour fuel on the antisemitic fire, reward Hamas terrorists, and encourage threats against Australia’s Jews.”
This raises a number of questions. Does Australia really need Israeli intelligence to identify threats against its Jewish population? And more importantly: is Netanyahu truly the right person to lecture others about being unprepared for Islamist terrorism, when his own government bears responsibility for Israel’s worst catastrophe in decades?
But Netanyahu is not the central issue. What matters is that the warnings proved correct. A massacre of Jews took place in Australia, carried out by men who had ISIS flags in their car. Australian authorities knew that one of the perpetrators had ties to ISIS and that his father, the other perpetrator, legally owned at least six weapons. Despite this, no warning flags were raised, and the Jewish event lacked police protection when the attack occurred.
Islamists operate freely in Sweden
Against this background, Europe should ask itself a clear question. If Australia’s policies over the past two years resemble those pursued in many European countries, could what happened at Bondi Beach happen here?
Both domestic and foreign policy must be scrutinized. Domestically, this concerns insufficient resources to protect Jewish sites, an inability to counter conspiracy theories, and complacency toward Islamist actors. These challenges affect all European countries, including Sweden. Swedish journalists have recently exposed how Islamists operate freely in Sweden, how Iranian actors direct terrorist activity via Swedish organized crime, and what links Swedish activists have to terrorist movements such as the PFLP.
“Jews in countries that do not take Islamist terrorism seriously end up paying the price, regardless of whether government passivity stems from fear, incompetence, or indifference.”
Sweden is not alone. According to a recent Europol report, jihadist terrorism remains a central security challenge for the EU, with groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State exploiting the conflict in Gaza. Added to this is Hamas, which, according to Israel’s Mossad and European intelligence services, has planned attacks against Jews in Europe since 2023. The causal link is clear: Jews in countries that do not take Islamist terrorism seriously pay the price.
Kvartal
Why foreign policy matters
How, then, does foreign policy factor in? Can recognition of Palestine or harsh criticism of Israel encourage terrorism? Countries such as Spain, Norway, and Ireland pursue a clear line against Israel. Like Australia, they have recently recognized Palestine; they voice strong opposition to Israel in international forums and serve as comfortable host countries for movements that not only oppose Israeli policy but view the state itself as an illegitimate colonial project.
Australia’s prime minister firmly rejected Netanyahu’s claim that the country’s foreign policy had any connection to the attack. He may be right – such accusations require evidence. But that does not mean foreign policy is irrelevant to the climate surrounding antisemitic hate crimes.
First, governments – unlike individuals – must understand the unique situation Jews face. Demonstrations are marked by hatred, aggression, Nazi comparisons, terrorist symbols, and boycotts. Of course, protests are legitimate in a democracy, and no one seriously claims that all participants are violent antisemites. But at the political level, it is unclear whether countries such as Norway fully grasp what their Jewish populations are forced to endure. The situation is worsened by the fact that no other conflict in the world is covered as intensely – and, according to many, as one-sidedly – in Norwegian media. This has an enormous impact on Norway’s small Jewish community.
Second, does the tax-funded public sphere remain neutral, or does it contribute to an unsafe environment for Jews? What do teachers say? What do libraries display? How do healthcare professionals behave? This is a matter of public safety, not freedom of speech. In February, a video went viral showing two nurses at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney boasting about refusing care to – or even killing – Israeli patients. In Ireland, an official report found that school textbooks contain serious distortions of the Holocaust and Jewish history, which Jews in the country say fuel antisemitism. In Spain, Jewish organizations similarly warn that some teachers use classrooms for anti-Israel activism.
“Zero tolerance” is no longer enough
We can continue debating the limits of protest, but we must also scrutinize institutions. The state must protect freedom of expression, but it must also guarantee safety. That requires schools, hospitals, and libraries free from political propaganda and symbolic acts intended to influence public opinion.
Finally, it is a fact that jihadist terrorists in Europe are often exposed with the help of Israeli intelligence. Can Jews in Spain and Ireland truly trust that their governments will cooperate with the Mossad to save lives, when those same governments cannot even tolerate Israel’s participation in Eurovision?
After Bondi Beach, Europe’s governments must decide where they place their resources and political capital. If they are serious about protecting their Jewish populations, “zero tolerance” and symbolic gestures of solidarity are no longer sufficient. Political action is required – and it's required urgently.
A popular proverb says that a half-truth is a whole lie. The latest episode of SVT’s Utrikesbyrån about Hamas was a good example of that. That does not mean it wasn’t interesting. It was. Nor is there any doubt that the three participants — former Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, political scientist Marco Nilsson and Middle East analyst Bitte Hammargren — knew what they were talking about. But when it came to the analysis of Hamas, we were given only a half-truth.
The questions the presenter Rebecca Randhawa asked were: what is left of Hamas, will they lay down their arms, and who will govern Gaza. The first and the third questions are almost impossible to answer. Even Israeli intelligence does not know what remains of Hamas’s military capability, and Gaza’s future governance depends on a complicated geopolitical process. The second question, however, can be answered based on a deep understanding of what Hamas is, the choices it has made in the past, and what its ideological and political DNA is.
According to Löfven, Hamas’s power is the result of a paradox. Despite being one of Israel’s greatest enemies, its power originated with Israel’s political leadership. “Such an organization receives support (from Qatar, for example) simply because Israel wants to avoid the Palestinian Authority (PA) gaining any power.” Hammargren agreed and said that Hamas was a political asset for Israel. “Netanyahu’s line was that by letting Hamas grow in Gaza we don’t have to hear about a Palestinian statehood,” she said. This is a common analysis and it is partly true. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders do indeed oppose a two-state solution. Because of this, his strategy was to weaken the PA, and many argue that one of the ways he did this was by allowing Hamas to grow. But this is only half the truth.
The other half, and the real reason Hamas rose to power and was able to retain it, is much simpler. The source of Hamas’s power is support from large parts of the Palestinian people. Even now, after two years of destruction and death that are a direct consequence of Hamas’s decision to massacre Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, Hamas is still supported by many Palestinians. The international support from Qatar and Iran that Löfven and Hammargren mentioned is also not hard to understand. Iran’s regime has a long-term goal of eliminating “the Zionist entity,” and Qatar built its international position on supporting its ideological Muslim Brotherhood allies. Sure, Netanyahu miscalculated Hamas’s capacity and misread its intentions, but it was not he who made Hamas’s ideology popular, and it was not he who turned Qatar and Iran into dangerous regional destabilizing powers.
But where is Hamas heading? Utrikesbyrån’s two-and-a-half-minute clip tried to provide background. According to the clip, “Hamas removed the demand that Israel be destroyed, but still does not recognize the state of Israel.” This is not even a half-truth. Hamas is absolutely committed to the destruction of Israel. Yes, it created a new charter for foreign audiences, because the old document contained antisemitic propaganda that was not particularly popular on university campuses and in some Western circles. But even the new charter demands “all of Palestine” from the river to the sea, it does not accept the Oslo Accords or the two-state solution, and it still endorses “armed resistance,” which has been a decisive part of Hamas’s nature long before October 7. That includes blowing up buses and restaurants full of civilians as well as kidnapping, torturing and murdering Jews of all ages, genders and backgrounds. One interesting thing Utrikesbyrån did not mention is that Hamas activists have on several occasions been arrested in Europe for planning attacks on “Jewish targets.” Worth mentioning if anyone took the “new charter” seriously.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the violence, Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 in both the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians are not blind or politically incapable — they knew exactly what they were voting for. According to Utrikesbyrån’s experts, Netanyahu could have fought Hamas by strengthening the PA. It’s an interesting theory. Only problem is that it’s not true. Not during the years when Hamas was building its reign of terror, anyway. The reasons are that Netanyahu was not Israel’s prime minister at that time. Between 1999 and 2009 the prime ministers of Israel were Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. The first was an outspoken advocate for a two-state solution, the second ended the occupation of Gaza, and the third was probably the one who offered the PA the most generous territorial compromise. Hamas was not impressed. It continued to build the fundamentalist, jihadist, genocidal faction within the Palestinian nationalist movement. Hamas did not need Netanyahu for this. It was fully capable of doing it on its own, while many Israelis were still considering peace and reconciliation.
Utrikesbyrån downplayed all of this. In the program there were no blown-up buses, no tunnels, rockets, high-tech international propaganda campaigns or brutal executions of Palestinian “collaborators.” October 7 was only mentioned in passing, as another point on the timeline. No hostages, no burned neighborhoods, no executed families. This is not a complaint that they “forgot October 7,” but a critique of incomplete analysis. How can one answer the question about Hamas’s intentions without taking into account that the organization recruited thousands of people who were willing not only to kill but also to commit gang rapes and sexualized torture in the name of Allah?
