I Am An Old Man And I

Israel Is Imperfect, Of Course It Is - A Far Cry From The Monumental Dreams Of The Founding Fathers. One Of The Reasons Is That Their Dreams Were Unrealistic. They Were Bigger Than Life. These Were Messianic Dreams, Dreams About Total Redemption For The Jews, For The World. Such Dreams Do Not Come True, Not In Their Entirety.

The Jews Have A Powerful Ally, America, But They Do Not Really Have A Bigger Family In The Same Way That There Is A European Family Or An Arab-muslim Family. People Who Fail To Understand This Ambivalence Will Never Understand This Country. They Will Not Be Able To Understand How Netanyahu Could Win The Last Election By Saying The Iranians Are Coming, Islamic State (is) Is Coming, The Arabs Are Coming, And The Whole World Hates Us Anyway.

My Dream For Israel Is Peace, External And Internal Peace. I Want Israel To Live In Peace With Its Neighbors And In Peace With Itself.

I Know That A Translation Of A Work Of Literature Is Like Playing A Violin Concerto On The Piano. You Can Do This. You Can Do This Very Successfully On One Strict Condition: Never Try To Force The Piano To Produce The Sounds Of The Violin. This Will Be Grotesque.

I Would Love To Leave My Children And Grandchildren A Nicer World Than The One I Am Going To Leave Them. But Bearing In Mind That I Was Born In The World Of Hitler, Mussolini And Franco, The Legacy I Leave Them Might Not Be As Terrible As The Legacy My Parents And Grandparents Left To Me.