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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”.

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[-] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

It is working as expected. Herzl was advocating for displacing the local people to create the state

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago

Israel was an insane ethnostate movement long before they even gained independence. There's a reason why an overwhelming majority of former colonial states criticized Israel's existence during its very inception.

Had the Zionist movement never taken off, Mandatory Palestine would probably have just become a regular old state like Lebanon or Jordan, Lebanon even has a pretty hefty Christian population right after Muslims, yet you don't see them in some constant genocidal warfare campaign against each other.

Even weirder, Judaism itself was against the idea of forming a Jewish state without a Messiah for thousands of years, but at some point the radical branch became the overwhelming majority. Orthodox Jews are completely outnumbered by their Zionist counterparts which have transformed Judaism into a complete ethnic superiority cult akin to the Aryan superiority of the Nazis. You have to be born a Jew, you can't just join because you want to (unless you dedicate your entire life into it, and still with caveats).

You'll see thousands of comments like "Anti-Israel is not Antisemitism", but at some point you need to address the elephant in the room. The current mainstream "Judaism" is very much an ethnic supremacy group by design. You can't effectively criticize Israel without pointing out that its actions are overwhelmingly supported by their citizens because of their religion. Everything they do in their eyes is completely justified because they view everyone not in their ethnic group as subhuman.

[-] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This "what went wrong" line is liberal Zionists trying to launder the reputation of the colony.

Israel was founded on ethnic cleansing and atrocities like the Deir Yassin massacre. Zionists literally spelled out the need to "transfer" the indigenous population of Palestine in the early 20th century.

Zionists could rely on western media, policy makers search engine rankings and moderators to gatekeep and control the narrative and image of their colony. The difference now is that social media reveals everything directly to people.

[-] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think the "mistake" started with the formation of Israel. I can understand the founding of their state after WWII, and their desire for a place where they can live without persecution. But, the location was a huge mistake if the goal was "peace".

Dropping them in the middle of their Holy Land? Automatic war for as long as they are there. Now, many are under the impression that they really are "God's Chosen People" and all of their desired "Holy Land" righteously belongs to them.

I think what is happening today was the desired outcome of Israel's foundation. USA and UK were perfectly fine with the Jews and Muslims fighting to the death, no matter who "wins", whatever is left will be all the easier for them (Christians incidentally) to control.

personally, I am opposed to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, to me there are no "good guys" to be found in the "Holy Land".

ETA Israel is a nuclear power now, remember that when you propose "solutions".

[-] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

The mistake is that zionists decided to force a state on the local people instead of living along the locals are a single people

In 1884 the first Yemenites settled in Silwan and for 45 years lived peacefully and on very good terms with their Arab neighbors. It seemed that the people of Silwan, which was known to be a poor village, found common ground with the poor Jewish Yemenites that lived among them.

Despite the attempt to depict the 1929 Arab Riot as a violent incident against the Jews in Silwan, it is clear that it was not the case. From a letter of gratitude that the Yemenite Jews sent to their Arab neighbors, we can learn about the devotion and benevolence that the Arabs have shown towards the Yemenites by undauntedly protecting them, and also about the amity and good neighborly relations that prevailed between the two communities.

https://emekshaveh.org/en/yemenites/

[-] ShotDonkey@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

1945: A part of Germany should have been disposessed, a jewish state founded on this territory, and this Jewish state given nuclear arms, in case any fuckin Kraut ever had "ideas" again. End of story. Would have saved Jewish people and the Palestinian people a lot of horror. Would have saved me as a German many fuckin bonkers discussions with German bigots who all are so conveniently defending a jewish state (not on their land).

[-] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

Israel didn't form because of WWII or because of Germany. The big aliyah waves started in the 1800s, and the Holocaust just accelerated what was already in motion. The Soviet Union, the Ottoman Empire, the colonized Arab areas of North Africa were all extremely antisemitic, just as much as Germany. The only difference is that Hitler made mass murder industrial.

[-] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

But it did... UK and USA created the state in 1948?

They wanted Israel before WWII, but US/UK/UN formed it, and they did so because of WWII. The Jews always wanted their Holy Land, of course.

[-] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Their holy land? It is the holy land of all the Abrahamic religions. They should live together peacefully

[-] ShotDonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nope, Jews were living peacefully side by side Muslims in Arab countries in pre-Israel times. This is confirmed by Holocaust scholars like Omer Bartov. Antisemitism is historically something deeply European. It has been exported to Arab countries. Most notoriously via Amin al-Husseini. Israel would never have been founded the way it was, i.e. as a jewish ethno-state or maybe would not have been founded at all without the Holocaust.

