Deconstruction of the most famous "betrayal" in history

Amos Oz has gained such a reputation with his extensive and significant literary work that he has been on the list of permanent candidates for the Nobel Prize for a long time. He is an active supporter of two states - Israelis and Palestinians. He is a convinced defender of peace with the Palestinians and the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Founder of the Peace Now movement in 1967). He is also an ardent critic of the inflamed Israeli right. He caused controversy last year when he called Jewish extremists "Jewish neo-Nazis" responsible for attacks on Muslims and Christians.

I was lucky enough to meet this great man several times. One conversation with him allowed me to discover all the beauties of his creativity and his love for words and language. His book The Story of Love and Darkness is a masterpiece of contemporary world literature. In my opinion, Oz is one of the most remarkable writers of today.

Last week, Amos Oz was a guest of the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in Paris, where he presented his new novel Judah, published by Galimar, already translated into 15 languages. Oz is one of those foreign writers that the French and Parisian audiences love. That's why it's no wonder that the huge amphitheater of the institution in question was packed.

In the text that follows, the writer expressed his displeasure at history and people, at the injustice done to a nation due to fabrications related to religion, a protest at the unresolved political situation in his country, where he never knows if it will dawn.

"When I grow up, I would like to be a book. It's less dangerous than being human."

For Oz, “compromise is life, because where there is no compromise there is fanaticism. Compromise is not capitulation, but an attempt to meet the other side in half." He stated everything that bothers him and that he would like to see come true and change.

He announced one of the important features of his art, necessary for today's society: "For me, every novel and every story is valuable, a lesson in tolerance."

What is a "traitor"?

The text that follows is a speech by the writer in front of a very large audience. From the way the conversation went, I called it a car interview. This is the first time I have seen such a presentation. The writer himself presented his novel in detail, probably because he wanted to express himself as comprehensively as possible:

"The novel takes place at the end of the fifties. It is a plea for an ideological debate to move the world towards progress. There are many contested things in this novel that the Israelis did not like. There is a new vision of the relationship between Jews and Christians. Also a new perspective on anti-Semitism. And a new unconventional perspective on Israelis, Palestinians and the creation of Israel.

In Hebrew, the book is called the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The name Judah is a common Hebrew name like Marko or Janko. My father's name was Judah, my son's name is Judah. In other languages ​​"Judas" is a very provocative name, in Europe it means "traitor", in any Christian dictionary it is a synonym of "traitor". If you call someone a Jew, it's like spitting in their face.

My book Jude takes place in a closed space and with three people: Shmuel Asch, a young idealist student, Gershon Wald, a handicapped old man who has lost faith in everything, and middle-aged Athaliah, offended, "furious at all men". Asch left his studies and answered an ad to babysit an old disabled man, "very educated", to serve him dinner, read to him and talk to him for five hours. Unlike Waldo, he would like to change the world with his fiery discussions in which he evokes religion and his passion for Christ.

There is also a revolutionary thought in the novel: what does it mean to be a traitor? What does it mean to be faithful? What is a traitor? What makes a traitor a traitor? Where is the line between betrayal and loyalty? And the question: who is the traitor?

I have been interested in the word traitor since I was a child. Ever since I was a child, I was called a "traitor". The first time I was nine years old. I had a friend, the British adjutant in Palestine. The children called me a traitor, and so did the adults. And so to this day, because people don't like my ideas about Israel and Palestine.

The word "traitor" in many cases is a name that honors the wearer. In this regard, I am also in the high company of great writers from the history of literature, great politicians in history - the greatest, a large part of their people called them "traitors". I am in the company of prophets Jeremiah, Abraham Lincoln, Rabin, Sadat, Thomas Mann, Solzhenitsyn... There were several cases when people were called traitors, because they were ahead of their time. Asch writes that sometimes the traitor is the one who changes those who do not change, who hate or fear change. That qualification is an honor for me.

The story of Judas - (Judas who is not a traitor, nor a perfidious criminal, which has always been attributed to him) is something that particularly interests me. It's a story about thirty dinars and the most famous kiss in history. That story has haunted me since I was sixteen. I checked how much money that would be today and it turned out to be around 600 euros. It is not small, but Judas, according to the Gospel, was not a poor fisherman in Galilee, but a rich one: he had land, servants, farms, cattle. And why would he sell his God for 600 euros?

"Judas, the first, last and only Christian"

And if he sold it, why did he go and hang himself?

