Writing in the Dark (13 page)
Read Writing in the Dark Online
Authors: David Grossman
In closing, clearly not everything depends on our own actions, and there are stronger forces at work in the region and in the world.
Some of them—like Iran, like extreme Islam—seek to harm us.
Nevertheless, much depends on what we do and what we are.
The disagreements today between right and left are not really that great.
The decisive majority of Israeli citizens understand at this point, however reluctantly, what shape the solution to the conflict will take.
Most of us understand that the country will be partitioned, that a Palestinian state will arise.
Why, then, do we continue to exhaust ourselves with the internal strife that has been going on for almost
forty years
?
Why does the political leadership continue to reflect the positions of the extremists and not of the majority?
Surely our situation would be far better if we reached a national accord among ourselves before circumstances—external pressures, a new intifada, or another war—force us to do so.
If we do that, we will save ourselves from years of decline and mistakes, years in which we will cry
out again and again,
Behold, earth, for we have been very wasteful.
Some of them—like Iran, like extreme Islam—seek to harm us.
Nevertheless, much depends on what we do and what we are.
The disagreements today between right and left are not really that great.
The decisive majority of Israeli citizens understand at this point, however reluctantly, what shape the solution to the conflict will take.
Most of us understand that the country will be partitioned, that a Palestinian state will arise.
Why, then, do we continue to exhaust ourselves with the internal strife that has been going on for almost
forty years
?
Why does the political leadership continue to reflect the positions of the extremists and not of the majority?
Surely our situation would be far better if we reached a national accord among ourselves before circumstances—external pressures, a new intifada, or another war—force us to do so.
If we do that, we will save ourselves from years of decline and mistakes, years in which we will cry
out again and again,
Behold, earth, for we have been very wasteful.
From the place where I stand now, I plead, I call upon anyone who is listening—young people back from war, who know they are the ones who will be asked to pay the price of the next war, Jewish and Arab citizens, right and left: Stop for one moment.
Look over the precipice, think how close we are to losing what we have created here.
Ask yourselves if the time has not come to pull ourselves back, snap out of the paralysis, and demand for ourselves, finally, the life we deserve to live.
Look over the precipice, think how close we are to losing what we have created here.
Ask yourselves if the time has not come to pull ourselves back, snap out of the paralysis, and demand for ourselves, finally, the life we deserve to live.
Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, November 4, 2006
NOVELS
The Smile of the Lamb
See Under: Love
The Book of Intimate Grammar
The Zigzag Kid
Be My Knife
Someone to Run With
Her Body Knows
See Under: Love
The Book of Intimate Grammar
The Zigzag Kid
Be My Knife
Someone to Run With
Her Body Knows
NONFICTION
The Yellow Wind
Sleeping on a Wire
Death as a Way of Life
Sleeping on a Wire
Death as a Way of Life
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2008 by David Grossman
Translation copyright © 2008 by Jessica Cohen
All rights reserved
Translation copyright © 2008 by Jessica Cohen
All rights reserved
Designed by Jonathan D.
Lippincott
Lippincott
eISBN 9781429996167
First eBook Edition : April 2011
First edition, 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grossman, David.
Grossman, David.
Writing in the dark / David Grossman ; translated by Jessica
Cohen.—1st ed.
p.
cm.
cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-28110-6 (hardcover : alk.
paper)
ISBN-10: 0-374-28110-6 (hardcover : alk.
paper)
paper)
ISBN-10: 0-374-28110-6 (hardcover : alk.
paper)
1.
Literature and history—Israel.
2.
Literature and society—
Literature and history—Israel.
2.
Literature and society—
Israel.
3.
Israeli literature—History and criticism.
4.
Jewish literature—History and criticism.
5.
Arab-Israeli conflict.
6.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) I.
Cohen, Jessica.
II.
Title.
3.
Israeli literature—History and criticism.
4.
Jewish literature—History and criticism.
5.
Arab-Israeli conflict.
6.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) I.
Cohen, Jessica.
II.
Title.
PJ5010.G76 2008
892.4’47—dc22
2008026057
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