Israel Matzav: Norway does it again

Norway does it again

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Storr (pictured). During the meeting, Storr insisted that his country was not anti-Israel.

On Tuesday, Storr violated a longstanding Israeli prohibition against foreign dignitaries conducting official meetings with 'Palestinian' representatives in Jerusalem.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Storr met Tuesday with the head of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas' staff, Rafik al-Husseini, and PA Jerusalem Affairs minister Ahmed al-Rawidi, at the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives. Observers said it was the first time a foreign dignitary had met a PA government official in Jerusalem since the closure of the Orient House in 2001.

Al-Rawidi said that the fact that the meeting took place in Jerusalem was "important." Husseini said that "a Palestinian state without Jerusalem has no meaning."

The reaction to this (which broke Tuesday night) ought to make the spat with Turkey last week look like a walk in the part.

Israel Matzav: Norway does it again