Amos Oz and the politics of identity: A reassessment

Abstract

ABSTRACT If early in his career Amos Oz was regarded as the epitome of the new Israeli or Hebrew, later critics tended to reduce Oz’s image to that of a member of a specific group – Ashkenazi Laborites – that was once the hegemonic group in Israel but has seen its status decrease in recent years. This article seeks to show that in his career, Oz exhibited views on Jewish history and the future of the Jewish state that went beyond the narrow confines of Labor Zionism, and that he offered some keen political insights that transcended the limits of identity politics.