I Write About Reconciliation, But

We All Begin Much Much Much Earlier. In Fact, Every One Of Us - Every Nation, Every Individual Begins Hundreds, Perhaps Thousands Of Years Prior To The Date That Appears In The Passport.

When I Say My Novels Are Set In Israel In The Last Seventy Years, This Entails The Fact That They Begin Hundreds Or Thousands Of Years Earlier In Time. And, Sometimes In Very, Very Different Places, Because We All Come From Somewhere, Especially Here In Israel.

I Never Regard My Characters, My Protagonists, As Personifications. It's Not That I Sit By My Desk And I Pick Up A Character Who Will Be The Spokesperson Of The Israeli Left, Another One Will Be The Spokesperson Of The Right, Another One Will Be The Spokesperson Of Middle Eastern Jews, European Jews, Religions Jews And So On.

I Have Been Saying Again And Again That The Case Of Israel And Palestine, The Case Of Israel And The Arab World, And Indeed The Case Of Israel And Europe, Is Not Black And White. It's Not A Western Movie.

A Little More Than A Hundred Years Ago, "tel Aviv" Was Not A City. It Was A Title Of A Novel Written By An Author. The "return To Zion" Was A Name Of Another Novel. There Was A Bookshelf. There Was No Country. There Was No State. There Was No Nation. There Was No Physical Jewish Reality In This Country.