What does it mean to be a traitor?

"The novel takes place at the end of the fifties. It is a plea for an ideological debate to set the world in motion. There are many contested things in this novel that the Israelis did not like. There is a new vision of the relationship between Jews and Christians. Also a new perspective on anti-Semitism. And a new unconventional perspective on Israelis, Palestinians and the creation of Israel.

Judah is a common Hebrew name like Marko or Janko. My father's name was Judah, my son's name is Judah. In other languages ​​"Judas" is a very provocative name, in Europe it means "traitor", in any Christian dictionary it is a synonym of "traitor". If you call someone a Jew, it's like spitting in their face.

There is also a revolutionary thought in the novel: what does it mean to be a traitor? What does it mean to be faithful? What is a traitor? What makes a traitor a traitor? Where is the line between betrayal and loyalty? And the question: who is the traitor?

I have been interested in the word traitor since I was a child. I have been called a "traitor" since childhood. The first time I was nine years old. I had a friend, the British adjutant in Palestine. The children called me a traitor, and so did the adults. And so to this day, because people don't like my ideas about Israel and Palestine.

The word "traitor" in many cases is a name that honors the wearer. In this regard, I am also in the high company of great writers from the history of literature, great politicians in history - the greatest, a large part of their people called them "traitors". I am in the company of prophets Jeremiah, Abraham Lincoln, Rabin, Sadat, Thomas Mann, Solzhenitsyn... There were several cases when people were called traitors, because they were ahead of their time. Asch writes that sometimes the traitor is the one who changes those who do not change, who hate or fear change. That qualification is an honor for me.

The story of Judas - (Judas who is not a traitor, nor a perfidious criminal, which has always been attributed to him) is something that particularly interests me. It's a story about thirty dinars and the most famous kiss in history. That story has haunted me since I was sixteen. I checked how much money that would be today and it turned out to be around 600 euros. It is not small, but Judas, according to the Gospel, was not a poor fisherman in Galilee, but a rich one: he had land, servants, farms, cattle. And why would he sell his God for 600 euros? And if he sold it, why did he go and hang himself? I don't believe that at all. Why would he take a coin to mark and show Christ with a kiss when all Jerusalem knew him? When they came to arrest him, Christ did not run away. Who needed that kiss and those thirty dinars? It's an absurd story. And it has been going on for more than two thousand years. And millions of Jews died because of that story. Because we are the ones who killed God. We have money, we sell anything for money. According to Ash, Judas believed in Christ more than he believed in himself. Judas influenced Christ to go to Jerusalem to be crucified: "You will come down from the cross alive and then the kingdom of heaven will begin. That will be redemption. It will be the last miracle after which there will be no more miracles." Christ did not want to, he was afraid to go to Jerusalem. Judas saw that Christ wanted to come down from the cross, but he did not succeed and he then went to hang himself. When Judas went to hang himself, Asch writes: "Thus died the first Christian, the last and the only one."

The Jews paid a lot for that story: inquisitions, pogroms, persecutions, shoah... That story is the Chernobyl of European anti-Semitism. If we look at painting - at Secret dinner The Jew is a caricature with a long nose, rotten teeth... He is already there in the Renaissance.

When that book appeared in our country, it caused a real electric shock. They said it was an anti-Zionist manifesto, desacralization, desecration. Of course, that is not a manifesto. That's one story. One should not read novels as if they were manifestos. When the West and Christendom discovered this, it was shocked. It's like getting a high-voltage electric shock when you read this: "Thus died the first Christian, so was also the last Christian, the only Christian."

An electric shock that makes me happy. I think it's really well deserved, maybe it will tone down that Chernobyl of anti-Semitism a bit. I hope that this book will disrupt and displace anti-Semitic clichés.

What can change people is other people. It can be love, fear, it can be a lot of pressure or a lack of security. Also, great ambition. Any change that happens comes from comparison or conflict with someone else.

I know it is difficult to be a prophet in the land of prophets, as the competition is high, but I have seen with my own eyes how people have changed. If someone had told me that De Gaulle would get France out of Algeria, I would not have believed him, that Churchill would tear the British Empire to pieces, or that Begin would return all of Sinai to Egypt, that Sharon would send his bulldozers to demolish his colonies, I would never have believed it. . Now that can't surprise anyone.

I'm all for compromise, always. Compromise is life, because where there is no compromise there is fanaticism. The inability to imagine the other is the source of all unhappiness. Compromise is not capitulation, but an attempt to meet the other side halfway. I believe in trying to get under the skin of another. Imagine yourself in that other person's place. Not to give up on yourself. Not to show your cheek, as Jesus suggests. Rather, simply ask a good question. I've been asking myself that question all my life. I think it's a question of morality. If Israel does something bad, something bad, I don't sleep at night.

I do not agree with the idea that there is a conflict between the Orient and the West. No no. There is a conflict between fanaticism and the rest of the world. In Paris, there are anti-Muslim fanatics, communist fanatics, feminist fanatics... They are not all equally dangerous. They are all driven by one idea. It is usually a very short idea in a few words. If we are to fight against fanaticism, it should be done with measure and with an attractive idea at the same time.

The closer we are, the more we talk.

To have no dreams is to die. I believe in small dreams. I am against monumental dreams. I am for the love of three, five, ten people. I don't believe in universal love. It is impossible. It's not worth the effort. Love is not always a tender feeling. Love is a very rare commodity. I'm in favor of a fix. I don't believe we can be born again. I have a reputation as a dangerous extremist. I was never radical. I am an evolutionist. I am a man of compromise. I've been with the same woman for over fifty years and I know what that word means."