"Using an array of material from literature, archaeology and social theory, Edward Said's essay is an exploration of the profound implications in Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism for Middle-East politics today." "Demonstrating an abiding interest in Freud's work and its influence upon his own, Said proposes that Freud's assumption that Moses was an Egyptian undermines any simple ascription of a 'pure' identity, and further that identity itself cannot be thought or worked through without the recognition of the limits inherent in it. Said suggests that such an unresolved, nuanced sense of identity might, if embodied in political reality, have formed that basis for a new understanding between Jews and Palestinians. Instead, Israel's relentless march towards an exclusively Jewish state denies any sense of a more complex, inclusive past."--BOOK JACKET.