Israel

Name: Israel
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ISBN: 9781911717690

What Went Wrong?

Omer Bartov

$55

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Fern Press
23 April 2026

Middle Eastern history; Genocide & ethnic cleansing; Geopolitics

A leading genocide scholar explores the history of Zionism, Israel's lurch towards extreme oppression and violence, and why it stands accused of crimes against humanity

Professor Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv and served in the Israel Defence Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become an expert on the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country.

In Israel- What Went Wrong?, Bartov explores the transformation of Zionism from a movement of Jewish emancipation and liberation into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism, exclusion and violent domination of Palestinians. He traces the process whereby Israel - whose establishment in 1948 received international support in the aftermath of the Holocaust - now faces accusations of war crimes and genocide.

What are the implications of Israel's near total impunity for the post-1945 regime of international law? And how do we understand the widespread support for these policies by Israel's Jewish citizens?

The result is a searing and urgent critique that addresses today's debates over Zionism, genocide, and the future of Israel with rigour and depth.

By: Omer Bartov
Imprint: Fern Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 224mm, Width: 145mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 364g
ISBN: 9781911717690
ISBN 10: 1911717693
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 23 April 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Omer Bartov is the Dean's Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University and the author of many books, including Anatomy of a Genocide- The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz, which won the National Jewish Book Award, Tales from the Borderlands- Making and Unmaking the Galician Past and Genocide, the Holocaust, and Israel-Palestine- First-Person History in Times of Crisis.

Reviews for Israel: What Went Wrong?

The descent of Israel, once a refuge for the Holocaust’s surviving victims, into genocidal madness has revealed how little we know about the ""slaughter-bench"" of modern history. In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Omer Bartov explores the most horrifying and vexing calamity of our time with a rare combination of painful personal intimacy and impeccable scholarship. Anyone disturbed and frightened by our current moral and intellectual morass should read it -- Pankaj Mishra