By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent
An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form.
Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees.
In an interview with Haaretz Gaarder said Thursday that he was misunderstood. "As John Kennedy declared in Germany 'I am a Berliner' I say now 'I am a Jew,'" he said.
The article compares Israel's government, the Afghan Taliban regime and South African apartheid, and states, "We no longer recognize the State of Israel" and "the State of Israel in its current form is history."
"We call child murderers 'child murderers,' and will never accept that they have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages," Gaarder writes.
"Shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hezbollah or the State of Israel!"
Gaarder repeatedly refers to the role Judaism plays in Israel's territorial aspirations, writing, "We don't believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this nation's fancies and weep over its misdeeds."
He writes, "It is the State of Israel that fails to recognize, respect or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. To obtain this, there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem."
The article has triggered off thousands of comments and dozens of stormy debates in the Norwegian media. It also has sparked off a debate about Gaarder's alleged anti-Semitic tendencies and the right to criticize Israel. The Jewish journalist and music critic Mona Levin spoke out in public against Gaarder and said she was shocked by the Norwegian government's silence. She blasted the cabinet for not denouncing what she described as "the most appalling thing I've read since 'Mein Kampf.'"
"We're dealing with an ignorant man, a hate-filled man who derides Judaism," she said in an interview from Oslo. Levin said it was unacceptable that a man of such international repute (26 million copies of his book have been sold) could attack an entire ethnic group and that politicians would remain silent.
"This is a classic anti-Semitic manifesto, which cannot even disguise itself as criticism of Israel," said Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.
"The writer does not address the conflict in its contemporary context but reaches back thousands of years to assert that the Jewish people have traits of cruelty that have remained unchanged and account for the current war," she says.
Porat says that according to the European Union, denying Israel's right to exist arguing that its existence is racist is an anti-Semitic statement.
She also finds in Gaarder's text the use of classic anti-Semitic symbols, like infanticide.
"I've been head of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism for 15 years and it's not every day that I get to read such a radical document, in terms of its content and rhetoric," she said.
Gaarder writes, among other things, "We do not believe that Israel mourns 40 killed Lebanese children more than it has lamented for more than 3,000 years 40 years in the desert. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs like they once cheered the scourges of the Lord as 'fitting punishment' for the people of Egypt."
He writes that the first Zionist terrorists started operating in the days of Jesus.
Speaking to Haaretz on Tuesday, a day before he stopped talking to the media, Gaarder said he was misunderstood and emphasized that he is a friend of Israel and the Jews.
"I think what Hezbollah is doing is terrible," he said, adding that he supports Israel's right to exist as a national homeland for the Jews since 1948.
Gaarder said he does not question Israel's right to exist, "but not as an apartheid state." He said he could understand how his article could be interpreted as "anti-Jewish" and admitted that if he were to rewrite it, he would change a few things.
He is aware he has hurt the Jews in Norway, he said, adding that he would make sure the article is not translated into other languages. However, Gaarder refused to retract publicly his main theme.
Aftenposten's political editor Harald Stanghelle said he saw no problem publishing Gaarder's article.
"Of course I don't agree with what he says," he said. "But an open debate on the issue is better than a covert one.
"Gaarder's voice is important in the Norwegian discourse and it was right to publish the article," he said.
Meanwhile, the furor over Gaarder's article coincides with a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Norway, including the desecration of an Oslo Synagogue and cemeteries and the assault and battery of a skullcap-wearing youngster.
Quotes from article were taken from an unofficial translation.
The following is the speech Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, delivered on July 16, 2008, on the occasion of the release of five Lebanese prisoners from Israeli prisons.
In the name of God the merciful, I thank God, peace be upon our prophet Mohammad, peace also be upon his family, peace be upon all his friends and colleagues, peace be upon all prophets.
Distinguished guests, representatives of the three political leaders, the president parliament speaker and prime minister, former President Emil Lahoud, Distinguished guests, all religious figures, all those present, all the representatives of the diplomatic delegations, the official delegations and specially the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
My brothers the representatives of Lebanese parties, the Lebanese factions, the families of the freed detainees, my dear brothers and sisters assaloalaykom, to all of you, peace be upon you all
I welcome you all to this national wedding ceremony. Welcome to Samir, welcome Maher, welcome Khadher, welcome Hussein, and welcome Mohammed.
