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It’s been just over a year since Hamas brutally attacked Israel, and just over a year since I published an article observing that while the U.S. and EU had long categorized Hamas as a terrorist group, Norway had long refused to do so. On the contrary, members of Hamas had been invited on multiple occasions to travel to Oslo, at the expense of Norwegian taxpayers, and welcomed by people at the highest levels of government as honored guests. Not until October 11, after four days of immense domestic and international pressure, did Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre agree to change his country’s official position on Hamas – only to announce, two days later, that, despite his volte-face on Hamas’s status, Norway would not only keep sending truckloads of taxpayer money to that gang of thugs but would be increasing its annual “aid” payout by $7 million. Which, of course, could only be interpreted as a reward for Jew-killing.

Seven months later, on May 22, I reported that Norway, along with Ireland and Spain, was on the verge of rewarding Hamas even further – namely, by recognizing Palestinian statehood. (That recognition came into effect on May 28.)

Since moving to Norway a quarter-century ago, I’ve observed many times that the overwhelming majority of the Norwegian people are unusually decent and civilized, but that there’s one significant exception to that fact. And that exception is the widespread hostility toward Jews and Israel. Over the years, respected Norwegian politicians, authors, and commentators have written newspaper op-eds, or said things on TV, that could have been drafted by Goebbels himself – and instead of being canceled, they’ve been celebrated.

Or take the case of the Holocaust Center. In 2006, the former residence of Hitler’s wartime Norwegian puppet, Vidkun Quisling, was turned into a museum and research center whose purpose was supposedly to memorialize and study the Shoah. The Center, however, began almost at once to shift its focus from wartime Jewish suffering to the purported prejudice against Muslims in the Western world – and in Israel – today. The Center even employs a scholar, Cora Alexa Døving, who, as I wrote in that May article, “whitewashes Islamic anti-Semitism” while labeling people who legitimately criticize Islam as racists and conspiracy theorists.

In that same article I also noted that according to a new survey, most Norwegians considered it reasonable to equate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews. No surprise there. On this front, the contrast between the Norwegians and their cousins across the Skagerrak in Denmark has long been quite remarkable – in fact, downright puzzling. In the 1940s, while Danish police helped save Jews from Nazis, Norwegian police helped Nazis round up Jews. During the 2006 Muhammed cartoon crisis, Denmark stood firm for free speech while Norway caved to Muslim outrage.

Why, I asked in my May article, is Norway so awash in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bigotry? Citing research by the Norwegian group Med Israel for Fred (With Israel for Peace), I pointed out that Norwegian schoolbooks and the Church of Norway both promote these prejudices, and that, as polls have shown, Norwegians love, trust, and believe in the UN – where the democratic state of Israel has been demonized for decades by the representatives of dictators – more than any other people on earth. (As I write this, the top story at the website of NRK, Norway’s taxpayer-funded broadcast service, is about a new UN report claiming that Israel has killed civilians and tortured health professionals.)

I made the further point in my May article that Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, while recognized by sane observers as perfectly justified, would make “a perfect case study” for a class in Peace Studies – a preposterous academic discipline, founded in Norway by a Jew-hating, anti-American Maoist named Johan Galtung – according to whose twisted teachings the proper reaction to Hamas would have been not military retaliation but thoroughgoing appeasement and the recognition of Palestinian sovereignty.

Now comes another chapter in this long, ugly story. On October 9, Israel’s ambassador to Norway, Avi Nir-Feldklein (who served simultaneously as his country’s ambassador to Iceland), tendered his resignation. He also made an announcement: Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had no plans to send a replacement in the foreseeable future. This is rather big news. Israel and Norway are both major democracies. Exchanging ambassadors between such countries is ordinarily a routine matter. But these are not ordinary times. “The relationship between our countries,” Nir-Feldklein told the Christian newspaper Dagen (a rare outpost of pro-Israel sentiment in the traditional Norwegian media), “is really in crisis.”

Nir-Feldklein’s resignation wasn’t entirely a surprise. In May, immediately after Norway officially recognized Palestinian statehood, his government summoned him home in protest. In a July telephone interview with VG, Norway’s largest daily, Nir-Feldklein, who was still in Israel, stated bluntly that Gahr Støre had chosen sides, and by recognizing Palestinian statehood was sending to the people of Gaza the message that “terror pays. So why should they stop?” Gahr Støre’s action, Nir-Feldklein maintained, had caused the Israeli people to lose all trust in Norway; the two countries’ relationship, he said, had never been worse and was, indeed, in “deep crisis.” He also asserted, quite reasonably, that Norway, by its action, had forfeited its ability to serve as a broker in Middle East peace negotiations. (For my part, I would argue that Norway long ago forfeited its right to pretend to be a neutral mediator, but I’m not a diplomat.)

To be sure, Nir-Feldklein’s resignation was accompanied by what can only be described as an exceedingly generous statement on his X (formerly Twitter) account. “Today,” he wrote, “is my last day as the Ambassador of Israel to Norway.” Describing Norway as “a beautiful country with wonderful people,” he declared that it had been “a privilege to represent my beloved  country in Norway, despite the diplomatic crisis,” and expressed the hope “that the future will bring better days to our relations and [that] once again we will do wonderful things together.”

Pretty thoughts. But I have the feeling that Nir-Feldklein’s office in Oslo will be vacant for some time to come. And why should it be otherwise? For decades prior to October 7, the role of Israeli ambassador to Norway was a thankless one, requiring the officeholder to bite his tongue while his hosts spewed bile about the only democracy in the Middle East. And after his nation was invaded and over 1000 of his countrymen savagely slaughtered on October 7 by people who Norway still, as of that day, refused identify as terrorists, Nir-Feldklein woke up pretty much every morning to see his people and his prime minister viciously smeared by the Norwegian government and media. Why, other than masochism, permit oneself to endure such abuse even as your country is fighting for its life? It’s good to Norway’s leaders finally get at least a taste of the blowback that they so richly deserve. May every Western government that refuses to stand up for Israeli freedom against the evil of jihad receive the same treatment.