File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0203, message 123


Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 17:27:33 -0500
From: Lou Caton <lcaton-AT-wisdom.wsc.ma.edu>
Subject: Re: Sharon: in his own words


Ok, thanks Wolf.  this is surprising.  Oz gave an interview on PBS a few
weeks ago, and he didn't give any indication that he was a Sharon
supporter.  In fact, he made a point to say ethnic patrioticism was a
sure way to continue the violence.  he was sort of making a pitch for
his recent novel  titled The Same Sea. I think that's the title.
Supposedly it transcends every social/political boundary there is.  I
was actually thinking of using it for a class on cosmopolitanism.
anyhow... more to chew on...

Lou

Wolf Factory wrote:

> C is Sharon.
> No one is blaming Oz for Sharon's actions of course.
> However, Oz has not been as critical of him as one
> would have hoped. Rather, he has joined the chorus of
> people laying the blame entirely on Arafat and
> refusing to acknowledge the intifada for what it is, a
> popular uprising in every sense.
>
> Also having conducted the interview and gained a
> better understanding than most Israelis of what lurks
> in the mind of Sharon, his silence on the current
> crisis is reminiscent of the silence of certain German
> intellectuals during the Nazi era.
>
> W.F.
>
> --- Lou Caton <lcaton-AT-wisdom.wsc.ma.edu> wrote:
> > I'm a bit confused with the interview below.  Isn't
> > Oz simply reporting
> > on what Sharon is saying?  No one is suggesting that
> > we criticize Oz for
> > the violence and intolerance suggested by Sharon,
> > are they?  And who is
> > the "C" mentioned at the end of the interview?
> >
> > Lou Caton <lcaton-AT-wisdom.wsc.ma.edu>
> >
> > Wolf Factory wrote:
> >
> > > By Amos Oz (interview with Ariel Sharon published
> > in
> > > the Israeli daily Davar)
> > > DEC 17, 1982
> > >
> > > "You can call me anything you like. Call me a
> > monster
> > > or a murderer. Just note that I don't hate Arabs.
> > On
> > > the contrary. Personally, I am much more at east
> > with
> > > them, and especially with the Bedouin, than with
> > Jews.
> > > Those Arabs we haven't yet spoilt are proud
> > people,
> > > they are irrational, cruel and generous. It's the
> > Yids
> > > that are all twisted. In order to straighten them
> > out
> > > you have to first bend them sharply the other way.
> > > That, in brief, is my whole ideology.
> > > "Call Israel by any name you like, call it a
> > > Judeo-Nazi state as does Leibowitz. Why not?
> > Better a
> > > live Judeo-Nazi than a dead saint. I don't care
> > > whether I am like Ghadafi. I am not after the
> > > admiration of the gentiles. I don't need their
> > love. I
> > > don't need to be loved by jews like you either. I
> > have
> > > to live, and I intend to ensure that my children
> > will
> > > live as well. With or without the blessing of the
> > Pope
> > > and the other religious leaders from the New York
> > > Times. I will destroy anyone who will raise a hand
> > > against my children, I will destroy him and his
> > > children, with or without our famous purity of
> > arms. I
> > > don't care if he is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or
> > > pagan. History teaches us that he who won't kill
> > will
> > > be killed by others. That is an iron law.
> > >
> > > "Even if you'll prove to me by mathematical means
> > that
> > > the present war in Lebanon is a dirty immoral war,
> > I
> > > don't care. Moreover, even if you will prove to me
> > > that we have not achieved and will not achieve any
> > of
> > > our aims in Lebanon, that we will neither create a
> > > friendly regime in Lebanon nor destroy the Syrians
> > or
> > > even the PLO, even then I don't care. it was still
> > > worth it. Even if Galilee is shelled again by
> > > Katyushas in a year's time, I don't really care.
> > We
> > > shall start another war, kill and destroy more and
> > > more, until they will have had enough. And do you
> > know
> > > why it is all worth it? Because it seems that this
> > > war has made us more unpopular among the so-called
> > > civilized world.
> > >
> > > "We'll hear no more of that nonsense about the
> > unique
> > > Jewish morality, the moral lessons of the
> > holocaust or
> > > about the Jews who were supposed to have emerged
> > from
> > > the gas chambers pure and virtuous. No more of
> > that.
