Legacy of violence

A seething and erudite-but flawedindictment of the west's role in the creation of Israel and everything that has flowed from it

- Charlie English

Reading Pankaj Mishra's The World After Gaza, I thought of no one so much as Ian Black, a former colleague who led the Guardian's Middle East coverage for many years. Black was keenly aware, after decades of careful reporting from Israel-Palestine, of the tendency to adopt one cause or another and cherrypick facts to support it. In 2017, he poured his knowledge into Enemies and Neighbours, a definitive history of the "twice promised land", which drew praise from both sides. The source of the conflict, he wrote, came down to the diametrically opposed narratives Israeli and Palestinians told themselves.

It feels like another era. In October 2023 Hamas launched its surprise attack, provoking an Israeli response that has killed more than 46,000 people, according to estimates, mostly women and children. As Mishra states in the introduction, he "felt almost compelled to write this book, to alleviate my demoralizing perplexity before an extensive moral breakdown". It is a seething and erudite indictment of the west's role in the creation of Israel and everything that has flowed from it. Even prior to publication, the book has been controversial. Mishra views history through the lens of race and "decolonization".