24-02-2025
Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7 October, review: this series shows that peace is possible, but too few people want it
As Donald Trump reimagines Ukraine and carves up Gaza (or is it the other way round?), Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October (BBC Two) is an almost surreal watch. Here, across three dense episodes, we are presented with the nitty-gritty of Middle East/US relations over the course of two decades, while in today's White House the President takes a jackhammer to the very idea of international diplomacy. Watch all three episodes, however, and you might decide that a jackhammer is exactly what is needed.
The series will no doubt be a Rorschach test for those with already entrenched opinions on the subject, but it gives both sides a fair crack of the whip. Beginning in 2003 with Ariel Sharon's decision to 'withdraw from Gaza and throw the keys over the fence' and ending with the barbarous events of October 7 2023, it gives us a nerdy, diplomat's eye view of the many failed peace talks. Among the talking heads are Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and John Kerry, but the greater insights come from the legion of security advisers and diplomats. The series is also remarkable for featuring interviews with Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh (the latter of whom was assassinated a month later).
Produced by Norma Percy, this is fibrous stuff. No The Rest is History edutainment here, it's All Bran all the way. Aside from the odd amusing detail – an Israeli diplomat who desperately used a thesaurus to find the exact word for 'suspension'; Joe Biden trialling fist bumps as a diplomatic weapon – there is no sugar to be sprinkled on your cereal here. As an insight into the machinations going on behind the crisis, however, it's magnificent.
Some anecdotes come like a splash of cold water to the face (among them Mashal's smirking insistence that October 7 was righteous), but none more so than the moment that Benjamin Netanyahu told Kerry 'everyone in this region lies and you Americans don't take that into account'. It was clear that Netanyahu included himself in that statement.
As such, former Israel PM Ehud Olmert emerges as something of a tragic hero, having desperately tried to get the Palestinian Authority to sign off on a deal which would see Israel leaving 95 per cent of the West Bank. It was rejected, and would likely have been shot down by the Israeli cabinet, but Olmert's desperation was tangible. Time and time again the series shows that peace is possible, but too few people want it.