Netanyahu can and should be criticized for many things, but not for this. Sure, he did not destroy Hamas before October 7, and through his incompetence and corruption he may have contributed to the opposite. Israelis should hold him accountable for that. But this is far from the cause of the catastrophe. Hamas began building its advanced military capability long before Netanyahu, it remains standing, and many Palestinians still support it. Let us imagine that Netanyahu had decided to wipe out Hamas back in 2014. Now that we know that not even the destruction of Gaza did the job, would Stefan Löfven have supported an Israeli offensive on that scale? Would the Obama administration have allowed it? Would the UN have accepted it? Of course not. Everyone can complain about Netanyahu and everyone can criticize Hamas, but in the end — whose responsibility is it to eliminate Hamas, and who will support such an effort?
It is obvious that Stefan Löfven in no way supports Hamas. In Utrikesbyrån he spoke very clearly about the necessity of a political process with a reformed Palestinian Authority moving toward a two-state solution. But putting the blame for the situation on the Israeli government while ignoring Hamas’s inherently genocidal nature is a classic half-truth. It leads people to believe in conspiracy theories about secret Israeli involvement in the massacre of its own citizens, and more importantly — it shifts the focus to the wrong side. To reach a lasting ceasefire it would be wiser to focus on the “de‑Hamasification” of Gaza and support moderate forces on both sides that can help their communities recover from this two-year trauma and build a future together.
The situation in Gaza is detreating and the international community has every right to intervene, but anyone who criticizes Israel’s warfare can’t be taken seriously unless they also have a serious suggestion as to how to protect Israeli citizens from another massacre by the genocidal wing of the Palestinian national movement.
Israel’s new ground offensive in Gaza is raising stark Swedish reactions, as always. The left is denouncing Israel as a genocidal power indiscriminately killing Palestinians. The right is slightly more restrained, but it too claims that Israel is going too far. These reactions are understandable considering the horrifying images from Gaza shown on Swedish TV. But it’s more than that. Horrifying scenes are taking place all over the world, but Gaza, unlike other conflicts, has a unique role in Swedish politics. It’s an issue of interest but also a source of easily-won political points. The Swedish Left Party, Vänsterpartiet, uses it to show its electoral base how pro-Palestinian it is, so as not to lose votes to radical breakaway fractions, while The Social Democratic Party leaders use it to show their loyalty to old-school “humanitarian super power” policies. On the other side of the political spectrum, while Right Wing populist party, Sverige Demokraterna, continues marketing itself as “Sweden’s most pro-Israel party” as an alibi against accusations of antisemitism, Moderaterna, the ruling center-right party, is trying to maintain a responsible image, aligning itself with EU allies and international law, by presenting a moderate critical policy towards Israel. Sweden’s Gaza discourse, it seems, is more about domestic politics than the reality in Israel and Gaza.
But there is an Israeli reality which isn’t visible to Swedish news followers, one that adds another dimension and shows that Israel is more than just a blood thirsty monstrous state out for revenge. Those who choose to go beyond Swedish headlines, find that there are many Israelis who oppose their government and its Gaza policy. In fact, thousands of them demonstrate against it week after week. These are not only radical left-wingers from the fringes of the political spectrum. Israel is deeply split and even mainstream Zionist political leaders with hundreds of thousands of voters are speaking up against Netanyahu’s government.
A "sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population", said the leader of The Democrats, Israel’s Centre-Left Zionist party who’s also a retired IDF major general. When Netanyahu reacted by claiming that Golan’s statement was “wild incitement”, Golan refused to apologize. “The time has come for us to have a backbone of steel”, he said, “we must stand by our values as a Zionist, Jewish, and democratic state”. He added that the government ministers are corrupt and that the “war must be ended, the hostages returned, and Israel rebuilt”.
But it’s not only the Israeli Left. “What’s the strategy?”, said Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist “Yesh Atid” party, “we all support the elimination of Hamas, but Hamas will not disappear unless an alternative to its rule is presented. Getting the IDF stuck in Gaza for years is a strategic mistake, an economic disaster, and a diplomatic tragedy that will prevent us from being part of the historic change in the Middle East”.
Even some Israeli right-wing politicians oppose Netanyahu’s government. “This war is not a war for security but a war for power”, said Avigdor Liberman, a hardliner who in the past held important ministerial posts under Netanyahu, “this government is willing to pay any price for staying in power — even at the cost of the lives of the hostages and soldiers”. This is a point many in Israel agree on. According to a poll published by Israeli Chanel 12, 61% of the Israeli public prefers a deal which would return all Israeli hostages and end the war in Gaza, compared to only 25% who support expanding the fighting and occupying Gaza.
It seems like one must read news in Hebrew to understand that Israelis are more than just aggressors, just like one must read Arabic in order to understand that Palestinians are more than just victims. For example, anyone following Hamas-affiliated Telegram accounts in Arabic knows that besides images of Palestinian suffering, there are posts with images of suicide bombers standing next to bus wreckages accompanied by texts like "the buses carrying you will become coffins" and “our martyrs are on their way”. This isn’t just a reaction to Israel’s Gaza offensive. It’s been going on for decades. Long before October 7th, official Telegram posts by the al-Aqsa Brigades, a Fatah-aligned armed group, called the “heroes of the West Bank” to “stab, run over, slay and blow up”. “Oh heroes of Jerusalem”, one of them said, “the land is your land, what are you waiting for? The time has come to kill the Jews”. Naturally, Hamas takes it even further. Fathi Hamad, a member of the movement’s political bureau and former minister called on Palestinians to "buy knives for five shekels, sharpen them and decapitate the Jews". Naturally, these quotes are not available in Swedish and are not part of the Swedish discourse.
Still, Swedish politicians have every right to react to events in the Middle-East and in the current reality, there’s plenty of reasons to criticize Israel. There are, however, a few simple ideas which can make the criticism more grounded in reality and more balanced.
First, categorizing Hamas as a terrorist organization is correct, but it has an unwanted side effect. Because it deals with terror, some may assume that it’s a terror organization like others. But it’s not. It’s an army. Some may imagine it as a kind of Baader-Meinhof-like gang of youngsters in red and white keffiyehs squatting in abandoned buildings in down town Rafah and reading texts by Leon Trotsky. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Hamas military machine has brigades, battalions and commando units. It has strict military hierarchies and discipline as well as weapon manufacturing capabilities, a navy, military intelligence, cyber experts, a propaganda machine and thousands of young men to recruit, even during the IDF’s campaign. Hamas is clear about its end game – it’s a barbaric, fascist and fundamentalist movement committed to wipe the Jewish state off the face of the earth. Anyone who criticizes Israel’s war in Gaza can’t be taken seriously unless they also have a serious suggestion as to how to protect Israeli citizens from another massacre by the genocidal wing of the Palestinian national movement.
Second, sometimes one has to be honest even concerning political and military policies. Israeli society is deeply traumatised by a vicious attack which took the lives of more than 1,100 people. Everyone knows someone who was killed, a child who was kidnapped or a woman who was raped. Everyone saw the atrocities – homes burnet to ashes and dead bodies of all ages. Everyone is worried about a relative or a friend on the front lines. Everyone knows a survivor. Everyone is a survivor. The expectation that Israel will react in a calm, moderate and gentle way is absurd. This doesn’t mean that a wild storm of revenge is justifiable. It does mean that swedes would do well to ask themselves modestly and honestly how they react to crises.
Sweden was unaligned for over 200 years. Then a war started over 2,000 km away. Still, Sweden changed its policy almost over-night and joined NATO. In the same way, a handful of problems with integration caused the country which was known for its leaders asking its citizens to “open their hearts” to refugees because “their Europe has no walls”, made a former neo-Nazi party its second largest. It also reversed all of its immigration policies. These dramatic and, anything but calm and moderate changes, happened without one shot being fired at Sweden and without hundreds of Swedes being killed, raped or injured. Israel, on the other hand, apart from the horrors of October 7th, has had, 35,500 rockets fired directly at it in the last year and a half, targeting, displacing and killing civilians. Is Sweden really qualified to lecture it about reacting unproportionally? And finally, criticizing Israel is fine, but it shouldn’t be done according to the propaganda of Sweden’s so-called pro-Palestinian movement. For some reason, this movement has adopted an extremist narrative echoing Hamas propaganda which claims that the Jewish state has no right to exist. The slogan of a “free Palestine from the river to the sea” is a genocidal one, since it implies the elimination of Israel. The slogans calling for an “Intifada” are incitement for violence and the claim that Israelis are settler colonizer is historically ridiculous and politically dangerous. Those who criticizes Israel because they support a just peace and a political compromise in the Middle-East would do well to find better partners – instead of people who scream “crush Zionism” and are just as bad as those who automatically support everything Israel does; they can join hands with moderate Israelis who still believe in peace and are struggling to save their home from a never-ending cycle of violence.
Israel's government has boycotted the Sweden Democrats since the party's founding by neo-Nazis in 1988. The political repercussions of the Gaza war have led to a new Israeli directive calling for exploratory talks, but the Swedish Jewish community still refuses all contact with the far-right party
STOCKHOLM – Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's instruction for Israeli diplomats to launch discreet talks with the far-right Sweden Democrats has made waves in the Swedish media. It marks a drastic change for Israel's foreign policy, which was previously characterized by a long-standing boycott against far-right parties associated with antisemitism, Holocaust revisionism and neo-Nazi activists.
