Israelis and Palestinians

Israelis and Palestinians: From the Cycle of Violence to the Conversation of Mankind.
Jonathan Glover. 2024.
Polity Press. 
ISBN: 9781509559787.
 
Israelis and Palestinians is a book on the psychological and moral dynamics that keep the conflict going, especially backlash, rigid beliefs, and identity traps. Glover’s central claim is that violence is sustained by a self-reinforcing cycle: one side’s wound becomes the other side’s justification for retaliation, and the process repeats. He argues that any path forward has to begin with a kind of dialogue he calls the conversation of mankind, meaning discussion without coercion or threats.
 
The book focuses on three linked problems: backlash after humiliation, collective guilt and stereotyping, and beliefs or identities that become too rigid for compromise. Rather than treating the conflict only as a diplomatic failure, Glover treats it as a human and psychological trap. Instead of insisting on a single neat solution, Glover points toward gradual, practical steps, including limited cooperation and forms of federal or semi-federal arrangement. He draws on other long conflicts, such as Northern Ireland and France-Germany, to suggest that enemies can slowly move toward coexistence. Reviewers describe the book as sympathetic toward the trauma on both sides while refusing simple blame narratives. Its emphasis is less on immediate policy design than on changing the conditions that make peace psychologically possible.
 
Jonathan Glover is a British philosopher born in 1941, known for his work in ethics and bioethics. He studied at Tonbridge School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Taught philosophy at Oxford for many years, and later became Professor of Ethics at King’s College London. He is especially known for books such as Causing Death and Saving Lives and Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, which explore moral choices, violence, and the psychology of cruelty. His work on Israelis and Palestinians continues that same interest in the human roots of conflict.