CNN, "Norwegian Woman: I Was Raped in Dubai, Now I Face Prison Sentence": Might This Change Norway's Attitude Toward Israel?

As reported by CNN in an article entitled "Norwegian woman: I was raped in Dubai, now I face prison sentence" (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/20/world/meast/uae-norway-rape-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_c1) by Nicola Goulding and Phil O'Sullivan, Norwegian interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv was sentenced to 16 months in prison in Dubai after complaining that a colleague raped her. Goulding and O'Sullivan write:

"The 24-year-old was convicted and sentenced on charges of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol.

. . . .

She said she had been out at a bar with her colleagues and friends, and asked a male colleague to walk her to her room when they returned at 3 a.m. to the hotel. She'd asked him to escort her because the hotel was large and confusing, and she didn't want to be wandering on her own, knowing she'd been drinking, she said.

When they reached a room, she realized it wasn't hers -- but the man then pulled her inside despite her vocal objections, according to Dalelv.

. . . .

After again giving her version of events to officers, Dalelv said, "They asked me, 'Are you sure you called the police because you just didn't like it?' I said, 'Well of course I didn't like it.' That is when I knew, I don't think they are going to believe me at all."

Dalelv says she was taken for an intimate medical exam and tested for alcohol consumption. Her belongings were taken and she was kept in jail for four days, she said, with no explanation as to why."

Dalelv was charged with sex outside of marriage and public consumption of alcohol. She then tried telling the police that it had been voluntary sex in order to try to make the matter disappear, whereupon she was also charged with . . . making a false statement.

The article goes on to inform us that Dalelv's travails are not out of the ordinary in Dubai:

"In December 2012, a British woman reported being raped by three men in Dubai. She was found guilty of drinking alcohol without a license and fined.

In January 2010, a British woman told authorities she was raped by an employee at a Dubai hotel. She was charged with public intoxication and having sex outside of marriage.

An Australian woman reported in 2008 that she was drugged and gang-raped. She was convicted of having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, and she was sentenced to 11 months in prison."

We are also told that this abomination is now "dominating the headlines in Norway."

Gee, I wonder if this might help to change the perspective of Norway, which of all the countries in Europe, is perhaps least friendly to Israel. There are even those who belong to Norway's Socialist Left Party, the junior partner in the Norwegian government, who have called for military action against Israel is it acts against Hamas, notwithstanding their rocketing of Israeli civilians, and notwithstanding their abuse of women (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/gaza-marathon-canceled_n_2810661.html).

No, I don't think so. Anti-Semitism invariably trumps all other concerns.

Nicholas Kristof's "Republicans, Zealots and Our Security": Words Can Kill

Given what happened in Norway on Friday, I was astounded to read Nicholas Kristof's latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Republicans, Zealots and Our Security" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/24kristof.html?ref=opinion), which would have us believe that "obsessive" House Republicans are willing to drag the US "over the cliff of default" and pose "the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer". Kristof writes:

"IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.

Well, wake up to the national security threat. Only it’s not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists."

Deploring the elimination of federal aid to "Reading Is Fundamental," a nonprofit program that provides books to "low-income children" [sic], and other educational programs by Republicans, Kristof concludes:

"So let’s remember not only the national security risks posed by Iran and Al Qaeda. Let’s also focus on the risks, however unintentional, from domestic zealots."

Wow! A columnist from a national US newspaper is lumping Republicans together with al-Qaeda. Query: Are exasperated New York Times readers now justified in countering this "national security threat" by bombing the 2012 Republican National Convention or murdering Tea Party leaders with well-aimed bullets to the head?

Obviously, Republicans would argue that unsustainable federal deficit spending has spiraled out of control under the Obama administration and in effect has already taken the US over Kristof's "cliff," but Kristof's lumping of Republicans with international terrorists does not leave room for reasoned debate.

Sure, Kristof's incendiary language comparing Republicans with al-Qaeda is protected by the First Amendment, but it doesn't belong on the op-ed page of The New York Times.