Sa'ar has ordered these exploratory talks with far-right parties in France, Spain and Sweden, Axios' Barak Ravid reported Monday. The Sweden Democrats' foreign policy spokesman, Aron Emilsson, who heads the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, told the daily Expressen that Israel's decision was "extremely positive."
"We've been working for a long time to improve relations," he said, adding that "the ties are also important in security matters, particularly regarding Iran."
The Sweden Democrats have been boycotted by the Israeli government since the party's inception in 1988, but two unofficial visits by the party's leaders to Israel in 2023 and early 2024, as well as a series of unpublicized talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the Foreign Ministry triggered a policy change.
Ziv Nevo Kulman, Israel's ambassador in Stockholm, told the daily Dagens Nyheter in 2021 that his country had no ties with the Sweden Democrats and had no intention of establishing any. "This is a moral position about far-right parties with roots in Nazism," he said, two months into his term.
He told Haaretz last May: "We are aware of the positive statements by the Sweden Democrats about Israel. But at the same time, the party continues to adhere to extremist positions regarding a ban on brit milah [Jewish ritual circumcision] and the importing of kosher meat, and it has yet to seriously grapple with its neo-Nazi past and with the antisemitism among its members." He said the party's alleged support for Israel was "questionable."
Despite this earlier skepticism, the Israeli Embassy said Tuesday: "As part of a broader review of parties in Europe with which we have not previously had contact, the embassy has held talks with the Sweden Democrats. The initial contacts have largely focused on how the party handles its history and its stance on issues affecting Jewish life in Sweden."
Ziv Nevo Kulman, Photo: Israel's Embassy to Sweden
According to sources familiar with Israeli-Swedish relations, this change of tack was not only the work of Israel. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Sweden's center-left has been increasingly hostile toward Israel, and these parties' ties with Jerusalem have significantly weakened. Israel has become a wedge issue between Sweden's center-right coalition and the centrist and left-wing opposition.
According to the sources, the opposition's approach is pushing Israel into the arms of the Swedish populist right. As a result, the Sweden Democrats are increasingly seen as a legitimate party in both Israel and the Jewish world, a major win for the party.
For Sweden's Jewish community, the Sweden Democrats are still considered off-limits, at least officially. The party is not in touch with the community and is not welcome at community events.
In a letter to Israel's foreign minister a year ago, the European Jewish Congress and the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities expressed concerns about a meeting between Israeli ministers and Sweden Democrats visiting Jerusalem. The president of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Muzicant, and the chairman of the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, Aron Verständig, wrote that they were "gravely concerned" and referred to the party's "neo-Nazi roots."
Muzicant and Verständig added that the Sweden Democrats' "ideology is still inherently xenophobic even though its representatives claim to be our allies, making an exception for the Jews as a national minority, albeit claiming that Jews cannot be Swedes." They said the party regularly submitted bills to ban "non-medical circumcision," as opponents call it, and the importing of kosher meat.
When asked Tuesday about Israel's apparent policy shift, Verständig told Haaretz that he was notified a few days ago that Israel's Foreign Ministry had instructed the Stockholm embassy to forge contacts with the Sweden Democrats.
"However, we don't have contacts with the Sweden Democrats," Verständig said. "The issue of the Sweden Democrats is one that we discuss regularly, but we haven't changed our position and we still don't have ties with the party."roots
The Sweden Democrats party was founded in 1988 by members of Swedish neo-Nazi and far-right movements. A key figure in the organization was Gustav Ekström, a member of Germany's Waffen-SS, the SS' military arm, during World War II and an activist in the NSAP, the Swedish Nazi party that disbanded in 1950. Other founders were members of white supremacist parties, neofascist and neo-Nazi movements, the Swedish skinhead movement and criminal organizations.
But the neo-Nazi past wasn't the only reason for the Israeli boycott. In recent years party members have spread conspiracy theories and racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic propaganda. In 2021 the Swedish daily Aftonbladet revealed that Jörgen Fogelklou, the party's leader in Sweden's second-largest city, Gothenburg, spread antisemitic and racist statements on social media such as "It is clear that Jews are the root of all evil in the world."
A few years ago, another local party leader in southern Sweden, Jonas Lingvärn, took part in performances by rock bands supporting white supremacy and used the slogan "Skinhead 88" – 88 is shorthand for HH, meaning "Heil Hitler."
The party first entered Sweden's parliament in 2010, and in the 2022 elections it won more than 20 percent of the vote, making it the country's second largest party. Until just a few years ago, the Sweden Democrats were boycotted by parties across the political spectrum.
But after a shift in approach by two center-right parties, the Sweden Democrats became an integral part of the right-wing bloc after elections, without which a center-right government could not be formed. In parliament, the party heads the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Justice Committee and the Industry and Commerce Committee.
Equal rights in a one state solution may appeal to Swedish sensetivities. But in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is a recipe for bloodshed.
Israeli politics can be confusing for those who are used to a system which rewards accountability. One example is that even though Hamas' brutal attack in October 2023 was the biggest tragedy in Israel's history and part of a momentous failure of Israel's leadership, the government is still in place and seems to be stable enough to survive the crises. It's even confident enough to continue its controversial judicial overhaul which many claim is a direct assault against Israel's democracy. When it comes to the conflict with the Palestinians, Netanyahu's government is using the catastrophe as a pretext for going further to the right, perhaps even as an excuse for a future annexation of the West Bank which would be a tragedy for both Palestinians and Israelis who support peace, democracy and freedom.
This is why Standing Together, a grassroot movement of both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis who join hands in working for peace, equality, and social justice is so important. These are exactly the kind of people who can provide hope for Israel's declining peace movement. They can also be excellent partners for actors in the global community who are concerned about developments in the region and want to support positive change. And indeed, two of the movement's leaders are coming to Sweden. When I spoke to one of them, Alon-Lee Green, one of the movement's national coordinators, he told me that the visit's purpose is "to gather support for the fight to end the war, to end the occupation and to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace".
But it seems not everybody wants to listen. Instead of encouraging Israel's brave opposition, some activists are horrified by the mere thought of Israeli peace fighters. One commentator on social media wrote: " I think it's important that as a movement we keep track of which groups we choose to collaborate with. Standing Together is boycotted". As a self-appointed moral compass, the activist then quotes a text by The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel claiming that Standing Together is "serving a key role in Israel’s international propaganda strategy". One of the commentators who thanked the writer even added: "we don't recognize Isnotreal!".
Since October 7th the BDS campaign has been gaining support in Sweden. Professors, researchers and students call on their university to cut all ties with Israel, Amnesty cooperates with BDS-Sweden and lists of companies "profiting from the genocide" are all over social media leading to demonstrations and smear campaigns. All this shows what at least part of Sweden's left is all about. The BDS movement claims that Standing Together is serving "Israel’s 75-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid". Nothing could be clearer – the BDS movement isn't against specific Israeli policies, it isn't against a specific government or a specific war. BDS activists' real problem is the very existence of Israel. When they talk about 75 years of settler colonialism, they're not talking about the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, they're talking about the 1948 UN decision to found a Jewish state, and an Arab state, in Palestine. The people who don't want to listen to Israeli peace fighters are doing it simply because they are against peace between Israelis and Arabs. According to them Israelis are the original colonialist sin and they should just disappear.
Do these attitudes belong only to a handful of extremists or are they spreading to Sweden's left as a whole. A good indication is the debate about the so-called two-state solution. Those who still support it, even though it seems almost impossible to achieve, are promoting a solution which includes a compromise between two legitimate national movements. Lately, however, the idea of a one-state solution is becoming popular. Swedish academics are writing texts about one state based on "one citizen-one vote", in the Swedish Left Party congress last May many party members promoted changing the party's position to supporting a one-state solution and further to the left, Fi (the Swedish Feminist Initiative) and the new "Solidarity" party, already took the step. Fi even claims that "Zionism is an imperialist and racist ideology". Anyone who witnessed a pro-Palestinian demonstration during the last few months knows this isn't a minority. The most popular slogan doesn't leave room for doubt – "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free", Not "Palestinians will be free". Palestine means a state – one state, not two, from the river to the sea.
In Sweden's radical left there are those who take it even further. There's a at least one youth movement (RKU) which supports the October 7th "historic offensive in which the Palestinian resistance broke open the prison bars". Another "solidarity movement" (Samidoun) supports the PFLP, an organization which took part in the massacre. In addition, there are plenty left wing-oriented publications which continue to support the narrative which sees Hamas as an anti-imperialist decolonization force. All these movements support a one state solution. Just like Hamas and the most radical Jewish extremists.
One state with an equal vote and equal rights may sound appealing to Swedish sensibilities. Indeed, why not have nothing to kill or die for and no religion too? The only problem is that in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict one state is a receipt for a blood bath. Most Palestinians who support a one state solution mean a Palestinian state. Most Jews who support it mean a Jewish one. The result of such an experiment will either be apartheid or some version of ethnic cleansing or genocide. The only question will be who's killing who.
