Bus bombed in 2004 suicide attack
Bus bombed in 2004 suicide attackArutz Sheva news photo: Flash 90

The terrorist attack in Norway has not changed the country’s views of terror in Israel, where the Norwegian ambassador to Israel blames the “occupation” for terror against Jews.

Ambassador Svein Serje, in an interview with the Hebrew-language Maariv newspaper, said he has sympathy for Israel’s terror victims but still maintains, "We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel. Those who believe this will not change their mind because of the attack in Oslo."

He asserted that the massacre by Anders Breivik, a right-wing extremist whose lawyer says was on drugs and is probably insane, “has an ideology that says that Norway, particularly the Labor Party, is forgoing Norwegian culture. Breivik was radically anti-Islam and anti-immigration.

He killed 76 people, including 68 at a Labor party youth camp, where the youth were taught to boycott Israel.

Norway has a long-standing policy against Israel’s maintaining a presence in re-United Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria

Sevje’s solution for terror in Israel included “engaging” the Hamas terrorist organization. “Can Israel and the Palestinians solve the problems without Hamas? I don't think so," he told Maariv.

Commentary Magazine’s Alana Goodman noted, "Suggesting Israel is responsible for the terror attacks launched against it is senseless enough on its own.

"But Norway’s ambassador to Israel to reportedly make this argument – at a time when the shock of the devastating Oslo attack is still lingering – is also profoundly callous. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Norway’s long-standing anti-Israel sentiment, but the ambassador’s timing and tone-deafness is striking."