Israel, Palestine and Peace: Essays [Paperback]

Amos Oz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 1995

An important testimony as well as a moving portrait of a divided land is revealed in this collection of provocative essays and speeches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (variously composed before and after the peace initiatives). Preface by the Author. Translated by Nicholas de Lange. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Oz (Under This Blazing Light, LJ 5/1/95), an essayist and best-selling Israeli novelist, has been a leading campaigner in the Peace Now movement. This collection of essays, speeches, and letters from the period 1976-94 reflects his concern about paths to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The book contains a collection of 12 pieces stressing the general themes that the Palestinian demand for statehood is a legitimate one and that peace is essential for Israel's survival. Some of the most provocative pieces include "Integrity," a 1985 speech discussing the role of the writer in modern society, and "Hizbollah in a Skullcap," a February 1994 essay about the lessons to be drawn from the 1994 Hebron massacre. Oz's essays, though often controversial, are well written and powerful; well recommended for popular collections in public and academic libraries.?Mark Weber, Kent State Univ., Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Oz (Under This Blazing Light, LJ 5/1/95), an essayist and best-selling Israeli novelist, has been a leading campaigner in the Peace Now movement. This collection of essays, speeches, and letters from the period 1976-94 reflects his concern about paths to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The book contains a collection of 12 pieces stressing the general themes that the Palestinian demand for statehood is a legitimate one and that peace is essential for Israel's survival. Some of the most provocative pieces include "Integrity," a 1985 speech discussing the role of the writer in modern society, and "Hizbollah in a Skullcap," a February 1994 essay about the lessons to be drawn from the 1994 Hebron massacre. Oz's essays, though often controversial, are well written and powerful; well recommended for popular collections in public and academic libraries.?Mark Weber, Kent State Univ., Lib., Ohio (Library Journal )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Original/Harcourt Brace & Co (September 4, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156001926
• ISBN-13: 978-0156001922
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amos Oz is always worth reading, January 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Israel, Palestine and Peace: Essays (Paperback)

These essays should read as dated. They do not. Though Oz' non-fiction tends to be uneven, as this collection is, they are amazingly rewarding reading. He's not only a wordsmith but a passionate writer who defends peace in the Middle East without ever becoming the least bit sentimental about how enemies must go about this. Now, when there is no peace, and none on the horizon, he is still well worth reading and re-reading. He knows whereof he speaks & writes--some of these essays were lectures he's given--and his energy is contagious. Good reading for writers and well as readers. Great reading for peace lovers who are, of necessity, confused during these darkening days.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Informative essays, April 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Israel, Palestine and Peace: Essays (Paperback)

Beautifully written essays that illustrate the problems of the Holy Lands frankly and passionately. Oz brings me my first real understanding of both sides of the struggle in Israel. He succeeds with the clarity that has alluded most news teams, and does it in a way that degrades no one. As always Oz's writing, is remarkable.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Terrible symmetry -the unfairness of being too fair, January 2, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Israel, Palestine and Peace: Essays (Paperback)

The incredible literary power of Amoz Oz flashes forth from time to time in these essays. So too his admirable effort to understand what he calls the war of 'two rights' the right of the Jews of Israel to a state of their own in their own historical homeland and the right of the Palestinian Arabs to a state in a land where they have long lived.
Oz' intense fairness aims at a balance and reasonableness which will convince both sides to abandon maximum claims and recognize part of the divided land as a state belonging to the other people.
There is also something admirable in the Israeli Oz's effort to take the conflict out of the dimension of mutual accusation and blame.
Nonetheless there are historical facts and a historical reality which Oz slurs over. And that is that the conflict throughout has been characterized by Arab intransigence. And that there have been five historical opportunities for the Palestinian Arabs to accept statehood and compromise- and they have rejected them all.
There is another assymetry which is extremely important. It is in the level of humane relation to the other. The Israelis have on the whole been far more humane and decent than the Arabs have. The unspeakable acts of Terror against civilian populations which since the time of the writing of this book have taken on new and more cruel dimensions, of which suicide bombings against civilan populations is the most prominent, indicate a great between the sides in the value they give to human life and suffering.
Oz in covering up the assymetry ingratiates himself to those who believe a 'studied neutrality' is the right attitude toward the conflict, and the only path to its possible solution. But in taking this position and winning many friends for himself especially among the Europeans he sacrifices something very dear indeed, the truth of the reality in question.