When I talked to Standing Together's National Coordinator he said that the movement doesn't support a specific model of solution. "We support an Israeli-Palestinian peace", he said, "one that will enable everyone to live in freedom, equality and independence". When it comes to the boycott movement Green says that Standing Together is the largest Israeli movement fighting for peace and against occupation. "We've been protesting all over Israel for 15 months, we arrange aid for Gaza, our activists are fighting settlers who attacked humanitarian aid convoys and we demand an end to the killing", he says, "if anybody wants to argue with us about words that we say or don't say, they can write an essay and perhaps we can discuss it in some lecture in the world of academia. But in the world of politics and actions, the one that we focus on, the BDS statement about us has no influence where we live. It wasn't even translated to Arabic".
The BDS movement leaves no room for Standing Together. It only accepts Israelis who think that their country shouldn't exist. But the men and women of Standing Together are different. They love Israel and they're fighting to make it better. They realize that both Jews and Arabs are there to stay and they promote pragmatic compromises rather than holly wars and abstract ideologies. This is why the Olof Palme Center, the Robert Weil fund and Kulturhuset made the right choice when they invited them to Sweden. Naturally, those who are against Standing Together have the right to protest, but we shouldn’t call them peace activist, we should call them what they really are – dogmatic chaos agents who, if they get what they want, will lead both Israelis and Palestinians to a catastrophic disaster.
In a letter to Israel's foreign minister, leaders of the European Jewish Congress and the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities warned against allying with the Sweden Democrats who, according to the letter, 'claim to be our allies' while advocating that 'Jews cannot be Swedes.' The party has roots in neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies
STOCKHOLM – In a letter to Israel's foreign minister sent Monday by the presidents of the European Jewish Congress and the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, the two leaders expressed concern over a recent meeting between Israeli ministers and a delegation from the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which violated Israeli policy.
EJC President Ariel Muzicant and Jewish community leader Aron Verstandig wrote that they were "gravely concerned by the implications and long-term consequences of this meeting" which also ran "counter to the Israeli foreign policy vis-à-vis the Sweden Democrats as being non-welcome, with reference to their Neo-Nazi roots."
On January 29, a delegation of senior members from the Sweden Democrats arrived in Israel and met with Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar. The group included the party's leader, Jimmie Akesson, chairman of the Swedish parliament's foreign affairs committee, Aron Emilsson, head of the party's parliamentary group, Linda Lindberg, and the head of the party's group in the European Parliament, Charlie Weimers.
The Sweden Democrats, currently the second-largest party in the Swedish parliament, has roots in neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies. It is one of several European parties with which Israel has refrained from establishing official ties. For that reason the recent visit to Israel was not an official one and was not arranged by Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Last year, two members of the Sweden Democrats visited Israel and met with Knesset member Amit Halevi from Netanyahu's Likud party and with former Knesset member Michael Kleiner, who serves as the president of Likud's court. There were no meetings with government ministers.
"With right wing populism and extremism on the rise throughout Europe, Jewish communities easily become exploited in narratives targeting other minorities," Verstandig and Muzicant wrote to Foreign Minister Israel Katz, "these populist parties and movements are often keen to establish alliances with Jewish communities and Israel, acting on the presumption that Jews and Jewish institutions, often being targeted by extremists of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim descent, would (and should) be interested in uniting over the notion of a 'common enemy.'"
In their letter Verstandig and Muzicant also explained that "the [Sweden Democrats] party's ideology is still inherently xenophobic even though its representatives claim to be our allies, making an exception for the Jews as a national minority, albeit claiming that Jews cannot be Swedes." They added that the party regularly submit bills in the Swedish Parliament to ban circumcision and the import of kosher meat.
In this context, the January meeting with Chikli, whose role includes fostering connection between world Jewry and Israel as well as combating antisemitism, is particularly notable. In May, Chikli also caused diplomatic embarrassment for Israel when he delivered a keynote speech at the controversial evangelical Canada Christian College. The school's president, Dr. Charles McVety, is an activist and leader of Canada's Christian far right.
Sweden Democrats leader Akesson took to X after the meeting, writing, "It is clear that our parties and our nations share common values." In response, Chikli tweeted: "We deeply appreciate your support and your passion for our mutual fight for the future of Western civilization."
Asked by Haaretz what he expects as a reply to his letter, Verstandig said he hoped Katz would confirm that the policy of not allying with extremist parties still applies.
A Foreign Ministry source replied to Haaretz's query on the subject, saying there is no change in the ministry's policy toward the Sweden Democrats. The source did not say whether the ministers would face disciplinary action over the meeting.
The discourse within the Swedish and European left is important even if you're not part of it and the insane embrace of Hamas by so-called left-wing radicals, climate change fighters, human rights activists and western intellectuals and academics must be challenged.
Imagine this powerful image: in a country which is slowly being taken over by right-wing nationalists, it's becoming harder to speak truth to power and to speak up for the underdog and the repressed. But then, from the trenches of the opposition, rises a fearless figure. He knows he'll be arrested and tortured if he's caught crying out, and so he does what intellectuals from resistance movements allways do under tyrannical regimes. He uses sarcasm, he sharpens his pencil and cleverly plays with words to produce a text which is radical and subversive, but at the same time meticulously designed not to be flagged down by the authorities. That way the avant-garde academic doesn’t get in trouble with the all-powerful secret service henchmen who are hunting down traitors.
Sweden 2024. While a war is going on in Gaza and in Israel, the whole political elite is powerfully supporting Israel. It's blue and white from left to right and it's not allowed to speak up for the Palestinians. And then, a single voice of a brave dissident rings out. He wrote a text. It's called "I Condemn Hamas" and it's brilliantly designed by a rhetorical trick – the title is mainstream and boring, everyone condemns Hamas. The content seems to be the same, but under the surface lies the explosive message – it's the exact opposite of condemning Hamas, it's actually supporting it (Malm, Anders, Jag Fördömer Hamas, Parabol, 01/11-23). At last the opposition has a voice – Andreas Malm has weighed in. It's a powerful text and a powerful image. The only problem is that none of it is true.
Malm's claim is clear – everyone's condemning Hamas, mainstream media, politicians and public discourse in general. He, on the other hand, thinks this is false. Hamas may have killed civilians, kidnapped children and burned down residential buildings on October 7th, but according to him this isn't unique. It's all been done before by Israel. Malm doesn't claim this directly. He does it by sarcasm. The same kind of sarcasm is pointed at the Swedish discourse. "In Sweden there are strikingly few who have condemned Hamas in the past few days. Those who have done it have only done it once, so that we now wonder if it was really meant honestly", he writes creating an illusion which is the exact opposite of the truth. In fact, Sweden is one of the countries in which the Hamas did surprisingly well. At least for an organization which is internationally recognized as a terror organization.
Hamas supporters have spoken openly in conferences and seminars in Sweden, money has been raised for Hamas freely in Sweden; just in the last few months there have been dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrations with speeches supporting Hamas or at least not condemning them including demonstrations celebrating the events of October 7th on the day they happened. Unlike other countries, these demonstrations are not only legal, they're supported by some of the political elite and many in the media, in the cultural world and in civil society. Malm's style implies that Swedish publicists have to condemn Hamas or they'll be cancelled. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Malm himself is a writer who has supported Hamas publicly in several newspapers, magazines and publications. As far as I know, he's yet to be arrested, censored or fired. In Sweden it’s allowed to burn the Koran, join parties which support North-Korea and have Neo-Nazi marches on Yom-Kippur. No one's preventing anyone from supporting Hamas. Indeed, I recently met Hamas supporters in Sergels Torg. They were members of two perfectly legal Swedish movements, RKU, the revolutionary communist youth movement and NMR, the friendly neighborhood neo-Nazis. Who knows, perhaps Andreas Malm himself was there supporting them both.
However, the Swedish context is only the beginning of Malm's mistake. The claim that the massacre on October 7th was more of the same, that it was Palestinians retaliating with the same kind of violence Israel uses, is worth studying. "What happened on Black Saturday, October 7th was something new in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", Malm writes using his smug self-satisfied irony, "it redraws the political and moral map of the Middle East for good. Gunmen stormed into communities and shot children to death with rifles. They did not care at all about the age of the victims. Hundreds of civilians were killed – people with no connection to any military activity, murdered simply because of their identity. Entire families disappeared". If this wasn't so true, it would be real cutting-edge political satire. But Malm's satire, is in fact the sad truth. Nothing like October 7th ever happened before in this conflict. Israelis and Palestinians never killed so many people in one attack or in one day. Not in Kafar Qasim (1956), not in Deir Yassin and Tantura (1948), not in Hebron (1996) and not in the bombings of Gaza in previous years. There were never so many acts of torture and violence against civilians, never so many people kidnaped and never such brutality. And yes, October 7th did redraw the political and moral map of the Middle-East for good. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Israel made many mistakes in the last few decades; like any other army it has committed war crimes during conflict, some of its civilians, especially in the West-Bank are violent extremists and its occupation of the West-Bank continues to be a hindrance to peace in the Middle-East. But October 7th was unique. It's not only about the brutality or the number of victims. The really scary number is the number of the people who committed the crimes. Unlike 9/11 which was executed by a small Jihadist vanguard of 19 Al-Quade operatives, and unlike Utøya which was the work of one (Andreas Malm cracks a little clever joke making the comparison), October 7th was carried out by about 3,000 people. Many of were sipplied with written instructions about how to murder, torture and kidnap civilians, some were also provided with drugs and with body cameras. This wasn’t a spontaneous, heat of the moment action. It was a planned strategy. On October 7th the world saw a society capable of drafting 3,000 people who were 100 percent committed to murder.
