This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross.

What can a writer do to be helpful during wartime?

That's a question my guest, the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer

Edgar Carrot, asked himself after the Hamas invasion of Israel one year ago this week.

What he did was read to adults and to children who lived in the kibutum that were attacked.

He went to the front lines to see what he could do to help Israeli soldiers.

But he doesn't support the war or the Netanyahu government, or Hamas, or Hezbollah.

He sees the humanity on both sides and has joined demonstrations in support of a deal that would release the hostages and end the fighting.

He describes himself as a left-wing liberal and an agnostic.

His parents were Holocaust survivors. His sister is

ultra-Orthodox and previously lived in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. His

brother is far left. Edgar Carrot lives in Tel Aviv which has recently come under missile

attack from Hezbollah. During one recent missile attack he left the bomb

shelter prematurely and on his way home he was outside with no shelter sitting on a rock watching

Israeli missile shields intercept Hezbollah rockets.

Karate has written many op-eds over the past 35 years about the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict and he has continued to write and speak about it during this war. In the

U.S. he's best known for his short stories and personal essays.

In the public radio world, he's also known for his contributions to this American life, and

for readings of his stories on selected shorts.

His latest collection of short stories,

autocorrect, will be published in English next May. He also now has a

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