Jan Haugland writes about the appalling left-wing government of Norway, who will continue dealing with the Palestinian Hamas-led terror state without any interruption, at Secular Blasphemy:

Instead of abiding by the European Union’s list of designated terrorist organisations, Norway chose to subscribe to the much shorter list from the United Nations. Now, as I’ve said before, the UNophilia of this government is almost surreal, and as the UN hasn’t even agreed what terrorism is, its response to the global scourge has been more than lacking. More importantly, Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, are not on the UN’s list of terrorist organisations. Officially, Norway no longer considers Hamas a terrorist organisation.

When Hamas surprised almost everybody, including itself, by winning the Palestinian elections, the EU clearly stated that a dialogue with the new Palestinian government required the organisation to renounce violence and accept Israel’s existence. The United States was, naturally, clear on the same issue. Even Russia agreed with this.

Norway is alone among countries that, as the expression goes, we like to be compared to, saying we should continue engaging a Hamas government. At the day of the election, I listened in near-disbelief as Sweden’s foreign minister Laila Freiwalds stating Hamas had to radically change its policies to be a partner for dialogue. Sweden has, otherwise, consistently been the most pro-Palestinian (and anti-Israel) government in Europe. Norway’s Jonas Gahr Store, on the other hand, on the same day argued that the election effectively legitimises Hamas and that Norway will continue cooperating with a Hamas-run Palestinian Authority without any preconditions. Norway’s Parliamentary president, former Labour leader Thorbjorn Jagland, also argued that we have to “accept the result of the election” and not “isolate” Hamas by not engaging it in dialogue.