Exodus

“[B]ut Palestine…that’s different again. Kitty, there’s almost something frightening about it. Some people are out to resurrect a nation that has been dead for two thousand years. Nothing like that has ever happened before. What’s more, I think they’re going to do it.”

Mark Parker, the American journalist, says this as he and Kitty reflect on the Jewish ambition to establish a national homeland in Palestine. The novel consistently tries to create a sense of epic wonder at the scale of the Jewish achievement in Israel, and that sense can be discerned in this quote.

“Things at home? The same as always. Bombings, shootings. Exactly as it has been every day since we were children. It never changes. Every year we come to a crisis which is sure to wipe us out—then we go on to another crisis worse than the last. Home is home.”

Here Ari gives a description of the life of Jews in Palestine, in answer to a question from David Ben Ami. This characterization of the Jewish experience fits with both the theme of Resilience and Survival in the Face of Adversity and that of The Struggle for a Homeland, as Ari unhesitatingly identifies Palestine as, quite simply, “home” in spite of the violence and risks he describes being a part of day-to-day life.

“Right and wrong? It is not for you and me to argue the right and wrong of the question. The only kingdom that runs on righteousness is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdoms of the earth run on oil. The Arabs have oil.”

This quote comes from a British general, Tevor-Browne, in a conversation with Brigadier Bruce Sutherland. As the British grapple with the complex moral questions involved in the Palestine situation, he acknowledges that practical considerations often set the agenda, not moral considerations. This quote underscores the novel’s theme on The Moral Complexities of War and Political Struggle.