And I'd like also to welcome the martyrs whom we will welcome tomorrow in the same way we welcomed the live free prisoners today
Welcome to the martyrs, the Lebanese, Palestinian, and Arab martyrs. They are the privilege of this Ummah.
On the 12th of July tear 2006; a group of resistance fighters implemented an operation which led to the abduction of two Israeli soldiers. This was in order to liberate the rest of the prisoners in the Zionist prisons.
And the most important of these prisoners, the dean of the Lebanese and Arab detainees, Samir Kuntar.
On the 16 of July year 2008, Samir has come back. And before him Nasim Nisr came back, Samir has come back and with him are four brothers who fought for the sake of his liberation, some of them are alive and sitting next to him and some of them were killed and are martyrs and we shall welcome them tomorrow.
Is it a coincidence for the promise to be made to be implemented? Is it a coincidence that the dream be achieved in July in the same days or is it God's just will which controls every thing? Is it God's will that led to this celebration be in these days of July?
Concerning the timing, we can take a lot from the timing of the swap has been significant for those who look deeply into the matter. How did we reach this result? This swap in certain stages seemed impossible or very far to achieve, a very far possibility to achieve, my brothers and sisters, the biggest factor which enabled us implement this prisoner swap which we call the 'Rodvan Operation' the biggest factor is the perseverance and the victory in the face of the July 2006 assault and the failure of the enemy in achieving any of its goals and also the repercussions of this defeat for Israel, the defeat of the Israeli leadership, people, and army.
What I am trying to say is, had we been subject to Samir and his brothers, the martyrs would not have come back and Lebanon would have lost and the whole region would have lost and we would have entered the new Middle East, which the Americans and Zionists tried to promote even at the beginning when Nabih Berri, the Parliament Speaker, when he began the negotiations for the prisoner swap and when he was subject to many pressures, even during the war, and he was a partner in the stage where we were negotiating for the swap, when he was subject to all these pressures the whole world didn't want to listen to the conditions of Lebanon or to what Lebanon had to say.
The only words, which were repeated by the delegations, who visited Lebanon and repeated by the whole world was that 'you must release the two Israeli soldiers unconditionally'. The perseverance and the victory made Lebanon, made the resistance and made us all stand in a solid way, stand firmly to continue the liberation of our prisoners and our martyrs, and we must look back at those who fought in that battle, those who were on the front line, those who were martyred, those who were injured, those who challenged the enemy, those who stand on the front lines of battles.
And the first person we remember is the genius, our loved one, Hajj Imad Mugniyah who was martyred, peace be upon his soul. And we also look back and remember our people how the people of Lebanon stood courageously in a historic manner, how of course all religious sects supported Lebanon.
We also remember some of the Lebanese leaders who stood with us. We remember the perseverance of our people, those whose homes were destroyed; those who had to leave their homes; those of course who suffered a lot; those who didn't have a place for 33 days.
But they did not complain at all. They did not show any weakness. This perseverance, this victory is the main factor, the biggest factor which contributed in achieving this prisoner swap, this victory.
And the second factor is the very difficult negotiations. We got a lot of help in these negotiations; first of all, the enemy was incapable of bringing back the two soldiers without negotiating. This was very clear if you look at the results of the war. The war ended and the Israelis knew that they won't get back the soldiers except if that they get into negotiations and there is no other way to get them back, the Israelis knew that.
The second point is that the Israeli Intelligence was just unable to know where these soldier were, but was incapable of knowing what the fate of these two soldiers was. This was also some thing which helped us in the negotiations.
Now if the Israelis had known the fate of these two soldiers, if there was a malfunction in the negotiations from Hezbollah, if they knew the fate of the soldiers, the negotiations would have took us in a different direction.
