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Oz assures us that for all its
failings, the Israeli
temperament has a
death-defying cohesion that
carves a nation out of a
disparate set of citizens.
generations in the Jewish State. And it
holds out the hope — nay, the certainty —
that, in time, all these will be laid aside in
a search for unity — national unity, fam-
ily unity, personal unity. Despite their fail-
ings and their uncertainties, Oz seems to
be saying, Israel and its legendary kibbut-
zim are ultimately entities that heal. They
bridge the infuriating divisions of rhetoric
and ideology and personality and forge a
oneness of meaning and purpose.
"Toward the end of A Perfect Peace,"
said Oz, "the characters become unified in
a mystical, fugue-like way. They all merge:
They are almost one. They are a family in
the metaphysical sense of that word."
The family into which they are melding
is the Israeli family — volatile and full of
quirks, but also full of love. It is a family
that must eventually sidestep its own
bickering and potentially explosive egoism
because suicide — personal and national
— would otherwise follow.
This emerging family is an antidote to
the loneliness that pervades Israel in A
Perfect Peace. Israel, says Azariah, "has
such bottomless pits of loneliness because
no one can stand anyone else. No one loves
anyone." And Srulik, the private man, the
reserved man; says, "Take any father and
son. Or any two brothers. Or any husband
and wife. All of them, like carriers of the
same mysterious virus, harboring their
own particular estrangement, their own
particular pain, and their own dark desires
to inflict such pain on others."
The family of A Perfect Peace may not
necessarily be a happy one, but it is a
pragmatic one. It is a family — an Israeli
family — that honors its own needs and is
willing to make concessions to satisfy
them. It is, ultimately, a forgiving family.
This coming to wisdom — this mellow-
ing — is a product of the novel's move-
ment from "merciless" ideology to gentle
compassion. Or, as Oz said, "a movement
from an impatient, tyrannical urge to
change the world in one blow, toward
tolerance and even a certain degree of self-
irony." It is in this transition that Oz is
most comfortable, as a novelist and as a
politician — and in which he sees Israel's
future.
Like-Yonatan, Amos Oz has "many,
many times" thought of leaving his kib-
butz."It has not only crossed my mind,"
he told me, "but I have very, very careful-
ly considered it. And I am still not willing
to swear an oath that I shall remain
faithful forever. I have considered many
such things: I have considered leaving my
wife. I have considered changing my name.
I have considered dropping writing and
becoming an army general. We all have,
haven't we?"
There is a truth in Oz' question. But
unlike his Yonatan of A Perfect Peace and
unlike many members of his own kibbutz,
Oz is a man with choices. He can teach in
Oxford or Colorado. He can tour the world,
giving lectures and holding seminars. He
can hole himself up in some exotic place
and write book after book and dutifully
keep track of the royalties.
"Unlike my heroic hero, Yonatan," said
Oz, "I have had a chance to compare the
kibbutz way of life to some others. I will
not make ecstatic claims about the divine
qualities of kibbutz life. But I will say the
following: I still believe that this is the
least bad way of life I have ever exper-
ienced. And the least unjust one."
Oz paused.
"That's part of the answer. The other
part is the fascination and the stimulation
which the kibbutz still gives me. And it
gives me plenty of it."
And so, Oz returns to Hulda, not reluc-
tantly like his fictional Yonatan, but ex-
pectantly and eagerly. He is, after all, a
veteran of Hulda and he is, as he said,
something of a "local celebrity." On
Hulda, he will not be pressured to be
redeeming, but to be himself. On Hulda,
he will be back among, as he has Yolek say
in A Perfect Peace, that "mob of the
strangest individuals who ever pretended
to be a people." On Hulda, he will be back
among his family — his kibbutz family —
where loneliness can be allayed; where
there Is, to Os, "the least unjust way of
k" and Memo, as In his book the sound
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Even If There's Peace
Israel Will Add Drama
The year that Amos Oz has been away
from Israel has not been an easy one for
the Jewish State. Twelve months ago,
he recalled, Israelis were absorbing the
"painful lesson of Lebanon that military
power has its limits." Now, they are
debating the merits of peace overtures
from Jordan's King Hussein and the
PLO's Yassir Arafat.
"If Hussein and his new buddy,
Arafat, are serious," said Oz, "that
might mean that we are headed into
some of the most Stormy years in the
history of Israel. They will be the
moment of truth, the moment to decide,
now that we have reached the bridge [of
peace], whether we will cross it." Or
doublecross it."
Although Oz has not studied Hus-
sein's peace plan, he is "dying to be
optimistic." But his optimism partly
depends on what is being said in Arabic
news media by Palestinian leaders.
"I've had many experiences in which
Palestinian spokesmen whispered in
English into my peace-loving ear the
sweetest music when we chatted over a
cup of coffee in England or in France.
Yet the next day, they would repeat to
their own audiences in Arabic the most
savage PLO lines about the need to
liquidate brael. So I must study the
current PLO line in Arabic before I
decide whether there is a significant
change."
Oz can "easily, easily" imagine an
Israel not threatened by its Arab
neighbors. But peace may not necessar
ily make Israel a peaCeful country — at
least, domestically.
"Even if all the heads of the Arab
nations convene tonight and decide to
give us peace and quiet and territories
and anything we want, I can still count
on my fellow countrymen to invent,
create and evoke a -healthy dose of
drama. There will not be a dull moment
in Israel even if it is left alone by the
rest of the world. We will still have the
Sephardim and the Ashkenazi and the
Orthodox and the secular and-the
debate over the meanings of Judaism.
So we will be busy fora while" —
25