http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/8/5/122335/1324 
      
      Jostein Gaarder, the author of the global literary phenomenon Sophie's
      World (printed in 26m copies in 53 languages), launches a scorching
      attack on Israel in Aftenposten, Norway's paper of record. Gaarder, a
      historian of ideas, describes himself as a friend of the Jewish people
      but doubts whether Israel truly is the same. Suffice it to say that this
      will not appear in the New York Times anytime soon. 
      
      The form of Gaarder's condemnation is inspired by Amos, the first Judaic
      prophet whose message is preserved in scroll (ca. 750 B.C.). Quoting
      Wikipedia: "The central idea of the book of Amos according to most
      scholars is that Yahweh puts his people on the same level as the nations
      that surround it -- Yahweh expects the same morality of them all." 

God's chosen people 

Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten 05.08.06 

From the Norwegian by Sirocco 

There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no
longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South
African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban
regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq
or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The
state of Israel in its current form is history. 

We do not believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this
people's fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God's chosen
people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We
call it racism. 

Limits to tolerance 

There are limits to our patience, and there are limits to our tolerance.
We do not believe in divine promises as justification for occupation and
apartheid. We have left the Middle Ages behind. We laugh uneasily at
those who still believe that the God of flora, fauna, and galaxies has
selected one people in particular as his favorite and given it funny
stone tablets, burning bushes, and a license to kill. 

We call child murderers 'child murderers' and will never accept that
such have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages. We say
but this: Shame on all apartheid, shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on
every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas,
Hizballah, or the state of Israel! 

Unscrupulous art of war 

We acknowledge and pay heed to Europe's deep responsibility for the
plight of the Jews, for the disgraceful harassment, the pogroms, and the
Holocaust. It was historically and morally necessary for Jews to get
their own home. However, the state of Israel, with its unscrupulous art
of war and its disgusting weapons, has massacred its own legitimacy. It
has systematically flaunted International Law, international
conventions, and countless UN resolutions, and it can no longer expect
protection from same. It has carpet bombed the recognition of the world.
But fear not! The time of trouble shall soon be over. The state of
Israel has seen its Soweto. 

We are now at the watershed. There is no turning back. The state of
Israel has raped the recognition of the world and shall have no peace
until it lays down its arms. 

Without defense, without skin 

May spirit and word sweep away the apartheid walls of Israel. The state
of Israel does not exist. It is now without defense, without skin. May
the world therefore have mercy on the civilian population. For it is not
civilian individuals at whom our doomsaying is directed. 

We wish the people of Israel well, nothing but well, but we reserve the
right not to eat Jaffa oranges as long as they taste foul and are
poisonous. It was endurable to live some years without the blue grapes
of apartheid. 

They celebrate their triumphs 

We do not believe that Israel mourns forty killed Lebanese children more
than it for over three thousand years has lamented forty 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. (In that tale, the Lord, God of Israel, appears as an
insatiable sadist.) We query whether most Israelis think that one
Israeli life is worth more than forty Palestinian or Lebanese lives. 

For we have seen pictures of little Israeli girls writing hateful
greetings on the bombs to be dropped on the civilian population of
Lebanon and Palestine. Little Israeli girls are not cute when they strut
with glee at death and torment across the fronts. 

The retribution of blood vengeance 

We do not recognize the rhetoric of the state of Israel. We do not
recognize the spiral of retribution of the blood vengeance with "an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." We do not recognize the principle
of one or a thousand Arab eyes for one Israeli eye. We do not recognize
collective punishment or population-wide diets as political weapons. Two
thousand years have passed since a Jewish rabbi criticized the ancient
doctrine of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." 

He said: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." We do not
recognize a state founded on antihumanistic principles and on the ruins
of an archaic national and war religion. Or as Albert Schweitzer
expressed it: "Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human
being to a purpose." 

Compassion and forgiveness 

We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st
century map of the Middle East. The Jewish rabbi claimed two thousand
years ago that the Kingdom of God is not a martial restoration of the
Kingdom of David, but that the Kingdom of God is within us and among us.
The Kingdom of God is compassion and forgiveness. 

Two thousand years have passed since the Jewish rabbi disarmed and
humanized the old rhetoric of war. Even in his time, the first Zionist
terrorists were operating. 

Israel does not listen 

For two thousand years, we have rehearsed the syllabus of humanism, but
Israel does not listen. It was not the Pharisee that helped the man who
lay by the wayside, having fallen prey to robbers. It was a Samaritan;
today we would say, a Palestinian. For we are human first of all -- then
Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Or as the Jewish rabbi said: "And if you
greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?" We do not
accept the abduction of soldiers. But nor do we accept the deportation
of whole populations or the abduction of legally elected
parliamentarians and government ministers. 

We recognize the state of Israel of 1948, but not the one of 1967. 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
Palestinians have so many other countries, certain Israeli politicians
have argued; we have only one. 

The USA or the world? 

Or as the highest protector of the state of Israel puts it: "May God
continue to bless America." A little child took note of that. She turned
to her mother, saying: "Why does the President always end his speeches
with 'God bless America'? Why not, 'God bless the world'?" 

Then there was a Norwegian poet who let out this childlike sigh of the
heart: "Why doth Humanity so slowly progress?" It was he that wrote so
beautifully of the Jew and the Jewess. But he rejected the notion of
God's chosen people. He personally liked to call himself a Muhammedan. 

