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”

Hamas’s 1988 charter

Omer’s NYT op-ed, “What I Believe as a Historian of Genocide”

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Exhalation by Ted Chiang