Those Ancient Lands

There is only one forward-looking question to ask about the excruciating horror in Gaza: How will it end? By “how,” I’m talking not just about the short-term mechanics of an enduring ceasefire, but also about the “how” of the aftermath: How do enemies become neighbours? Yet there’s another, more backward-looking question that cries out for an answer: Where and when did this conflict begin? After all, the narrative that led to Hamas’s October 7 massacre one year ago, followed by Israel’s brutal invasion, comes fitted out with a profusion of disjointed prologues and competing plot lines. The geopolitical and humanitarian challenge of envisioning what tomorrow might look like is contingent to some degree on attaining a clearer assessment of what happened yesterday.

It’s often been said that history has been weaponized by both sides in this fight. Israel’s hard right has perpetuated slurs against the Palestinian people, not least of which is the old aspersion that the...