(Times of Israel) Raphael Ahren - At a discussion on Norwegian anti-Semitism at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Monday, Vebjorn Dysvik, the deputy head of mission at the Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv, claimed that some 35,000 Norwegian soldiers served in UNIFIL in southern Lebanon between 1978 and 1999 "to protect Israel." Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor rejected Dysvik's comments as a distortion of the actual facts. UNIFIL's mandate has never been to protect Israel but rather to safeguard Lebanon sovereignty, he said. "The [Norwegian] soldiers in south Lebanon were raised to regard Israel as a potential aggressor, not as a partner and even less so as a party to be protected," Palmor said.
2012-11-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive