Norwegian newspaper: Kerry is an evil pro-Israeli American, too
A significant majority of Norwegians consider President George Bush a dumb, dangerous war-monger, and eagerly hope for the non-Bush candidate, whoever it is, to win. Some Norwegians may live under the misconception that there are significant differences between the Democrats and Republican parties when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
John Kerry is now almost certain to win the nomination, and the largest Norwegian newspaper VG warns that Kerry is not that much better than Bush after all.
Kerry panders to USA's Jews
is, believe it or not, the headline.
After summarising the state of the primaries, and explaining that Kerry is now the big, big favourite, under the headline "Pro-Israel" follows this discussion of the Middle East position of the candiate:
Kerry wants to bring the USA back to the world community, and cooperate with the UN to a much larger extent than what the Bush administration has been doing, he has said repeatedly.
Considering that Norway, along with almost all our closest allies, are militarily involved with the US in both Afghanistan and Iraq, it is a rather strange claim that the US is currently outside the world community. Is the "world community" suddenly consisting of only France and Germany? Ironically, Norwegian media hardly report news and politics from either country compared to how closely it follows British and US politics and events. However, that is a side issue here. Read on:
But in a meeting with Jewish organisations in New York Sunday, he showed another side of himself. Kerry made it clear he would continue the Bush-administration's policy of vetoing all Security Council resolutions that are considered one-sided against Israel, the New York Times writes.
Kerry is showing "another side," obviously the so-called unilateral side, and it is vaguely implied in this article that he shows a sinister side of himself by supporting Israel. The journalist appears ignorant that this has been the consistent position of the US for decades, with Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Some decades ago, most of Europe, including Norway, were also pro-Israel.
It gets worse:
He also repeated what he has earlier said about the wall Israel is building between Israeli and Palestinian areas.
- It is a fence, not a wall, Kerry said with a rhetoric that clearly supports Israel's right to build the controversial wall.
The journalist, Christian F. Brændshøi, obviously considers the word "wall", which is technically false and misleading in the case of the security barrier, as the neutral term, while the word "fence" is pro-Israeli rhetoric. This is an obvious outcome of life inside the echo chamber where Scandinavian journalists live and work. The factually neutral term has become political "rhetoric," the Palestinians' politically loaded term has become the default term, obviously because the word "wall" inspires the desired associations with the Berlin wall.
If the article has not already crossed the blurred and unclear line between anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism, it does so in the final paragraph:
On the meeting, where he was uninhibitedly flirting with the Jewish representatives, Kerry said that he will become the first president with a Jewish background. His brother have converted to Judaism, and his grandparents on his father's side were Jews that once converted to Catholicism.
More discussion about anti-Israelism vs anti-semitism here, here and here.
11:39:20 PM 
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