Andreas Malm perhaps hasn't heard the story told by David Tahar, father of Adir Tahar, an Israeli soldier who was killed on October 7th. Tahar told Israeli Chanel 14 that before the funeral he insisted on seeing his son's body even though army officials advised against it. The reason was that apparently after he was killed Hamas fighters decapitated Adir and took his head back home to Gaza. A few weeks later, after receiving intelligence from captured terrorists, an Israeli military unit retrieved the head. It was hidden in a bag with some tennis balls and a few documents inside an ice-cream shop freezer in Gaza. Apparently the head was up for sale. The price was 10,000 US Dollars. I know there are many who don't believe Israeli media and think that Zionists fathers are so perverted that they can make up this kind of story for propaganda purposes. So here's another one. This time from the New York Times.
Sapir, a 24-year-old accountant who attended the rave party near Kibbutz Reim on October 7th gave a testimony which was reliable enough for the NYT which told the story of what she saw from her hiding place (Gettleman, Schwartz and Sella, "Screams Without Words": How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7", The New York Times, 28/12-23). Sapir says she saw "a young woman, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her. Every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back. Sapir said she watched another woman "shredded into pieces". While one terrorist raped her another pulled out a box cutter and sliced off her breast. "One continues to rape her", she said, "the other throws her breast to someone else, and they play with it, throw it, and it falls on the road". She said the men sliced her face and then the woman fell out of view. Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women.
These are just two testimonies from October 7th. There are thousands more. One could always claim, as Malm does in earlier texts, that all this violence should be seen in context. But this kind of violence has no context. If it was really about freedom, or fighting the occupation there would be no need for mass rape, kidnapping babies and removing body parts. The atrocities, the rockets, the tunnels and the complete subordination of Gazans to Hamas militants are all far darker and more sinister than Malm's theories. It's not the price paid for Israel's colonialism. If for no other reason, because this isn't colonialism. Israel isn't Algeria.
According to Malm, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians isn't a war between two indigenous peoples which have a legitimate claim to the same territory and therefore are engaged in a violent conflict. Instead, there is one legitimate native nation and for over a century it has been fighting an occupation by invaders who came from other countries as colonizers. The invaders are supported by imperialist powers and they are now committing genocide. This kind of aggression according to Malm must be, should be and always has been resisted with violence. In fact, Malm's latest text is one of many in Parabol making the same claim.
These texts rarely even mention the events of October 7th which I would suggest is a sign of total moral bankruptcy. But that's me and I may be biased. The problem here is different, it's about intellectual honesty. The description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a story of a colonial power murdering the natives is incredibly shallow and misleading. It's perfectly ok to oppose Israel's policies (as I do myself most of the time), it's perfectly ok to name-drop Edward Said and Franz Fanon, make comparisons to Apartheid South-Africa and quote Israeli officials making outrageous genocidal statements which can then be quoted at the ICJ in the Hague. But people who have studied the region, as I guess Malm has, know very well that Jews, not only Palestinians are natives to it. And no, I'm not referring to Jesus and Abraham. Biblical stories cannot be a base for international geo-politics. I'm referring to facts completely ignored by the whole post-colonial discourse.
Take Gaza, for example, in the place where Rimal, the political center of Gaza City used to stand, a synagogue was built in the year 508 AD. We know that the figure in the center of the ancient mosaic which was found there is King David. How do we know this? Because his name is written there. In Hebrew. Gaza has a long bloody history – Romans, Christian Crusaders, Arab armies, the Egyptians, Napolean's army, the Ottomans and the British Mandate all controlled Gaza. During this history, Jews lived in Gaza, they didn't arrive in ships in the 1940s. They were there during the time of the Romans, 2,000 years ago, they were there in the Middle-Ages and during the time of Islamic rule, then again in the 14th and 15th century and under the rule of the Ottoman empire. Some were still there even after WW 2.
As in many other areas in the region, for thousands of years, Jews thrived and declined in Gaza, they were expelled and fled, they killed and were killed, built and destroyed, returned, immigrated and emigrated. Arabs in the region have a similar, though somewhat shorter, story (I'm referring to them as Arabs, because the name Palestinians wasn't used in the way that we use it today until after WW2). The story of the region being a land inhabited by indigenous Palestinians who were attacked by American, European and Russian Jews arriving from abroad after the Holocaust and kicking out the natives is a fairytale. Concepts like colonialism and indigenous peoples aren't abstract. Unfashionable as it may seem, these things have actual meanings beyond TikTok clips made by demonstrators wearing fashionable red, white and green scarfs. They can be discussed in terms of archeological findings, origin and descent, historical continuity of settlements, language and culture, collective ancestral ties to a territory and to natural resources, self-identification, experiences of subjugation and discrimination and so on. It may be frustrating, but when it comes to Israel, to the West-Bank and to Gaza, both Jews and Palestinians are natives. They're all a combination of immigrants and people who are decedents of families who haven't left for generations. And they've all suffered from violence, massacres, displacement and trauma.
And there's another similarity between the Jewish national movement (aka Zionism) and the Palestinian one. They both have a genocidal wing. These are the people on both sides who don't accept the idea of territorial compromise in order to achieve peace. The people who are willing to go as far as killing or expelling the other group in its entirety. They're usually religious fanatics, they're extremely violent, they totally oppose democracy and human rights, they're willing to kill and die for the cause and they've always been around. On the Jewish side, they began to become a serious threat after Israel's 1967 victory with the rise of the settler movement in the occupied West-Bank. These days they're becoming stronger, they're getting closer to government circles, but they're still far from being anywhere near a majority in Israeli society.
On the Palestinian side, things seem to be worse. If on the Zionist side there was a right-wing revisionist leader, Zeev Jabotinsky, who had a connection with Mussolini in the 30s, the leader of the Arab nationalists in Palestine at the time, Haj Amin al-Husseini, spent WW2 in Berlin and in Rome, he collaborated with the Nazis and the Fascists, he personally met Hitler, Himmler and Mussolini and was a supporter of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Problem". Al-Husseini was just the beginning. The Palestinian National movement has always had an active and extremely popular genocidal side to it. It's not because of Israel, because it started many years before Israel even existed. And it's not unimportant because what we saw on October 7th was a direct result of the same kind of ideology.
That's what's really amazing about Andreas Malm's text. Hamas is the genocidal wing of the Palestinian national movement and its ideological roots go all the way back to Nazi Germany. Although it was seen as a traditional grassroot, social and religious movement when it was founded in the 80s, it's now a modern, extreme right-wing movement combining Jihadism, high-tech disinformation campaigns, a financial empire of global investments, leaders who live a life of luxury outside the region, modern weapon systems and powerful alliances with the world's most tyrannical regimes. Anyone imagining the Hamas as a young David standing up to the Israeli Goliath is living in a naïve lullaby.
But Andreas Malm isn't naïve. He knows very well that the geo-political realities show that Hamas and indeed the Palestinian national movement is far more complicated than just a victim of western colonialism. He knows about the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005 which means there was no occupation of Gaza for almost two decades. He knows that the blockade on Gaza is just as much an Egyptian policy as it is an Israeli one and that many Arab countries want Israel to destroy Hamas. He knows that the Hamas charter is an antisemitic and fundamentalist text. He knows that Hamas has crushed the secular Palestinian national movement in Gaza and that it sees the Palestinian Fatah movement as an enemy which is almost as bad as Israel. He knows about Hamas' brutal war against the Palestinian Authority and he knows about the unprecedented Hamas military buildup and take-over of civil society in Gaza.
The reason that I know that Malm knows all this is because of other texts that he wrote. Reading them one learns a lot about his way of seeing the world, though I must admit, it's sometimes a confusing task. Although he seems well versed in Middle-Eastern politics, when it comes to moral statements and political conclusions, his considerations are so complicated, it's hard to keep track. Although Israel is always wrong (that's the constant) when it comes to Palestinians, Arab states and Islamic super powers, the target is painted around the dart after it's been thrown.
In a text he wrote a few years ago (Malm, Andreas, "Därför Hamas", Expressen, 15/01-09) he claims one can have two thoughts at the same time, like the Palestinian left which allies itself tactically with Hamas but at the same time supports the opposition in Iran while the opposition in Iran is fighting the Iranian regime at the same time the Iranian regime is funding Hamas. It's ok if you need to read the last sentence again.
