Since its inception Israel has been involved in an intractable conflict with the Palestinians. Intractable conflicts are characterized by opposing societies which fight over goals that are considered existential and viewed as irreconcilable by the majority of society members.
The presentation examines key psychoanalytical concepts to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological basis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as intractable. The significance of the presentation is twofold. First, psychoanalytical concepts are seldom mentioned in the context of intractable conflict research. Second, the presentation examines the intractable nature of the conflict as a coping mechanism with the traumatic legacy of the Holocaust. While much of the literature on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Holocaust explores the Holocaust`s legacy on the conflict, it rarely examines the role of the conflict as a coping mechanism used by Israeli Jewish society to lessen the traumatic memories of the Holocaust.