Reporter and author Omar El Akkad joins me to discuss whether Americans are finally able to confront our country's ugly history of racism, double standards, and ongoing complicity in genocide.
I’m familiar with your guest’s viral tweet (which i noticed entering the TL on ‘X’ a good number of times and always liked); haven’t seen it lately, since quitting that platform — will definitely get his forthcoming book to acquaint myself more fully with his writing.
Fwiw, regarding your mentioning “A YouGov poll showed that many Democrats decided to sit home and not vote for Kamala Harris due to President Biden's complicity in the destruction of Gaza and her failure to center Palestinian life during her campaign,” that makes sense to me, and i suspect there were additionally many non-registered folk who were eligible to become voters but nonetheless chose remain non-registered (non-voters) for the very same reason.
I myself am one such individual. Though i know Trump’s literally a fascist, i didn’t even register to vote as i knew the Republicans had zero chance of success where i live; and, in fact, most people i know didn’t vote.
Fully a third of people eligible to be voters didn’t vote in our country despite the threat of a literal fascist regaining the presidency.
How many of them knew their votes couldn’t possibly make a difference to the presidential race being that our electoral system only lends a sense of personal efficacy to voters in ‘battleground’ states, i wonder?
There’s been a significant ‘dealignment’ of voters in recent times (i.e., many have abandoned party affiliation altogether) driven by a feeling that our votes can’t matter; that’s seldom mentioned in the media.
I am in a time warp. I found a piece written in the"National Geographic" titled "The Tunnels of Gaza" I have not finished reading it, but it is a time warp article about the untold tragedy of a country turned into a death trap by every country around it - including Egypt at one point in the long, tortured history of the Gazan people. It was written in 12/2012 and describes the "tunnel culture" and its effect on both Palestinians and others. Galvanizing reading about a real-life tragedy.
Me too Lola. The unfairness of the world has been the thing that has always broken my heart and unfortunately I will probably go to my grave knowing that's still the case.
Well if a person is rich enough to make Gaza and its people whole again, I suppose they'd have enough money and resources to hire an army to protect it after.
How about Americans calling out October 7 murder, and kidnapping of innocence civilians? This is a war that Israel did not start. How dare anybody call it a genocide? If the population of Palestinians are considered Hamas or ARE Hamas then yeah it’s a genocide to wipe out HAMAS not the Palestinian people who are innocent, if there are any. When did the rules of war change? Was Hiroshima a genocide? Israel is defending itself and yet everybody is on the side of HAMAS! How can this not be considered Antisemitic?
I don’t believe the man who wrote this article (“As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel”) is antisemitic — being that he’s a former IDF soldier.
But, he’s an expert in the subject of genocide and does speak of what’s happened in Gaza, in terms of genocide.
And STILL you don’t mention ANYTHING to do with the mass murder rape, slaughter and kidnapping on October 7 of innocent civilians,you made my point! For the record I don’t think Hiroshima was a good idea. An expert on genocide ?Would you not say the Palestinians in Gaza or rather Hamas are committing genocide or trying their very hardest to?? That is in their charter. It just isn’t equal your support sympathy and empathy for Palestine is not equal to Israel’s UNPROVOKED mass slaughter. Maybe that’s because you see Israel as more powerful. I don’t know? Either way I’m not buying your arguments because it’s still one-sided. Palestine could’ve had its own state at least five times. A two state solution isn’t what they want. They want the destruction of Israel and only then will they be happy.Actually I take that back.Only then will they go further to the west to Allah Akbar where we are.
Thank you for sharing this conversation.
Sad (inevitably) yet very important.
Good to ‘meet’ the author of that viral tweet.
I’m familiar with your guest’s viral tweet (which i noticed entering the TL on ‘X’ a good number of times and always liked); haven’t seen it lately, since quitting that platform — will definitely get his forthcoming book to acquaint myself more fully with his writing.
