Amos Oz and the politics of identity: A reassessment

ABSTRACT

If early in his career Amos Oz was regarded as the epitome of the new Israeli or Hebrew, later critics tended to reduce Oz’s image to that of a member of a specific group – Ashkenazi Laborites – that was once the hegemonic group in Israel but has seen its status decrease in recent years. This article seeks to show that in his career, Oz exhibited views on Jewish history and the future of the Jewish state that went beyond the narrow confines of Labor Zionism, and that he offered some keen political insights that transcended the limits of identity politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Amos Oz
• Revisionist Zionism
• identity politics in Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Benny Ziffer, “Amos Oz 1939-2018: Met nasi ha-shevet ha-lavan [Amos Oz 1939-2018: The president of the white tribe has died],” Haaretz, December 28, 2018 https://www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/literature/.premium-1.6788133. Accessed: August 17, 2020.

2. See for example a piece by a fellow Haaretz columnist: Uri Misgav, “Ziffer tzodek be-davar ehad: ‘Po va-sham be-Eretz Yisrael’ Hu akhen sifro ha-hashuv be-yoter shel Amos Oz [Ziffer is right about one thing: ‘In the Land of Israel’ is Amos Oz’s most important book],” Haaretz, December 29, 2018. https://www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/.premium-1.6788751. Accessed: August 17, 2020.

3. Kimmerling, Ketz shilton ha-ahuslim.

4. The interview was broadcast on Kan, the Israeli public broadcasting corporation, on October 26, 2018. It is available online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ds2w5LZN0; Accessed June 5, 2019.

5. Žižek’s observation about the demise of universalism under identity politics is useful here: “Identity politics reaches its peak (or, rather, its lowest point) when it refers to the unique experience of a particular group identity as the ultimate fact which cannot be dissolved in any universality.” See: Žižek, “Troubles with Identity,” The Philosophical Salon, May 28, 2018. http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/troubles-with-identity/. Accessed: August 17, 2020.

6. Kaplan, “Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness and the Sabra Myth,” 120.

7. Oz, The Hill of Evil Counsel, 8.

8. Ya’akov Shavit, “Oz al ha-tupim [Oz on the drums],” Yedioth Ahronoth, June 17, 1977, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

9. Dan Laor, “Ha-tzel rodef ahrei be’alav [The shadow chases after its owner],” Haaretz, August 17, 1979, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

10. Peleg, Begin’s Foreign Policy, 1977-1983, 54.

11. Ibid., 56.

12. Gerz, Shvuya be-haloma, 67-8.

13. David Myers, “Benzion Netanyahu: In Life and Death,” Jewish Journal May 15, 2012. https://jewishjournal.com/opinion/104121/accessed October 6, 2020.

14. Gordis, Menachem Begin, 110-111.

15. See: Benjamin Netanyahu, “PM Netanyahu addresses the UN General Assembly,” https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2015/Pages/PM-Netanyahu-addresses-the-UN-General-Assembly-1-Oct-2015.aspx accessed: August 17, 2020

16. Unknown author, “Sihah im Oz [A Conversation with Oz],” Hedim, February 1973, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

17. Born in 1928 as Moshe Tehilimzeiger in what was then a part of Poland, he arrived by himself in Palestine a decade later and not only adopted a new Hebrew name but also for many years presented himself a Sabra, a native-born Israeli.

18. Unknown author, “Amos and Dan,” Lilit (January 1972), Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

19. Unknown author, Al Ha-Mishmar, May 5, 1972, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

20. Shaked, Gal hadash ba-sifrut ha-ivrit, 201.

21. Amos Oz, “Kol ha-heshbon od lo nigmar,” [We have yet to reach the bottom line],”, a lecture given at Tel Aviv University, June 3, 2018. The lecture is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqrd4c8ZT1E; accessed May 19, 2019.

