IoS paperback review: How to Cure a Fanatic, By Amos Oz
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.This brief but resonant book collects the novelist Amos Oz's lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He offers sensible arguments for the two-state solution (which he sees as the best answer to what is effectively a "real-estate dispute") and a subtle diagnosis of political fanaticism (a preference for "feeling" over "thinking").
Throughout, Oz urges us to recognise that this is not some Manichean struggle between right and wrong, but instead a "tragedy in the most ancient and precise sense of the word: a clash between right and right". Sometimes he is so careful not to say anything that would offend either side that he ends up saying very little at all. But perhaps it is that very tact, that respect for the other, that constitutes his most eloquent response to the fanatic.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments