Apples from the Desert. Savyon Liebrecht

Forests,” describes the dissolution of the Zionist enterprise by an Arab and a Jew who collaborate in the act of destruction. The Jewish forest ranger whose mission is to watch over the symbolic forest sets fire to it, in collaboration with an old Arab who has found refuge in the forest. Thus, the old Arab avenges the destruction of his village during the war of independence and the obliteration of its site by the planting a forest on its ruins. The young Israeli joins him out of a desire to rebel against his parents, who have subjugated his life to a cause sacred to their heart—the guarding of the forest (the State) that they have created. (For a detailed analysis of Yehoshua’s story, see Gila Ramraz-Rauch, 128–40).

      Yehoshua’s story is more extreme than any of Liebrecht’s, both in its violent tone and in its political implications. It not only gives vent to the guilt feelings of the younger generation in Israel, but also warns against a destructive eruption that threatens the entire Zionist enterprise because it has ignored the needs of the Arab minority. Liebrecht, on the other hand, is interested mostly in expressing the malaise of conscientious Jews, escaping to an unrealizable, momentary fantasy about resuming a harmonious relationship between Jews and Arabs. The dream of forming an alliance, of creating a brotherhood between Jews and Arabs, expresses the profound need to overcome the power struggle and the animosity that exist between the two peoples.

      18. This is in contrast to the presentation of the Arab as the epitome of sexual attraction in Amos Oz’s “My Michael,” where he remains voiceless. Liebrecht grants the Arab in her story a more humane and complex presence.

      19. The fierce tension between the Sephardic culture and the dominant Ashkenazic culture in Israel is described in Ella Shohat’s Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (115–78).

      20. The mourning customs of the various ethnic groups in Israel are described in Phyllis Palgi’s book Death, Mourning, and Bereavement in Israel.

      21. Sisterly bonding that transcends the deep chasms between orthodox and secular Jews in Israeli society is the theme of Liebrecht’s story “Purple Meadows” (published in the collection “What Am I Speaking, Chinese?” She Said to Him). The friendship that develops between two women whose lifestyles and world views are so different is motivated by a wish to rehabilitate the shattered life of a little girl. The girl’s life fell apart when her mother was raped and consequently became pregnant. The rabbis instructed her to abort the fetus, divorce her husband, and sever all ties with her daughter. This woman is, in fact, a victim of a double rape: the physical rape perpetrated on her body by a strange man, and the more horrendous spiritual rape perpetrated by members of her congregation under the instructions of the patriarchal religious establishment. Here, the affinity between the women is based on another element—on the bond created by female vulnerability. (The traits and practices of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community are described by Menachem [130–33].)

      22. Risa Domb discusses the patriarchal structure of Arab society in The Arab in Hebrew Prose, 1911–1948 (29).

      23. This is how Gunew and Spivak define the (in their opinion) reprehensible attempt to represent marginal groups through “token figures” (416).

      24. The status of women in the kibbutz is succinctly described by Calvin Goldscheider (162–63) and by Judith Buber-Agassi (395–421).

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