In this episode of then & now, we present the recording of an event held at UCLA on May 13, 2024. This event, sponsored by the UCLA History Department, featured a conversation between UCLA Professors David Myers and James Gelvin about the history and context of the Israel-Hamas war and the situation in Gaza.

The brutal attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, shocked the world. In the 7 months since that event, the Israeli military has bombarded Gaza, killing upwards of 35,000 Palestinians and injuring some 80,000 more in what is said to be an attempt to eradicate Hamas and retrieve the hostages remaining in Hamas’s hands. In recent weeks, the war has received renewed attention in the United States due to clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups on college campuses, confrontations that have sometimes been exacerbated by extreme police responses. 

Professor Myers and Gelvin explore questions about why Hamas perpetrated their horrific attack on Israeli citizens on October 7th, why Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with months of bombardments, and where the United States features in this equation. What led to this months-long war, and what does the future hold for Palestinians and Israelis?

Professor David Myers is a Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He has published multiple books on Jewish intellectual and cultural history, and has written several op-eds calling for an end to the war in Gaza and return of the Israeli hostages.  Professor James Gelvin is a Professor of Modern Middle East History here at UCLA. He has published extensively on the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East, and his book titled “Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War” has been revised and updated several times, most recently in 2021.