Robin Moss
A History of Israel’s Conflict(s): 2005–2026

Since before its founding, and right up to today, Israel has been defined by conflict. In this series, we try to tell the story of Israel’s multiple fights against its multiple enemies — “conflicts within a conflict” — in as fair-minded and non-tendentious a way as possible. Everything about the conflict is contested, even down to the very name! (Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Israeli-Arab conflict? Conflict in the Middle East? Israel’s conflict against the terrorists?) So we will tread carefully, try to engage with multiple perspectives, and hope to end up with more knowledge and a greater depth of understanding of this most divisive of conflicts.

Since the mid-2000s, Israelis have been “the fearful and the fearless.” They have faced their worst nightmares as the conflict has neither ended nor even become less lethal (with 7 October 2023 as a profound and devastating low point). Yet they have also shown that peace can be made even in the midst of war. In this final session, we cover the Abraham Accords, the Iranian nuclear threat, and conclude with some thoughts about what has changed and what has stayed the same in Israel’s conflict over the past 140 years.