"A left-wing materialist perspective that has faded in prominence in the Arab world in recent times."―The Irish Times
"Exposes the bankruptcy of Western Liberalism."―Jacobin
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From a foremost expert on the Middle East--a searing indictment of the forces that led to genocidal war on Gaza and its reverberations across the globe. The destruction rained on Gaza has been seen and accepted by many as a vengeful overreaction to the reckless Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. This book, however, argues that the new catastrophe befalling the Palestinian people is the culmination of a decades-long pattern that runs parallel with Israel's inexorable shift to the right. It also contends that Gaza was the final nail in the coffin of the Atlanticist "international liberal order" before Donald Trump came back to the White House. Gaza Catastrophe reckons with the lethal consequences far greater than the Nakba of 1948 and the significance of a war waged by an advanced military-industrial state--with full US participation and open support from the West. Renowned political scientist Gilbert Achcar explores the dynamics of a complex historical process that culminated in the war on Gaza and wider conflict in the Middle East. Achcar offers critical insights on the genocide's regional and international consequences, as well as radical critiques of Zionism, Hamas, and other state and non-state actors. This volume is essential to understanding the root causes of the violence destabilizing the entire region and the wider world, as well as the conditions required to bring it to an end.