Amos Oz, beloved Israeli author, died on Friday. An outspoken "peacenik" who was critical of the Israeli government, he was nonetheless a staunch supporter of his country. As people rush to memorialise him as an unyielding critic, bear in mind that Oz was no absolutist.
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In 2015, Oz asked why extreme leftists question Israel’s right to exist: “Nobody presented this question in Germany during the days of Hitler or in Russia under Stalin,” said Oz.
“But the question is being presented more and more often about Israel, and I don’t like it… there is something dark, looming underneath that is based on the assumption that Jews are not like everybody else.”
A year earlier, during the 2014 Gaza-Israel war, Oz told a German media outlet that, “I never agreed with Jesus Christ about the need to turn the other cheek to an enemy. Unlike European pacifists I never believed the ultimate evil in the world is war.”
“In my view the ultimate evil in the world is aggression, and the only way to repel aggression is unfortunately by force. That is where the difference lies between a European pacifist and an Israeli peacenik like myself.”
“If I may add a little anecdote:A relative of mine who survived the Nazi Holocaust in Theresienstadt always reminded her children and her grandchildren that her life was saved in 1945 not by peace demonstrators with placards and flowers but by Soviet soldiers and submachine guns”
And here is, barely a month ago, explaining why the vast majority of Israelis are cautious and skeptical about making peace with the Palestinians:
"The only reason they object to a far-reaching compromise with Palestinians is that they don’t want to be suckers. The common myth here is that we handed them Gaza on a silver plate and got rockets in return. They don’t want to see this mistake repeated on the West Bank."
On zealotry: "Usually fanaticism is associated with religion, though that is not necessarily so. I have seen my share of fanatical vegetarians and peace activists. They are not equally dangerous, of course, but I can trace it left, right and center."
