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It seems that he means business now, Espen Barth Eide.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs recently announced that Norwegian recognition of a Palestinian state could come very soon. The time indications he uses are “in a short time” and “that it could happen already during the spring”.
In that case, we are talking about days or a few weeks.
Eide and his boss, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, may hope that an increasingly one-sided pro-Palestinian policy will stem some of the voter flight from Ap to other parties on the left.
If so, that is the only change they can hope for.
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Deer symbolic politics
Because a recognition of Palestine now is exactly the same as most of what Norway has been doing in the Middle East in recent decades: Rådyr symbolic politics without any real positive impact.
Norway’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has long in practice mostly functioned as a kind of employment initiative for “the humanitarian-political complex” as the historian Terje Tvedt called the peculiarly Norwegian alliance between politicians, aid organizations and other NGOs.
The activity, the ambitions, the travel business and the spending of money is enormous. But the results… they are largely absent.
In these environments, one dreams back to the 90s when the Oslo agreement made us feel on top of the world for a short while. It was typically Norwegian to be good, because Gro had said so. And now we were so good that we could even create peace in the Middle East.
We thought.
With the collapse of the Oslo Accords, the Norwegian role as mediator in the Middle East conflict also collapsed. The only ones who haven’t discovered it yet are ourselves.
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Waving goodbye to vain dreams
Because in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the inflated self-image is just as intact. We continue to pump oil and tax money into the crippled, corruption-ridden Palestinian economy. The self-governing authorities there continue to finance terrorist salaries and pay for school books that ooze hatred.
But it does not make a significant impression on blue-eyed representatives from the self-proclaimed nation of peace, Norway.
But maybe there can be a change now. Because with a Norwegian recognition of Palestine this spring, we can wave goodbye once and for all to the futile dreams of a Norwegian place on the international Middle East stage.
Israeli trust in Norway has become increasingly worn over time. The fact that the foreign minister refused King Harald to offer his condolences to Israel after the terrorist attack on 7 October made it worse. A recognition of Palestine will lead to Israel rightly perceiving Norway more as a counterpart than a peace partner.
At least it’s done then. Then Espen Barth Eide might as well stay at home and save the taxpayers for expensive plane tickets to capitals in the Middle East.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is apparently willing to take that risk. But for what then?
A dream, a vision, a fantasy
What Norway will recognize is something that does not exist, something metaphysical. In reality, Norway will recognize a dream, a vision, a fantasy or a kind of mirage.
Because the Palestinian Authority does not have control over the territory Norway wants to transform into a state.
Yes, the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank. But in Gaza there is a terrorist organization that has control over some of the area.
How will Espen Baarth Eide solve the Gordian knot?
And what kind of government is it that Norway intends to recognize in Palestine?
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Seize power with weapons in hand
To call the political conditions unclear would be an understatement. No elections have been held there since 2006.
At that time, it was Hamas that received the most votes. The chaos eventually ended in a bloody Palestinian civil war the following year. There, Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip with weapons in hand. The Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas retained control of parts of the West Bank.
And speaking of Abbas: He has remained in power throughout. Regardless of the lack of choice and the development in general. The only thing that has changed for him is that he is now approaching 90 years of age (he will be 89 in November).
Mahmoud Abbas makes the aging gallery of people in the American election campaign look almost like a youth club in comparison.
In any case, it is not us up here in the high north who will decide the future status of these areas. Only the parties themselves can decide on that after negotiations between them.
Gathering much-needed votes
In any case, Gaza is not a good advertisement for such a two-state solution. There, Israel tried this concept of land-for-peace. Then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew all Israeli soldiers from Gaza in August 2006. He dismantled the settlements and used military force to forcibly relocate all Jews.
But instead of peace, they got an Islamist takeover of the Gaza Strip and a continuous rain of rockets on the Israeli civilian population. And finally the worst orgy of violence in Israel’s history when the gates of evil opened on 7 October last year.
It is understandable that the enthusiasm for repeating that experiment in the West Bank is not particularly great in Israeli society.
Nothing Espen Barth Eide does can change that.
But a symbolic recognition of a non-existent state might bring back much-needed votes from some Palestinian activists who would otherwise vote Red or SV.
That’s something, too.
