To mark Israel's book week, Haaretz invited quite an impressive selection of writers to participate in a Haaretz Authors' Edition. Some solid contributions, especially in light (or shadow) of recent events -- but, while I admire Milan Kundera's writing, I am shocked that he'd waste the space and opportunity making a plea to ... Free Roman Polanski !
Kundera yammers:
I can envisage him forcibly confined and continually monitored in a Swiss chalet where he is trying to work but -- as I well know -- is unable to.
Why express concern about, say, those in Gaza, or Gilad Shalit and his family when it's kid-rapist Polanski that's really suffering (stuck in a Swiss chalet, the poor guy ... those surely can't compare to the comforts of those Gazan ... chalets ...) and should be getting our sympathy ?The injustice of it all !

For additional -- and more sensible -- literary commentary on the Gaza flotilla-disaster, see also Amos Oz's op-ed in The New York Times, Israeli Force, Adrift on the Sea.


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