The Con­flict over the Con­flict chron­i­cles one of the most divi­sive and tox­ic issues on today’s col­lege and uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es: Israel and Pales­tine. Some pro-Pales­tine stu­dents call sup­port­ers of Israel’s right to exist racist, and dis­rupt their events. Some pro-Israel stu­dents label pro-Pales­tine stu­dents ter­ror­ists, and the Jews among them trai­tors. Law­suits are filed. Leg­is­la­tion is pro­posed. Fac­ul­ty mem­bers are black­list­ed and receive death threats. Aca­d­e­m­ic free­dom is com­pro­mised and the entire aca­d­e­m­ic enter­prise is threat­ened. How did we get here, and what can be done? In this pas­sion­ate book, Ken­neth S. Stern exam­ines attempts from each side to cen­sor the oth­er at a time when some say stu­dents are being quar­an­tined from, rather than chal­lenged to wres­tle with, dif­fi­cult ideas. He unique­ly frames the exam­i­na­tion: our abil­i­ty to think ratio­nal­ly is inhib­it­ed when our iden­ti­ty is fierce­ly con­nect­ed to an issue of per­ceived social injus­tice. Accord­ing to Stern, the cam­pus is the best place to probe this con­flict and our intense views about it. The Con­flict over the Con­flict shows how this is possible.