I don't believe that at all. Why would he take a coin to mark and show Christ with a kiss when all Jerusalem knew him? When they came to arrest him, Christ did not run away. Who needed that kiss and those thirty dinars? It's an absurd story. And it has been going on for more than two thousand years. And millions of Jews died because of that story. Because we are the ones who killed God. We have money, we sell anything for money. According to Ash, Judas believed in Christ more than he believed in himself. Judas influenced Christ to go to Jerusalem to be crucified: "You will come down from the cross alive and then the kingdom of heaven will begin. That will be redemption. It will be the last miracle after which there will be no more miracles." Christ did not want to, he was afraid to go to Jerusalem. Judas saw that Christ wanted to come down from the cross, but he did not succeed and he then went to hang himself. When Judas went to hang himself, Asch writes: "Thus died the first Christian, the last and the only one."

It is an absurd and terribly bad story. Publishers should not print it. The Jews paid a lot for that story: inquisitions, pogroms, persecutions, the Shoah... That story is the Chernobyl of European anti-Semitism. If we look at painting - at the Last Supper, the Jew is a caricature with a long nose, rotten teeth... He is already there in the Renaissance.

As absurd as it is when Jesus says that "everyone can love everyone", maybe he meant something completely different from the way it has been interpreted. The love that Jesus preaches, according to the way it was interpreted, is something completely impossible.

When that book appeared in our country, it caused a real electric shock. They said it was an anti-Zionist manifesto, desacralization, desecration. Of course, that is not a manifesto. That's one story. One should not read novels as if they were manifestos. When the West and Christendom discovered this, it was shocked. It's like experiencing a high-voltage electric shock when you read this: "Thus died the first Christian, it was also the last Christian, the only Christian." An electric shock that makes me happy personally. I think it's really well deserved, maybe it will tone down that Chernobyl of anti-Semitism a bit. I hope that this book will disrupt and displace anti-Semitic clichés. I wrote a piece of chamber music. And you won't ask the composer after the concert whether he identifies with the violin or the bass guitar... I love all my heroes, but I wouldn't vote for her either. I agree with Shmuel, but his conclusions are not mine. I adored Ben Gurion who hypnotized me, but I didn't always agree with him. One of the goals of that book is to neutralize that Chernobyl of anti-Semitism.

My three heroes are in a claustrophobic atmosphere for a whole winter in a small house. During three months they talk and drink tea. They change. They change each other. And on that occasion Shmuel the idealist and Vald the pessimist will mutually change. Conversations, discussions, different opinions help to move forward. My heroes oppose various ideas. It is up to the reader to choose them.

At first the books have nothing to say to each other. In the beginning they are three different planets that do not see each other and do not like each other. During the winter, the old man, skeptical and cynical, remembers when he was young, in the end he is like someone who can love. A young idealist, Ash, realizes that one day he too will be old, he opens up intellectually and sensually. A woman who hated the entire male world, now sleeps with many people and thinks that all people are eternal adolescents who will never grow up, that they are amoral individuals, that the moral instinct in a man is possible, maybe occasionally, when his sexual desire is fulfilled. In the end, she becomes kind, somewhat with motherly feelings. During the novel they grow closer, and in the end they love each other.

What can change people is other people. It can be love, fear, it can be a lot of pressure or a lack of security. Also, great ambition. Any change that happens comes from comparison or conflict with someone else.

The people in this book don't stop talking. All people and politicians speak everywhere, and with their partners. And that's where things change. History is full of people who said, "Today I will do something I said I would never do." Afterwards they are called "traitors." Compromise is life

I know it is difficult to be a prophet in the land of prophets, as the competition is high, but I have seen with my own eyes how people have changed. If someone had told me that De Gaulle would get France out of Algeria, I would not have believed him, that Churchill would tear the British Empire to pieces, or that Begin would return all of Sinai to Egypt, that Sharon would send his bulldozers to demolish his colonies, I would never have believed it. . Now that can't surprise anyone.

I don't know who will reconcile Israelis and Palestinians. I know one thing perfectly: a long conflict in history causes fatigue. And one day they will say: we have no more strength. Enough! I see more and more fatigue in both Israelis and Palestinians. I'm not talking about fanatics. They are never tired, neither day nor night. But most people are not fanatics and they are tired. And my great hope is that it will be the fatigue in most people that will be able to cause change.

I'm all for compromise, always. Compromise is life, because where there is no compromise there is fanaticism. The inability to imagine the other is the source of all unhappiness. Compromise is not capitulation, but an attempt to meet the other side halfway. I believe in trying to get under the skin of another. Imagine yourself in that other person's place. Not to give up on yourself. Not to show your cheek, as Jesus suggests. Rather, simply ask a good question. I've been asking myself that question all my life. I think it's a question of morality. It is much more important what Israel does, if Israel does something bad, something bad, I don't sleep at night.

I did not write this book as a manifesto of one or another of the opinions expressed there. My profession is watching people surprise themselves and each other. There should be contradictory visions of the view. A writer should be able to put himself in another person's shoes. He should be able to describe two or three conflicting visions with the same fervor. I am an evolutionist. I believe in compromise. And the opposite of compromise is not idealism, but fanaticism and death. I hope that this book moves and disrupts the clichés. My criticism is directed against the government's decision, not against my country.