Fwiw, regarding your mentioning “A YouGov poll showed that many Democrats decided to sit home and not vote for Kamala Harris due to President Biden's complicity in the destruction of Gaza and her failure to center Palestinian life during her campaign,” that makes sense to me, and i suspect there were additionally many non-registered folk who were eligible to become voters but nonetheless chose remain non-registered (non-voters) for the very same reason.
I myself am one such individual. Though i know Trump’s literally a fascist, i didn’t even register to vote as i knew the Republicans had zero chance of success where i live; and, in fact, most people i know didn’t vote.
Fully a third of people eligible to be voters didn’t vote in our country despite the threat of a literal fascist regaining the presidency.
How many of them knew their votes couldn’t possibly make a difference to the presidential race being that our electoral system only lends a sense of personal efficacy to voters in ‘battleground’ states, i wonder?
There’s been a significant ‘dealignment’ of voters in recent times (i.e., many have abandoned party affiliation altogether) driven by a feeling that our votes can’t matter; that’s seldom mentioned in the media.
I am in a time warp. I found a piece written in the"National Geographic" titled "The Tunnels of Gaza" I have not finished reading it, but it is a time warp article about the untold tragedy of a country turned into a death trap by every country around it - including Egypt at one point in the long, tortured history of the Gazan people. It was written in 12/2012 and describes the "tunnel culture" and its effect on both Palestinians and others. Galvanizing reading about a real-life tragedy.
An important guest with important introspective questions we can ask ourselves as we decide what we can do. Thank you.
Omar has a very calming voice that brought calmness to a very horrific subject.
is there no rich person willing to help Gaza rebuild without any strings attached 😭😭😭I wish I was rich!!!
Me too Lola. The unfairness of the world has been the thing that has always broken my heart and unfortunately I will probably go to my grave knowing that's still the case.
Oh there are lots of rich people who could help. But with no peace Why would they throw money away? You rebuild and Israel just bombs it again.
Well if a person is rich enough to make Gaza and its people whole again, I suppose they'd have enough money and resources to hire an army to protect it after.
Nobody wants this. Nobody wants us at all.
How about Americans calling out October 7 murder, and kidnapping of innocence civilians? This is a war that Israel did not start. How dare anybody call it a genocide? If the population of Palestinians are considered Hamas or ARE Hamas then yeah it’s a genocide to wipe out HAMAS not the Palestinian people who are innocent, if there are any. When did the rules of war change? Was Hiroshima a genocide? Israel is defending itself and yet everybody is on the side of HAMAS! How can this not be considered Antisemitic?
Omer Bartov is a Jewish scholar of the Holocaust and the foremost expert in the world on genocide.
He has called the Netanyahu administration and IDF actions in retaliation for October 7, a genocide.
Acknowledging reality does not make one pro-Hamas.
As the guest notes, years from now, this genocide will be widely acknowledged by all...
I don’t believe the man who wrote this article (“As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel”) is antisemitic — being that he’s a former IDF soldier.
But, he’s an expert in the subject of genocide and does speak of what’s happened in Gaza, in terms of genocide.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov
And STILL you don’t mention ANYTHING to do with the mass murder rape, slaughter and kidnapping on October 7 of innocent civilians,you made my point! For the record I don’t think Hiroshima was a good idea. An expert on genocide ?Would you not say the Palestinians in Gaza or rather Hamas are committing genocide or trying their very hardest to?? That is in their charter. It just isn’t equal your support sympathy and empathy for Palestine is not equal to Israel’s UNPROVOKED mass slaughter. Maybe that’s because you see Israel as more powerful. I don’t know? Either way I’m not buying your arguments because it’s still one-sided. Palestine could’ve had its own state at least five times. A two state solution isn’t what they want. They want the destruction of Israel and only then will they be happy.Actually I take that back.Only then will they go further to the west to Allah Akbar where we are.
Interesting you should bring up Hiroshima:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_over_the_atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
Also perhaps to gain some added historic perspective on Israel and Palestine:
PALESTINE 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. Oren Kessler, 2023. ISBN 9781538148808.