The third point which is very important is the fear of the enemy. The fear that they would announce the failure of the negotiations or the negotiations would lead to a failure. The enemy feared that the failure of the negotiation would lead the Islamic Resistance to go perform another operation and abduct other Israeli soldiers.
So the pressure on the enemy was not just humanitarian pressure, there was incapability on the Israeli side to save these two soldiers and the incapability to know the fate of theses soldiers. The Israelis also feared that the resistance would kidnap or abduct other Israeli soldiers.
So the resistance was forced to abduct more soldiers to free Samir and the other prisoners it would have done so, it would have abducted more Israeli soldiers.
So this was very clear in the discussions held between the Israelis themselves, and during the cabinet meting by Israel they spoke about this now when the majority of the Israeli cabinet voted on this prisoner swap, the Israelis sought to speak about this issue and they disrupted the chance of liberating Samir and Nasim and Yahya in 2004, They missed the chance to liberate them in 2004 at that time because of the political challenge at that time between Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.
And we told them you didn't liberate Samir Kuntar and you will regret this. This is what we said in 2004. The Israelis knew if the prisoner swap did not happen then we would go to another plan which I don't think Israel is ready for.
I'd like add to theses factors a fourth one which is the perseverance of Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar stood firm. He did not back down from his positions in his letters. He always wrote his position in his letters from prison and he did not put pressure on us during the negotiations. He did not say hurry up with the negotiations, so that I could be liberated. He gave us time, so that we could achieve the best possible result for the other detainees.
In addition to this the other main point is the perseverance of the other detainees, the fighters. We looked at them on the television screens in the Israeli courts and I'd like to tell these fighters I listened to what you said. The last time I heard you when one of you was asked a question and answered. When they asked you if some one orders you to fight once again, would you fight once again? And then one of the fighters answered if we see some one would go into the sea we would go with him even without him requesting.
These words put tears in my eyes, tears of love for these detainees who did not fear the prison.
In addition to these, the families of the detainees and the martyrs, the honorable families who put their trust in us, who had confidence in us. These families helped and contributed so that we could go in the positive direction, to reach the best possible results.
Source
An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form.
Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees.
In an interview with Haaretz Gaarder said Thursday that he was misunderstood. "As John Kennedy declared in Germany 'I am a Berliner' I say now 'I am a Jew,'" he said.
The article compares Israel's government, the Afghan Taliban regime and South African apartheid, and states, "We no longer recognize the State of Israel" and "the State of Israel in its current form is history."
"We call child murderers 'child murderers,' and will never accept that they have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages," Gaarder writes.
"Shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hezbollah or the State of Israel!"
Gaarder repeatedly refers to the role Judaism plays in Israel's territorial aspirations, writing, "We don't believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this nation's fancies and weep over its misdeeds."
He writes, "It is the State of Israel that fails to recognize, respect or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. To obtain this, there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem."
The article has triggered off thousands of comments and dozens of stormy debates in the Norwegian media. It also has sparked off a debate about Gaarder's alleged anti-Semitic tendencies and the right to criticize Israel. The Jewish journalist and music critic Mona Levin spoke out in public against Gaarder and said she was shocked by the Norwegian government's silence. She blasted the cabinet for not denouncing what she described as "the most appalling thing I've read since 'Mein Kampf.'"
"We're dealing with an ignorant man, a hate-filled man who derides Judaism," she said in an interview from Oslo. Levin said it was unacceptable that a man of such international repute (26 million copies of his book have been sold) could attack an entire ethnic group and that politicians would remain silent.
"This is a classic anti-Semitic manifesto, which cannot even disguise itself as criticism of Israel," said Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.
"The writer does not address the conflict in its contemporary context but reaches back thousands of years to assert that the Jewish people have traits of cruelty that have remained unchanged and account for the current war," she says.
Porat says that according to the European Union, denying Israel's right to exist arguing that its existence is racist is an anti-Semitic statement.
She also finds in Gaarder's text the use of classic anti-Semitic symbols, like infanticide.
"I've been head of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism for 15 years and it's not every day that I get to read such a radical document, in terms of its content and rhetoric," she said.
