Friday, June 15, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
imagine Oz stilled and silenced at the
receiving end of a conversation, his
reporter's notebook filling with the
tirades and confidences and laments
of people with whom he had little
sympathy and could make, perhaps,
little sense.
This discipline of quiet was Oz's
attempt to "give even my most out-
rageous opponents a very fair hear-
ing, if not a sympathetic hearing."
The push toward fairness came out of
a realization that as a sage of Peace
Now, as a veteran of Kibbutz Hulda
with its "400 people and 400 mostly
dovish, mostly social democratic
opinions," as a writer whose craft re-
quires solitude, Oz was becoming too
insulated.
Hulda is a 43-year-old settle-
ment that Oz joined when he was 14.
He had run away from his right-wing
home in Jerusalem. "My father
wished me to become another scholar
in a line of scholars rather than a
peasant. There were footnotes and
scholarly discussions and intellec-
tual debates under his roof. I got fed
up and was very attracted to the sim-
ple, uncomplicated Zionist vision 'of
sabras toiling the land all day, fight-
ing like a devil, making wild love to
beautiful girls." Oz assumed a new
name and a new address "only to dis-
cover that Hulda was full of intellec-
tuals discussing their life."
Eventually, "I found myself sit-
ting in a room full of books and writ-
ing even more books. So like most
escapes, mine was a full circle."
Oz now teaches English twice a
week for four hours and sometimes
works in the fields. He takes his turn
as a night watchman and as a waiter
in the communal dining hall. But his
life is essentially the life of a writer,
scribbling whatever sense he can out
of the world in a two-room workplace
where "no one invades me."
"If I want to take a break from
my writing late at night, I talk to the
night watchman or the milkman.
They provide me with reality."
A different reality came in 1967
and 1973. Oz fought in the Sinai and
on the Golan Heights. He did not
fight in Lebanon in 1982. Just after
the beginning of the war, he wrote a
series of "very angry" articles, for
Davar, an Israeli socialist news-
paper, "suggesting in so many words
that the war was a major shift in the
national consensus. It was the first
war which Israel launched without
facing an immediate, existential
threat. At some point, I realized I was
talking to myself, totally failing to
understand the grassroots opinions
of those people who supported the
war. I felt it was essential for me to
get out there and listen to Begin's
own constituency."
•
In the Land of Israel is a-collec-
tion of these wanderings. It is an im-
pressionistic work; to a degree, it is
an objective work. When fiction
writers venture into journalism,
there is always a. chance that their
imaginations will rule the day. In
Armies of the Night, for instance,
Norman Mailer came to the. 1967
anti-war march on the Pentagon
equipped with a hyperbolic sense .of
history and of his place in it and came
away with a full-blown portrait of
himself. It was almost as if the
15
expelling them. That would be crim
inal, a crime against humanity. In-
stead of an Israeli military governor
issuing a detention order for me, a
Palestinian military governor will
come and issue one for you? Shall, we
at
each
other's
throats
in
five
min-
Magida: Peace Now stands for
just
turn the phonograph record
coexistence with Arabs, What does it utes. So I believe that the only rea-
over? . . . We have already paid de-
sonable
thing
for
Israel
to
do
is
to
try
mean?
arly for this madness!"
Amos Oz: I should make it clear to talk business with the Syrians.,I'm
Menachem, the owner of a small
not
in
a
position
to
say
what
America
that Peace Now is not a replica of any
tool
manufacting company, lives in
of the anti-war phenomena that ap- should do. I've got too many Ameri-
Tekoa, about seven kilometers south
cans
telling
me
what
Israel
should
peared in this country in the late Six-
of Bethlehem, at the foot of Mount
ties and early Seventies. Essentially, do.
Herodion, near an Arab village. "One
Peace
in
Lebanon
can
Magida:
it maintains that full-scale war is
rocky hill (in the new town) is
justified only when the very exist- be negotiated only directly through
covered with row after now of prefab-
ence of the state is at stake or when Israel and Syria?
ricated public housing apartment
freedom itself is at stake. The. other
Oz: Directly or indirectly, but it
projects. On the. adjacent _rocky hill,
thing is that even if the heads of the can only be sorted out through Israel
about 15 private homes are being
Arab states would convene and de- and Syria. The Syrians, for right or
built, with red asbestos roofs and
cide to give the West Bank and Gaza wrong reasons, I'm not judging, have
fake tiles . . . And all around, the des-
to Israel on a silver platter, with the always treated Lebanon as part of
ert light, clear and lofty, touches the
blessing of world opinion, we should Greater Syria. They have always
arid stony hills . . . The land is bar-
still say, 'No thanks.' Because it is claimed, regardless of whichever
ren."
bad for Israel. It would turn Israel government or regime was in
Menachem says that he has "a
into a potential Belfast. It would Damascus, that Lebanon is an artifi-
lot" of Arab acquaintances. "We
force the Palestinians who do not cial creation left over from French
know that the Arab would be a good
want to be Israelis to become Israelis. colonialism. So if the Syrians have a
hearted, obedient creature if only no-
That's morally wrong and politically far-fetched claim, if Israel really
body would incite him or put ideas
wants peace, quiet and security on its
wrong.
into his head. I see a good possibility
Magida: How would a homeland northern front, we have the pretext
of living with the Arabs in friendship
for the Palestinians come about?
for a deal, not necessarily full-scale
— as soon as they realize they're here
through our mercy and not by
Oz: I believe that the only solu- peace, but an effective deal with the
tion is partition. Whether this parti- Syrians. The Syrians, mind you, are
rights."
