The NATO issue has once again become highly topical after the deteriorating security situation in Europe and the Swedish debate has centered on the adoption of a NATO option. The Church Board's investigation of Israel and the crisis in Bosnia has also been the subject of last week's debate.
Russia's approximately 100 soldiers along Ukraine's border and demands for a Russian sphere of interest similar to that during the Soviet heyday have created a continuing debate about Sweden's future security and foreign policy. The NATO issue and whether a NATO option should be adopted has received particular fire in the lighthouse. There are divided opinions about whether it is to maintain a predictable security policy line or whether it is opportunities for influence at the NATO table that should be valued the most. Ultimately, it is a matter for both sides to send clear signals to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sweden's Minister of Defense Peter Hultqvist (S) argues on behalf of the government that it is to sit quietly in the boat that applies, but criticism has been raised against his statements - which have been called ambiguous and uncertain. A concrete membership is the clearer line available than Sweden's uncertain limbo relations with NATO, urges the chairmen of CUF, MUF, KDU and LUF in a debate article in Expressen.
Something that has aroused debate elsewhere is the decision made at the church meeting in late autumn, which concerns the so-called apartheid motion. It means that the church board is tasked with examining the international law situation in Israel and Palestine on the basis of, above all, the UN apartheid convention and the writings of the Rome Statute on apartheid. But the decision has been criticized.
— The apartheid motion, and a number of other initiatives from the church in history and the present, have expressed anti-Semitic content of thought, writes priest and theology doctor Annika Borg, in Dagens Nyheter.
Annika Borg's debate article has created discussion and some who oppose it are the authors Stefano Focconi and Tomas Andersson. They say she is wrong to equate being anti-Semitic and criticizing the Israeli state and its state-supporting ideology of Zionism.
- The term anti-Semitism must not be used to scare people into silence, they write Dagens Nyheter.
The alarming situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has also sparked debate over the West's preventive intervention in the country. Sweden and the EU should take the situation seriously and prevent a war from breaking out in the country once again, write Umihana Rasovic Kasumovic and Admir Lisica in Sydsvenskan. On the contrary, Jonas Paulsson says in Dagens Nyheter that Bosnia should set its own path without Western support. The ultimate consequence of the presence of the foreign troops was the genocide in Srebrenica, Jonas Paulsson writes the debate article.
Russia and the NATO issue
Without NATO membership, Sweden's security is at risk
Federation chairman Rèka Tolnai (CUF), Matilda Ekblad (MUF), Nike Örbrink (KDU) and Romina Pourmokhtari (LUF), Expressen
Israel's investigation into apartheid
Criticism of Israel does not have to be anti-Semitism
Tomas Andersson and Stefano Foconi, Dagens Nyheter
The Church's activism against Israel must end
Annika Borg, Dagens Nyheter
The troubled situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
If the outside world does not act, there is a risk of a new war in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Umihana Rasovic Kasumovic and Admir Lisica, Sydsvenskan
Bosnia should seek independence without Western support
Jonas Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter
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