The Neck and the Sword: Palestine's Unfinished Struggle

TA: The major goal for the Israelis, of course, is to take it over, to completely occupy Gaza: “Eretz Israel.”. How close do you think we are to that, Rashid?

RK: Even these awful conditions are not going to force people to leave.  When I talk to people in the West Bank, they tell me, “Nobody’s going to make us leave.  No way.”. After a century of ethnic cleansing, they still haven’t succeeded.  I don’t think they will.

In The Neck and the Sword, Rashid Khalidi and Tariq Ali bring to bear the lessons learned from a lifetime of political engagement and study in order to comprehend a sea change in Middle East politics. Since 2023, the world has witnessed the decimation of Gaza, the slaughter of its residents, and the terrorization of Palestinians in the West Bank. As a consequence, support for the Palestinian struggle, which for decades has been shunned and maligned, has swelled to an unprecedented level across the US, Europe, and beyond. What future now awaits Palestine?

This frank and sober discussion provides an essential overview of Palestinian intellectual and political history. There is biting criticism of US foreign policy, as well as insightful geopolitical analysis. Refusing to shy away from controversy, Khalidi and Ali discuss issues as wide-ranging as Palestinian resistance strategy, the failures of neighboring Arab states to support Palestine, and Western complicity in the ongoing genocide. This is crucial reading for anyone committed to Palestinian liberation.