What a brave, wonderful statement. Cheers, from the "egg" people, everywhere. And congratulations!

If we walks around the settlements too much saying that stuff he is going to get "Rabin"ed. The walls are numerous in Israel, and ever expanding. Not a good place to be an egg.

The title and lead in to this article needs to be repackaged.

Murakami is making a clear statement for revolution. He speaks in the voice of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. With cataclysmic calm he calls for radical change in our consciousness and thus in our thinking. Our substance, our souls demand it.

Murakami in his sparse yet complex words proves his genius and reveals his soul once again. His insight to what makes a novelist (a great one) is profound as well.

An egg against a wall. It is that simple.

I too stand on the side of the egg. It is the human condition.

Worth reprinting. Thanks.

You, Haruki Marakami, embody what it means to be an artist. You remind us all that the political is but a thin layer above the humanity we find we share when we are courageous enough to seek out the heart of "the other."

Thank you.

It's a good thing he isn't an American author, otherwise he would never get a book deal again. The Zionist's don't control the media in East Asia - yet. So we still have a chance of truth being spoke to power by those in the mainstream.

...because the wall is indeed high, and soulless, and cold. Pity that the egg is also rotten.

Murakami makes some beautiful points. But the question I ask: did not the so-called eggs have something to do with constructing the so-called System?

I believe an equally important - equally "Buddhist" if you like - question to ask is where the System Murakami fights against, came from? If you believe you are a shining soul fighting against The Man, so to speak, then how far has any individual come in taking responsiblity for their own actions, how far has the human race come in acknowledging that every egg, every soul, contains both dark and light and that we have a choice in what we manifest?

Excuse the rant but Murakami's explanation made me feel equally delighted and angry in a nationless way (I hope!).

If writers are to decline awards from Israel shouldn't they equally decline the Nobel prize, financed by the weapons trade? or the Pulitzer prize which is supported by a country which invaded another under false pretenses? or the French Legion of Honor from the butchers in Algiers, the sinkers of an environmentalist ship and banlieu racists?

We make the System, we can change the system, however slowly, only by assuming personal responsibility. Murakami-san's comments strike right to the core of engaged Buddhist practice. Whether the issue is continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinians or U.S. aggression against Iraq and Afganistan or the merchants of death that profit from both, we begin to change the system only by accepting some degree of responsibility and acting accordingly. We can be the egg or we can be the wall; there is no in-between.

While I support the current boycott of all things Israeli until a formal cease-fire is reached and the Palestinians are guaranteed humane goods and services (and international boundaries respected), I'm glad Muakami-san went to Jerusalem and said what he said. He speaks for all of us who believe in finding a nonviolent solution.

The problem isn't that the Israelis are a wall, the problem is that one breed of bird has said they will not allow any other breed to rule any patch of land in their midst, that their bird god will not permit it. Meanwhile, the same breed is killing hundreds of thousands of another breed of bird -- the blackbird -- and couldn't care less about that scramble.

I wonder if you went and witnessed the terrorist attacks and damages that were caused by the terrorist rogue state of israel. Or did they not allow you to go see what they did. I bet they took you to the towns that had Palestinian rockets fired at them, so you can feel sorry for israel. One other question, did you ask them why they attacked women and children and destroy homes.

And even more so now. Fantastic.

The agitated and devoted racists and antisemites among you are the first ones to demand you allow THEM to decide whether they're the ones being antisemites or not. Your Esteemed Leader Greenwald is doing this right now. Jews are bad, Jews are evil - but if you dare question that bigotry either you're deleted or his minions jump ugly telling you you're a racist, for even criticizing racists.

And, other than inviting a shrieking chimp pile of the usual far left and far right bigots and hatemongers here, what's really the point of Salon printing this? Clearly you've all intentionally misread Murakimi on this as an excuse to vent your typically retarded antisemitic agitprop.

The Jerusalem prize has been awarded to a wide and diverse array of authors over the years. If you were hoping that only blood drinking hook nosed nazijew money lenders get, you would be wrong.

Good for him for not succumbing to the facile anti-Semitism ... oops, anti-Zionism of the times we live in.

Though my question for him would be this - how do you defend yourself - and other eggs around you - against a System that uses eggs as its ammunition, and hides behind the weakest, most vulnerable eggs?

I agree with all those letters that loved Murakami's so simple yet so powerful talk in Jerusalem.

To those here, and there will be more, count on it--who take umbrage at anything negative about Israel I say: You are not on Israel's side but are brainwashed by our Jewish history. Israel is often condemned, maybe more than other egregious nations, because she is our ally and she is like the USA in some ways, gets our money, does our bidding as we do hers.

This is not an original thought but Israel is in big trouble. Israel is soul-destroying because of the unbelievably cruel apartheid she practises. Just today, President Peres made Bibi Netanyahu Prime Minister. You who think this 'hard line' against peace is smart do not understand Israel's history. The country that was to be a "light unto nations" is itself dying from the darkness it creates. Why this is so is obvious. You don't have to be an anti-semite to see this, many in Israel are suffering from the military focus that this state continues to practise. Dialogue is seen as wimpish, while the Palestinians continue to be demonized, ostracized and killed by the WALL. The egg refers to all souls. The egg is being thrown up against the wall on both sides.

You who continue to praise Israel or act as if you are pro-Israel miss the point that to be pro-Israel is to want Israel to change her ways if not for the sake of the Palestinians than for the sake of enlightened self-interest. Murakami knows this. So many American Jews especially, though there are Israeli settlers and right wingers who I think are as bad, are still living in the early 1940's, a warped and distorted mentality. For many of us Jews, the Holocaust will never be over, I'm one of them.

But objectively, those disastrous unbelievably brutal years are indeed over. Israel could be paradise and can feel that way if you take a short selective tour. But trust me here, as I lived in Israel for a long time, the soul of the Israelis is being done damage too, and Israel has to wake up and give up the System and give up the Wall or there will be no country called Israel within 15-25 years. This is not an orginal thought, this is common wisdom among progressives living there who are all depressed and thining of leaving.

I have no more to say because it's been said a trillion times but you who cry anti-semetism NEVER listen.