On this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we sat down with Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, to discuss his new book, Twelve Days That Shook the Middle East: Origins of a Genocide. Bishara argues that everything you need to understand about Israel’s war on Gaza was decided in its first twelve days. That runs from Netanyahu’s declaration of war on 7 October 2023 to Biden’s Oval Office speech on 19 October, which made the war part of US national security. In that window, Israeli leaders called for Gaza to be wiped out, hundreds of thousands of reservists were mobilised, and Biden, Blinken and Austin sat in on Israel’s war cabinet. “If you can understand what happened between October 7th and October 19th, the rest is history. Horrific history.” We talked about why he stopped writing six months into the war, and why he refused to “let the bombs have the last word”. We also discussed how dehumanisation laid the ground for genocide and how October 7 was given an “evil component”. He explains why the Oslo peace process was “not even a peace”, but a structure for American dominance. We also looked at the wars on Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and why Bishara believes Israel cannot become a regional hegemon while it depends on Washington. And we discussed the paradox of this moment: Palestine has never had more support around the world, and it has never suffered more. Twelve Days That Shook the Middle East is published by Haymarket Books. All proceeds from the book go to an educational charity. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.