Kyiv and Jerusalem against the war of lies: a book about October 7, Hamas, and the battle for truth was presented in the capital of Ukraine

Why the presentation of this book in Kyiv turned out to be more important than an ordinary literary event

On April 5, 2026, the presentation of the Ukrainian edition of the book by Israeli historian and publicist Michael Bar-Zohar “Iron Swords, Wounded Hearts: Israel’s Fateful War with Hamas” took place in Kyiv. The meeting venue was the capital’s book platform “Knigolend,” but the discussion quickly went far beyond the conversation about the new book.

The discussion was not only about Israel, not only about the tragedy of October 7, 2023, and not only about the war that the Jewish state was forced to wage after the terrorist attack. In the Ukrainian capital, this presentation sounded like a conversation about how modern wars are fought on several fronts at once — military, moral, diplomatic, and informational.

For the Israeli audience, there is a special meaning here. Ukraine, like Israel, has long lived in a reality where not only rockets, drones, and armed groups work against the country, but also systemic misinformation, attempts to substitute causes and effects, blur the lines between victim and aggressor, and then impose a convenient false version of events on the world. That is why the appearance of such a book in Ukrainian in Kyiv does not look like an accidental episode, but part of a broader struggle for historical and political clarity.

Bar-Zohar’s book begins with a description of the October 2023 events, then takes the reader to the origins of the conflict and explains the logic of Israel’s actions under unprecedented terrorist attack conditions. But, judging by the discussion at the presentation, the Ukrainian reader is attracted not only by the Israeli plot as such. Much more important is the attempt to honestly record reality before it is rewritten again for foreign political interests.

When a book becomes a response to disinformation

One of the participants in the presentation was Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. His participation added additional weight to the conversation because the topic of information warfare has long ceased to be theoretical for Ukraine.

According to Yusov, Israel and Ukraine face very similar challenges. It’s not just about military actions, but also about the struggle for the interpretation of events. In a modern conflict, it is not enough to repel an attack or conduct a successful operation. It is also necessary to prevent the truth from being distorted, and facts from being replaced by emotional manipulation, political conjuncture, and organized propaganda.

He formulated this thought very clearly: today, countering disinformation becomes as much a weapon as anything else, and such books are needed to prevent the rewriting of the truth. For Israel, which after October 7 found itself under tremendous pressure not only on the battlefield but also in the international media space, this sounds especially familiar.

The Israeli experience that Ukraine reads through its own pain

Another topic that was painfully understandable to both countries was the release of hostages and the return of prisoners. The book devotes significant attention to this, and for the Ukrainian audience, it is obviously one of the most sensitive layers.

Ukraine works daily on returning its citizens from Russian captivity. Israel, throughout the war after October 7, also conducts a heavy and dramatic struggle for the return of hostages captured by terrorists. Therefore, the conversation about the book inevitably touched on a common nerve for both societies: how the state, army, intelligence services, diplomats, and society as a whole act when it comes not just to strategy, but to specific human destinies.

For the reader in Israel, this is an important signal. The Ukrainian audience perceives the Israeli story not as something external and distant, but as an experience that resonates with its own trauma. It is in such points that true mutual understanding between societies arises — not at the level of formal statements, but at the level of lived experiences.

And here, the context constantly emphasized by NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency is especially relevant: the connection between Ukraine and Israel today is built not only on diplomacy and words of support but also on a common understanding of what a war against states that try to withstand terror, violence, and lies looks like.

Who participated in the presentation

The discussion was attended by the author of the book Michael Bar-Zohar, the president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and founder of the “Jewish Library” series Borys Lozhkin, co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of the drone production company “General Chereshnya” Yaroslav Gryshyn, Hryhoriy Shverk, and the development director of the publishing house “Nash Format” Dmytro Rudenko.

The discussion was moderated by Ester Vratarova — a speaker of the public organization Humanity, which is engaged in rescuing people from temporarily occupied territories. This in itself also looked symbolic: a conversation about a book on Israel’s war took place with the participation of people who work daily with the consequences of the war in Ukraine not in theory, but in practice.

The event was organized by the Ukrainian communication agency Ideas&Strategy.

Why this book may be important for the Israeli reader

Michael Bar-Zohar has long been known to the Ukrainian audience for books about Mossad operations and women in Israeli intelligence. The new edition continues this line, but in the current environment, its perception becomes much sharper. It is no longer just a historical or journalistic work about Israel. It is a text that reads as a warning: if things are not called by their names in time, later it will be even harder to fight for the truth.

For the Israeli audience, it is also important that in Kyiv such a book is not perceived as foreign. On the contrary, it fits into the local context naturally because Ukrainian society understands too well the cost of the world’s delayed reaction, the cost of informational fog, and the cost of attempts to equate the defending side with those who started the violence.

The presentation in Kyiv showed that between the Ukrainian and Israeli experiences today there is not only political solidarity but also a deep intellectual coincidence. Both countries are forced to simultaneously defend borders, people, memory, and the right to their own voice.

And that is why the book “Iron Swords, Wounded Hearts” in Ukrainian translation is not just a publishing novelty. It is another argument in the great struggle against oblivion, distortion, and rewriting of events, the consequences of which continue to determine the security of Israel, Ukraine, and the entire region.