History beneath the memories.

The genesis of the Arab-Israeli conflict remains little-known. A cultural confrontation covered up by a "religious" conflict and polemics regarding the Zionist project crystallized at the end of WWI. But it took shape well before 1914 in the discourse of the Arab elite, the Sephardic Jewish community, and the Zionists of Central Europe. Georges Bensoussan shows that this discourse falls short in truly grasping this history, by revealing the importance of cultural and anthropological dimensions.