What’s behind the polarization? The public debate about Israel and the Palestinian territories has become increasingly polarized, with each side often presenting a simplistic and binary narrative that leaves little room for nuance or complexity. This trend is troubling, as it rewards performative certainty and punishes literate nuance, ultimately hindering our ability to understand the root causes of the conflict and work towards a resolution. The thesis of this article is that the public debate about Israel is often characterized by a lack of nuance and a tendency to prioritize certainty over complexity, which is detrimental to our understanding of the issue. The consequences of this trend can be seen in the way that public figures and media outlets often frame the conflict, with Israel being portrayed as either a heroic democracy or an oppressive regime, and the Palestinians being depicted as either innocent victims or terrorist sympathizers.…