Only Solution: Temper Inflexible Religion with Flexible Politics

However, the 1948 war against Israel was based on Arab nationalism and a desire by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to divide the remaining land of the Palestine Mandate among them. Gamel Abdul Nasser waved the banner of pan Arabism, not Islam, during the 1967 war to destroy Israel. Yassir Arafat was a secular leader and waved the banner of revolution and 60s post colonial liberation to continue his war against Israel after 1967. He wasn't even a Palestinian, but an Egyptian by birth. With the failure of fanatic nationalism, pan Arabism, and post colonial 60s revolution, came the rise of Islam to destroy Israel. Perhaps, in the Middle East Islamic religion is always tied up with politics, but the Arab desire to destroy Israel has not until recently become a religious struggle. Look to history and you will see this. Of course, now we do have fundamentalist Islam intent on destroying Israel.

Prof. Sarna hits the proverbial nail on the head. Very well written piece.

The two previous commenters completely miss the point. Whether or not the holy books for Judaism and Islam condone or deny the right of Israel to exist, it does. That is reality. The Zionists have succeeded in buying and taking over that land militarily, and it is theirs. It is no different from any other property situation. Possession is ownership.

Muslims weren't the first people to occupy that land, and no one cares about the circumstances of their take-over of it. Similarly, they can't cry about the creation of Israel being unfair in perpetuity, because it is a moot point. Well I guess they can, but they will just be wasting their time and everyone else's.

Honestly, if the Arab world were really worried about the problems of the Palestinians then they would offer them full citizenship in their own countries. Egypt and Jordan especially. But they don't really care about the human rights of Palestinians. They just want to perpetuate this situation as much as they can for their own political purposes. If Israel is the focus of anger for the Arab man-on-the-street, then their own corrupt and inhumane governmnents aren't.

This is why the Emirs first stirred up trouble a century ago, because they saw that by making a flowering paradise in the desert Jews were showing poor Muslim Arabs just how much their leaders were screwing them. By pretending that Zionists were usurpers, they changed the focus of the anger, and saved their authority.

dr sarna still echoing the same old crying melodrama jewish monologue that been echoing thru the entire history of the zionist state of israel.

first with the british now with the inauguration of obama .

the state of zionism is born with one leg always in need of crutches and support always in need of a bully to protect its own failure destructive anti human bigoted ideology.

those who are interesting in real history (not one eyed history)realy need to read the history of mid east befor and after the cripled state of zionizm.

Jews follow the second worst book ever written, i.e. the mostly mythical OT and related mumbo jumbo extensions. Muslims follow the worst book ever written, i.e. the koran whose foundations are based on the hallucinations of one long-dead, womanizing, and warmongering Arab.

Declare both the OT and the koran as null and void and Hamas and the Israelis will have no theological and moral ground to stand on. Actually, they have none now and the leaders of the rest of the world should point this out and at least these hollow excuses for bloodshed in the name of god will finally end.