A. B. Yehoshua Quotes

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A. B. Yehoshua

Profession : Novelist

Birth : December 9, 1936

We're living with the Arabs; we have to understand them... Through knowing the Arabs, you know yourself better.

A. B. Yehoshua

This is why I am a Zionist: because Diaspora leads to hatred and the Holocaust.

A. B. Yehoshua

I only published my first novel at the age of 40. Till then, I wrote short stories.

A. B. Yehoshua

Jerusalem doesn't belong only to Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, but to the world.

A. B. Yehoshua

I was proud my father spoke Arabic fluently - his father sent him to learn Arabic from a sheikh - and we had Arab friends. His task of understanding the Arabs - not only politics but poetry - was very important; he took it as a vocation.

A. B. Yehoshua

At the heart of anti-Semitism lies Moses. He made a catastrophic error, a terrible mistake, and all anti-Semitism for two thousand years stems from his misjudgement. Moses said we Jews could remain a people without having a land. He said we don't need territory to hold onto our Jewish identity. This was a disaster.

A. B. Yehoshua

We have to rethink the two-state solution.

A. B. Yehoshua

I don't think that when Zionism began there was a claim that we were losing - even in part - our capacity to contribute to other peoples.

A. B. Yehoshua

In my DNA, the Zionist gene is extremely strong.

A. B. Yehoshua

I admit I think it is immoral for Jews to live in the Diaspora.

A. B. Yehoshua

World War II was a trauma that paralysed writers. It was something metaphysical, diabolical.

A. B. Yehoshua

In a time of crisis, there is rational tendency to turn to the writer.

A. B. Yehoshua

In my own view, Hamas's frustration derives from a lack of legitimization by Israel and by much of the world. It is this frustration that leads them to such destructive desperation. That's why we need to grant them status as a legitimate enemy - before we talk about an agreement or, alternatively, about a frontal war.

A. B. Yehoshua

Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others.

A. B. Yehoshua

The question of boundaries is a major question of the Jewish people because the Jews are the great experts of crossing boundaries. They have a sense of identity inside themselves that doesn't permit them to cross boundaries with other people.

A. B. Yehoshua