Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, when asked to explain the apparent about-face that led him to advocate the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, quoted a beloved Israeli pop ballad. “What you can see from there, you can’t see from here,” he said, referring to the shift in perspective he had supposedly undergone since coming to power.
Israeli-born Holocaust historian Omer Bartov invoked the same line when he was asked how he had come to view Israel’s ferocious assault on Gaza as a genocide. Living in the US, where he has spent more than three decades, he said, had given him the necessary distance to see the annihilation of Gaza for what it was. “I think it’s very hard to be dispassionate when you’re there,” he said.
Bartov did more than simply apply the word genocide to Israel’s actions: he shouted it from the establishment-media rooftops, making the case in a lengthy July 2025 essay in the New York Times titled: I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. (He had addressed some of the arguments in a Guardian essay the year prior.) Bartov’s declaration cost him several close relationships, he told me, even though subsequent events have not only validated his analysis but further demonstrated the lack of concern for Palestinian suffering that has become prevalent in Israeli society.
His new book, Israel: What Went Wrong?, is an attempt to explain that indifference. The book, which was published on Tuesday, is a detailed account of how Israel was transformed from a hopeful nation that in its founding document promised “complete equality of social and political rights to all its citizens irrespective of religion, race or sex” into one intent on what he bluntly terms “settler colonialism and ethno-nationalism”.
No, fascist. It’s up to Palestine. The country that existed before the 1930s. The country where people of multiple religions, Muslim, Christian and Jewish peacefully lived together until Churchill and the brits decided (under pressure from political groups) to sell land they didn’t own to a group with no claim to it.
It’s not up to the people killing civilians, it’s not up to Europe, its not up to the US, it is and has always been Palestine.
This is idiotic on multiple levels.
First of all, it’s NOT up to Palestine. This is not some ideological statement, this is just reality. The geopolitics works by de facto control, not by some idealized notion of righteous ownership. If that was the case the native Americans would be decided US foreign policy, but that’s not how it works now is it? The cold hard reality is that Israel is the true sovereign of the land, and neither Palestine nor any country can do anything substantial without Israeli approval. Therefore, they’re the ones who actually have the deciding power. Whether you agree with it or not doesn’t mean anything, that’s just the way it currently is.
Second of all, Palestine did NOT exist before the 1930s. There has never been sovereign Palestinian state in history. The modern Palestinian national identity was formed in the 1920s as a reaction to Jews getting serious about establishing Israel. Before that point, there was no such thing as a Palestinian identity. The Arabs in the region were indistinguishable from the other Levantese Arabs. The Arabs in what is now Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine have the same exact history, dialect, culture, food, religion, and so on. They’re called both today and historically as Bilad Al Sham which means the Levant nation in Arabic.
What we think of modern Israel and Palestine are both inventions of the British. The borders, for example, like with the other countries in the region are nonsensical and drawn randomly. The Arabs there did not see themselves as Palestinians back then, but as Arabs that were a part of the Arab nation (ummah al arribiyah). If it were up to the Palestinian Arabs back then, there wouldn’t be any borders because these borders were dividing a bigger nation. The British promised both the Jews and the Arabs a state, and this annoyed both which caused them to start segregating and fighting each other trying to make sure that the other one doesn’t get a state. This eventually led to the 1948 war when Israel did end up declaring independence.
Finally, Christians, Jews, and muslims most certainly did NOT live in peace. This delusional idea is only held by ignorant Westerns who have no understanding of the region’s history. No matter how far back in history you go, there’s always a strong presence of revolts, wars, and ethnic cleansing in the region because whichever religious group ruled the region oppressed the others. For example, when the Turks ruled. They applied islamic law which treats non muslim monotheistic believers (polytheism is punishable by death) as second class citizens. Non muslims are forced to pay a tax that muslims don’t have to pay, they’re forced to observe islamic holidays, and they’re saddled with a lot of restrictions that muslims don’t have.
