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Israel: What Went Wrong?

Orwell Prize for Political Writing Finalist 2026

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Israel: What Went Wrong?

By: Omer Bartov
Narrated by: James Macnaughton
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Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

'Essential' BOOKLIST

'Anyone disturbed and frightened by our current moral and intellectual morass should read it' PANKAJ MISHRA
© Omer Bartov 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Israel & Palestine Middle East Politics & Government War & Crisis World Holocaust War
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Critic reviews

Anyone seeking an explanation of Israel’s “fall from grace” will find no better guide than this perceptive, sophisticated, erudite, elegantly written and strikingly fair-minded book
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)
More than two years on from the horrific Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, [Bartov] tries to understand how a nation founded in response to an epoch-defining genocide became a perpetrator of the same terrible crime against Palestinians in Gaza . . . For anyone seeking to understand the tragedies of the last two years, Israel: What Went Wrong? is an essential read
Gripping in its moral clarity and sweeping knowledge (Michael Sfard)
All stars
Most relevant
I really liked that a Jewish professor and former Israeli army officer from Yom Kippur war could see through the morras of recent history and provide his analysis of why ordinary soldiers become participants in genocide.

very clear and sharp analysis

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Well worth a read, especially for those who might disagree with the author. Really good, can't recommend it enough.

Fantastic book, thoughtful and moderate

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Very important book on one of the greatest moral issues of our times, by a genocide scholar

Very important book

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Interesting record of value from a liberal Zionist Israeli albeit an enlightened compassionate one. He’s been criticised from struggling to realise his worldview of Zionism means he sees it as currently lost rather than inherently evil. But whichever side of the fence you sit, it even he, a former IDF serviceman with family in the country who share a home with relations of an Oct 7th hostage, if even he sees genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in a society increasing toxic and disturbing - then if HE says it looks like a banana, and WE can see it is a banana, then…. It is a banana.

Interesting record of value

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The choice of voice artist for this book was a disaster. There are excruciatingly jarring mispronunciations of names. At times his reading expression has one wondering if he has the faintest idea of the meaning or significance of what he’s reading. In any case, it’s is far too youthful voice to speak the written words of Omer Bartov. Get a grip, Penguin!

How NOT to produce and audio book.

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