How else can I believe in peace? And how is it possible not to believe in peace? Is there a war in history that never ended? I don't know how long the war between the Arabs and the Israelis will last, but it will be shorter than the war between the Germans and the French. There are Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews. Neither will the Palestinians go anywhere, because they have nowhere to go, nor will the Israelis go anywhere, because they have nowhere to go. For now, it is impossible for it to be one family, they would be unhappy in discord. You should take that small house and divide it into two apartments, even smaller.

I do not believe in a multicultural state. Not for now, maybe in fifty years. Israel and Palestine are first and foremost two countries. First we need to be good neighbors. To greet each other on the stairs, then we will knock on the door and ask for some salt or sugar. Then we'll start cooking together, then we'll pool the costs, then the economy and eventually maybe into a federation and one day maybe we'll sleep together in the same bed. The opposite of war is not love, but compromise. Politicians create fear

And why do the majority of people vote for parties that are hostile to compromise for peace? Because they scare them? Politicians throughout history scare their people 90% of the time. What changes history are people who say: don't be afraid! Our patient is common: Israeli-Arab and he knows he has to go through the operating room, he is not happy, but he knows he has to endure the operation. Doctors and surgeons are afraid, they don't have enough courage to push that patient into the room and do what is necessary. Deep down, everyone knows what needs to be done. You know the operation needs to be done, let's do it and we'll be free. And they call those people traitors. It is dangerous to leave the territories, but even more dangerous for Israel to stay there.

The Bible is an endless source of inspiration for me, but not as a religious book, but as a book of superior literature with short and beautiful stories, short novels and miracles. The Bible contains the world's most beautiful poetry. I read a small paragraph every day. Not to talk to God, but to learn my own language - the Hebrew language. One of the goals of that book is to neutralize that "Chernobyl".

If Hamas is ready to talk to Israel about a two-state solution, we should talk to them immediately.

It is impossible to destroy terrorism with a club. She is needed. I myself had it in my life. Behind every terrorist there is an idea. In order to beat that idea, you have to come up with an even better idea. The best idea, as far as France is concerned, is that the answer to political Islam should come from moderate Islam. The answer to every fanaticism should come from its relatives - and our normal friends.

I do not agree with the idea that there is a conflict between the Orient and the West. No no. There is a conflict between fanaticism and the rest of the world. In Paris, there are anti-Muslim fanatics, communist fanatics, feminist fanatics... They are not all equally dangerous. They are all driven by one idea. It is usually a very short idea in a few words. If we are to fight against fanaticism, it should be done with measure and with an attractive idea at the same time. The closer we are, the more we talk.

To have no dreams is to die. I believe in small dreams. I am against monumental dreams. I am for the love of three, five, ten people. I don't believe in universal love. It is impossible. It's not worth the effort. Love is not always a tender feeling. Love is a very rare product. I'm in favor of a fix. I don't believe we can be born again.

I have a reputation as a dangerous extremist. I was never radical. I am an evolutionist. I am a man of compromise. I've been with the same woman for over fifty years and I know what that word means.

When the Minister of Culture wanted to ban a book, I said:

"Perhaps it is better to eliminate literature studies from the program because world and Hebrew literature hides many things that are deranged and not yet kosher. It is even more urgent to withdraw the Bible from the program: as far as sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews are concerned, the Bible is much more dangerous than the book you want to ban..."

Imagination needs to be awakened

I am not looking for justice, but life, because life is more important than justice. I'd rather have half justice and life than one hundred percent justice and death.

Imagination needs to be awakened every morning because it is lazy. If we don't wake it up and do it correctly, life will consist of clichés, political, sexual, family, moralistic, clichés are not only boring, they are also unfortunate, many more accidents happen in the world because of clichés than because of accidents. Eight out of ten marriages end in disaster because of clichés, sentimental, sexual, moral. You need to know how to live with unsolvable situations.

Even today we can say that Israel is a country with seven million inhabitants, seven million heads of state, seven million prophets, seven million messiahs. And everyone shouts and talks, and no one listens, except for me, sometimes I listen and that's how I earn my living. It is certainly clear to you, just by the way I speak, how much I love Israel, even when I can't stand it. It is a land of people filled with dreams and the distance between dream and nightmare is very small. It's a bit like the distance between comedy and tragedy...

Thanking Mr. Oz at the interview, I actually thanked him, perhaps most of all, for his last piece of wisdom about Israel as a country with seven million Messiahs, prophets... seeing in that picture a picture of today's Montenegro with 600 thousand messiahs and prophets who shout eternal truths not only in sleep, but also in waking life.