[-] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Sorry, but ethno-states are a flat-out bad idea.

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[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Zionism was a White Jewish Supremacist ideology from the very start and Israel was a White Jewish Supremacist and Colonialist project from the very start.

It didn't become so, it was always so and always meant to be so, the only thing that changed was the feeling of impunity to push-back from Western nations as, over time, Israel invested a lot abroad into capturing Politics and the Press, into Kompromat gattering Honeypots such as the one headed by Epstein, and into in Propaganda, especially in Anglo-Saxon nations, thus capturing the political classes there and shifting Western public opinion in favor of Israel. As that feeling of impunity increased, so did they more freely, openly and violently practiced their ethno-Fascist (same variant of Fascism as the Nazis) ultra-racist ideology against those they very openly called "vermin" - Muslims in general, especially Palestinians.

They have and always have had, as they themselves say, "Western Values", specifically late 19th century white colonialist values and early 20th century white supremacist ones.

PS: And if anybody has any doubt on the White part of their supremacist ideology, just look up the treatment of Black Jews from Ethiopia by the state of Israel, which included amongst other things forced sterilization.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 69 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Israel went wrong before it began. There is no way of displacing a population to create an ethnonationalist colony in a way that could be called "right".

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 38 points 5 days ago

Note that several prominent Jews, including Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, opposed the creation of a Jewish state in a 1948 letter, warning of fascism and comparing the precursor of Likud to the Nazi party.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

Opinion on zionism has moved over time. Zionism started out as fringe around 1900, but now its the overwhelming majority opinion across judaism.

Also, 86% of American Jews (the vast majority of Jews -- about 85% are in the US or Israel) think Israel is necessary for the Jewish people. They may hold a handkerchief to their noses at "all the stuff currently going on", but israeli terrorism, theft, abuse and repression has been going on unbroken since the founding of israel and the nakba-- farther even-- since the ottoman empire withdrew from owning that territory for 800 years, even, at the end of WW1. They cant have it both ways. If they support the existence of israel, they explicitely support the existence as its been since it started. Since day 1 of its existence there has never been a humanitarian israel rooted in equality or basic human rights, and there never will be such an Israel. So that 86% (and sure, thats not all ) supports genocide but lacks the courage to say so. We can call it genocide-lite.

I think survey results show pretty clearly that a huge majority want the outcome of genocide but dont want to be seen supporting it. They love the idea of Israel but find the deaths of other regretable, and are happy to talk your ear off about how its inconvenient for them and how afraid they are-- as if that could hold a candle to whats been done to the innocent people Israel wanted land from. Their theory is that the real vicitms here are them, even as a vast majority of them explicitly or implicitly support genocide, often from existences of day to day 110% safety-- more than any other minotiry group-- where they may only ever experience having to deal with a political opinion on a blog that they find objectionable, which they feel like they can then frame as a bodily attack on their very existence.

What needs to happen is some form of adult government installed in the Levant, not the theocratic fascist ethnostate that is Israel. A violent ethnostate is going to continue to cause global terror and mass conflict. They cant be permitted to rule, because they have shown the world they cant be trusted to do it without rampant murder.

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[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

It was a fascist ideology from its inception. We do you mean what went wrong with it?

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[-] perestroika@slrpnk.net 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This was an interesting read.

Especially his speculation that lack of a clear constitution (Basic Law was adopted as late as 1994 and is not a full-fledged constitution) and lack of clear borders contributed to Israel's fall into the current state.

Too generous US "security assistance" certainly helped. If you can solve a problem with bombing without worrying about getting bombed, you may start thinking of war as a normal thing.

Failure to contain the populist extreme right is another stumbling block. If there had been no Netanyahu (and his corruption scandals, and the court cases awaiting him domestically, filed a considerable time before the ones awaiting abroad), things might be different.

Ultimately, I would say: Israel failed to install brakes, and failed to contain its greed for power and land. It had too much cooperation and still has too much cooperation.

I don't know if there's a reasonable way out.

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[-] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 4 points 3 days ago

Israeli and Holocaust historian Omer Bartov is ~~a POWERFUL Scholar!~~ ~~Kowledgeable about Jewish history!~~ ANTI SEMETIC!

-The BBC!

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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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