Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, we dive into Israel/Palestine history, including such troubling topics as the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948) and the Tantura Massacre (as well as it's suppression in Israel and Israeli academia), with noted historian Ilan Pappe. Alongside figures like Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim, Pappe was one of the Israeli "New Historians" who shed light on aspects of Zionist and Israeli history (specifically the founding of Israel) that challenged conventional/traditional narratives.
Joining me as a guest co-host on this edition of the program is "Karl Barx" (or Bassam) of the West Bank Robbery podcast.
The conversation begins with Prof. Pappe offering his thoughts on the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza which has claimed 20,000+ lives. We then delve into Prof. Pappe's journey away from political Zionism and taking a critical approach intellectually to the history of Israel and its policies. In this we regard, we end up discussing the impact of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the first Intifada, and Prof. Pappe's service in the IDF.
During the course of our conversation, we also cover:
- Propaganda, dehumanization of Palestinians, and the ways in which propaganda lays upon layers of history
- What has changed in Israeli narratives before the October 7th Hamas attack and now?
- The argument that once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party are gone the Israeli center or Israeli left will be able to change the Israel/Palestine situation in a radical way
- Laying out the two camps within elite Israeli politics; the Israeli messianic far-right (the state of Judea) vs. secular Zionists (the state of Israel); how do Palestinians see the internal political dynamic between the two camps?
- Prof. Pappe's archival work as a historian; the documents he went through showing evidence of the ethnic cleansing/expulsion of of Palestinians in 1948; declassification laws in Israel; the "Village Files" and their importance to Prof. Pappe's scholarship; suppression and reclassification of historical documents; the importance of copying and preserving documents; the importance of juxtaposing different archives
- Plan Dalet or Plan D as the blueprint for the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948; Direct Orders documentation and the specific importance of Order #40 of 1948 in relation to Israeli settlements and what is happening in Gaza today; the names of Israeli operations in the 20th century and why the specific names are important in regards to what they tells us about Israeli policy towards Palestinians
- Yitzhak Rabin, The Jordanian Option, and the mass arrest of Palestinian activists in the 1970s; the origins of Israeli policies seeking to attack secular, left-wing Palestinian activists and promoting Islamic, right-wing factions at the expense of those left-wing elements as a divide-and-conquer strategy
- The Tantura Massacre, micro-history, the suppression of the Tantura massacre in Israeli society and Israeli academia, and how both Prof. Pappe and one of his students, Theodore Katz, suffered major academic setback due to said student investigating the massacre; a brief rundown of the Katz Affair and the ways in which Katz and Pappe were both later vindicated in regard to the Tantura case
- The myths about Israel with a particular focus on Nakba denial and Joan Peters' historically inaccurate From Time Immemorial; what Prof. Pappe considers the most noxious myths about Israel
- Noam Chomsky and the question of political Zionism vs. cultural Zionism; the One Democratic State Campaign and protections for Jewish identity in a one-state Israel; where Prof. Pappe potentially disagree or takes issue with the political vs. cultural Zionism distinction
- And more!
Gaza War Update w/ Prof. James M. Dorsey
Schaller & Waldman's "White Rural Rage" Thesis Misuses Data to Push an Unhelpful Narrative w/ Prof. Nicholas F. Jacobs
Europe Must Look Beyond the U.S. for Its Future in a Changing World + Biden, Netanyahu, and the Gaza War w/ Amb. Patrick Theros
The Death of Film Criticism and the Infantilization of Cinema (+ Oscar Talk) w/ Jim DiEugenio
The Islamophobia Network and the Israel-Palestine Discourse w/ Sahar Aziz and Mitchell Plitnick
Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America w/ Josie Riesman
BEST OF: The Enduring Legacy of V, the Hit Sci-Fi TV Series That Used the Alien Invasion Trope to Explore the Dangers of Fascism w/ Kenny Johnson
Israel/Palestine, the Gaza War, and Rebel Governance in the Middle East w/ Abdalhadi Alijla
The Confederation Model Approach to Israel/Palestine w/ Josef Avesar
Free Your Mind!: Giovanni 'Tinto' Brass, 'Swinging London' and the 60s Pop Culture Scene w/ Simon Matthews
The Future of Israelis & Palestinians Are Intertwined: Peter Beinart on His Belief in a Single Democratic State, Gaza, and More
Diplomacy, Israel/Palestine, and the Action Biden Must Take on Gaza w/ Amb. Patrick Theros
The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War w/ Jeff Sharlet
Israel, Democracy, Israeli Public Opinion Polling/Surveys, and the Confederal Approach to Israel/Palestine w/ Dahlia Scheindlin
What History Says About How the Gaza War Will End w/ Ian Lustick
RFK Jr.'s Former Foreign Policy Advisor James R. Webb on Gaza, Risks of Regional War, Israel/Palestine, and U.S. Foreign Policy
The Sordid Saga of Jeffrey Epstein Revisited w/ Nick Bryant, the Reporter Who Published Epstein’s Little Black Book
Dimes Square Demons w/ Matthew Gasda
The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance (On Zionism, Israel, Anti-Zionism, Jewish Identity, and More) w/ Shaul Magid
The Curious Case of the Attack on Jerusalem’s Armenian Community (+ Discussion of the Occupation, the Two-State Solution, One-State Reality, and More) w/ Daniel Seidemann
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