“Fima,” said Tsvi, “I read it. We talked about it the day before yesterday. Get to the point. Explain your problem.”

“I’m just coming to it,” said Fima. “But first, just explain one thing to me, Tsvika. Why does this Grass insist on referring to the Nazis as ‘they,’ whereas you and I, all these years, whenever we write about the occupation, the corruption of values, the oppression in the Territories, even about the Lebanon War, always and without exception use the pronoun ‘we’? And Grass was actually a soldier with the Wehrmacht! The same as the other one, Heinrich Boll. He wore the swastika and had to give the Nazi salute every morning and shout ‘Heil Hitler’ with the rest of them. And now he calls them ‘them.’ Whereas I, who have never set foot in Lebanon, who have never served in the Territories, so that my conscience is clearer than Günter Grass’s, regularly say and write ‘we.’ ‘Our wrongdoings.’ And even ‘the innocent blood we have shed.’ What is it, that ‘we’? Something left over from the War of Independence: We are always at the ready, we are here, we’re the Palmach? Who is this ‘we,’ anyway? Me and Rabbi Levinger? You and Rabbi Kahane? What does it mean, exactly? Have you ever thought about it, Professor? Perhaps the time has come when you and I and all of us should follow the example of Grass and Böll. Maybe we should all start saying, exclusively, consciously, and emphatically: ‘they.’ What do you think?”

“Look,” Tsvi said wearily, “the thing is with them it’s all in the past, whereas with us it’s still going on, and that’s why.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Fima cut in with an explosion of rage. “Can you hear what you’re saying? What d’you mean, with them it’s in the past, whereas with us it’s still going on? What the hell do you mean by ‘it’? What precisely is it according to you that is over and done with in Berlin but still goes on in Jerusalem? Have you gone crazy, Professor? What you’re doing is putting them and us on the same level! Worse still, you’re implying that the Germans have a moral advantage over us, because they’ve finished and poor old us, we’re still at it. Who do you think you are? George Steiner? Radio Damascus? That’s exactly the tainted comparison that even Grass, the graduate of the Wehrmacht, decries and calls demagoguery!”

Fima’s passion was spent. In its place came sadness. And he said in the tone one uses to speak to a child who has hurt himself with a screwdriver because he has obstinately refused to take heed of the grownups’ warnings:

“You can see for yourself, Tsvika, how easy it is to fall into the trap. Look what a fine line we have to tread.”