Wired to Steal: Zionism and the Shaping of the Western Mind

From the bestselling author of Ten Myths About Israel and a renowned neuroscientist comes a groundbreaking new book that delves into the psyche of settler colonialism and its far-reaching repercussions on history, identity, and global politics.Since the Hamas assault of October 7, 2023, and for more than two years, Israel has been engaged in what has been described by a consensus of international experts as a genocide.Can Israel’s actions be explained by retribution, “self-defense,” revenge, or the quest to free hostages, or are these narratives masking something deeper? How has Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine shaped the violence we are witnessing today?Wired to Steal is a powerful blend of investigative narrative, history, and behavioral neuroscience. Cutting through and dismantling propaganda, it exposes how the ruling classes of settler colonial projects hijack the human brain’s fear circuitry, systems of addiction, empathy pathways, and identity mechanisms to make oppression feel normal, even righteous. At its core, the book is about psychological hacking: how political systems are designed to exploit human vulnerability to fear and social belonging in order to turn communities against others, justify mass violence, and conceal theft as self-defense. Zionism is presented here as the most urgent, real-time case study, yet the book’s framework applies to settler colonialism worldwide.Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience and extensive historical scholarship, Wired to Steal combines vivid storytelling, clear science, and deep moral urgency to reveal the playbook of settler colonialism, and to offer a roadmap for dismantling it. Read more