For some reason, Sweden has always evoked positive images: tall, blue-eyed, blondhaired, good-looking, fit inhabitants of Scandinavia; modern day Vikings; Nordic. But in addition to their good traits, ethnic Swedes are Aryans, the race that Hitler so admired, and they sometimes exhibit some of the qualities that Hitler encouraged in Germans.

In mid-August the largest Swedish newspaper, the leftleaning tabloid "Aftonbladet," splashed this headline: "They plunder the organs of our sons" in a featured article in its cultural section. Author Donald Boström, a purported anti- Semite, quotes Palestinian claims that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] and their bodies returned to the families with missing organs. Relatives of the victims reportedly told Boström, "Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors." According to the Palestinians, the victims disappeared for a few days and were returned at night, dead and autopsied, he wrote. A large photo spread, showing a dead Palestinian with Frankenstein-like stitching on its body next to a picture of a New Jersey rabbi, accompanied the story.

Boström's article makes a link to the recent exposure of an alleged crime syndicate in New Jersey, in a further attempt to blacken the reputation of the IDF. (The syndicate includes several American rabbis, and Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who faces charges of conspiring to broker the sale of human kidneys.) Swedish diplomats in Israel were quick to condemn the article - as did many Swedish columnists and media figures - but the Swedish Embassy's website soon deleted its condemnation. Also, Swedish Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs Frank Belfrage refused to repudiate or even criticize what Israelis consider a blood libel. He explained to the Israeli government how Sweden's freedom of speech limits the ability of the government to respond to articles in the media.

Yet here's what Sweden did in September, 2007, after the publication of a caricature of Prophet Muhammad in a Swedish newspaper: Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt apologized to representatives of Sweden's Muslim community at Stockholm's mosque and Sweden's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jan Thesleff apologized to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Israel expects a condemnation from the Swedish government, which is much less harsh than an apology. It has received neither. Do I detect the stink of sanctimonious hypocrisy?

Blood libels against Jews, which have been circulated since antiquity, have caused pogroms against the Jews in Russia, Europe and in many Islamic countries. That a story reporting IDF harvesting of organs for sale- a blood libel - fails to motivate the Swedish government to condemn it is telling.

Historically, Sweden had a militaristic history dating from the time of the Vikings to the 18th century. But from the time of the Napoleonic Wars, when its military prowess had diminished, it declared its neutrality in every European conflict. Sweden adopted an introverted, passive attitude that was aimed at nonalignment with militaristic countries. By the beginning of WWII, the attitude of neutrality was ingrained in nearly all Swedes.

Despite Sweden's claim of neutrality, transport agreements between it and Germany began in April of 1940, with Germany's invasion of Norway. Germany was allowed to transport war materiel and soldiers on Swedish railroads to and from Norway, allowing Germany to mass troops there. Sweden also permitted German military aircraft to fly across its air space; it gave German ships preferential treatment by enabling them to enter its territorial waters; it sold the Germans trucks; it supplied them with war materiel via Swedish rail. In addition, Sweden's exports of iron ore, a crucial commodity for the Nazi war machine, peaked during the war. Within Sweden, the government enforced a pro- German attitude on the media through press censorship and careful control of the entertainment industry.

Clearly, Sweden was threatened by Germany and rather than fight, it compromised its neutrality. It used Germany's threats against Sweden as an excuse for its assistance to the Nazi regime. Sweden did assist Jews in evading the Nazis, taking in Jews who were spirited out of the country by the courageous Danes. The Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg, is a hero for saving thousands of Jews from concentration camps. During the same period, however, his fabulously wealthy and influential family was profiting prodigiously by sales of war materiel to Germany. Not only that, the Wallenberg family kept its distance from their heroic relative and was curiously inactive, even counter-productive, in efforts to find Raoul, who had disappeared during the war.

Despite claiming purely humanitarian motives for helping Jews, there's little doubt that the reason the government felt it necessary to aid the Jews was to cover up what it had done to help the Germans. (Before the war, the government had immigration policies to keep Jews out.) Even after Germany was clearly losing the war and its threat against Sweden had disintegrated, the Swedes continued to lean towards the Germans and to aid their war effort. By continuing its tradition of "neutrality," Sweden escaped the destruction that combatants suffered from warfare, protected its economy, and obtained the prestigious and critical position of a nation of mediators, peacekeepers, and skilled diplomats. (see the entire article on Swedish neutrality at www.collegeprep. org.)

Sweden's Muslim population is approximately 4 percent (400,000); almost all its Muslims live in the country's three largest cities. Ever since the preparations for the partition of Palestine began after WWII, Sweden has been a huge proponent for a Palestinian state. In recent decades Sweden has become one of the largest donors per capita to the Palestinian people.

According to Gerald M. Steinberg, who heads NGO Monitor and is a professor of political science at Bar Ilan University, the recent article in "Aftonbladet" is the result of a long campaign of anti-Israeli demonization, based on manufactured "evidence" repeated by Palestinian "eyewitnesses." In a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Steinberg wrote, "Applying the strategy adopted at the NGO forum of the 2001 UN Durban conference, the wellfinanced network of radical nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) plays a major role in this demonization, and the Swedish government is a major source of funding. Expressions of modern anti-Semitism and blood libels are the logical results of this activity." NGO Monitor reports that Sweden currently finances over twenty NGOs actively supporting the Palestinian cause. These organizations characteristically accuse Israel of "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," and "apartheid," and some compare Israeli military and political officials to Nazis. These claims are based on "research" reports that routinely quote Palestinian "testimonies," taken and repeated without question. (www.jpost.com.)

One of my friends asked me, "When did the Swedes start hating us? What did we do to Sweden?" That's a hard question to answer. I wouldn't go so far as to say that all Swedes hate Israel. But the Swedish government and a significant proportion of Swedish citizens want Israel to disappear. They blame Israel for the "occupation" without regard to the Jews' 4,000 year history in the Land of Israel, without regard to the Arabs' refusal of a Palestinian state alongside of a Jewish state in 1947 (UN Partition Plan for Palestine), and without regard for the fact that the Palestinians still choose to try to replace Israel rather than build a

state next to it.

Stephen Kramer resided and worked in the Atlantic City area until 1991, when he moved to Israel with his wife, Michal Langweiler, and two sons. He can be reached at Sjk1@jhu.edu.