Best Fanatics – Three Essays by Amos Oz
Of this book, I only found a Dutch version.
In three essays, the author approaches the phenomenon of fanatics.
In the first essay of Best Fanatics – Three Essays, “Dear Fanatics” he describes two things in my opinion. The first is the phenomenon of “fanaticism” which he illustrates extensively through his experiences as a Jew in Israel. But in which he does not close his eyes to the rest of the world. Fanaticism is an elaborate concept, which, according to its descriptions, carries with it some contradictions: love and hate. Compassion and ruthlessness. The second, for which he starts a rather short search, is a solution, a cure for that same fanaticism. He doesn’t find any mitigating means. However he does suggest some preventative things: humor, self-mockery,… (and I suspect love in all forms too).
In the second essay, “Lights, Not a Light,” he writes a lot about the customs of Judaism as a culture. Not just the religion or the people. In doing so, he touches on what is passé, or rather, what survives culturally because man possesses religion. Not the other way around. In doing so, he also touches on what is specific to culture: everything is questioned, even God can be called before a tribunal.
In the third essay, “Dreams Israel Had Better Give Up Soon,” he writes about the fanaticism that exists on both sides of Israel. What he calls the “insides” and the “outsides”: some positions of the Israelis, some positions of the Palestinians. The frictions of both peoples, the prospect of a two-state solution. And how fanaticism can use both types of politics and weapons. That in politics and militarily one can have allies, but that they are not friends. Because tomorrow they may be diametrically opposed. Finally, he expresses his love for Israel.