Slopes of Lebanon

The essays in The Slopes of Lebanon, as the title suggest, are mainly Oz's reflections on the unpopular war which Israel fought in Lebanon in the early eighties. Oz has many insightful, deeply penetrating things to say about this conflict, and on many levels. Oz's political writing, unlike his prose (which is more mystical and elusive), is always sharply defined and delimited. He can state simply but with a measure of complexity an issue and then rip it to shreds. This collection reveals how deeply ethical a writer Oz is; for him, the Zionist dream is far more than the settling of a people in a land, but a moral imperative. What kind of people do Israelis want to be? He asks this question again and again, and provides insightful, deeply humane answers.