On Friday we saw where fanaticism can take persons charged with irrational emotion. Words can kill. Shame on Nicholas Kristof. Shame on The New York Times.

Norway and Israel's Island of Peace Massacre

I went to sleep last night and woke up this morning seeing black, after reading about the bomb explosion in the Norwegian government building and the island shooting attack, which together left at least 92 people dead.

Many of us in Israel have personally experienced terror of this kind, and just reading about this attack in distant Scandinavia brought out all my repressed anger and deep-seated concern for the welfare of my own children.

What immediately came to mind was the 1997 Island of Peace Massacre, in which a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of Israeli school children who had come to visit an Israeli-Jordanian park at the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers. Seven 11-year-old girls were murdered in the incident.

Of all the countries in Europe, perhaps Norway is least friendly to Israel. There are even those who belong to Norway's Socialist Left Party, the junior partner in the Norwegian government, who have called for military action against Israel is it acts against Hamas, notwithstanding the incessant targeting of Israeli civilian targets by Hamas (see: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/03/norwegian-socialists-to-vote-on-bombing-israel/). Perhaps this senseless act of terror in Norway will lead to better understanding of the constant threat of terror with which Israel lives.

My deepest condolences to the people of Norway, particularly to those who have lost loved ones.

Norway's SV Party: Use Armed Force Against Israel If It Attacks Gaza

Norway's Socialist Left Party, also known as SV, which is the fourth largest political party in Norway and a member of the governing coalition, is voting on a motion to use armed force against Israel if it should attack Gaza (see: http://www.israelwhat.com/2011/03/26/socialistic-left-dubious-moral-tradeoff-for-bombing-libya-use-armed-force-against-israel/). The rationale behind the motion of the SV Party, which is led by Kristin Halvorsen:

"The credibility of the world community in its confrontation with the Gadafi regime is undermined when there is no reaction against other states in the region who commit injustices against civil population. The greater world community must therefore also react against Israeli air attacks on the Gaza strip."

Remarkable! Hamas and friends can fire more than 50 mortar shells in a single day at Israeli civilian targets, as they did this past Saturday, and shoot Grad missiles at the Israeli cities of Beersheva, Ashdod and Ashqelon, as they did this past week, yet Israeli should be bombed by NATO should there be retaliation.

In voting on this motion, the SV Party is joining ranks with Turkey, whose deputy prime minister, Bülent Arınç, also called for airstrikes against Israel (http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/03/21/turkey%e2%80%99s-deputy-prime-minister-calls-for-airstrikes-on-israel/).

Obviously, Norway's closet anti-Semites couldn't care less about acts of terror against Israeli civilians; however, I wonder how they feel about acts of terror against female journalists in Gaza. Read the following from an article in today's Jerusalem Post, entitled "Gaza cops use ‘beatings, stun guns’ on women reporters" (http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=214092) by Khaled Abu Toameh, which describes the fear and oppression perpetuated by Hamas in Gaza:

"A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip. They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.

. . . .

Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.

One of the female journalists, Samah Ahmed, complained that a Hamas policeman in military uniform stabbed her in the back as she tried to leave the al-Katiba Square, where pro-unity protesters were staging a sit-in strike. She said that she and another female journalist, Asma al-Ghoul, were later also beaten with clubs before they were taken to detention.

. . . .

Jihan al-Sirsawi, another woman who works as a journalist in the Gaza Strip, said that the police officers who attacked the demonstrators beat her severely. 'They used electrical shocks against us,' she said. 'They beat me so strongly that I lost consciousness and fell to the ground. I woke up only 15 minutes later.'”

Norway's SV Party is obviously unmoved by rockets and missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, and apparently they are also indifferent to the torture of journalists, honor killings, persecution of Christians and murder of political dissidents in Gaza. Afterall, if they were to acknowledge the horrors perpetrated by Hamas and friends, how they possibly continue to demonize Israel and maintain their constituency.