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

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

Avner Falk 

Terrace Books/U. of Wisconsin Press

1930 Monroe St.--third floor, Madison, WI 53711-2059

ISBN 029920250X $35.00 271 pp.

Falk opens by surveying the "large body of scholarly literature on the Arab-Israeli conflict." The bulk of this scholarship is contained in the bibliography of about 50 pages. Yet the psychology of either side as accounting for the origins of the conflict or as a basic factor in sustaining it is not dealt with as a particular subject in any book; and is rarely even referred to in the volumes literature. Falk is an Israeli psychologist concentrating in political psychology and psychohistory who goes into this ignored psychological factor in depth. The psychology of the opposing sides as formed by their histories, ethnicity, and ties to the land is analyzed, as well as the psychology of leaders of each side, particularly Ariel Sharon and Yassir Arafat. "Psychogeography" is used to clarify the fierce competing visions for the same relatively small area of the Middle East the Palestinians and Israelis have been fighting over for decades. Falk's chapter on "The Psychology of Suicide Bombers" is especially timely and informative considering 9/11 and current events in Iraq.