Fratricide in the Holy Land : A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

This is the first English-language book to apply psychoanalysis to the most intractable international struggle in the world today - the Arab-Israeli conflict. Two ethnic groups fight over a single territory that both consider to be theirs by historical right. Avner Falk makes a close historical examination to show that the two parties have missed innumerable opportunities for a rational partition of the territory between them and for a permanent state of peace and prosperity rather than perennial bloodshed and misery. Falk suggests that a way to understand and explain such irrational behavior is to explore the unconscious aspects of the conflict. He examines large-group psychology, nationalism, psychogeography, the Arab and Israeli minds, and suicidal terrorism, and he offers psychobiographical studies of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, two key players in this tragic conflict today.