Opening night, J Street Conference

Amos Oz greatly influenced my Jewish identity when I heard him speak in the early 1980s, and now he influences my Jewish political sensibility in the early 21st century:



‎"There is more than one way to be a good Jew and to be a good Zionist and to be pro-Israel."

"The patient is ready for surgery, but the doctors are cowards."

"Compromise has been treated like a bad word, but the opposite of compromise is fanaticism and death."

"My slogan has been make peace, not love - nations make peace with clenched teeth, and then, gradually, over generations, the hard feelings diminish."

"There are two resolutions of a tragedy: In a Shakespearean tragedy, the stage may be littered with bodies but justice has prevailed. In a tragedy by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, everyone is brokenhearted, embittered, disappointed, sad, and disillusioned – but they remain alive."

And a bunch of other great stuff. He has such a way with words.