Malm's reasoning is not that unique. He supports Hamas and its fight against what he called the "corrupt Fatah politicians" and Mahmoud Abbas, who's an Israeli and American "marionet". If this sounds familiar it's because this is exactly the same logic used by Israeli PM Netanyahu who for years has been undermining the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority by allowing Hamas to stay in power in Gaza so that he wouldn't have to take real steps towards a two-state solution. Surprisingly enough, Malm and Netanyahu are on the same side. They'll both do anything to avoid compromise and consolidation.
In another text from 2009 Malm referred to Hamas as a liberation movement which is "forced to resort to every possible form of resistance" (Malm, Andreas, "Vi bör följa Iran och stödja Hamas i kampen mot Israels folkmordspolitik", Newsmill, 04/01-09). In the same text he quoted Nir Rosen, who claimed that "Attacking civilians is the last, most desperate and basic method of resistance when confronting overwhelming odds and imminent eradication" (Rosen, Nir, "Gaza: the logic of colonial power", The Guardian, 29/12-08). Malm is entitled to write these kind of statements even if they encourage violence and are fascist in nature. I only hope that most Swedes, including those who support the Palestinians, can see beyond this tragic war mongering, since it's clear to anyone what this means politically. Hamas will continue murdering Israelis; Israel will have to retaliate and will do so forcefully – and more Palestinians will be killed. If there's anything that hasn't changed in the last few decades it's this dynamic.
Hamas is not the only problem. In another text Malm openly supported Hezbollah (Malm, Andreas, "Därför Ska Vi Stödja Hezbollah", 11/08-2006), an Islamic movement funded, trained and inspired by the Iranian Ayatollahs and their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was involved in suicide attacks, political assassinations, bombing of civilians and hijackings in Lebanon and other countries. I don't know how Malm manages to pull off being a left wing radical and supporting two of the most conservative, fascist, chauvinist, fundamentalist, hierarchical, anti-democratic, homophobic and xenophobic movements in the history of the known universe, but I know that explanations along the lines of "I can't be expected to condemn actions taken by the weak and oppressed” can't work anymore after the massacre of October 7th which was a tectonic, world-changing event. Not condemning it, or in Malm's case, condemning it sarcastically, means supporting it.
This period isn't easy for the global political left. Just like in the 1950s when left-wing activists, politicians and intellectuals had to decide whether to stay faithful to the Stalinist flagship even after it was exposed as a sadistic killing machine of gulags and mock trials, today's left must decide if its alliance with the dictators, Jihadists and militants from Gaza, Teheran, Beirut and Doha is more important than its ideals. Those who have the courage to choose their ideals and abandon their old murderous allies will not have Andreas Malm's problem. They will be able to proudly say "yes, I condemn Hamas".
Swedish Police Approve Hebrew Bible-burning Event Near Israeli Embassy in Stockholm
According to reports in Swedish media, local police will allow the event to take place on Saturday, during which the attendees are expected to burn a Hebrew and Christian bible in an attempt to expose Swedish hyprocisy
July 14th
Police in Sweden have approved a request to burn both a Hebrew and a Christian Bible during a protest expected to take place Saturday in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, police in the Swedish capital have confirmed. The request was made by a 32-year-old Swede who claims that his action is a protest against recent events of burning the Quran, which were approved by Swedish authorities and took place in the last few months.
In a statement released on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he condemns “in the strongest terms the authorities’ decision in Sweden to permit the burning of a Jewish Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy.” Netanyahu added that “this deeply shameful act undermines the sacredness of the Jewish people’s holiest scriptures.” Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, condemned the burning of holy books from any religion, saying it’s “an act of hate and disrespect, that has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he “unequivocally condemn[s] the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books,” and that he is “heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible.” Herzog added that “permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also stated on Friday that “burning a Torah scroll is a hate crime, provocation, and a severe attack on the Jewish people and Jewish tradition,” urging Swedish authorities to “prevent this disgraceful event and not allow the burning of a Torah scroll.” On Friday, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) also issued a condemnation, saying the Swedish authorities shouldn’t allow the event to take place. “Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society,” EJC president Dr. Ariel Muzicant said.
The Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities published a statement claiming that “our tragic European history links the burning of Jewish books with pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and the Holocaust.” The council added that it condemns the abuse of freedom of expression that takes place with the aim of sowing hatred in society. “Burning holy books, be it the Quran, the Torah or the New Testament,” it concluded, “are hateful acts that we perceive as direct threats to the societies that value them. Following the Quran burnings, we support the Muslim community in Sweden, express our gratitude for their strong stance and condemnation, and sincerely hope that this and all other burnings of holy books will stop.”
In a meeting with representatives of religious communities in Sweden, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Sweden is and must be a country where people of different faiths – or no faith – can live together side by side in mutual respect. Let us together fight the hatred in society, which drives people to burn the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, and in places and times that are most offensive. Instead, let’s show each other respect.”
The practice of burning holy books in Sweden started a few years ago as a result of a Danish far right provocateur and politician named Rasmus Paludan. A few of Paludan’s supporters burned the Quran in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself repeated the act a number of times since then.
Rasmus Paludan in Stockholm, August 2022, photo: David Stavrou
In April 2022, Paludan managed to provoke a violent reaction when criminal elements took advantage of the local communities’ outrage and used the opportunity to set off riots which included setting cars on fire and attacking police in several Swedish towns. In January, Paludan returned to Sweden after he received a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time the reaction had geopolitical implications. Turkey used the Quran burning in Stockholm as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s decision to join NATO.
Things got even worse in June when an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm Mosque during Eid al-Adha. This led to anti-Sweden protests all over the Arab world. In recent weeks there have been more applications sent to the police requesting approval to hold demonstrations which include burning of holy books. The current case of burning of Jewish and Christian holy scripture is intended as a way of exposing Swedish hypocrisy, claiming the authorities allow burning the Quran in the name of freedom of expression too easily, but many claim the result is that a handful of extremists have managed to drag Sweden down a path which is becoming both dangerous and internationally embracing.
Some Swedes have had enough of this, including some government officials. Jonas Trolle, the head of the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism, for example, said that it’s time for Sweden to consider certain legal changes. “Sweden needs to be equipped in a turbulent time in Europe,” he wrote in “Expressen” one of Sweden’s daily newspapers, “Today it’s Quran burnings, tomorrow it will be something else. Without a legal change, Sweden risks becoming vulnerable. It’s unreasonable that our laws concerning public order are out of step with our basic laws [concerning freedom of speech]. We must protect both our freedom of expression and our national security.” Trolle also claimed in recent interviews to the Swedish press that Sweden needs a “reality check” in these matters and it can learn from countries like Germany, France and the UK which have managed to legally forbid these kinds of events and still remain democratic.
Earlier this month, a man who identified himself in Swedish media as a refugee from Iraq burned a Quran outside a mosque in central Stockholm – resulting in strong condemnation from several countries. Shortly after, reports surfaced about another individual who had applied for a police permit to burn the Torah outside the Israeli embassy. “I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran [sic], the Torah or any other holy book,” Ambassador Nevo Kulman tweeted in early July.
Man Who Planned Hebrew Bible-burning Event in Stockholm Delivers Speech Against Act Instead
The 32-year-old Swedish citizen, who is Muslim, says his intention was to 'show how wrong it is that people don't respect other religions'
July 15th
STOCKHOLM — A 32-year-old Swede named Ahmad Alush who announced that he intended to burn a Hebrew and Christian Bible on Saturday in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm surprised those present and instead gave a speech against the burning of religious books. When he arrived in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at noon holding a large lighter in his hand, he made it clear that he did not intend to use it. "I'm Muslim, we don't burn [books]," he said, adding "I wanted to show how wrong it is that people don't respect other religions."
The man, who lives in the south of Sweden, explained on Friday that he intends to burn a Bible as a protest against an event about three weeks ago in which a Quran was burned before a mosque in Stockholm with police permission. "It deeply saddens me and many others in Sweden and the world who allow the Quran to be burned," he explained. "I know that the Swedes are very good people and that they want to prevent the burning of the Quran and that there is a legal obstacle to doing that."
Ahmad Alush, the man who said he'd burn a Torah book outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, photo: David Stavrou
After the Swedish police approved the man's request to burn the Bibles, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen instructed Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, "to act in every way in order to prevent this shameful incident." It was also reported that the ministry's political director Aliza Bin Noun spoke with Kulman in Israel "and made clear to him the seriousness with which Israel views the police's approval of damage to the sacred sites of Judaism."
The decision to permit burning of the Bible was met with harsh criticism in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he condemns “in the strongest terms the authorities’ decision in Sweden to permit the burning of a Jewish Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy.” Netanyahu added that “this deeply shameful act undermines the sacredness of the Jewish people’s holiest scriptures.” Kulman earlier condemned the burning of holy books from any religion, saying it’s “an act of hate and disrespect, that has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he “unequivocally condemn[s] the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books,” and that he is “heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible.” Herzog added that “permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate.” On Friday, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) also issued a condemnation, saying the Swedish authorities shouldn’t allow the event to take place. “Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society,” EJC president Dr. Ariel Muzicant said.