"In their heart of hearts," he
tion would involve a linkage between very harsh bargainers. But they can
says, "the Moslems all know very
a Palestinian entity on the West deliver. They have delivered peace
well that this land is ours . . . Even-
Bank and Jordan or not is none of my and quiet on the Golan Heights for 10
tually, they'll have to admit it" and
business. It's something to be sorted years.
Magida: Are you suggesting
live under Israeli sovereignty.
out between the Palestinians and the
"Isn't that the way it is in the
Jordanians. Who am I to decide that in exchange for peace up north
Bible?" asks Menachem's wife, an
whether Jordan is the true Palestine that Syria goes to Lebanon?
Oz: Possibly.
American from Queens. "Weren't
or not? Whether the Palestinians feel
Magida: What would the
there hewers of wood and carriers of
themselves Jordanians or vice versa?
water? For murderers that's very
My business is that in the context of a Lebanese say if taken over by Syria?
light punishment. It's mercy!"
Oz: Look, I don't see much point
full-scale peace we have enough
As for compromise, "whenever
guarantees for Israel. The rest is in talking about the Lebanese any
more. There is no such entity. They
we gave in (to the "goyim") we had
none of my business.
troubles. That's the way it was in the
Magida: What can be done to get have committed suicide. They
Bible. King Saul lost his whole king-
all foreign forces out of Lebanon? Is it started their own civil war long be-
fore any foreign party was involved.
dom because he took pity on Amelak
possible to have peace there?
The goyim are bound to be against us
Oz: I don't believe good old They created endless armed militias
. . . Actually, it's all God's will. God
Lebanon can be restored. I think it's long before any armed invasions
hardens Pharaoh's heart and then He
doomed, mostly because the from the outside. So who are the
destroys him. It's them or us."
Lebanese people don't have anything Lebanese? I don't say this with any
Oz returned to the Geulah quar-
in common any more. The sort of special glee or joy. I wish there would
ter of Jerusalem where he grew up.
shaky integral which kept them to- have been a friendly, democratic life
Everything is much as it was: Geulah
gether for a few decades is gone. If in Lebanon, on our northern border.
is an outpost, an anomaly:
Lebanon is left on its own at mid- But to be realistic, I think this is
"Enlightenment and assimilation,
night tonight by everyone — Israelis, gone: It's doomed.
A.J.M.
the return to Zion, the murder of
Palestinians, Syrians — they will be
Europe's Jews, and the establish-
ment of the State of Israel seem swal-
lowed up." Geulaii is ashtetl, its life is
the life of the Eastern European Jew
before Hitler, before the atrocities,
before Ben-Gurion and Golda and
Menachem. Yeshiva students and
Chasidim and "petty merchants"
clutter the streets and Yiddish is
about the only langauge spoken. •
tory; the attitudes expressed are
At a rabbinical high school, a
demonstration was staged to give.-
realism, idealism, dovishness, out-
teacher points to Arabs repairing the
Mailer a platform for his own ego.
landish militarism, faith in God,
roof and states that God created
No such displays in In the Land
faith in country — or a world weari-
Arabs "because the labor of righteous
ofIsrael. One can sense Oz's restraint
ness'with it all. Throughout, there is
men is done by others." To Oz, he said
that kept him and his opinions out of
a sense of struggle — with history,
in a mixture of certainty and ob-
most of the book. Instead of an album ,
with the future; of a wrestling with
sequious condescension, "You surely
about Oz, this is an album of Israel:
an encroaching present that de-
have some pangs of conscience.
its hopes, its fears, its debates with
mands either new ideas or a fierce,
Maybe you don't realize it yet, but
itself. Oz .has given us a book that
sometimes beleaguered adherence to
your heart understands already. You
mirrors Israel. There may be no an-
the old ones.
think, maybe, that you came here by
swers in it and, surely, there is no
The editor of a Palestinian
chance, where your feet led you? Let
Zionist romanticism. It is an unvar-
newspaper in East Jerusalem, A/-
me teach you that man does not walk
nished portrait of a nation seeking
Fajr AI-Arabi ("The Arab Dawn")
by chance."
itself.
speaks in the book of a Palestinian
Amid these voices and the others
"In a way," said Oz, In the Land
state colexisting with Israel. Momen
that Oz hears, there are two anchors
ofIsrael "is a travel book, not so much
tarily imagining a Palestinian mili-
that, in a sense, hold In the Land of
in time and space, but in terms of
tary takeover of Israel, he "cannot
ideas and attitudes." The ideas that
Continued on next page.
conceive of destroying the. Jews or
emerge are diverse, often contradic-
On Peace
.
,
"In Israel," said Oz, "everybody screams at
the top of their lungs and nobody listens." In .
his new book, In the Land of Israel,
Oz listens.
•