According to the police, the violence in Oslo which followed an attack on a pro-Israel demonstration on Thursday was the worst the Norwegian capital has seen since the 1980s.
Reuters reports:
The violence started when about 1,000 pro-Palestinian supporters showed up at a rally sponsored by Norway’s largest opposition party in support of Israel. Television pictures showed they burnt Israeli flags and threw projectiles at police clad in body armour who separated the two groups.
“This has nothing to do with the situation in Gaza,” Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff of the Oslo police, told the website of the daily Aftenposten.
“These people came to the protest with knives, bats and Molotov cocktails,” he said, speaking about the pro-Palestinian side.
“You have to go back to the early 1980s to find a similar situation in Norway,” Fredriksen said, adding that police were still concerned about security across the city.
One of the features of the pro-Hamas demonstrations which have plagued cities from London to Athens is the degree of violence accompanying them, along with transparent antisemitism. In the Norwegian case, you have to ask whether that is connected to that country’s growing permissiveness when it comes to antisemitic discourse.
Meanwhile, in Canada, demonstrators attempted to storm Israeli consulates in Toronto and Montreal. The most nauseating speech I’ve come across this week - lots of “as a…” breast-beating - was delivered by “internationally acclaimed concert pianist” Anton Kuerti, who said the “servile” way Ottawa is supporting the U.S. position makes him “ashamed” to be a Canadian.
“The unbelievable war crimes that Israel is committing in Gaza … it makes me ashamed to be a Jew,” Kuerti said at the Toronto news conference.
Whether you are a thug or an activist consumed by self-loathing, the Gaza conflict has certainly provided plenty of opportunities for meaningless posturing.
At least one left wing commentator has taken the side of Israel in the struggle against murderous antisemitism:
“Finding Moral Light through a Tangle”
By Todd Gitlin - January 9, 2009,
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/09/finding_moral_light/
Despite all this (or even because of it), Israel should insist on the return of Gilad Shalit as a condition of any long term agreement and should also insist on control of the Philadelphi corridor, or minimally should insist on a multi-national force that is willing to oversee and enforce a ceasefire committed to by Hamas.
Hold the line, maintain a qualitative focus and resolve.
I’m sure the liberal bloggers will now assert that the Oslo police are in the pockets of the Jews or something equally retarded.
I was at the rally in Oslo. The demonstrators got more aggressive as their numbers increased. Bottles were spinning through the air and smashing against the cobblestones around us. I saw a lady get hit by a rock. The demonstrators were waving a sign saying Hayber Hayber ya yahud and chanting for Jewish blood. The police teargassed the demonstrators to keep them away from us and the teargas drifted in over us and we had to break of our rally. Their wasn’t any safe route out of there, just demonstrators on all sides. Visit http://www.israelwhat.com/?m=200901 for more on anti-semitism in Norway.
Carl