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That's the rest of politics dot com. So today we have the great privilege of interviewing Simon Seabag Montefiore who is many

things he is though primarily an, he's written great works on Russia, on everything from the era of Castor and the Grace and Potemkins through to some wonderful books on Stalin, but he also wrote a very fundamental history of Jerusalem.

He is from a Jewish family, very influential Jewish family in British history in the 19th and 20th centuries and I think

has also been in the last few weeks a very important commentator on events in Israel.

So there are many things that we want to talk about.

We want to talk about Israel, Gaza, we want to talk about Russia.

But I wonder whether I could perhaps begin with a little bit of history and to try to get you to explain a little bit about what led up to this idea of Israel, the creation of a Jewish homeland, what part the British played in it, what the British thought

they were doing, why they committed to this thing, and where this came from in the 19th century?

That's a giant question, and I think one has to... I think one has to... I think one has to stop. I think I might go away and write a book about it. I did write a book about it, which is the Jerusalem book. But perhaps we should just start by saying that one can't think of anything other at the moment

than the nightmare we're going through in the Middle East and one just can't deplore enough

the images of civilians and children and women being killed in Gaza just as we can't

deplore enough the killing of civilians on October 7th in Israel and you know one always has to start by just saying,

I just crave the moment when there is a Palestinian state next to an Israeli state,

when the occupation is over,

when this dreadful Netanyahu government is gone, but also when

when Hamas is scattered and taken out, we pray out of the game,

in the political game in the Middle East.

So I think one has to start from that point, but on the other hand,

I believe that the history of Israel is an authentic.

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