22. In similar vein, in 1983, Oz maintained that, “As long as the others have tanks and planes, I also have to play the game according to its damned rules.” Unknown author, “Tziyonut im tankim u-metosim [Zionism with tanks and planes],” Yedioth Ahronoth, November 14, 1983, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

23. Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, 425-426.

24. “Michael sheli, shnot ha-himishim be-Yerushalayim: Re’ayon im Amos Oz [My Michael, the 1950s in Jerusalem: an interview with Amos Oz],” Kolno’ah (1974), Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

25. Doron Rosenblum, “Dyokan ha-sofer ke-ish ha-hevrah le-haganat ha-teva [A portrait of the writer as a member of the committee for the preservation of nature],” Koteret Rashit, May 11, 1983, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

26. Dan Laor, “Min ha-bdaya el-ha-mamashut [From fiction to reality],” Haaretz, June 10, 1986, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

27. Oz, In the Land of Israel, 30-31.

28. See on that: Shapiro, The Road to Power; Cohen and Leon, “The Mahapach and Yitzhak Shamir’s Quiet Revolution.”

29. See: Kaplan “Begin, Chach’chachim, and the Birth of Israeli Identity Politics.”

30. Michael Shesher, “Etmol ve-ha-yom be-Eretz Yisrael [Yesterday and today in the Land of Israel],” Maariv, April 6, 1984, 37.

31. Oz, In the Land of Israel 36.

32. For a succinct but insightful analysis of this socioeconomic changes in Israeli history, see: Mahozai, “She-Abu Mazen yeshalem lahem bitu’ah le’umi.” For a detailed and comprehensive description of these transformation see: Shafir and Peled, Being Israeli.

33. Oz, In the Land of Israel, 58-9. For a comprehensive study of the ideology of American Jews who settled in the West Bank, see: Hirschhorn, City on a Hilltop.

34. Oz, In the Land of Israel, 55-6.

35. Daniel Gutwein, “Some Comments on the Class Foundations of the Occupation.” MR Online June 16, 2006. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/gutwein160606.html. Accessed May 16, 2019.

36. For a comprehensive discussion of these issues, see: Allegra, Handel, and Maggor, (eds.) Normalizing Occupation. See also Lustick, “The Occupation after 51 Years.”

37. Dan Miron, “Erev ba-opera [A night at the opera],” Davar November 25, 1988, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

38. Oz, Black Box, 47-8.

39. Rami Kimchy, “Kufsa sh’hora: ha-roman ve-ha-seret [Black Box: the novel and the movie].” Maariv, December 10, 1993, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection. For a notably different, and rare, laudatory critical assessment of the novel, which argues that in fact Oz gave a voice in this novel to the otherwise suppressed groups in Israel, while creating complex characters, see: Getz and Beebee, “The Epistolary Politics of Amos Oz’s Black Box.”

40. Dalia Amotz, “Ptichat ha-kufsa ahrei ha-nefila [Opening the box after the fall].” Proza 81 (July, 1987), Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

41. Oz, Black Box, 215.

42. Yitzhak Laor, “Yonatan hashav al ha-milim hiruf nefesh [Yonatan thought about the words sacrificing oneself].” Davar May 15, 1992, Gnazim Archive, Amos Oz Newspaper Clippings Collection.

43. Badiou, Saint Paul, 9-11.

44. Dan Miron, “Keitzad yakhol Amos Oz lehorot derekh le-mishehu [How can Amos Oz show the way to anyone?],” Haaretz, January 22, 2019. https://www.haaretz.co.il/literature/prose/.premium-1.6866760. Accessed: August 17, 2020.

45. See for example: Orin Morris, “Ha-im yahol Dan Miron leharot et ha-derekh le-mishehu? [Can Dan Miron show the way to anyone?],” Haaretz, January 31, 2019. https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/.premium-1.6896452. Accessed: August 17, 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eran Kaplan

Eran Kaplan is the Goldman Professor in Israel Studies at San Francisco State University. He is the author, most recently, of Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen.