Now Paris linked to Mideast conflict

MICHAEL BELLING

MICHAEL BELLING

Pictured: Susanne Sznajderman-Rytz confronting Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström in a Stockholm street on Saturday about Wallström’s anti-Israel comment in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Wallström said last weekend that the Islamic State (ISIS) attacks in Paris were partially fuelled by Palestinian frustration. 

“To counteract the radicalisation, we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence,” she stated. 

Hernroth-Rothstein said she was not in the least surprised by the comment.

“Ever since the London bombings 10 years ago, we have had this enormous problem with Muslim extremists. Our government has failed to recognise this threat and even after Paris they refuse to recognise the culprits.”

A Jewish woman in Sweden, Susanne Sznajderman-Rytz, the child of Holocaust survivors and a Yiddish teacher, saw the foreign minister in a Stockholm street on Saturday and asked her to comment on her statement.

Walltsröm replied: “The Jews are campaigning against me.”

Sznajderman-Rytz was shocked and has written to the foreign ministry requesting additional comment, but has yet to receive a reply.

Hernroth-Rothstein said Walltsröm’s comment was problematic in several ways.

“By blaming this attack and extremism in Europe on the Arab-Israeli conflict, she is being incredibly condescending to Arabs and Muslims. She is saying that they are basically primitive people who resort to murder when they are dissatisfied.”

She said that Walltsröm failed to understand Europe and what was happening there today.

“The fact that they don’t acknowledge it is what sustains ISIS and is cowardice in the face of evil,” she said.

“I’m waiting and hoping the Jewish community in Sweden will react.”

She said the Israeli ambassador to Sweden had called the foreign ministry about it.

Both the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, responded sharply to Walltsröm’s comment.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said on Monday that the Swedish ambassador had been summoned to clarify the remarks, and that her words were “ridiculous in their rudeness”. 

“The Swedish foreign minister is systematically biased, hostile, and one-sided against Israel when she points to the connection between the attacks in Paris and difficulties between Israel and the Palestinians,” Nachshon added. 

“Anyone involved in a hopeless attempt to create a link between the attacks from radical Islam and the difficulties between Israel and the Palestinians is deceiving himself, his people and international public opinion.” 

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely added that the comments were “blatant and vile anti-Semitism” and equivalent to “blood libel,” and that the ministry would make abundantly clear the severity of her statements.