Oz, Amos

(1939- )

   Noted author, essayist, and political commentator. He was born in Jerusalem, educated at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Oxford University, and a member of Kibbutz Hulda. Oz is a widely published author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles in Israel and abroad, including In the Land of Israel (1983), The Slopes of Lebanon (1989), To Know a Woman (1991), FIMA (1993), Israel, Palestine and Peace Essays (1994), Under This Blazing Light (1995), Don't Call It Night (1995), Israel, Palestine and Peace (1995), The Silence of Heaven (2000), The Same Sea (2001), A Tale of Love and Darkness (2004), and The Slopes of the Volcano (2006). He is the recipient of numerous international accolades, including the prestigious Goethe Prize (Germany) in 2005. Oz's most recent works of fiction include Suddenly in the Depth of the Forest (2005) and Rhyming Life and Death (2007), and his latest works of non-fiction include How to Cure a Fanatic (2006). Although a founding member of Peace Now and a longstanding critic of Israel's presence in southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s, Oz supported Israel's actions in Lebanon during the Second Lebanon War (2006) as legitimate acts of self-defense against unprovoked missile attacks against Israeli civilian population centers by Hezbollah.