A review of the new book “Israel: What Went Wrong?” by Omer Bartov (2026)
Bartov is a Jew who was born and raised in Israel in a resolutely left-wing kibbutz and served in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) for four years which included the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He took his first degree at Tel Aviv University and his doctorate at Oxford University. Since 1987, he has been teaching in the United States and is currently the Dean’s Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. All this is to make clear that there is no way that Bartov can be accused of being ant-semitic or uninformed.
Following the Hamas massacre of 7 October 2023, which he condemns as a war crime and a crime against humanity, he has become an increasingly strident critic of the massively disproportionate response and forever war waged in Gaza by the IDF. In this book, he carefully examines the legal definitions of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and he is compelled to conclude that “at least since the attack by the IDF on the city of Rafah [in May 2024] it was no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocial actions.”He is particularly saddened by the death of so many children and the response of Israel society: “The growing number of civilians killed in Gaza habituated the Israel public to callous disregard for and indifference to the lives of Palestinians and the crimes repeatedly committed in Israel’s name in an alleged effort to protect its security.”
Bartov highlights how this is so much at variance with the terms of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel made by the Jewish People’s Council in Palestine on 14 May 1948. The Declaration promised “complete equality of social and political rights to all its citizens irrespective of religion, race or sex”. Yet, the reality today is that: ‘seven million Jewish Israeli citizens in effect now rule over seven million Palestinians, of whom two million are Israeli citizens whose rights are restricted in myriad ways by the state, while three million Palestinians in the West Bank and two million in the Gaza Strip have practically no rights at all.”
So, what went wrong? Bartov critiques the Declaration because it did not resolve the question of whether Israel should be a Jewish state or a democratic one and did not proclaim Israel a democracy or define its borders; he criticises the Knesset for not turning the Declaration into a constitution and bill of rights; he challenges the Netanyahu governments which have promoted “the dark forces that are taking over and spreading day by day, transforming [Israel] into an authoritarian, messianic, irrational and repressive society”; and he criticises the Supreme Court for “becoming increasingly conservative and religious”.
So, what now for the Arab/Israeli conflict? Bartov sees two outcomes: one very likely but profoundly undesirable and the other unlikely but much to be desired.
The first is that “Israel will persist in its attempt to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population” and it will increasingly become “an authoritarian apartheid state” which will eventually “lead to the state’s implosion as transpired in South Africa”. The second would be a political solution which would only come about if there was sustained pressure from the United states and possibly some help from Germany. This solution would probably be a development of Donald Trump’s 20-point plan of September 2025 and establish some kind of confederation of two sovereign nations as elaborated and espoused by the scholar Dahlia Scheidlin.
August 30th, 2026 at 7:50 pm
That’s a fascinating background to have shaped his perspective on Israeli history. It’s interesting to consider how formative experiences like military service and upbringing can influence historical analysis.