As for Jürg Haider who died in a car crash on his way to his mothers 90th birthday, I relied to much on memory. I should have checked up on the position he had. (Leader of FPÖ and member of the coalition government). Not that I really see what difference that makes for the point I was making, that Austria was faced with several boycott-attempts due to his rather ham-fisted speeches. (And now a days arguably mostly know for the theories that he committed suicide after a break up with him homosexual lover)

jdyer: feel free to specify what questions you feel I haven’t commented on? As for my interest in Israel: (I see you haven’t read my blog), When I was leader of the student welfare council in Trondheim back in 2006 I removed a one-year old boycott on Israeli goods, put in place by the SiT on the request of the students community, which is why I had to read up a fair bit on the whole matter.

He was the Governor of the province of Carinthia until he killed himself after a drinking session, crashing his car.

That you show a zeal for a subject you know so little aout makes me wonder what is it that motivates your passionate intensity about the subject of Israel and Jews.

Er, no, but I hate to say I told you so, being well informed on issues could be a disadvantage for a pro-boycotters.

And well done, Jacob, I salute your persistence :)

ES’s grasp of these issues is on a par with his knowledge of Austrian politics!

Jacob Arnon: My point the whole time have been to explain why a proposal of a boycott of Israel is not a case of antisemitism run rampant, but just a normal response when a vocal minority feel a foreign nation does something that minority dislike. Same thing happened when Mr Haider was elected prime minister of Austria, or for that matter the proposals of boycotts of Morocco, due to the West Sahara. No one claims the latter is a result of hatred towards Arabs?

As for “enlightened” I tried to suggest people in the western world, in the Arab world the sentiment is quite different. As for a boycott and Jews not following it, I can pretty much guarantee that they will be alone in not doing so. As I said, and also explained in my blog post on the subject, unless it is a national boycott for security reasons or similar circumstances, it would not be illegal to not support it, and most consumers would not be bothered to check where the microchip in their new laptop, or juice in their soft drink was produced.

As for the “THE” Jewish state. Many countries have state religions, even Norway, which is fair and square. The problem is that when you say Israel is THE Jewish state it is indirectly a way of saying it is where all Jews should live. (E.g. Japanese is technically “The” Shinto state, that religion is almost exclusive to Japan, but they don’t market it as such.)

And I’m sorry I misunderstood you, but I cannot see why Jewish culture and religion is in the danger of being assimilated in for instance the US.

“And all I say that Israel is as much a legal target for a boycott as any other sovereign state. But per now I do not see any reason why such a boycott should be enforced or applied.”

I still don’t why you spending so much time defending the right to boycott Israel, if as you say you don’t believe in a boycott?

“Naturally I think whoever who wants to stop buying Israeli potatoes, US cola, or for that matter Norwegian oil, should be allowed to do so. Individual freedom of choice is a liberal necessity in a modern democracy.”

This goes without saying. People are free to buy whatever they want or whatever they can afford. No one is forcing them to buy any particular product from any particular country. If you want to drink Egyptian cola, or buy Syrian manufactured computer chips, be my guest.

“WHY will a boycott of Israel mean it will be legit to hate Jews. You say it is, I say it ain’t.

I (and some other posters have) already answered your question. However, this will be my last attempt at a reply. Any boycott of Israel will have to be enforced. There will be Jews who will not wish to abide by the boycott. These Jews will be seen as being Zionists and will be identified with “the enemy” The Jewish State. It’s that simple. This will start a round of accusations and recriminations against Jews.
If you don’t think this will happen you are living in a dream world.

“(Bonus question: Is Jewish a denomination of religion or a denomination for ethnicity? I think, and most enlightened people agree, it is the first. )”

No E.S. you can’t ask a question and then offer your own answers.

Judaism is both a religion and an ethnicity. I am not religious but I am ethnically a Jew. It’s not up to you or up to “enlightened people” to decide what I am. It’s up to me to decide what I am. Using leading terms like “enlightened” doesn’t add anything to your argument, btw.

“Secondly, what in the world makes it likely that millions of American Jews will emigrate to Israel like you seem to believe? I find it about as likely as all Norwegian Americans in the US should suddenly emigrate to Norway.”

I have no idea why ask this. I never said that millions of American Jews will immigrate to Israel. I think you must be referring to my point that in a generation or so the majority of Jews will be living in Israel. This is because of assimilation and not emigration, though there will be Jews who will undoubtedly immigrate to Israel.

“Israel is A Jewish state, their wish to be THE Jewish state is a recipe for disaster.”

I have no idea what you mean by “The Jewish State” as opposed to a Jewish State. As far as I know there is only one Jewish State. Do you think the US is a Jewish State?

“We must not allow the statement that the only place where Jews should live is in Israel be preached as a universal truth,”

This is nonsense. Jews will live wherever they want even if there is a Jewish State. Jews will also express a preference of they want other Jews to live. This is called freedom of speech. I also don’t’ know who the “we” is in your sentence above, do you? Who are you to decide that Jews should not live in their own State if they so wish?

“THAT would be to legitimize those that wants to throw all Jews out of their country. (Quite a number in Russia and other parts of the old East block.)”

No it wouldn’t legitimize any such thing. Many if not most Jews have already left the Soviet Union because of antisemitism. The largest number of Russian Jews now lives in Israel rather than Russia.
The cruelest thing I can think of is forcing Jews to live in an antisemitic country as you are trying to do in order to prove that antisemites don’t have the right to throw them out.

The fact that Israel exist means that they don’t have to that anymore.

This is my last reply to you, E.S.

Initially, when you claimed Norway was a solid ally of Israel and always would be, I thought you were out to gloss over the facts of Norwegian-Israel relations and just wanted to make our country look good. I no longer think this is your objective.

One day Norwegians will pay no more attention to Israel than to any other ME country and Sophie and I will be able to do something else with our time.

Please answer the following:

WHY will a boycott of Israel mean it will be legit to hate Jews. You say it is, I say it ain’t. Please give me some stringent argument why people in general would think that a useless government in a nation means all citizens are worthy of scorn, and why that scorn should spill over to people who share the same religion as the said government.

(Bonus question: Is Jewish a denomination of religion or a denomination for ethnicity? I think, and most enlightened people agree, it is the first. )

Secondly, what in the world makes it likely that millions of American Jews will emigrate to Israel like you seem to believe? I find it about as likely as all Norwegian Americans in the US should suddenly emigrate to Norway.

Israel is A Jewish state, their wish to be THE Jewish state is a recipe for disaster. We must not allow the statement that the only place where Jews should live is in Israel be preached as a universal truth, THAT would be to legitimize those that wants to throw all Jews out of their country. (Quite a number in Russia and other parts of the old East block.)

And all I say that Israel is as much a legal target for a boycott as any other sovereign state. But per now I do not see any reason why such a boycott should be enforced or applied. Naturally I think whoever who wants to stop buying Israeli potatoes, US cola, or for that matter Norwegian oil, should be allowed to do so. Individual freedom of choice is a liberal necessity in a modern democracy.