A damning account of how Israel and the US manufactured the case for genocide in Gaza and a devastating regional war in the Middle East, from Tel Aviv to Tehran.
In Twelve Days That Shook the Middle East, scholar and Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara offers a clear-eyed account of what happened after October 7, 2023, why it happened, and why it matters. Bishara argues that this conflict has always been an asymmetric, anticolonial struggle. The genocide was not a misstep; it was a blueprint unfolding before the world’s eyes.
Although he covers the entire war, Bishara contends that the first twelve days were enough to expose the core logic of the conflict, to understand the strategic design behind it, and to bear witness to how modern warfare, wrapped in the language of “security,” “self-defense,” and “civilization,” becomes a weapon of dehumanization and destruction.
What followed those twelve days—mass killing, mass displacement, famine, and the collapse of humanitarian possibility—was not the fog of war. It was the eerily cold execution of a premeditated strategy.
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“Hard-hitting, compelling, honest. A tragic portrait of the violence that has overtaken the Middle East since 7 October 2023, from genocide in Gaza to wars in Lebanon and Iran, as Israel and the United States combine forces to reshape the region. Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the world today.”
—Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History and The Fall of the Ottomans
“Marwan Bishara has spent most of his distinguished career writing with depth, nuance, and empathy on the United States, the Middle East, and especially the plight of Palestine and Palestinians. In this brilliant book, he explores in detail the twelve days in October 2023 in which Israel set in motion the machinery of genocide against Gaza, unleashing one of the most destructive military campaigns targeting civilians in modern times. Bishara’s work shows us that it’s both possible and essential to produce politically engaged journalism and analysis that truly matters, without fear or compromise. In this book, he expertly weaves together journalism, deep historical context, and geopolitical analysis to explain how Israel’s genocide reshaped the Middle East and our entire world. Bishara reminds us that the best journalism is fearless and uncompromising—and deeply compassionate.”
—Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and journalism professor at New York University