Amos Oz: of Loyalties and Betrayals

Abstract

This article will examine Judas, the most recent novel (2014) published by the Israeli writer Amos Oz. In this work of fiction, the author uses the context of the alleged betrayal of Judas the apostle, narrated in the Gospels, and the delicate emotional relationship between a young college student and a middle-aged war widow to address the intense controversy within the Zionist movement in the years before the establishment of the State of Israel, marked by vehement accusations of treason against the militants who opposed the hegemonic line of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency –they proposed the creation of a binational state–and attempts to de-legitimize them.