This article examines the portrayal of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in western
bestselling literature through the analysis of contrasting metaphors or analogies of
Israeli society and political action, on the one hand (family and Masada/Second World War), and
Arab/Palestinian society and political action, on the other (desert and water/fire/explosion).
Considering a number of passages from bestsellers, it is shown how an amplified
contrast between two life-worlds is constructed, and how metaphors, in a `play of
tropes', construct a boundary threat to the Israeli world, to racist effect. At the
same time attention is paid to the situational and ambiguous uses of metaphors, and
the ways in which the narrative and political context credentializes racist
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