This already makes everyday life very hard, but the exclusively muslim ruling class would made sure to keep minorities down at every turn. For example, whenever the Ottomans had war, they would force entire towns near the frontlines to evacuate, but they only allow muslims to return afterwards. The property and wealth that was left behind would be possessed and distributed among muslim soldiers and officials as spoils of war. The same goes for the places that got conquered, except the non muslim women and children there would also get ensalved. This type of treatment is the reason why the Greeks, Serbs, Armenians, Assyrians, and so many other minorities revolted against the Ottomans and ended up getting genocided as a result. But it’s not just the Ottomans, the Malmuks before them as well as the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Crusaders, and so on all engaged in similar behavior. You would be hard pressed to find any sustained period of time in this region’s history that didn’t have oppression, war, or violence.
1917 In November (October on the Julian calendar), the Bolsheviks seize power and Russia makes preparations to withdraw from the war. That same month, Britain issues the Balfour Declaration. In December, the British Army led by General Allenby marches victoriously into Jerusalem. Palestine is placed under British military occupation (1917–20). It then had a population of 688,957 Arabs (including Christians, Muslims and other non-Jewish minorities) and a population of 58,728 Jews.
1922 The Council of the League of Nations agrees to the text of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palestine Order-in-Council of 1 September separates Palestine from the Emirate of Transjordan, which is established to the east of the River Jordan. The Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, in a statement on British policy rejects the claim that Palestine was to become ‘as Jewish as England is English’. He declares: ‘His Majesty’s Government regard any such expectation as impracticable and have no such aim in view.’ He adds that: ‘the status of all citizens of Palestine in the eye of the law shall be Palestinian, and it has never been intended that they, or any section of them, should possess any other juridical status. In an exchange of correspondence with the Palestine Arab delegation, Churchill recognizes ‘the people of Palestine’, specifically referring to Palestine’s Arab community.
1948 Civil war breaks out on a wider scale in Palestine. In March, the US concludes that partition is unworkable and reverses its policy. It declares itself in favor of a UN Trusteeship for Palestine in a single unitary state. A UN Trusteeship Agreement is subsequently drafted. The Jewish Agency condemns it, goes on the offensive and avows to proclaim a Hebrew Republic on 16 May. In April, the Haganah (Jewish paramilitary), implements the Plan Dalet. Thirteen military operations follow, eight of which are beyond the boundaries set out for the Arab state in the UN Partition Plan. On 11 April, a massacre is perpetrated by the Irgun with the support of the Haganah in the Palestinian Arab village of Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem. By May, the Zionists have conquered Jaffa (which was supposed to be part of the Arab state as envisaged in the UN Partition Plan) and Haifa, causing their Arab populations to flee to secure ground. At midnight on 14/15 May the last British High Commissioner in Palestine terminates the Mandate and departs Haifa. The Yishuv concomitantly proclaims the establishment of the state of Israel. By this time, over 350,000 Palestinian Arabs have been evicted from their homes. The Arab Legion, commanded by British officers, enters Palestine on the pretext that it is defending the population of Palestine from further attacks by the Haganah and the Irgun (Zionist paramilitary). It is supported by troops from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. The fighting escalates. In July, the Haganah captures Lydda, Ramle and Nazareth expelling its Arab populations. By the time hostilities come to an end some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs and 17,000 Jews are displaced by the fighting. In December, the UN General Assembly passes a resolution providing that: ‘the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
Palestinians have no power so they can’t decide.
And why is it that they don’t have power?
Is it because a nuclear capable occupation holds them under what can only described as an apartheid system?
Not only nuclear capable but Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East.
Israel is the size of Vermont. Its only powerful because of bribes.
It’s strong because it has a technologically advanced military.
If Israel has demonstrated anything in 80 years of murderous occupation its that religious nut cunts with a few guns doesnt guarantee power, or safety. Human rights and treating people and neighbors with basic respect does. It doesnt matter how strong their military thinks it is, there are always ways around that, and defending any large space takes a lot more troops than they think.
The Gaza Strip and West Bank aren’t very large. It’s not Germany invading Russia or Japan invading China. The people in Gaza weren’t able to find a way around the IDF.