The fall of Israel did not begin on October 7th, 2023. The path to the obliteration of Gaza was paved by the confluence of a set of longstanding forces. This great conjuncture has transformed Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Dr Dan Steinbock connects the dots among these lethal headwinds.

What makes The Fall of Israel unique is its comprehensive scope. It covers Israel's political, economic, social and military changes, the shifts in the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty, Israel's degradation into apartheid rule, the attendant atrocities, the regional and global reverberations and the human and economic costs, both prior and subsequent to Israel's fatal war on Gaza. There, its nightmarish actions have led to the engagement of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, renewed international boycotts, and massive domestic and international protests.

The Fall of Israel outlines the central drivers of this simmering tinderbox: the serial expulsions of Palestinians, the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, a half century of failed U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East and Israel's militarization, enabled by the symbiotic bilateral ties with the U.S. and massive U.S. military aid. In the Gaza War, these ties fostered paradigms of devastation, such as the Dahiya doctrine and mass assassination factories, backed by pioneering artificial intelligence. The settlements have contributed to the destabilization of the broader region since the early 1970s, and are now compounding its politico-economic and geopolitical crisis.

This book addresses the efforts to institute a Jewish rather than a secular state. It shows how the postwar labor alignments were replaced by the hard-right coalitions, thanks to U.S. neoliberal economic policies, assertive neoconservatism and Jewish-American donors. It also explains the causes behind the rise of the Messianic far-right, centrist parties, and the failure of the Left. The corrosion of Israeli society and politics was already reflected in and driven by an economy constrained by adverse erosion, as reflected by the liabilities of its high-tech cluster, the talent brain drain, the threatened welfare state and subsidized religious sector. But now, the already evident politico-economic costs to Israel of the Gaza war have set the stage for extraordinary uncertainty in the foreseeable future.

The Obliteration Doctrine tackles the deadliest canon of 21st century warfare. It addresses the abject devastation that this military doctrine has wrought, how it was done and those responsible. It puts the Genocide Convention's failure to punish and prevent this crime under close scrutiny.
The Obliteration Doctrine combines lethal forms of warfare--scorched-earth military tactics, collective punishment and civilian victimization--with indiscriminate area bombing and counterinsurgency operations. What's new about this form of warfare is the chilling mix of artificial intelligence and genocidal atrocities in violation of international law, the very foundations of international society and all human life.
This book shows how the doctrine's implementation in Gaza was facilitated by the United States, with Germany, the UK, Italy and Canada as strategic partners. While Israel pulled the trigger in Gaza, the weaponry and financial and diplomatic support came from the US-led West. Hence their complicity in the fatal carnage.
The rise of this deadly doctrine has been enabled by the West's long opposition to genocide prevention, which Raphael Lemkin's quest for effective legislation failed to overcome. Fearful of its vulnerability, the West succeeded in excluding and diluting core parts of the Genocide Convention addressing colonial atrocities, cultural genocide, political killings, and ethnic cleansing. Enforcement was repressed throughout the Cold War, and the few tribunals afterward soon proved inadequate. The West undermined genocide prevention by shunning preparatory attacks, early warnings and incitement prosecution. Ex post facto justice records but doesn't preempt genocides.
Stunningly, the Obliteration Doctrine was largely perfected institutionally by Israel two decades before October 7, 2023, yet the international community failed to prevent its further implementation, which its proponents openly pledged to deploy in the next war. That said, a broad variety of legal efforts have been launched against Israel and its complicit Western allies in international and domestic courts by many activists and countries increasingly in and by the Global South.
The erasure of Gaza reflects the tragic inability of the Genocide Convention to prevent the genocides it was created to identify, preempt and punish. The Obliteration Doctrine has set a horrendous precedent, providing a template for new and far worse final solutions to be unleashed on entire nations

How did the American media and entertainment industries decline from their global ascendancy after World War II to their present condition of instability and uncertainty? How will trends in the delivery of information affect their future? These are some of the questions Steinbock asks in this comprehensive, thoroughly researched analysis. Starting with a description of shifts in the U.S. economy and ending with the coming revolution in U.S. media and entertainment--attributable to government policies, strategic alliances, and technological convergence-- Steinbock's book is no less than a Baedeker to all facets of these interlocked industries, and a provocative critique to their stengths and weaknesses in the world economy. Media and entertainment professionals will find Steinbock's views challenging and cautionary. For academics in schools of communication, the book will be a necessary source of history, data, and analysis.

In the mid-1980s, America lost its global economic leadership. The information revolution has added to uncertainty. Despite the coming electronic superhighways, the future remains clouded in the American media and entertainment industries. Steinbock's comprehensive, thoroughly researched analysis is no less than a Baedeker to all facets of these interlocked industries, and a provocative critique of their strengths and weaknesses in the world economy. The book opens with a discussion of the American economy and its macro-affects on media and entertainment, vis-a-vis the twin deficit, a stock market dominated by institutional investors, troubled banking industry, deregulation and antitrust policies, as well as the fourth national mergers and acquisition wave.

