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The departure of anti-Israel Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström could signal some light at the end of the tunnel in the turbulent relations between Jerusalem and Stockholm.
By Daniel Krygier
Sweden’s controversial foreign minister Margot Wallström recently announced her resignation after 40 years in politics.
While Israel has had many critics in Europe over the years, few have been more rabid in their opposition towards the Jewish state than Wallström.
In theory, Wallström’s Social Democrat-led Sweden embraces a “feminist” foreign policy that claims to stand up for democracy and human rights, especially for women. In practice, over the years, Sweden’s has had a too-cozy relationship with oppressive dictatorships in the Middle East, especially the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah.
None of these Middle Eastern despots are known for defending women’s rights, democracy or any other values that Wallström’s Sweden officially allegedly prioritizes.
By contrast, under Wallström’s leadership, Sweden has obsessively criticized and attacked Israel in every conceivable international forum. Instead of expressing solidarity with the embattled democratic Jewish state, Stockholm has consistently sided with Israel’s despotic enemies at the United Nations and elsewhere.
On Wallström’s watch, Sweden became in 2014 the first European Union member state to unilaterally recognize “Palestine” as an independent state. Sweden’s decision caused a major diplomatic crisis with Israel. Stockholm defended its recognition of “Palestine” as an expression of supporting the two-state solution.
However, Wallström has consistently failed to condemn Ramallah for its anti-Semitic incitement against Israel’s existence. By unilaterally recognizing “Palestine”, Wallström’s Sweden effectively rewarded Ramallah’s anti-Jewish propaganda and terrorism against the Jewish state.
In 2015, Wallström outrageously blamed Israel indirectly for the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed over 130 lives.
According to Wallström’s myopic worldview, the Arab-Israeli conflict was somehow responsible for all other Middle Eastern and Islamic-related conflicts worldwide. Since Stockholm largely blames Israel for the lack of peace and ignores Ramallah’s rejectionist extremism, the Jewish state was turned into a convenient scapegoat for all Islamist related terrorist ills worldwide.
When Israel was hit in late 2015 by a wave of knife-related anti-Jewish terrorism, the Jewish state exercised the universal right of self-defense by neutralizing the Muslim Arab terrorists. These terrorist attacks were encouraged and praised by Wallström’s “moderate” friend Mahmoud Abbas.
Instead of expressing solidarity with the embattled sister democracy Israel, Wallström demanded an international inquiry to “investigate” Israel’s “extrajudicial killings.”
When Islamic terrorists were neutralized while attacking people elsewhere in the world, Wallström remained silent. As far as Wallström and her colleagues are concerned, the universal right of self-defense applies to all countries except Israel.
Despite her intense hostility towards the Jewish state, Wallström denies that she is driven by animosity towards the Jewish state. In fact, Wallström hypocritically presented herself as a “critical friend” of Israel. Unlike true friends, Wallström has systematically stabbed Israel in the back.
Wallström’s Sweden vocally opposed President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. Sweden does not recognize any part of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. At the same time, Stockholm hypocritically recognizes Ramallah’s demand for “East Jerusalem” as its capital.
As a result, Sweden’s diplomatic relations with Israel are conducted through its embassy in Tel Aviv. By contrast, Sweden’s relations with Ramallah are conducted through the Swedish consulate in “East Jerusalem.”
At UNESCO, Sweden was one of few Western democracies that supported the Muslim Arab world’s anti-Semitic revisionist declarations that denied more than 3000 years of ancestral Jewish history in Jerusalem and Israel.
In the world of international relations, foreign ministers come and go. However, the political departure of the anti-Israel bigot Margot Wallström could signal some light at the end of the tunnel in the turbulent relations between Jerusalem and Stockholm.
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