The 50 Years War, Israel and the Arabs - on BBC Four tonight

[StarbucksSmarterSister]

For those in the UK, BBC 4 is tonight showing "the 50 Years War, Israel and the Arabs". It was made in 1998 but should be worth a look. The first 3 episodes are on tonight.

It will be interesting to see how things have changed and what people think.

Sorry to be unclear: it was on last night but can be seen on iPlayer.

I just mistook your thread for one I started today @StarbucksSmarterSister . Sorry for the confusion.

I watched this first episode and thought how much is still not only relevant, but directly comparable.

It was a revelation to me as I knew very little before. There was for example violence perpetrated on Arab villages ( whole families) by some terrorist Israeli off-shoot groups after Israel wanted to clear the villages out of the way.

Also that a little later, there had been a peace-promoting Israeli leader at one point who was side-lined and overridden by others, encouraged by Ben Gurion the former leader. He and they were more like Netanyahu.

As this was made in 1998 there were interviews with people who had lived through this period.

Anyway, sorry to have started another thread when you has started this one.

Thanks for the info; will definitely look this up on iplayer.

Thank you for the info.

No worries, whichever thread gets the most traffic is good by me. It's interesting to think how different things could have been if Moshe Sharat had remained in charge rather than Ben Gurion but I think Ben Gordon was very much a special figure for Israelis at that time.

I watched 3 so far, I shall finish it tonight. So interesting to see all these figures that I remember being on tv from when I was young.

I've just finished It. It ends with the assassination of Yitzak Rabin and Netanyahu becoming Prime Minister for the first time. I'd really recommend people watch it if they're 40/50 or under and can't remember a lot of stuff it covers.

Two things really stood out for me - one is how many times peace seemed to come close in the past; the second is how much more entrenched both sides had become in the 30 years since this was made.

It's just unbearably sad.

I haven't watched them yet except for a small bit last week, but I mean to. I've lived through Israel's existence. Of course I remember when it was looking promising that there would be a peace and it feels so divided again, and as you say, so sad.

Thank you for this recommendation, I've watched it twice now and will watch again, so many emotions but above all the frustration of peace efforts being thwarted by hardliners.
King Hussein comes across very well I thought.

Thanks for the plug OP

Thanks op for sharing. Looks interesting.

Here's a shorter documentary (just over 14 minutes) explaining how Israel was created:

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