Tracking the news and history of Israel-Hamas
Updated: A short but expanding set of sites, podcasts, and books which I find valuable to stay on top of the Israel-Hamas story and the history. It is my curated list but I welcome your recommendation
The Israel-Hamas crisis which started a week ago with the astounding breakout from Gaza and the appalling wanton attacks on civilians in southern Israel, seems about to step into a wholly different phase with an imminent ground attack by Israeli forces.
It can be overwhelming to stay on top of a story of this magnitude and also filter out the poorly thought-out hot takes (not from me of course) and the bias from some writers and publications. Then there’s the wave of disinformation in the ether (especially X it seems) and sometimes finding its way into established media outlets.
Here, with a little commentary in a few places, are a few items and sources that you may find helpful in getting to grips with the news and what’s at stake. At the moment there is no particular order of priority and I may edit and shift in future.
Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian and author of best-selling books like Sapiens, interviewed on The Rest is Politics podcast with Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. It was a deeply personal and illuminating.
My takeaways: Benjamin Netanyahu is incapable of seeing past his self-interest to try to seize a prospect for future peace from this crisis. Harari also deals well with the doomsday thinking that pervades Hamas.Israeli ground offensive in Gaza faces physical and political risks, from The Guardian is an open-access and useful assessment for those who want to think about the military risks of what Israel may try to do in Gaza. I heard another report today that it could take a ratio of 10-to-one conventional soldiers to Hamas guerrillas in that urban environment.
War on the Rocks, is an alarmingly well-informed military podcast that covers Ukraine and now Israel with the kind of analysis that perhaps only those who have experienced such circumstances can describe. This episode compares what may in in store in Gaza with some of the most horrific episodes of the American occupation of Iraq and attempts to counter ISIS: two battles for the ultimately destroyed city of Fallujah, and the flattening of the city of Mosul.
I remember the times when Palestinians dared to hope for peace. How did it come to this? - a commentary in The Guardian from Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian doctor and author whose books, including Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape are heartfelt human descriptions of a West Bank life turned into dead ends and containment. He explains the sense of helplessness.
Israel at war, is the latest episode from international analyst Ian Bremmer’s Gzero World podcast. It is strong on the wider implications for the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia and beyond as well as the profound risk to Israel and Palestnians. My takeaways: The guest with the most to offer is Middle East scholar Shibley Telhami who explained Hamas and the risks of playing into their agenda.
Foreign Policy Live from Foreign Policy magazine. The latest episode is helpful to understanding the global implications of the Hamas attack and the looming Israeli response and the failures on all sides to see this crisis coming.
My takeaways: Great guests and it is very good on how stretched the United States may be in trying to deal with this when Washington is in chaos.Who is Mohammed Deif, the Hamas commander behind the attack on Israel? - an exemplary piece of journalism from Reuters, especially from the long-term Middle East editor Samia Nakhoul who I know and trust implicitly.
My takeaways: Insight into the man who directed the appalling Hamas attacks but with a perspective on his own life that isn’t to justify but may shed light. This Reuters podcast on the likely tactics of a Gaza ground war is also sobering.Reuters can be expected to have some of the best spot coverage of what is happening on all sides of the conflict given its depth of staff and commitment to straight reporting. (I worked there for 15 years and I know how it works). Important to note too that a Reuters journalist was killed covering the crisis this weekend at the border with Lebanon. Other journalists were injured.
Inside Kfar Aza where Hamas militants killed families in their homes, is an astounding piece of reporting by BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen which shows the horror faced by Israeli kibbutz dwellers in southern Israel. It is a good antidote to the critique of the BBC for sticking to its style guide on “terrorist”. Like Reuters, the BBC has staff on all sides of the conflict and strong rules about accuracy, and a great set of veteran correspondents.
The BBC Radio 4 Sunday show The World This Weekend with Jonny Dymond was exemplary in its balance and range of interviews, putting the lie to the “why oh why isn’t the MSN reporting this” crowd and the “BBC is anti-Semitic” crowd. (Yes, I know there is a story - mostly in rather anti-BBC outlets - about unwise social media posts and shares by freelance and maybe staffers who are Arab.)
A reader understandably took me to talk for not including Al Jazeera English in my list of suggested sites though it is in the story I included at the bottom of this list which I wrote for a New Zealand site. Listening to a fascinating AJ podcast today I thought the same — that it was an oversight not to have included AJ in the first edition of what I said was a list I would try to keep updated. I thought this from The Take on Al Jazeera on the history of Hamas was fascinating. It is worth remembering that AJ is run by and from Qatar but its English service in particular has a strong reputation and does its best to be straight. Do not expect it to report on Qatar but AJ often gives a better perspective than some on the Palestinian positions, whether Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, people on the street, and Palestinian experts and academics around the world.
The Secrets Hamas Knew About Israel’s Military, is a chilling report from The New York Times about the maps and guides Hamas attackers had in order to penetrate Israeli defences. It also shows that the guerillas went in with orders to strike terror into civilians and commit the acts we are all too familiar with.
Israel-Hamas war live - The Guardian has to some extent almost perfected the art of live-blogging and is also open access. It blends strong agency reports with takes from experienced Guardian staff and is a good general-purpose way to stay on top of a fast-evolving story without the misinformation of social media.
There are so many more sites, podcasts and books I could recommend so maybe I will expand on this during the coming week. I am not putting myself in the league of the recommendations above but I write a weekly newsletter for a New Zealand news site which is intended as a curated take on the events of the week. You may find it vaguely useful as it pull together elements and has some recommendations. I also, in this edition, tried to explain why I stepped into the BBC “terrorist” discussion.
Netanyahu and Hamas gamble with the future of Israel, Gaza and the Middle East, The Spinoff, World Bulletin.
Do please let me know if there is merit in keeping this up-to-date
I find your comments, insights and references invaluable. Thank you for your hard work
Kia ora Peter
Have you looked at the Al Jazeera investigation documentary on the events on 7 October - https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/october-7/ Picks up quite a bit of reporting from Israeli media.