Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israel: ‘I Felt Lied To.’

In his new book of essays, “The Message (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...) ,” Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about a trip he took to Israel and the West Bank in May 2023. “I felt lied to,” he told me. “I felt lied to by my craft. I felt lied to by major media organizations.”


Coates’s essay is a searing portrait of Palestinian life under Israeli rule. It has also been criticized for leaving much out: Hamas is never mentioned. Nor is Oct. 7. Nor are any of the peace processes. So I asked him on the show to discuss what he saw when he was there and what he chose to leave outside the frame.


Mentioned:


“The Case for Reparations (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...) ” by Ta-Nehisi Coates


The Necessity of Exile (https://ayinpress.org/the-necessity-o...) by Shaul Magid


The Virtue of Nationalism (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/tit...) by Yoram Hazony


“US media talks a lot about Palestinians — just without Palestinians (https://www.972mag.com/us-media-pales...) ” by Maha Nassar


Book Recommendations:


Justice for Some (https://www.sup.org/books/law/justice...) by Noura Erakat


Our American Israel (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978...) by Amy Kaplan


The Unspoken Alliance (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...) by Sasha Polakow-Suransky


Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].


You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast (https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-k...) . Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-... (https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...) .


This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Efim Shapiro and Isaac Jones, with Aman Sahota. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.






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