Posts Tagged ‘dhimmi’

2. Tribal Influence in Islam, Islamic Religious Dogma and its View of the Jews

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

It is in the context of early Arab tribalism that the power of Islam should be viewed. Prior to the rise of Islam, Northern Arabian tribes engaged in raiding, feuding and fighting among themselves for livestock, territory, and honour.

Building on the tribal system, Muhammad framed an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, God-given identity as Muslims. This imbued the tribes with a common interest and common project. But unification was only possible by extending the basic tribal principle of balanced opposition. This Muhammad did by opposing the Muslim to the infidel, and the dar al-Islam, the land of Islam and peace, to the dar al-harb, the land of the infidels and conflict. He raised balanced opposition to a higher structural level as the new Muslim tribes unified in the face of the infidel enemy. (Salzman , pp137-8) (emphasis added. gma)

The basic tribal framework of “us versus them” remains in Islam. Allegiance is to “my group” which is always defined against “the other.” Islam, according to Salzman is not a constant referent. It only becomes relevant politically when Muslims encounter infidels. Among Muslims, people will mobilise on a sectarian basis, such as Sunni versus Shi‘a. But it would be a mistake to assume that because Arab sectarianism is in conflict, Western European and Israeli interests will remain unaffected. Ultimately Arab segments will unite (even if only temporarily) and mobilise according to whom they find themselves in opposition.

Such opposition may be created in a conflict over material and natural resources (land and water) but fanned by Islamic religious dogma. From its inception, the faith played and still plays an important part in the Arab opposition to Jewish dominance of any sort in the Middle East.

Thus, it is against a background of an Arab tribal culture upon which Qur’anic doctrines have been superimposed that Palestinian conflict with the Jewish State of Israel must be viewed.

The Qur’an, as elaborated in Muslim exegetic literature, including the hadith and commentaries, extensively depicts Jews in extremely negative terms. In the Islamic world view, as the price for their obduracy in rejecting the message of Mohammed and committing other transgressions against Allah’s will, Jews are cursed and are to be subjected to every possible human indignity.

The Qur’anic curse on the Jews appears in Sura 2 verse 61. There it recounts the biblical episode given in Exodus concerning the Israelites’ complaints directed at Moses for the monotonous diet they received while in the desert instead of the fresh fruit and vegetables they enjoyed in Egypt before being liberated. Moses rebukes the Israelites and after asking them rhetorically, whether if by going back to Egypt where they could find all they had been asking for, they would prefer to exchange that which is good for that which is worse, the Qu’ran continues:

“Shame and misery were stamped upon them [the Israelites] and they incurred the wrath of Allah; because they disbelieved Allah’s signs and slew the Prophets unjustly; because they were rebels and transgressors”  (N.J. Dawood, Quoran, Penguin Books, 1998)

The Qu’ran goes further and directs that Jews are to be viewed as the devil’s minions and on the Day of Judgment are to burn in hellfire (Qur’an 4:55; 4:60)

The Unbelievers among the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] and the Pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures (Qur’an 98:7)

Recent research by Andrew Bostom on the Qu’ran’s attitude towards Jews and its historical application discloses four central themes:

  • Jews are cursed by God,(Qu’ran 2.61) associated with Satan and consigned to Hell (Qur’an 4:60; 4:55;58:14-19;98:6);
  • Unless they converted to Islam, Christians and Jews especially, are subject to the compulsory payment of the Qur’anic poll tax (jizya) which had to be made “readily.” (Qur’an, 2:61, 3:112 and 9:29);
  • the Jews are cursed for killing the Prophets [Jesus and Mohammed] (Qu’ran 5:78) and being “laden with God’s anger” thus merit punishment at the hands of Islam by suffering permanent “abasement and humiliation”; (Qur’an 2:61; 3:112); and
  • transformation of  the Jews into apes and swine as part of that punishment.(Qu’ran 2:65;5:60;5:78;7:116)

(Andrew G. Bostom, Antisemitism in the Qur’an: Motifs and Historical Manifestations, http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/020584.php ;Textbook Islamic Antisemitism http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/textbook_islamic_antisemitism.html -hereinafter “Bostom”)

Consistent with the Qu’ranic commandments to humiliate non-believers,
orthodox and fundamentalist Muslim clerics and their adherents categorise Jews and Christians as “dhimmi”s (“protected”). During the early period of Arab expansion, conquered infidel people were compelled either to convert to Islam or suffer death. Jews and Christians, however, being “People of The Book” were not viewed as infidels and were permitted to continue to practise Judaism or Christianity, provided that they paid the jizya poll tax and acknowledged the supremacy of Islam.

While both Jews and Christians are classed as dhimmis, whose social status far inferior to that of even the lowliest Muslim, the Qur’anic attitude towards Christians was more favourable that expressed of the Jew:

“Thou will surely find the most hostile of men to the believers [Muslims], are the Jews and the idolators; and thou will surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say ‘We are Christians’; that, because some of them are priests and monks and they wax not proud”  (Qur’an 5:82)

The more benevolent Muslim attitude towards Christians is rooted in two factors: (a) Jewish antipathy towards Moslems in the early stage of Islam’s development and (b) Jewish attitudes against miscegenation.

