Richard Silverstein: Sweden Shouldn't Be Held Accountable For Libel

Once again showing his true colors, Richard the Coward-Hearted has produced an opinion that Israel has overreacted to Sweden’s libel against Israel*. It seems that Tuvia Goldman isn’t unique in that country.
Rich comments:

It seems the foreign ministry must run itself so well that the minister has time on his hands to get involved in shtuyot like this. (Shtuyot being nonsense in Hebrew.)

So a Swedish newspaper has publish an article stating that Israeli soldiers are involved in kidnapping Arabs and using their organs for transplants…and Silverstein thinks that the foreign minister of Israel is overreacting to this? How could someone possible overreact when the Swedish government hasn’t categorically condemned such a aggressive and deceitful slander? Silverstein’s judgment is worse than that of the Swedes. I wouldn’t be surprise if they found of that Richard Silverstein=Donald Boström!
Rich goes on to ruminate:

Thus Sweden in 2009 has everything that France had in 2003: socialist political traditions, sympathy for Palestinian suffering, a reputation for caution and deliberation in world affairs, not to mention blondness and a cold climate. In short, everything Israel is not.

Let’s break this down:
socialist political traditions
Israeli isn’t socialist? Hello? The Kibbutz Movement? The Labor Party-the one that was involved in the founding of the country! A Hebrew teacher of mine once told me that Haifa was once staunchly-and violently communist. Her father was smashed over the head once because he espoused anti-Communist views there. Rich shows his total lack of understanding of the history of the State of Israel here.

sympathy for Palestinian suffering
Recently I have wrote several articles about Neve Gordon’s call for for a boycott against Israel. Palestinian suffering? You mean like a suicide bomber packed with nails getting on a crowded bus? You mean Israeli suffering-like the bombing of Sderot and other towns in the south of Israeli that you never condemn, you deceitful snake! The worst of our suffering in Israel is having to listen to inaccurate, one-sided, and misinformed “reports” from people like Richard Silverstein.

a reputation for caution and deliberation in world affairs
Sweden and Israel are not nearly in the same geo-political category. Are you foolish enough to think that there is any similarity between Sweden and Israel in world affairs?
blondness and a cold climate
Alas, I recently spoke to a Mizrachit friend of mine (half Moroccan and half Yemenite) who has blond hair and green eyes and looks better than any European I have seen in my travels. As for climate-both Jerusalem and the Hermon (which gets snow) can get very cold in the winter.
Lastly Rich makes the comparison:

The whole thing begins to remind me of that Marx Brothers movie

Yep! Like Tikkun Olam we are forced to watch it but it makes no sounds. The only thing left is to laugh at the buffoon on the screen.

*Google translate can be used to get a rough idea of the content of the Swedish article.
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Update: Sweden’s Assimilated Jews

Apparently Silverstein doesn’t learn from his mistakes. He cites the following article:

The results of a poll conducted by Svenska Dagbladet showed that 66 per cent of the 1,300 respondents ruled out offering any apology to Israel, 31 percent said the Aftonbladet should apologize, and only 3 percent supported a formal apology by the Swedish government. In addition, 92 percent of the 4,500 participants in a survey taken by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper said that Israel’s demand for an apology was “unreasonable.”

I remember Swedish Jews here telling me that the community is largely assimilated. I suspect this is why they have such a reticent attitude towards the issue. It seems that Silverstein must also identify with this way of thinking-he identifies with his “host country” and not with Israel. Israel is a threat to his identity as an assimilated, Hellenized Jew.