Jeffrey Goldberg quotes from an interview with Amos Oz in Deutsche Welle, a Zionist talking to a friendly German:

Amoz Oz: I would like to begin the interview in a very unusual way: by presenting one or two questions to your readers and listeners. May I do that?

Deutsche Welle: Go ahead! [!!]

Question 1: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery?

Question 2: What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?

With these two questions I pass the interview to you.

Goldberg, the beginning of the piece:

It is too early to say anything definitive about the Hamas decision to apparently break the ceasefire and attack an Israeli position, except that if it is true, as reports indicate, that Hamas militants came through a tunnel and carried underground and back into Gaza a live Israeli captive, then this moment could represent not another terrible, dispiriting incident in a terrible, dispiriting mini-war, but a fairly decisive turning point in which all swords are unsheathed.

Israel said it was during the truce; Hamas said it was before. Israel had said it would not stop destroying tunnels during the truce, so who knows?  Israel said of the Hamas fighters detonated a suicide vest. That was a lie. Most likely he was killed by Israeli soldiers following the 'Hannibal protocol": better for Israel that he die than be captured. Hamas called an end to suicide bombings in 2006. On human shields, again, see links here. The tunnels have been used only for attacks on military targets.

Nathan Thrall in the LRB, Hamas's Chances. It's a good companion to the piece by Mouin Rabbani and both show Amos Oz for what he is.

A reader sends a note to AbuKhalil

"On Amos Oz. He’ll try to deny – what are his options? Telling the truth is not what he’s best at.  I encountered Amos Oz in the early 90’s at a Hillel meet and greet.
After the superficial accolades, we were able to interact.
My friend and I asked him why he didn’t develop any nuanced Palestinian characters. He replied that since he doesn’t know any Arabs in the bedroom (of course, in his world, Arabs could not be Jews), he couldn’t include them as complete characters or people in his writing. That’s the level at which he functioned, and possibly the one at which he continues to operate. Quite revolting."

5 or more posts from Atrios in the last week on Afghanistan and Iraq.