In a meeting with representatives of religious communities in Sweden, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Sweden is and must be a country where people of different faiths – or no faith – can live together side by side in mutual respect. Let us together fight the hatred in society, which drives people to burn the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, and in places and times that are most offensive. Instead, let’s show each other respect.”
The practice of burning holy books in Sweden started a few years ago as a result of a Danish far right provocateur and politician named Rasmus Paludan. A few of Paludan’s supporters burned the Quran in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself repeated the act a number of times since then. In January, Paludan returned to Sweden after he received a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time the reaction had geopolitical implications. Turkey used the Quran burning in Stockholm as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s decision to join NATO.
When an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm Mosque during Eid al-Adha in June, anti-Sweden protests broke out all over the Arab world. In recent weeks there have been more applications sent to the police requesting approval to hold demonstrations which include burning of holy books. Earlier this month, a man who identified himself in Swedish media as a refugee from Iraq burned a Quran outside a mosque in central Stockholm – resulting in strong condemnation from several countries. Shortly after, reports surfaced about another individual who had applied for a police permit to burn the Torah outside the Israeli embassy. “I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran [sic], the Torah or any other holy book,” Ambassador Nevo Kulman tweeted in early July.
The Torah Wasn’t Burned This Time. But What’s Next?
Are public burnings of the Quran and other holy books inevitable in a country that values free speech? No, according to the co-head of a Jewish-Muslim organization in Sweden, Rabbi Moshe David Hacohen. 'These events are an opportunity for cooperation, because the threat to Muslims and Jews is real,' he says
July 16th
STOCKHOLM – The Swedish capital found itself in the world news this weekend when a Muslim man who had pledged to burn copies of the Torah and Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy instead discarded his lighter and sought to send a message about respecting other religions. The Swede, who was named in the media as Ahmad Alush, went on to explain that he and many other Muslims were saddened by the burning of the Quran in Sweden and that the right to freedom of expression can’t excuse such hate crimes.
The practice of the Quran being publicly burned in Sweden started a few years ago because of a far-right Danish politician called Rasmus Paludan. A few of his supporters burned the sacred book of Islam in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself has subsequently repeated the act a number of times. In April 2022, he managed to provoke a violent reaction when criminal elements took advantage of the local outrage and started riots, including setting cars alight and attacking police forces in several Swedish towns.
Last January, Paludan returned to Sweden after receiving a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time, the reaction had geopolitical implications: Turkey used the incident as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s efforts to join NATO. Things got even worse last month when an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm mosque during the Eid al-Adha festival. This prompted not only more Turkish reaction, but also anti-Sweden protests all over the Arab world. And more applications requesting approval to hold public demonstrations to burn the holy books of three major religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) were sent to the police in recent weeks.
On Saturday, Alush said he wanted to expose Swedish hypocrisy that permits the Quran to be burned in the name of freedom of expression, but ended up making a wider statement by saying the practice of burning holy books must end.
Dismantling the fear
This point has been made by others, including some Swedish officials. Jonas Trolle, who heads the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism, has said it’s time for Sweden to consider certain legal changes. He said in recent media interviews that Sweden needs a “reality check” in such matters and that it can learn from countries such as Germany, France and Britain, which have managed to legally ban these kinds of events yet still remain democratic.
Civil society has also joined the discourse over the burning of holy books. The Amanah organization, founded by Imam Salahuddin Barakat and Rabbi Moshe David Hacohen, for instance, has prevented Torah burnings in the past. The group focuses on creating a trusting society while working to combat discrimination, antisemitism and Islamophobia.
“Jewish history is useful in this debate,” Hacohen said in an interview. “It’s clear that the purpose of burning holy books is not to demonstrate an objection to the content of the books; it’s about creating the Other in society – like Nazi propaganda in the 1930s. Burning books is a way of showing certain people that they are not welcome in society, and this leads to legitimizing murder.”
Asked what Amanah does when it learns that someone intends to burn a holy book, Hacohen explained that “the first thing we do is join forces. These events are a good opportunity for real cooperation, because the threat to both Muslims and Jews is real. We try to bring in forces from the Jewish world, the Muslim world, the leaderships of all communities in Sweden, the Nordic countries and Europe, and we try to send a unified message.
“On a more local and practical level, we exert our influence wherever we can behind the scenes – not only in order to prevent the burning of books, but also to prevent antisemitic incidents and Islamophobic behavior such as hate speech online. We work on dismantling the fear and building bridges in various ways. We created a digital project for Swedish schools, funded by the Swedish government, which helps young people understand what it’s like to be a Muslim or a Jew in Sweden. We also created a Jewish-Muslim madrassa [school] for adults, in order to deepen the knowledge about the two religions, understand the similarities, and see beyond the black and white way of seeing reality.” Hacohen noted that the imam of Stockholm's main mosque spoke on Friday against the burning of all holy books, and added that Muslims should not act against Jews who are their partners in the struggle against Quran burnings.
Sweden's unique interface
As for why Sweden has seemingly become an epicenter of book-burning controversies, Hacohen believes it is because the country has a unique interface where religion and social freedom meet. “The limits of democracy are stretched as they meet different cultural and religious values such as those brought by immigrants who arrive to a very different culture than they came from,” he said. “This friction triggers a debate about limits on freedom of speech and limits on behavior in the public arena when it comes to hate and racism. In Sweden, freedom of expression is a value above almost all others, and limiting it because of the danger of hate crimes is seen by many Swedes as a threat to their basic values.”
Hacohen referred to Jewish tradition when asked if Swedish exaltation of freedom of expression makes such incidents inevitable. “Amanah was invited to a panel discussion at the law faculty in Lund University. The participants were a law professor, the archbishop of the Church of Sweden and us, Imam Barakat and myself. When asked about the freedom of expression in Judaism, I replied that the notion of freedom is very personal, it’s about how one relates to choices. But when it comes to social laws and the relationship to others, the word ‘responsibility’ is used. We have rules regarding responsibility to others and the society we live in. It’s about responsibility rather than freedom. Perhaps this distinction can help direct us toward a true cohesive society where we care for one another and have a trusted shared space.”
The rabbi also highlighted recent comments by the Vatican and the World Jewish Congress. Pope Francis told United Arab Emirates daily Al-Ittihad that any book considered sacred by its people must be respected out of respect for its believers. “Freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to despise others, and allowing this must be rejected and condemned,” the pope was quoted as saying.
WJC President Ronald Lauder, meanwhile, reacted to the recent incidents in Sweden by calling the burning of the Quran a “heinous act,” expressing solidarity with “our Muslim brothers and sisters.” On Friday, he said that “the burning of our sacred texts ostracizes and hurts the Swedish Jewish community as well as all those who value pluralism and multiculturalism. Books should be read and cherished, not set ablaze.”
Quran Burnings and Terror Threats: Israel Warns Citizens to Avoid Crowds – in Sweden
As Sweden raises its terrorism alert to its second-highest level, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warns of potential revenge attacks for recent public burnings of the Quran – from Lebanon's Hezbollah, Al-Shabab in Somalia and Al-Qaida
August 21st
STOCKHOLM – The Swedish Security Service on Thursday raised the country's terrorist-threat level to its second-highest rung, a step last taken in 2016 when Europe was wracked by terror attacks. The move follows a spate of Quran burnings by protesters in Sweden, angering the Muslim world and triggering assaults on Swedish consulates and embassies in Baghdad, Beirut and Izmir, Turkey. The threat level will now be a 4 in a five-rung scale.
“There are also several examples of terrorist groups that have urged their sympathizers around the world to take revenge for the Quran burnings that have taken place in Sweden. Among them are Hezbollah in Lebanon, al-Shabab in Somalia and Al-Qaida,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference Wednesday.
At the news conference, officials said the authorities had thwarted terrorist attempts and made arrests. Sweden's security agencies were cooperating with each other and their foreign counterparts, Kristersson added. Meanwhile, Britain and the United States have warned their citizens to stay vigilant in public places and tourist sites in Sweden. Even the National Security Council in Jerusalem has asked Israelis to “try their best to avoid crowded places and public institutions at the present time.” British officials have said there is a chance that terrorists will attempt to strike in Sweden, adding that the Swedish security agencies had already prevented attacks on Swedish citizens.
Burning holy books as a political provocation is nothing new to this Scandinavian country. For years now, far-right Danish politician Rasmus Paludan has been burning Qurans to express opposition to immigration to Sweden and neighboring Denmark, and in a bid to goad immigrant communities. In April 2022, provoked by Paludan, criminal elements took advantage of Muslim citizens' wrath and sparked riots in Swedish cities that included the torching of cars and attacks on the police. In January this year, Paludan returned to Sweden after receiving permission to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time there were geopolitical repercussions: Turkey used the event as one of its reasons to block Sweden's entry into NATO.
