Omer Bartov – Israel's Hard Right Turn
Episode description
0:00 The long road leading to the Gaza War
9:14 Don’t Palestinians have some responsibility for the current state of affairs?
9:48 The precedent of the 1973 Yom Kippur War
11:26 Omer: Israel only negotiates under pressure
13:31 Netanyahu and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
15:27 The US’s military support for Israel
16:32 The origins of Hamas
20:20 Omer: Netanyahu’s coalition is “a mirror image of Hamas”
24:45 The threat to democracy in Israel
26:27 Omer: Netanyahu is driving the country to the right in order to avoid a corruption trial
30:07 How “Jewish supremacists” have gained control of Israel’s government
34:01 Why Omer’s Zionism does not commit him to defending Israel’s actions
36:46 The risk of genocide in Gaza
40:05 The IDF’s procedure in the Gaza invasion
43:09 What will happen to the Gazan refugees?
45:00 The international community’s role in finding a resolution to the Gaza War
48:17 Is the IDF “the most moral army in the world”?
54:39 The revenge motive
57:07 Omer: The campaign in Gaza is a fiasco
59:38 A US-led plan for “the day after”
1:04:37 Is peace in Israel a pollyannaish pipe dream?
Recorded January 2, 2023
Links and Readings
Benny Morris’s book, One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Omer’s New Statesman piece, “Both Netanyahu and Hamas see this crisis as an opportunity”
Omer’s NYT op-ed, “What I Believe as a Historian of Genocide”
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