UP FRONT

Stand Of Oz

Continued from preceding page

terms for peace and the idea
of Greater Israel," he main-
tained. Sixty-one Knesset
seats were won by parties
favoring territorial com-
promise, compared to 49 for
those against it, he noted,
with 10 going to the Or-
thodox, "for whom this issue
is irrelevant." (A great
many Orthodox voters, with
their biblical attachment to
Judea and Samaria, and
their antipathy towards
Arabs, would disagree.)
Asked if he thought the
ouster of blood-and-fire na-
tionalists like Yitzhak
Shamir and Ariel Sharon
would loosen Israel's "siege
mentality," Mr. Oz replied:
"It's not just that Israel has
a siege mentality. Israel is
actually in a state of siege.
Mr. Shamir and the Israeli

"Even now, with a
different
government, I
wouldn't dream of
asking the hawks
to shut up."
Amos Oz

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12 FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1992

I

right-wing have created an
unhealthy amount of hys-
teria about Israel's condition
of metaphysical isolation.
Israelis are not saying the
state of siege is not real,
they're saying, 'let's see if
there's anything we can do
about it.'
"Israelis are likely to re-
main suspicious," he con-,
tinued. "I don't think
they're going to give up their
defenses and say to the
Arabs, make love, not war.
But we are living in a more
pragmatic, more sober, more
reasonable Israel."
In this new, moderate
Israel, might there be less
high-level contempt for dis-
sent, an end to the idea that
Jews must speak publicly
with one voice, and that any
moral criticism of Israel is
"Israel-bashing"?
"Likud politicians have
obviously attempted to pre-
sent any deviation from the
dogma of Greater Israel as
treason," Mr. Oz said. "In
my view there has always
been more than one legiti-
mate way to be an Israeli
patriot, more than one legit-
imate wayior Diaspora Jews
to stand up for Israel, and
more than one legitimate
concept about the path Israel
should take.
"For many years moderate
Diaspora Jews were asked to
keep their mouths shut for
the sake of a unified facade,"
he said. "I never understood
why this unified facade

ought to have been hawkish
and not dovish. Even now,,
with a different government,
I wouldn't dream of asking
the hawks to shut up, here or
in America."
There is a minor Israeli
tradition of prominent au-
thors becoming Knesset
members, including poet Uri
Zvi Greenberg, novelists
Moshe Shamir and S.
Yizhar, and, in the incoming
Knesset, novelist Yael
Dayan (Labor). With all his
readiness to campaign for
other candidates, has Mr. Oz
ever thought of becoming
one himself?
"I've thought of it many
times," he replied, "and
decided against it. I've been
urged to run many times,
and decided against it. If all
the novelists were to become
politicians, then all the poli-
ticians would start writing
novels; and that would be
the end of civilization as we
know it." 1=1

NEWS

Workers
End Strike

Tel Aviv (JTA) — Medical
and administrative
employees at five govern-
ment hospitals have called
off a strike, following a court
ruling upholding efforts to
begin privatizing the
hospitals.
But the staffs of the major
hospitals run by Histadrut's
Kupat Holim sick fund con-
tinued to work a reduced
Shabbat schedule, pro-
testing plans to decentralize
the labor federation's health
system.
The strike by government
hospital workers ended after
the National Labor Court
upheld the legality of a
directive issued by Health
Minister Ehud Olmert.
The directive, which is
part of the Likud govern-
ment's privatization pro-
gram, transforms govern-
ment medical centers into
self-accounting economic
units. Hospital employees
fear the move will reduce
their salaries and increase
their workloads.
But Mr. Olmert is on his
way out with the rest of the
Likud government. It will be
up to the Labor-appointed
health minister to decide
how to proceed with
privatization.
Hospital's affected by the
job action included Sheba
Hospital at Tel Hashomer,
the Tel Aviv Ichilov Hospital
complex.