The situation worsened in June when Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Christian, burned a Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm during the Eid al-Adha holiday. This time, the Turkish protests were joined by anti-Swedish demonstrations around the world. This wasn't the only Quran-burning by Momika, an anti-Muslim activist and asylum seeker who has been in Sweden since 2018. He has burned a Quran outside parliament, and on Friday, a day after the raising of the threat level, he burned the book outside the Iranian Embassy. Similar incidents have occurred in Denmark. In recent weeks, further requests for approval to burn holy books have been submitted to the Swedish police, with torchings of the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible also being prepared.
Sweden has absolute freedom of speech; it has no law preventing the burning of holy books. Meanwhile, the country’s legislation on hate crimes and public disturbances doesn’t allow the police to prevent book burnings, except in extraordinary circumstances. But many in Sweden argue that the country is paying too high a price for this policy. The freedom to burn holy books is letting a handful of extremists – whose views or actions are very unpopular around the country – drag Sweden into severe international crises while worsening the security situation.
At the press conference, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said that new legislation to fight terror groups is now in place while new policies have been crafted to prevent terrorists from entering the country in the first place. Sweden's police chiefs added that the security services were following suspects' online activities, gathering intelligence on radicals and preparing the rescue and security services for a rapid response to all scenarios. The head of the Swedish Security Service, Charlotte von Essen, added that the threat to Sweden may carry on for a long time.
She said the threat stems largely from Islamic extremists, while the spread of fake news, disinformation and rumors about Sweden – mainly portraying it as an anti-Muslim country – worsens the situation. The authorities are also monitoring intimidation from the far right and security threats in the entire region, against the backdrop of Russia's war on Ukraine and the Swedes' subsequent request to join NATO.
The threats in Sweden cast a shadow over Stockholm’s annual end-of-summer culture festival, which ended Sunday. For many Swedes, the mid-August event marks the last week of the summer vacation, after which it's back to work and school.
A police Car at Stockholm's Culture Festival. Photo: David Stavrou
Since its inception nearly two decades ago, the festival has been a huge attraction both for Stockholmers and tourists. For five days, stages throughout the city center host dance, music, circus and theater performances, all for free. Long lines stretch around dozens of food and drink stands, and more than a million visitors and hundreds of workers fill central Stockholm's streets, squares and bridges.
This year's installment went by without incident. Despite the warnings, there were no metal detectors, no one checking bags at the entrance, and no tense atmosphere at all. Maybe the reason is that instead of the rainy weather of the first half of August, the sun shined on Stockholm. Maybe it's just that the Swedish approach to terror threats, at least for now, is the same as the Swedish approach in general: faith in the authorities and security forces – and a cautious pragmatism. “We must live our lives as normal,” Kristersson said. “We stand behind our democratic values. We are defending ourselves, but we still stand behind our way of life.”
Published in Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (please note: this is an unoficial and unedited English translation)…
Israel is sometimes called the "only democracy in the Middle East", and in many ways it is. But Israeli democracy is very different from the Swedish one, even though theoretically both have similar parliamentary systems and the same kind of general elections. The differences are more about dynamics than technicalities. One important difference is that governments in Israel very rarely last an entire term, which is why Israelis will be going to the polls again on November 1st in what may seem like a déjà vu. This is the fifth election campaign in the last four years and the 11th since 2001. In the same period Sweden had only six.
Even though recent years have been unusually unstable in Swedish politics, with weak minority governments and changing political alliances, this is nothing compared to the instability of Israeli politics. This instability combined with unique historical and cultural differences, make the coming up elections very difficult to understand for those who are not locals. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you're following the political drama in the land of milk and honey.
There's probably only one global household name in current Israeli politics – the name of Benjamin Netanyahu. Since Netanyahu first became Prime Minister in 1996, he has held the job for 15 years, even more than David Ben-Gurion who's considered to be Israel's founding father. Netanyahu is head of the "Likud" party and currently leads the opposition even though he's standing trial for bribe and fraud charges. But Netanyahu is more than just a candidate. He's the key issue of these elections. He's not a man leading an agenda. He is the agenda itself. In these elections, many Israelis won't be voting because they want to promote their ideology or influence concrete issues, they'll be voting because they love or hate Netanyahu.
This leads to a misconception of Israeli politics. Since all recent elections ended in a tie between rival blocks, some assume this is a tie in the European style, meaning between left and right. But nothing could be further from the truth. In a European sense the Israeli left makes up 10 to 15 percent of the electorate on a good day. That is if left means socialist or social-democratic ideology combined with progressive values like secularism, civil rights, feminism, LGBT rights and multiculturalism. In Israel the blocks have nothing to do with all that. It's not socialists against capitalists or conservatives against liberals. It's all about Netanyahu. One block supports him, the other wants to get rid of him.
On Netanyahu's side, things are pretty clear – together with Netanyahu's "Likud" party, there's a coalition of Jewish ultra-orthodox parties, nationalist parties and representatives of West-Bank settlers. The other side, however, has no common values, ideas or interests with the exception of one – the idea of replacing Netanyahu. Led by centrist current Prime Minister Yair Lapid, it's a bizarre coalition based on middle class secular Jews supported by left-wing liberals, a variety of Israeli Palestinians (some Islamist, others secular, some nationalists, others old-school communist) and right-wing conservatives who for some reason or another are in conflict with Netanyahu. This is the main reason why the last Israeli government stayed in power for only a year and even during this short period it had to have two heads of government in rotation. If in Swedish politics, the old left-right spectrum became more complicated in recent years and developed into the so-called GAL-TAN spectrum, in Israel the opposite happened, things became simpler – the whole spectrum is reduced to one man.
But where exactly is Netanyahu on a left-right scale? That should be a simple question to answer since Netanyahu is and always has been a self-proclaimed right-wing leader. He's been called an Israeli Trump, an Israeli Orbán and even an Israeli Erdoğan (although they should be called American, Hungarian and Turkish Netanyahus since he assumed office before them). But context is king, and in an Israeli one, Netanyahu may be hated by the left, but that doesn't mean he's as right as it gets. In a social-economic perspective, Netanyahu used to be a Thatcherist, pushing for privatisations, tax cuts and restraining government spending, but it's been years since he spent his political capital on those kinds of issues. Today he leaves the economy in the hands of others. Though he's certainly a hawk and a sceptic when it comes to relations with the Palestinians, he's always been careful with the use of military power and he never went all the way towards Israel's hard core right which supports the annexation of the West Bank and putting an end to the so-called two state solution. In recent years Netanyahu has been mostly concerned with staying in power and avoiding prison. Unlike his potential successors, he's secular, he was raised in the US and has a western education and world view and he's an intellectual. In Israel this means that in many ways he's actually a centrist.
Just for the sake of perspective, the rising star of these elections is the 46-year-old leader of the "Jewish Strength" party, Itamar Ben Gvir, a man who first came to public attention when he threatened the life of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a few weeks before he was assassinated in 1995. Ben Gvir also supported Baruch Goldstein an American Jew who massacred 29 Muslims in Hebron in 1994. The party Ben Gvir is currently part of has the support of 10 percent of the electorate in the latest polls. When it comes to ideology, Netanyahu is a middle of the road pragmatist compared to Ben Gvir and other Israeli nationalist and religious fanatics. The stark opposition he faces is more about his alleged corruption, opportunism and his relentless populist crusade against Israel's judicial system and law enforcement officials.
One of the reasons that Netanyahu's party is supported by over 25% of the voters according to polls is that in Israel many people don't vote according to their opinions. Rather, they vote according to their identity. It's not about what you think, it's about who you are. Arabs vote for Arab parties, religious people vote for religious parties, traditional Jews with an Eastern background vote for the Likud and secular Jews from a western background vote for one of the liberal centrist parties, usually led by ex-Army generals or former media celebrities. These include the Labour Party led by former TV and radio anchor, Merav Michaeli, and the National Unity Party led by Benny Gantz, former army Chief of Staff. To put it in a Swedish context – no one in Israel needs a "Val Kompas", many parties don't even have a party platform. a strong sectorial identity is much mor useful. The comparison may not be entirely fair, but in this aspect, Israeli parties are not very different from "Nyans".
Finally, Swedes may be surprised to know that the Palestinian issue is no longer an important part of the Israeli discourse. Back in the 80s and 90s, the lines of Israeli politics were drawn according to policies towards the Palestinians. The left promoted the two-state solution, the right argued against a Palestinian state. These days, the two-state solution is probably discussed more in Sweden's Foreign Ministry at Gustav Adolfs Torg, than it is in Jerusalem. It seems like both Israelis and Palestinians have lost faith in concepts like negotiations, compromise and peace agreements and a reality of a never ending low-intensity conflict is accepted on both sides. As a result, Israelis will not be voting to stop or to continue the occupation of the West Bank, they'll also not be voting about the threat from Iran, social issues or the economy. Instead, it's a mix of identity politics combined with anger about an eclectic collection of issues which happened to appear in yesterday's papers or social media feeds. When it comes to art and culture, entrepreneurship and industry, history and science, Israel is a beautiful country full of promise and potential. Its political establishment, on the other hand, has lost its way and is deeply divided. The only democracy in the Middle East is stuck in an endless spiral of election campaigns. The result of this fifth round is still unknown, but it may very well simply be nothing more than round number six.
דיויד סטברו 