Saree Makdisi argues Israel has long presented itself as a bastion of tolerance and democracy in the heart of the Middle East. But he says the war in Gaza is seeing support among progressive voters, particularly in the United States, collapse, and that the Netanyahu regime is lifting the veil of denial over a story of cultural and ethnic dispossession. 

Guest: Saree Makdisi, professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA. His most recent book is ‘Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial’, published by University of California press. Saree Makdisi will be appearing at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney.