They should be sent to live out their lives with their "friends".

Excellent article.

since when are novelists supposed to have a national conscience or judgment? theyre entertainers, and todays entertainment is a facebook striptease. the longer the wordier the slower the better. why not just call it very talented moral pornography and be done with it. and the best ones let you feel superior when youre done with them.

"After we pull out of Lebanon, we can forget the namem Hizbolah"... How's that working out?

Mr. Meotti - There was no boycott of the news of the Fogel murders in the western press. It was in most of the prominent newspapers and appropriately condemned as outrageous and inexcusable. Nonetheless, it has to be put into perspective. It was a huge event in the eyes of us Jews but it can be overwhelmed by other news. In America almost 50 people are murdered EVERY DAY. In Mexico, there are roughly 30 murders daily. At the same time as the Fogel murders, Japan was suffering tens of thousands of deaths and the mideast was in flames. G-d weeps whenever one of his children is needlessly killed, Jew, Arab, American , Asian etc. We should also weep and not just for Jews. All these authors are doing is writing what they believe are necessary to fulfill G-d's wish that we all live in peace.

There should be a cost to enjoy destroying the security and world position of your own people. Every country but Israel has laws against treason, it's time for Israel to join the world and stop making the excuse everything is OK because of free speech.

If only Israel's journalists and Academics would follow Mr. Meotti's sane perspective.

Run With", couldn't have been more boring. I couldn't manage more than two dozen pages. Vapid, slow and contrived. Maybe it was the English translation, My own estimate: A highly overpublicized author not worth the ticket of admission. Amos Oz: I read "Unto Death", a mysterious and compelling book so, since then, I have tried reading his later works. He's flat and boring and has lost his power. He should have retired much like John Steinbeck after Steinbeck's early years, "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Red Pony"' etc. but he kept on and came up with such derivitives as "Travels with Charley". At any rate, both novelists are now mediocre and their political opinions mirror their mediocrity.

How sad that an outsider needs to tell us this - thank you, Mr. Meotti, for writing so accurately and intelligently and bravely.

Great article. Thank you

Brave article. Spread the word.

I forgot to mention that I think Mr Oz is a great writer. His 'Black Box' and 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' are almost as good as A.B. Yehoshua's 'The Lover' and 'A Late Divorce' and Meir Shalev's 'Blue Mountain.'

Thank you for your article.

There is no reason to allow Grossman and Oz more leeway than any other citizen. Writing books is no excuse for treachery. It's time for criminal investigations of these two "gentlemen".

On a day of that heinous crime occurred NO major US network reported it. The only exception was FOX where they ran it as a short caption on the bottom of the screen. The next day CNN dedicated a half-hour prime-time slot dedicated to upcoming interview of Netanyahu by Pierce Morgan(a fat ugly brittish replacement of Larry King). With assistance of his left-wing-men kikes(Friedman and Remnick) there was a non-stop bashing of Israel. The issue of murder came up only in context of so-called ‘occupation of palistinian lands’. The day after there was an exclusive interview with Israeli PM – again in the primetime – like there’s no tragedy in Japan, Libya, Mexico etc. The ugly britton even tried to keep up with current events by asking Netanyahu about them. They were not concerned about Fogel family. All they were concerned of was a ‘disproportional’ decision to build more housing units in Judea. See Remnick video at http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/17/clips-from-last-night/?iref=allsearch

Did you read Love and Darkness till the end?The beginning was excellent, the middle was readable,and the end i kept for next year.

it doesn t harm,which is not the case here.

In his 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' Amos Oz writes about the random shelling of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem by the Jordanian army and the deliberate killing of a Jewish child by an Arab sniper. The problem is not what these authors write, but the information vacuum on the other part of the world. Of course the Crusades were wrong, but Arabs and Muslims never seem to ask themselves if how they came to occupy such a large part of the world wasn't just as wrong. A few rogue guards abused a small number of prisoners (not traffic offenders) in Abu Ghraib, but Saddam who had hundreds of thousands killed is a hero to many Muslims. A British national freed from Guantanamo prison said it best: he wanted to punish America for what he saw as the greatest crime against humanity ever, the atom bombs on Japan. As if those bombs were a sadistic act against a peaceful nation.

In his 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' Amos Oz writes about the random shelling of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem by the Jordanian army and the deliberate killing of a Jewish child by a sniper. The problem is not what these authors write, but the information vacuum on the other part of the world. Of course the Crusades were wrong, but Arabs and Muslims never seem to ask themselves if how they came to occupy such a large part of the world wasn't just as wrong. A few rogue guards abused a small number of prisoners (not traffic offenders) in Abu Ghraib, but Saddam who had hundreds of thousands killed is a hero to many Muslims. A British national freed from Guantanamo prison said it best: he wanted to punish America for what he saw as the greatest crime against humanity ever, the atom bombs on Japan. As if those bombs were a sadistic act against a peaceful nation.

To convey the message that writers are not free to express their ideas, Mr. Meotti penned a very mediocre article. He is seemingly misinformed. Mr. Grossman sacrificed his son for our country. What have you done Mr. Meotti? If he was anti-Israel, would he let his son join a and lead an armored combat unit of Tzahal? Yes, his opinions are to the left, but he is a true zionist. Attack the ideas, not the individuals. We are better than that.

writing ability. Did you make an earlier post?

What do you mean "he let his son join and lead an armoured combat unit" ? You think his son asked his permission? The fact that Grossman was once loyal doesn't mean that he still is. He now sees throught distorted lenses that most others would have replaceed by now.

Ora - I cannot say I loved Oz's tragic 'Tale of Love and Darkness' but it gave a good picture of something important to know. I don't enjoy reading about the death camps, like some of Primo Levi's writing, but we need to know what happened and how people felt.

...of they books. A writer without a conscience and living in a deformed reality has nothing to teach - except for more hatred, racism and incitement, just like their supporters. And to all the Islamo-Leftist impostors here ( even those with elaborate aliases): your opinion means squat. We know what drives you and we know what your ultimate purpose is, so save your breath - you're not fooling anybody here.

The Israeli authors referred to in this article are gullible and naive. They instinctively identify with the western liberal elite who subscribe to the bogus belief that if only Israel would surrender 'occupied land' there would be peace. They fail to understand that a majority of palestinians and arabs view every inch of Israeli territory as stolen land and in keepng with their islamic inheritance will never willingly accept a Jewish state in their midst. The fame status and of these writers gives them a platform to peddle these dangerous illusions which are easily swallowed by people looking for an easy way out especially in europe where they dont understand the middle eastern reality as the example of gaza demonstrated. Making concessions to the palestinians wont solve the problem it will only embolden the forces working for Israel's destruction.

This guy is the darling of the NeoCons, he opposes abortion, supports the Catholic Church and favours every war going. Now if the rest of the usual suspects on this TB list are happy to be associated with a so-called intellectual who is in fact another red-neck in poor disguise, so be it. Join the anti-intellectual herd! Enjoy it up there on Metzada. And keep hiding from reality.