> > > The destruction of Eyn Hilwe (and it's a pity we
> > did
> > > not wipe out that hornet's nest completely!), the
> > > healthy bombardment of Beirut and that tiny
> > massacre
> > > (can you call 500 Arabs a massacre?) in their
> > camps
> > > which we should have committed with our own
> > delicate
> > > hands rather than let the Phalangists do it, all
> > these
> > > good deeds finally killed the bullshit talk about
> > a
> > > unique people and of being a light upon the
> > nations.
> > > No more uniqueness and no more sweetness and
> > light.
> > > Good riddance."
> > >
> > > "I personally don't want to be any better than
> > > Khomeini or Brezhnev or Ghadafi or Assad or Mrs.
> > > Thatcher, or even Harry Truman who killed half a
> > > million Japanese with two fine bombs. I only want
> > to
> > > be smarter than they are, quicker and more
> > efficient,
> > > not better or more beautiful than they are. Tell
> > me,
> > > do the baddies of this world have a bad time? If
> > > anyone tries to touch them, the evil men cut his
> > hands
> > > and legs off. They hunt and catch whatever they
> > feel
> > > like eating. They don't suffer from indigestion
> > and
> > > are not punished by Heaven. I want Israel to join
> > that
> > > club. Maybe the world will then at last begin to
> > fear
> > > me instead of feeling sorry for me. Maybe they
> > will
> > > start to tremble, to fear my madness
> > > instead of admiring my nobility. Thank god for
> > that.
> > > Let them tremble, let them call us a mad state.
> > Let
> > > them understand that we are a wild country,
> > dangerous
> > > to our surroundings, not normal, that we might go
> > > crazy if one of our children is murdered  just
> > one!
> > > That we might go wild and burn all the oil fields
> > in
> > > the Middle East! If anything would happen to your
> > > child, god forbid, you would talk like I do. Let
> > them
> > > be aware inWashington, Moscow, Damascus and China
> > that
> > > if one of our ambassadors is shot, or even a
> > consul or
> > > the most junior embassy official, we might start
> > World
> > > War Three just like that!"
> > >
> > > ...... We are talking while sitting on the balcony
> > of
> > > the pretty country house belonging to C. which is
> > > situated in a prosperous Moshav. To the west we
> > see a
> > > burning sunset and there is a scent of fruit trees
> > in
> > > the air. We are being served iced coffee in tall
> > > glasses. C. is about fifty year old. He is a man
> > well
> > > known for his (military) actions. He is a strong,
> > > heavy figure wearing shorts but no shirt. His body
> > is
> > > tanned a metallic bronze shade, the colour of a
> > blond
> > > man living in the sun. He puts his hairy legs on
> > the
> > > table and his hands on the chair. There is a scar
> > on
> > > his neck. His eyes wander over his plantations. He
> > > spells out his ideology in a voice made hoarse by
> > too
> > > much smoking:
> > > "Let me tell me [sic] what is the most important
> > > thing, the sweetest fruit of the war in Lebanon:
> > It is
> > > that now they don't just hate Israel. Thanks to
> > us,
> > > they now also hate all those Feinschmecker Jews in
> > > Paris, London, New York, Frankfurt and Montreal,
> > in
> > > all their holes. At last they hate all these nice
> > > Yids, who say they are different from us, that
> > they
> > > are not Israeli thugs, that they are different
> > Jews,
> > > clean and decent. Just like the assimilated Jew in
> > > Vienna and Berlin begged the anti-Semite not to
> > > confuse him with the screaming, stinking Ostjude,
> > who
> > > had smuggled himself into that cultural
> > environment
> > > out of the dirty ghettos of Ukraine and Poland. It
> > > won't help them, those clean Yids, just as it did
> > not
> > > help them in Vienna and Berlin. Let them shout
> > that
> > > they condemn Israel, that they are all right, that
> > > they did not want and don't want to hurt a fly,
> > that
> > > they always
> > > prefer being slaughtered to fighting, that they
> > have
> >
> === message truncated ==>
> ====> "All the wolves in the wolf factory paused at noon,
> for a moment of silence."
> ........from laughing Gravy by John Ashbery.
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Looking for something good and original to read?
> Check out: http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers/
>
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