Posted on 08/20/2006 8:18:17 AM PDT by white trash redneck
OSLO/PARIS (EJP)--- The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations has said that 70 percent of the respondents to an open letter criticising a Norwegian author for his outspoken views on Israel have expressed support for the SWC’s efforts.
Dr. Shimon Samuel said he received hundreds of messages of support after he wrote an "Open Letter to Norway" to protest an article by Jostein Gaarder, entitled "God’s Chosen People"
Gaarder’s article, published in the Oslo-based Aftenposten newspaper, questioned Israel’s right to exist, claiming the war against Lebanese group Hezbollah
In his analysis of the Middle East crisis, the 54-year-old author of the worldwide bestseller “Sophie’s World”, wrote: “We no longer recognise the State of Israel’s right of existence,” Gaarder wrote.
“Israel has massacred its own legitimacy through its unscrupulous warmongering and use of offensive weaponry,” he continued.
The article compared Israel’s government, the Afghan Taliban regime and South African apartheid.
Hundreds of replies
In a letter to the editor of Aftenposten, Samuels said "so far, our Letter has received over 700 replies. 446, or two out of three, decry the positions of Gaarder.”
However, Samuels also noted that he had received a number of anti-Semitic responses.
He said that of the negative third, “42 are almost word for word copies pointing to a form-letter campaign of manipulation. Others are unrepeatable racist obscenity."
The letter noted that "Jostein Gaarder’s feeble attempt at an apology in your edition of 12 August, for the offence he had caused, only sinks him further into the mire of Judeophobia - despite its camouflage in Biblical language. It is certainly an inadequate response to our Centre’s ’Open Letter to Norway’."
Samuel’s apologises
Nevertheless, Samuels enunciated his own apology: "My ’Open Letter’ to you stated that ’Jostein Gaarder ... has become seriously ill, either with malice or, perhaps, Alzheimer, or both.’"
He explained that "this letter had been dictated by mobile telephone from the underground bunker of a handicapped youth village kibbutz in the Galilee, under rocket bombardment by Hizbollah. Over the static, my word ’amnesia’ was misheard by my office as ’Alzheimer’. My sincerest apologies are due to all Alzheimer patients and to their families."
The letter noted that "ironically, ’Kishorit’ village, where my family is currently volunteering, is a joint Jewish and Arab facility, illustrating the reality that the learning disabled, generally, bear no prejudice.
They are too busy supporting each other in the face of the outside world’s indifference."
Samuels also pointed out that "Kishorit raises mini-Schnauzer dogs, known for their value in pet therapy treatment, especially in eliciting affectivity from autists and Alzheimer patients."
Samuels concluded that he viewed "the 446 supportive responses to our ’Open Letter’ as Norway’s caucus of integrity, and we welcome those respondents as a new Norwegian constituency into the world-wide membership of our 440,000 strong Simon Wiesenthal Centre... Mr Editor, our ’Open Letter to the People of Norway’ has truly been vindicated."
In his analysis of the Middle East crisis, the 54-year-old author of the worldwide bestseller “Sophie’s World”, wrote: “We no longer recognise the State of Israel’s right of existence,” Gaarder wrote.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maybe he's a distant or not so distant relative of IMADAMNUTJOB
Yep.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
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