Jerusalem Post writes:

'In the cartoon, Olmert is likened to SS Major Amon Goeth, the infamous commandant of the Plaszow death camp outside of Krakow, Poland, who was convicted of mass murder in 1946 and hanged for his crimes.'

The New York Sun continues:

The cartoon, which caused little uproar in Norway when it was first printed, has become a hot topic of discussion after Ms. Shomrat filed a complaint with the Norwegian Press Trade Committee arguing that the cartoon exceeded the limits of free speech.

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A year or two ago, the European Central Bank wanted the Euro to fall, because it was getting too high. The EU has responded suit and thrown itself into one crisis after the other.

Cyprus is the big issue obviously, and it remains to see if 500 years of pent up enemosity can be "forgotten", for the sake of civility, and that goes for the EU as well as Turkey.

Oh well, let the debacle begin...

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Austria said on Sunday it would work in a "European spirit" to resolve its reservations about the European Union opening membership talks with Turkey on Monday as EU foreign ministers arrived for emergency talks.

EU president Britain told other member states they bore a heavy historical responsibility, warning it would be a failure for Europe if ministers were unable to launch the long-awaited negotiations with Ankara on Monday as promised.

Austria, where public opinion is 80 percent hostile to admitting the poor, populous, overwhelmingly Muslim candidate to the EU, was alone in demanding that the 25-nation bloc offer an explicit alternative to full membership.

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Aftenposten.no: Jens Stoltenberg and his new government partners, the Center Party and the Socialist Left, have a long list of issues to resolve in order to put forward a united front as a ruling government coalition. They've already agreed to disagree on whether Norway should join the European Union.

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But don't be too fooled by the first paragraph.

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Elections are upcoming in the Palestine, while they're well underway in Lebanon. A few trends are emerging, namely the politisising of Hamas and Hezbollah.

This emergence of Hezbollah and Hamas as a political force has a European counterpart, namely the IRA and Sinn Féin. I hope to shed some light on the similarities between these groups, as well as the difficulties they face.

In the case of Sinn Féin and the IRA, it's clear that they have fared badly after the peace-treaty was signed. Funding from Scotland, the USA and other sources dwindled up as peace seemed just around the corner, hurting not only the IRA, but also Sinn Féin.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are dependant on foreign funding, will they face the same consequence as Sinn Féin and the IRA?

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