Gaarder writes, among other things, "We do not believe that Israel mourns 40 killed Lebanese children more than it has lamented for more than 3,000 years 40 years in the desert. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs like they once cheered the scourges of the Lord as 'fitting punishment' for the people of Egypt."
He writes that the first Zionist terrorists started operating in the days of Jesus.
Speaking to Haaretz on Tuesday, a day before he stopped talking to the media, Gaarder said he was misunderstood and emphasized that he is a friend of Israel and the Jews.
"I think what Hezbollah is doing is terrible," he said, adding that he supports Israel's right to exist as a national homeland for the Jews since 1948.
Gaarder said he does not question Israel's right to exist, "but not as an apartheid state." He said he could understand how his article could be interpreted as "anti-Jewish" and admitted that if he were to rewrite it, he would change a few things.
He is aware he has hurt the Jews in Norway, he said, adding that he would make sure the article is not translated into other languages. However, Gaarder refused to retract publicly his main theme.
Aftenposten's political editor Harald Stanghelle said he saw no problem publishing Gaarder's article.
"Of course I don't agree with what he says," he said. "But an open debate on the issue is better than a covert one.
"Gaarder's voice is important in the Norwegian discourse and it was right to publish the article," he said.
Meanwhile, the furor over Gaarder's article coincides with a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Norway, including the desecration of an Oslo Synagogue and cemeteries and the assault and battery of a skullcap-wearing youngster.
Quotes from article were taken from an unofficial translation.
The following is the speech Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, delivered on July 16, 2008, on the occasion of the release of five Lebanese prisoners from Israeli prisons.
In the name of God the merciful, I thank God, peace be upon our prophet Mohammad, peace also be upon his family, peace be upon all his friends and colleagues, peace be upon all prophets.
Distinguished guests, representatives of the three political leaders, the president parliament speaker and prime minister, former President Emil Lahoud, Distinguished guests, all religious figures, all those present, all the representatives of the diplomatic delegations, the official delegations and specially the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
My brothers the representatives of Lebanese parties, the Lebanese factions, the families of the freed detainees, my dear brothers and sisters assaloalaykom, to all of you, peace be upon you all
I welcome you all to this national wedding ceremony. Welcome to Samir, welcome Maher, welcome Khadher, welcome Hussein, and welcome Mohammed.
And I'd like also to welcome the martyrs whom we will welcome tomorrow in the same way we welcomed the live free prisoners today
Welcome to the martyrs, the Lebanese, Palestinian, and Arab martyrs. They are the privilege of this Ummah.
On the 12th of July tear 2006; a group of resistance fighters implemented an operation which led to the abduction of two Israeli soldiers. This was in order to liberate the rest of the prisoners in the Zionist prisons.
And the most important of these prisoners, the dean of the Lebanese and Arab detainees, Samir Kuntar.
On the 16 of July year 2008, Samir has come back. And before him Nasim Nisr came back, Samir has come back and with him are four brothers who fought for the sake of his liberation, some of them are alive and sitting next to him and some of them were killed and are martyrs and we shall welcome them tomorrow.
Is it a coincidence for the promise to be made to be implemented? Is it a coincidence that the dream be achieved in July in the same days or is it God's just will which controls every thing? Is it God's will that led to this celebration be in these days of July?
Concerning the timing, we can take a lot from the timing of the swap has been significant for those who look deeply into the matter. How did we reach this result? This swap in certain stages seemed impossible or very far to achieve, a very far possibility to achieve, my brothers and sisters, the biggest factor which enabled us implement this prisoner swap which we call the 'Rodvan Operation' the biggest factor is the perseverance and the victory in the face of the July 2006 assault and the failure of the enemy in achieving any of its goals and also the repercussions of this defeat for Israel, the defeat of the Israeli leadership, people, and army.
What I am trying to say is, had we been subject to Samir and his brothers, the martyrs would not have come back and Lebanon would have lost and the whole region would have lost and we would have entered the new Middle East, which the Americans and Zionists tried to promote even at the beginning when Nabih Berri, the Parliament Speaker, when he began the negotiations for the prisoner swap and when he was subject to many pressures, even during the war, and he was a partner in the stage where we were negotiating for the swap, when he was subject to all these pressures the whole world didn't want to listen to the conditions of Lebanon or to what Lebanon had to say.
