Amos Oz: Quotations on Judaism and Israel

Oz was interviewed about Israel’s behavior in Operation Protective Edge. He started by asking the interviewer:

What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery?

What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?

“I have been a man of compromise all my life,” he said “But even a man of compromise cannot approach Hamas and say: “‘Maybe we meet halfway and Israel only exists on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.’”

“The only alternative to continuing the Israeli military operation is simply to follow Jesus Christ and turn the other cheek...In my view the ultimate evil in the world is aggression, and the only way to repel aggression is unfortunately by force.” (“Oz: ‘Lose-lose situation for Israel,’” Deutsche Welle, (July 30, 2014)

We should tell the inhabitants of the occupied territories these simple and clear things....We do not want your land....We will site and rule here until the signing of a peace agreement....The Choice is yours. (Amotz Asa-El, A messianic Hangover, Jerusalem Report, (June 18, 2017)