Israel has ordered its ambassador to Sweden to return home and has “invited” the Swedish envoy to Israel for a “talk” following Stockholm’s decision Thursday to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a country.
Lieberman stated flat out that Sweden’s new prime minister, Stefan Löfven, “acted before he had time even to study the issue in depth.”
He said Swedish Ambassador, Carl Magnus Nesser, “will be invited for a talk at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem,” but there was no indication when that will happen.
Lieberman lectured Löfven from a distance and said the prime minister “must understand that relations in the Middle East are more complicated than the self-assembly furniture from IKEA and must be dealt with in a responsible and sensitive matter.
“The only way to reach an agreement is honest an negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians and not steps that only reinforce the unreal demands of the Palestinians and move an arrangement further away.”
Löfven took the helm of the country after last month’s general election.
Sweden was the first western European country to recognize the Palestinian Authority, following a similar move by Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania. Iceland, which is not in the European Union, also has recognized the Palestinian Authority as have more than 110 other countries.
The United States said that Sweden’s recognition was “premature.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström , showing how far Stockholm is detached from reality, insisted that the recognition might “facilitate a peace agreement by making the parties less unequal, supporting the moderate Palestinian forces and contributing to hope at a time when tensions are increasing and no peace talks are taking place.”
Diplomacy is being played out on the stage by pro-Palestinian Authority countries, but they have not noticed that there is no one in the audience. Sweden figures that if enough countries join the cast, Israel will be forced to take a seat and agree to meet all of Mahmoud Abbas’ demands.
Sweden also has not noticed that Abbas is not interested in taking a seat anywhere except behind the intifada.