SOURCE: 'The Image of the Arab in Modern Hebrew Literature,' in Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. XXI, No. 2, Spring, 1982, pp. 319-41.

In the following essay, Coffin discusses representations of Arabs and Arab-Jewish relations in Israeli literature.

The encounter between the Arab residents and the Jewish settlers does not resemble an epic or a western, but is, perhaps, closest to a Greek tragedy. That is to say, the clash between justice and justice . . . and like ancient tragedies, there is no hope for happy reconciliation on the basis of some magic formula.

This vision of the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Israel is that of Amos Oz, one of Israel's leading fiction writers and, like many of its writers and intellectuals, a political activist as well. While writers may not have a significant effect on political life in Israel, they have for the most part been outspoken social critics...