In Part I, Steinbock looks at broadcasting (tv, radio) and cable (basic and pay, pay-per-view, home shopping), exploring the former's winding fortunes and the latter's consolidation. Then, he moves to examine the Hollywood studios and talent agencies and their market multiplication: theatrical exhibition, home video and syndication, theme parks, toys, video games, licensed merchandise, record and music industry, newspapers, magazines, and books, as well as interactive multimedia, from CD-ROM to virtual reality. Each industry analysis inludes a full section devoted to all major corporate players, from networks (Capital Cities/ABC, General Electric/NBC, Loews Corp./CBS) and cable operators (TCI, Viacom, Turner) to the studios (Time Warner, Paramount, Disney, News Corp., Sony, and Matsushita). In Part II, Steinbock discusses the coming electronic superhighways and government-initiated policies that have already had a significant impact on strategic alliances (direct broadcast satellites, computers, Baby Bells, and long distance carriers). The book concludes with an assessment of how the technological, economic, and political convergence is dramatically remolding the media, entertainment, computer, and telco industries, not only in the U.S. but throughout the world.

Lessons for attaining global competitiveness, one market at a time, from international business giant Nokia

Winning Across Global Markets examines how 145-year-old Nokia grew from a paper mill in Finland to a multinational telecommunications leader. Why are Nokia's lessons critical for other companies and industries? While multinationals based in large countries benefit from inherent advantages--such as a home base that often accounts for 30 to 50 percent of their revenues--multinationals based in smaller countries such as Nokia, enjoy no such competitive edge. Nokia, in fact, generates less than 1% of its revenues in its home base. To such a company, global competitiveness is a matter of life and death. With unparalleled access to Nokia's leadership, Winning Across Global Markets reveals the remarkable story of Nokia's resilience and endurance. Shows how Nokia's flexibility and focus on its people and local markets drive its distinct global approach.

• Includes exclusive interviews with Nokia's senior executives and key partners
• Provides a roadmap for developing, capturing, and sustaining global advantage

This book provides a roadmap for developing, capturing, and sustaining strategic global advantage in today's ever-changing world.

In recent years, billions of dollars (and euros, yen, and other currencies) have been spent by wireless services providers to acquire the radio frequency spectrum needed to offer so-called Third Generation (3G) mobile services. These services include high-speed data, mobile Internet access and entertainment such as games, music and video programs. Indeed, as voice communications are substituted by data communications, software -rather than terminals or networks- has become the driver of the wireless industry. Meanwhile, services are becoming increasingly specialized.
Why has the road to multimedia cellular been so difficult? These benefits of the mobile Internet have come with the costs of a massive transition that has coincided with the bust of stock markets and the technology segments worldwide, controversial and costly license auctions in several lead markets, dated or mistaken regulatory policies, the clash between the early hype and the pioneering realities of the mobile Internet. But these are generalities that barely scratch the surface. The devil is in the details. And it is these details that Competition for the Mobile Internet addresses.

Internet marketing is leading the massive wave of electronic commerce, but contrary to what people think, the internet has been a hard sell right from the start. What were the first critical decisions for marketers and advertisers that locked internet marketing on its current path? Steinbock interviewed dozens of the early key players and finds that the internet had to sell the idea of itself as not just a new media but an entirely new marketspace--that is, a space in the consumer and business-to-business markets both. Covering the entire field, Steinbock's unique study proves that regardless of what may come next, it is crucial to understand what came first. His book will be essential for today's marketing, advertising, and internet decision makers, and a fascinating read for business and media watchers everywhere.

Steinbock shows the obstacle and barriers that faced the initial entrepreneurs and user companies, reconstructing the progression of internet marketing from the campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, and in fact as far back as the 1940s and mid-1950s. He shows that internet marketing really began in business-to-business marketing, and only after AT&T and the Telcos argued that the internet was theoretically impossible and that it would crush American telecommunications if it ever did arrive. Ad agency execs? They hardly noticed the internet until the mid-1990s. Steinbock digs into the proliferation of marketing channels and the details of browsers, home pages, and web sites. He examines technology marketing, relationship marketing, and the connection between the internet, intranets, and marketing channels. In Chapter 4 he lays out the promise of internet marketing, the story of Zima and banner advertising, moving from there to the problems of online branding, online and offline advertising, broadcast hybrids, and online access to community providers. Steinbock ends with a look toward global markets and the war for eyeballs--the similarities and differences between television and the internet. His book is meticulously researched, authoritative, and well illustrated and will have special value for students and teachers in college courses in advertising, marketing, and media studies.

In recent years, billions of dollars (and euros, yen, and other currencies) have been spent by wireless services providers to acquire the radio frequency spectrum needed to offer so-called Third Generation (3G) mobile services. These services include high-speed data, mobile Internet access and entertainment such as games, music and video programs. Indeed, as voice communications are substituted by data communications, software -rather than terminals or networks- has become the driver of the wireless industry. Meanwhile, services are becoming increasingly specialized.
Why has the road to multimedia cellular been so difficult? These benefits of the mobile Internet have come with the costs of a massive transition that has coincided with the bust of stock markets and the technology segments worldwide, controversial and costly license auctions in several lead markets, dated or mistaken regulatory policies, the clash between the early hype and the pioneering realities of the mobile Internet. But these are generalities that barely scratch the surface. The devil is in the details. And it is these details that Competition for the Mobile Internet addresses.