Calm and mercy 

We do not recognize the state of Israel. Not today, not as of this
writing, not in the hour of grief and wrath. If the entire Israeli
nation should fall to its own devices and parts of the population have
to flee the occupied areas into another diaspora, then we say: May the
surroundings stay calm and show them mercy. It is forever a crime
without mitigation to lay hand on refugees and stateless people. 

Peace and free passage for the evacuating civilian population no longer
protected by a state. Fire not at the fugitives! Take not aim at them!
They are vulnerable now like snails without shells, vulnerable like slow
caravans of Palestinian and Lebanese refugees, defenseless like women
and children and the old in Qana, Gaza, Sabra, and Chatilla. Give the
Israeli refugees shelter, give them milk and honey! 

Let not one Israeli child be deprived of life. Far too many children and
civilians have already been murdered. 
      
      From (Sirocco) my blog. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------      
      Also available there: 
      
      A partial analysis of the controversial essay, refuting some bad
      interpretations. 
      
      A comment on the letter to the Norwegian people from Shimon Samuels at
      the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 
      
      I wrote out of disgust for the war 
      
      http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1415414.ece 

Jostein Gaarder sticks to the intentions behind his controversial
critique of Israel's conduct in recent fighting in Lebanon, but admits
that the approach chosen was 'problematic'. 

"I must admit that the reactions have been stronger than I expected. But
now it is over for my part. Starting today I have no intention of
further comment on this matter," Gaarder told Aftenposten. 

"Now it can run its course without my participation. But I hope that in
a month or a year I can think back and not regret what I have done. I
don't regret it today at least," Gaarder said. 

The reactions to Gaarder's editorial "God's chosen people", published on
Saturday, have been ferocious. The author of the bestselling "Sophie's
World" has been accused of being anti-Semitic, muddled, ignorant and
mixing an ill assortment of themes. He now admits that he would have
chosen a different form for trying to make his point if he were to do it
again. 

"I said in advance that my greatest fear was to offend Jews and when I
now see that I have done this I have to ask myself what could have been
done differently. First and foremost I would have tried to differentiate
more clearly between religion and how religion is used politically and
rhetorically in Israel," Gaarder said. 

"Also, I think it is sad that the debate has turned away from my
intention, namely to confront the war Israel is waging... but I must
also point out that I have received hundreds of encouraging and
supportive mails and messages, much more than would have thought from
the debate in newspapers and other media. The support also concerns the
style of the article." 

Form and content 

Gaarder is asked if he could expect to urge reconciliation from Israel
while writing in the manner of biblical prophecy, and if he should not
have given greater thought to the consequences of his article and the
mood of anger that inspired it. 

"Perhaps. It is a bit early to say. Let us see how the debate develops.
I see that the rhetorical devices chosen were debatable. On the other
hand, I am a writer. The piece is written in literary style, formed as a
prophecy. And I am absolutely not about to retreat from the content,
despite the clarifications I have now given you. I have long thought of
confronting Israel and the abuse of religion for political ends taking
place in Israel itself. I drafted this with several Middle East experts
before I published it. Many Israelis have messianic ideas about their
nation and the war being waged. They believe the land is given them by
God. This is naive and dangerous. I believe we must confront this type
of thinking - no matter where we find it. 'God bless America' says
President George W. Bush. Why can't he say 'God bless the world'?",
Gaarder said. 

Worries 

Gaarder said that calls like those of Professor Helge Høibraaten, who
wrote that he should 'shut his face', only remind him of those who ask
for an author's books to be burned. Gaarder confirms that he has been
frightened by the reactions. 

"It is correct that I have started to look over my shoulder when I walk
down the street. Not that I have any objective reason to do so, it could
well be just that I am just a bit crazy. And I have no fear at all of
being attacked by Norwegian Jews. They are very peaceful people,"
Gaarder said. 

'Laughable obsessions' 

Gaarder is asked about the passage "we laugh at this people's
obsessions", one of the article's flashpoints. 

"...We must ask: Is it so that we can discuss some religions and not
others? Some aspects of a religion and not others? It must be possible
to put forth religious criticism in the public sphere. We have
traditions for this in Norway. Arnulf Øverland wrote "Christianity - the
tenth plague" in the 1930s and was accused of blasphemy. This is over
and done with," Gaarder said, and goes on to stress the importance of
using freedom of speech, and that it must be possible to have such
discussions without being branded an anti-Semite. 

"I have said it countless times and I can repeat it again: I am a
humanist, not an anti-Semite. Both the Jewish and Greek traditions of
thought are part of the foundation on which I stand. My article was
written from disgust for the war, and the assault of the Israeli war
machine ... and I also condemn Hezbollah's missiles over Israel, to make
that clear," Gaarder said. 

Mohammed caricatures 

Gaarder paused when asked if he would have published the caricatures of
the prophet Mohammed that set off violent reactions in the Muslim world
last winter. 

"I have seen the drawings and didn't like them. I have seen caricatures
of Jesus, too, and don't like that either. So if I had been the editor I
would not have printed the Mohammed drawings. Of course I don't mean
that it should be forbidden, but that I personally would not have done
it," Gaarder said. 

"It has to do with giving offense. This is not the type of religious
criticism I want. I don't want to offend people. That is also why I say
that the only thing that I am truly sorry about my article is that it
has been hurtful."