The only words, which were repeated by the delegations, who visited Lebanon and repeated by the whole world was that 'you must release the two Israeli soldiers unconditionally'. The perseverance and the victory made Lebanon, made the resistance and made us all stand in a solid way, stand firmly to continue the liberation of our prisoners and our martyrs, and we must look back at those who fought in that battle, those who were on the front line, those who were martyred, those who were injured, those who challenged the enemy, those who stand on the front lines of battles.
And the first person we remember is the genius, our loved one, Hajj Imad Mugniyah who was martyred, peace be upon his soul. And we also look back and remember our people how the people of Lebanon stood courageously in a historic manner, how of course all religious sects supported Lebanon.
We also remember some of the Lebanese leaders who stood with us. We remember the perseverance of our people, those whose homes were destroyed; those who had to leave their homes; those of course who suffered a lot; those who didn't have a place for 33 days.
But they did not complain at all. They did not show any weakness. This perseverance, this victory is the main factor, the biggest factor which contributed in achieving this prisoner swap, this victory.
And the second factor is the very difficult negotiations. We got a lot of help in these negotiations; first of all, the enemy was incapable of bringing back the two soldiers without negotiating. This was very clear if you look at the results of the war. The war ended and the Israelis knew that they won't get back the soldiers except if that they get into negotiations and there is no other way to get them back, the Israelis knew that.
The second point is that the Israeli Intelligence was just unable to know where these soldier were, but was incapable of knowing what the fate of these two soldiers was. This was also some thing which helped us in the negotiations.
Now if the Israelis had known the fate of these two soldiers, if there was a malfunction in the negotiations from Hezbollah, if they knew the fate of the soldiers, the negotiations would have took us in a different direction.
The third point which is very important is the fear of the enemy. The fear that they would announce the failure of the negotiations or the negotiations would lead to a failure. The enemy feared that the failure of the negotiation would lead the Islamic Resistance to go perform another operation and abduct other Israeli soldiers.
So the pressure on the enemy was not just humanitarian pressure, there was incapability on the Israeli side to save these two soldiers and the incapability to know the fate of theses soldiers. The Israelis also feared that the resistance would kidnap or abduct other Israeli soldiers.
So the resistance was forced to abduct more soldiers to free Samir and the other prisoners it would have done so, it would have abducted more Israeli soldiers.
So this was very clear in the discussions held between the Israelis themselves, and during the cabinet meting by Israel they spoke about this now when the majority of the Israeli cabinet voted on this prisoner swap, the Israelis sought to speak about this issue and they disrupted the chance of liberating Samir and Nasim and Yahya in 2004, They missed the chance to liberate them in 2004 at that time because of the political challenge at that time between Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.
And we told them you didn't liberate Samir Kuntar and you will regret this. This is what we said in 2004. The Israelis knew if the prisoner swap did not happen then we would go to another plan which I don't think Israel is ready for.
I'd like add to theses factors a fourth one which is the perseverance of Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar stood firm. He did not back down from his positions in his letters. He always wrote his position in his letters from prison and he did not put pressure on us during the negotiations. He did not say hurry up with the negotiations, so that I could be liberated. He gave us time, so that we could achieve the best possible result for the other detainees.
In addition to this the other main point is the perseverance of the other detainees, the fighters. We looked at them on the television screens in the Israeli courts and I'd like to tell these fighters I listened to what you said. The last time I heard you when one of you was asked a question and answered. When they asked you if some one orders you to fight once again, would you fight once again? And then one of the fighters answered if we see some one would go into the sea we would go with him even without him requesting.
These words put tears in my eyes, tears of love for these detainees who did not fear the prison.
In addition to these, the families of the detainees and the martyrs, the honorable families who put their trust in us, who had confidence in us. These families helped and contributed so that we could go in the positive direction, to reach the best possible results.
Source
