What Is This War Really About?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amol and Nick discuss how the war in Israel and Gaza shows two competing versions of history. They look at what’s at stake and why it matters.
They are joined in The Today Podcast studio by historian Niall Ferguson to discuss how critical a moment this is for the region and wider world.
Episodes land every Thursday. Subscribe to The Today Podcast to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week. With insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. Get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The producers are Tom Smithard and Stephanie Mitcalf. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis.
The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. The Today Podcast music is composed by Nick Foster and Paddy Fletcher.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | What is this war really about? |
| 0:07.7 | Normally, those sorts of questions are simple to answer. |
| 0:11.8 | This war, it couldn't be less simple, because of the gulf between the perspectives of the two sides. |
| 0:17.6 | For Israel, it is simply about survival. |
| 0:23.9 | Survival of a people who saw millions murdered by the Nazis in the Second World War and who believe that there are people who wish |
| 0:28.7 | to murder them now. For Palestinians and their supporters, it's about ending decades of occupation, |
| 0:34.7 | the injustice, the imprisonment and securing freedom. That is why this war is so |
| 0:40.0 | complicated. That's why reporting on it is so complicated. So it's about a battle over history, |
| 0:45.3 | or rather histories, but it's also about the future because the post-1945 and the post-1989 |
| 0:51.4 | world order is crumbling and a new order and a new era is struggling to be born. |
| 0:56.0 | This is a new era of great power rivalry. |
| 0:59.8 | That is what we're trying to get to the bottom of this week. |
| 1:03.3 | Let's do it. |
| 1:03.8 | We're doing it. It's a mole here. |
| 1:19.0 | And Nick, and for the first time we're together. |
| 1:21.1 | I did miss you, but I knew you were going to come back, so I coped just about. |
| 1:24.3 | We've just come minutes ago off air air where we're on the today program this |
| 1:29.0 | morning and our editorial agenda, our headlines, our bulletins, our interviews were inevitably |
| 1:34.4 | dominated by the enormity of events in the Middle East. And we're recording this as Rishi |
| 1:38.6 | Sunak has just arrived in Israel the day after President Biden was there. And as a former political editor of the BBC |
| 1:46.5 | and of ITV, I've travelled, I think, with one two, three, maybe four prime ministers to Israel, |
... |
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