How Did We Get Here?

Jane Corbin, veteran Middle East reporter with decades on the ground, and Jeremy Bowen, BBC international editor with long-form regional analysis, discuss Israel’s 2010s economic boom and Palestinian economic stagnation. They cover Gaza’s tunnel commerce, periodic Gaza wars, West Bank settlement expansion, the 2020 Abraham Accords, and the significance of the October 7th, 2023 attack for the conflict’s future.

Jane Corbin, veteran journalist and film-maker with 30+ years reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, and Jeremy Bowen, BBC International Editor with decades of Middle East experience, discuss the Second Intifada, the West Bank barrier, Arafat’s decline, Gaza’s isolation and Hamas’s rise, the 2005 disengagement, the 2006–07 Gaza takeover and the impact of Obama’s election and Netanyahu’s 2009 return.

Mark Tessler, political science professor offering academic context, and Jeremy Bowen, BBC international editor with on-the-ground reporting, trace the First Intifada’s grassroots origins. They follow the Oslo peace process, discuss Rabin’s assassination, probe why Camp David 2000 collapsed, and map how violence, politics and separation led toward the second intifada and Gaza’s growing isolation.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC International Editor and veteran Middle East reporter, and Mark Tessler, political science professor and historian, map 1967 to 1982. They chart occupation and expulsions, the rise of settlements and Likud, Palestinian resistance and high-profile attacks, Sadat’s visit and Camp David, and Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon with its dire consequences.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC International Editor, offers eyewitness-style historical context. Mark Tessler, University of Michigan political scientist, provides academic analysis of 1949–1967. They cover Israel’s fragile early statehood and immigration, Palestinian displacement and the rise of national identity, the 1956 Suez campaign, the emergence of Fatah, cross-border raids and the lead-up to the 1967 war.

Gudrun Kraemer, Islamic Studies professor with expertise on Palestinian society; Jeremy Bowen, BBC international editor and Middle East analyst; Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian of Jerusalem and modern history. They trace 1945–49: wartime Palestine, British immigration limits and Jewish armed campaign, the UN partition vote, civil war and Deir Yassin, Britain’s withdrawal, Israel’s declaration, Arab invasion and the creation of massive Palestinian displacement.

Gudrun Kraemer, Professor of Islamic Studies, offers close readings of the Balfour Declaration. Eugene Rogan, historian of the modern Middle East, traces Mandate politics. They cover the declaration’s ambiguity, British motives, growing Jewish immigration, rising Palestinian political mobilisation, the 1936 Arab Revolt, and the Peel Commission’s first partition proposal.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author of a Jerusalem biography; Eugene Rogan, Oxford professor of modern Middle Eastern history; and Hugh Kennedy, SOAS professor of Arabic, discuss 19th‑century Ottoman Palestine. They cover who lived there, early Zionist waves and motivations, interactions between settlers and local Arab communities, rising local identities, Great Power interests, and Sykes‑Picot's wartime plans.

Eugene Rogan, Oxford professor of modern Middle Eastern history, and Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author of Jerusalem: The Biography, trace the story from the 7th to early 19th century. They cover the Muslim conquest and Jerusalem’s early Islamic significance. They discuss the Crusades, Saladin’s reconquest, Jewish pilgrimage and persecution, and Ottoman rule and daily life in the Holy Land.

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, ancient history professor focusing on the Levant; Simon Sebag Montefiore, narrative historian of the Middle East. They probe the Bible as history, the meaning of a promised land, archaeology versus scripture, identities of ancient peoples, David and Solomon, Rome’s takeover, Jewish revolts, Masada and the renaming of Judea. Short, wide-ranging historical conversation.