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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1643 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 10, 2025

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Any suggestions for books to learn more about the modern conflicts in Israel, especially wrt Gaza? I figure that requires some amount of covering history, but my actual objective is to be able to understand the modern state of affairs, rather than to understand history for its own sake. Maybe 2-3 suggestions, to capture a range of political viewpoints.

Podcasts/blogs would be OK too, but I'd rather books.

For bonus points, please describe the political viewpoint of the book (left/right, or pro/anti Israel, etc)

I read Enemies and Neighbours by Ian Black last year and found it expansive and informative. A mild pro-Palestinian bias becomes more apparent towards the end of the book, and the fact it only goes up to 2017 (when it was published) means it is now 8 years out of date, are drawbacks but I found it to be an engaging, relatively balanced and detailed account of how modern Gaza became the mess it is now.

What's his outlook towards the end of the book ? Is there a sense of deescalation with time, or is it the sort of hopeless resignation that I see from most experts ?

He's definitely gloomy about any future deescalation. He paints a picture of perpetual violence and, at the end of the book, predicts no end to the conflict for the foreseeable future. I think one could safely say that the eight years since publication have proven that prediction correct so far.

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