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calcul a ting, pa ti ent roma nticism on the one hand a nd adolescent
roma nti cism on the other.
Goodheart:
You mi ght not care to di scuss Peres, but a re you prepa red
to di scuss M oshe Dayan?
Oz :
I dislike Dayan imme nsely, a nd this is a n understa tement. To
me he represents a fri ghte ning obsess ion with death - it has to do
with the way he uses la nguage. I made, more tha n just once, a
careful lingui sti c a nalys is of hi s peeches: hi s rheto ric is soaked in
death. H e's a ve ry stra nge cha racter, to me a ve ry fri ghtening
cha rac ter .
Goodheart:
And the n aga in he seem to have a ce rta in feeling for
Arabs and fo r the Arab reality, a nd there a re sugges tions tha t if
there's a way out for Israe l in rela ti on to the Pa les tini a ns, D ayan
has the way.
Oz :
Yes, the re's a ce rta in as pec t of Dayan's pe rsona lity whi ch could
turn him into a n interes tin g poe t. H e has imagina tion . But I
happen to di slike the idea of poe ts in powe r .
Goodheart:
Tha t's why you've stayed away from politics? I me t a ma n
in Eil a t (a resort town on the Red Sea) who li ves in Ramo t M eir, a
village of fift y families near T el Aviv. H e said tha t there a re only
two people in tha t village who a re not in debt. One is a Yeshi vnik
who li ves off ha ndouts from the gove rnment a nd Ameri can J ews.
The Yeshivnik avo ids work a nd milita ry obligati ons by spending a
minimal a mount of time in the synagogue in the most pe rfunctory
fas hi on . The o ther is himself. He regards himself a nd the Ye hi v–
nik as pa l-as ites. H e said he would like to work , but he can't a ffo rd
to be in business. H e los t hi s shirt in business, because of
infla ti on.
*
So he pl ays the stock ma rket. H e excori a ted the reli–
gious moveme nt in Israe l as the ba ne of Israel's ex is tence because
he says it has des troyed the work ethi c. He connec ted the para–
sitism of the reli gious movements with the infl a ti on a nd the se nse
of mora l cri sis in Israel. Is the re a nythin g in wha t he says?
Oz:
Well , I think one of the wo rst results of the reli giou s pa rty's role
in the Likud's coalition is the fac t tha t it has undermined the bas ic
principle of the La bor Zioni st movement , namely, the a ttempt to
cha nge the entire sys tem of va lues of the mos t petit bourgeois
middl e-class people in the wo rld . This has bee n a n evolutiona ry
process, a pa in ful one, a terribl e one. R a bbinical students,
lawye rs, intell ec tua ls, wo rld refo rmers, we re educa ting them–
sel ves into becoming workers, fa rmers, pionee rs - the entire
process is be ing se riously interrupted by the poli cies of the present
'Over 100 perce nt a year.
