Novelist

Israelis are the total Jews.

In a time of crisis, there is rational tendency to turn to the writer.

Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others.

For 50 years - that is, for most of my adult life - I worked tirelessly for the two-state solution in the face of countless frustrations, both on the part of the Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority.

Traveling is one expression of the desire to cross boundaries.

Traveling is one expression of the desire to cross boundaries.

World War II was a trauma that paralysed writers. It was something metaphysical, diabolical.

I was proud my father spoke Arabic fluently - his father sent him to learn Arabic from a sheikh - and we had Arab friends. His task of understanding the Arabs - not only politics but poetry - was very important; he took it as a vocation.

We must see what in the Israeli identity - in the Israeli - we can give to other people rather than speaking so often of taking, expanding territory.

The question of boundaries is a major question of the Jewish people because the Jews are the great experts of crossing boundaries. They have a sense of identity inside themselves that doesn't permit them to cross boundaries with other people.

I come from two parts of the oriental community - Jerusalemite and North African Jews.

The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

Israel is too attached to America, too influenced by America. It should be connected to Europe. America is based on mythology - the free man, the individual, the open frontier. Europe is more conscious of history. Take Britain and Shakespeare. You shape your identity through history.

So with truth - there is a certain moment when one can say, this is the truth and here I put a dot, a stop, and I go to another thing. A judge has to put an end to a deliberation. But for a historian, there's never an end to the past. It can go on and on and on.

For 50 years - that is, for most of my adult life - I worked tirelessly for the two-state solution in the face of countless frustrations, both on the part of the Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority.

Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others.

Intimate relationships are a gold mine for literature to explore, to understand, to describe.

I admit I think it is immoral for Jews to live in the Diaspora.

At the heart of anti-Semitism lies Moses. He made a catastrophic error, a terrible mistake, and all anti-Semitism for two thousand years stems from his misjudgement. Moses said we Jews could remain a people without having a land. He said we don't need territory to hold onto our Jewish identity. This was a disaster.

I come from two parts of the oriental community - Jerusalemite and North African Jews.