Sinking Into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict | Daniel Bar-Tal

Recorded on Wednesday, October 18th, 2023.

Professor Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University discussed his new book on how Israeli society's acceptance of half-truths and a selective narrative about the past and present of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is allowing it to continue at the expense of both sides.

About the Book
Sinking into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict describes how Israeli society has positioned itself in the comfort zone, ignoring the reality in which it exists. It is about the story leaders tell us and is accepted by most people. This story shapes the consciousness of Israeli Jewish society by presenting half truths about the past, hiding the present and describing a deceptive vision for the future. Sinking into the Honey Trap explains the mechanisms that allow Israelis to ignore reality and to live in a situation that prolongs the conflict with the Palestinians and postpones the solution to an unseen future with ongoing violence. The book describes the political forces that have driven Israel to advance the occupation, settling Jews on the West Bank, outside of Israel’s internationally recognized borders. Israeli society is paying a heavy price for the continuation of the conflict—not only in loss of life, emotional health problems and economic costs, but also in the deterioration of democracy and morality that accelerates the development of an authoritarian regime characterized by extreme nationalism and intense religiosity. This process has also occurred in other locations engulfed in intractable conflict, including Turkey, Russia, India, and Rwanda. In these cases, societies have been sinking into the honey trap.

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