On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 5:52:22 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
I find Amoz Oz's book "In the Land of Israel" as well as the following review informative.
https://arcade.stanford.edu/dibur/testimonies-land-amos-oz%E2%80%99s-and-amos-gitai%E2%80%99s-journeys-land-israel
"When Amos Oz visits the settlement whose residents consider it to be a realization of Amos’s prophecies of consolation, the “return of my people Israel,” Oz is afraid that other verses in Amos might also come to pass, such as the intimation that
“thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword” (72). Shortly after the book was published, Ilan Sheinfeld suggested that Amos the prophet was a manifestation of Oz himself.[39] Uri Misgav related to this book after Oz passed away and suggested,
“With an accuracy that is both depressing and admirable, Oz simply predicted contemporary Israel, which has been created in the image of Netanyahu.”[40]
David Grossman, who considered this book to be a source of inspiration for his documentary works, wrote an epilogue that was published in the 2009 edition (in Hebrew). He declares:
The readers already know that several of the most extreme and preposterous inclinations expressed in these pages have become part and parcel of our everyday lives. A world view where force and paranoia and racism … Every page in this book is
frighteningly contemporaneous, and gives the feeling that the State of Israel is not moving forward in time almost, but is rather trapped in an eternal vicious circle, in which it is doomed to repeat the same mistakes again and again, experience the same
disasters again and again.[41]"
The following demonstrate why history and historical perspective matter.
"Zealots do not only live in the settlements. Oz was fascinated by people who go to extremes and saw them as the seeds
of moral corruption.[20] When Oz meets Z., a farmer, he is shocked to hear a monologue full of hatred and violence. Z. is
disturbed by any outward manifestation of what he regards as the weaknesses of the Jewish people. To abolish the Zhid,
the prototype of the weak Jew, he is willing to embrace the identity of a “Judeo-Nazi” (94), the terminology Yeshayahu
Leibowitz used to bitterly condemn the cruelty of Israeli soldiers toward the Palestinians. Z. vows to fight like hell against
anyone, to be mad and violent as dictated by the situation, so the Other will “realize that we’re a wild country, deadly and
dangerous to everyone around, awful, crazy, capable of suddenly going nuts because they murdered one of our kids —
even one!” (89–90).
Z. has no moral quandaries with the war in Lebanon. As a matter of fact, he makes it clear that if he were in charge, it could
all have been taken care of in 1948. He also declares he is willing to take illegal steps for the cause and perceives any
restraint as weakness. His attitude toward Oz’s values is summarized as follows: “As soon as we finish this phase, the violence
phase, step right up, it’ll be your turn to play your role. You can make us a civilization with humanistic values here” (93)."
From the point of view of the Jewish people who had been suffered for centuries if not longer, revenge has its time as well as
peace has its time. If one hundred years of revenge would bring a thousand years peace, it may be the right thing to do from a
historical point of view.
For instance, Nazi German had killed millions of Jews but currently totally accepted by the international community. Imperial
Japan also had killed millions of Chinese. Japan is also accepted by most of the world although no one as yet apologize on
behalf the nation and the Japanese people.
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