According to al Jahiz, a mid 19th century Islamic commentator:

The first Islamic emigrants exiled from Mecca resettled in Medina where they encountered the local Jewish tribes who, it is alleged, envied the Muslims and the blessings of their new faith. The Jews initially tried to lead them astray with misleading speech. When this failed they, the Jews plunged into an open declaration of enmity so that the Muslims mobilised their forces, exerting themselves morally and materially to banish the Jews and destroy them…The Christians, however, because of their remoteness from Mecca and Medina did not have to put up with religious controversies…and be involved in war. That was the first cause of our dislike of the Jews, and our partiality towards the Christians.” (cited in Bostom)

Muslim observations of the low status of Jewish occupations led them to conclude that the Jewish religion must therefore be similarly unfavourable. What is even more objectionable from al Jahi’z perspective, is the low incidence of Jewish intermarriage with other races which has resulted in lower intellectual and physical qualities amongst Jews than in other races.

[T]hat their unbelief must be the foulest of all, since they are the filthiest if nations. Why the Christians, ugly as they are, are physically less repulsive than the Jews, may be explained by the fact that the Jews, by not intermarrying, have intensified the offensiveness of their features. Exotic elements have not mingled with them; neither have males of alien races had intercourse with their women, nor have their men cohabitated with females of foreign stock. The Jewish race therefore has been denied high mental qualities sound physique and superior lactation. The same regulars obtain when horses, camels donkeys and pigeons are inbred mingled with them.” (cited in Bostom)

Dhimmititude brought with it many civil indignities disabilities in the Islamic world which was enforced with varying degrees of intensity over the centuries. In most Islamic Arab lands, Jews were ritually and systematically humiliated in fulfilling their obligation to pay the poll tax. After making the payment publicly in the town square to the tax collection authority in a subservient manner, the Jew was slapped in the face or beaten on the neck and pushed forward to demonstrate that he was being spared the sword. The public abasement was more important than the sum paid.

The need for Jewish services – especially financial – by local Arab dignitaries was reflected in the indignity which they inflicted on their Jewish inferiors. Although in a number of cases, Jews rose to positions of importance, such as vizier to the Mongol ruler in Badhdad during the 13th century and the Jewish vizier in Fez, Morocco in 1464, Jews often acted as imperial tax collectors and as such became a bulwark between the government on the one hand and the Arab masses on the other, from whom it distanced itself. When anti-government riots occurred, as they did in the streets of Fez in 1465, the mobs rage was directed not at the political leadership or Jewish intermediaries alone, but a pogrom was instigated against all the Jews in the city and its environs.

In addition to the special poll tax, dhimmis were required to wear distinctive clothing showing their lowered status; they were not permitted to hold any governmental office of honour; their religious buildings had to be lower than those of Islam and their religious devotions were not permitted to be heard in public. Muslims took precedence to Jews while walking in public streets. In riding, Jews were restricted to the use of donkeys rather than horses as a sign of their lowered status. Thus the possibility of Jewish dominance arising – in even a smallest part of Islamic territory “dar Islam” – was and still is anathema to a Muslim fundamentalist. (See: Bat Ye’or The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam, Associated University Press, Cranbury, NJ, 1985; Islam and Dhimmitude: Where civilisations Collide Associated University Press, Cranbury NJ, 2002 )

In Morocco for example, even in the second decade of the 20th century, Jews upon entering the palace at dar el Maghzen on business, whether on behalf of the Jewish community or otherwise privately, were compelled, upon entering, to remove their shoes and walk barefoot in the Palace and its courtyard until they exited. Only when Morocco became a French Protectorate in 1922 was this humiliation removed.

For all Muslims, not just the extremist fundamentalists, the Qu’ran remains the infallible word of God, valid for all time and all places. Its ideals are absolutely true and beyond criticism. Thus, contemporary Qu’ranic commentators, such as Mawdudi, assert that the Jews and Christians have corrupted their faith since they have distorted certain basic components of Islam.

The purpose for which Muslims are required to fight is not to compel unbelievers to embrace Islam, but to put an end to the sovereignty and supremacy of the unbelievers so that the latter are unable to rule over men. The authority to rule should only be vested in those who follow the true faith; unbelievers who do not follow this true faith should live in a state of subordination (cited in Bostom)

Were the above views to be considered those of a relatively few extremists, the Middle East conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours might be capable of resolution by mutual accommodation. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. In fact since the establishment of Israel, and particularly following the 1967 Six Day War, Arab anti-Jewish sentiments have become more vocally strident and vicious. The Friday morning sermons emanating from Saudi Arabian and Islamic centres indicate that the above motifs remain vibrant in popular Islamic religious teaching.

As will be demonstrated later, American and European political leadership assumes that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved by Israel ceding to the Palestinians control of all the Palestinian land captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Days War and the removal of Israeli settlement from such territory – in exchange for peace. This assumption, judging by the political results of the 2006 Palestinian elections, is ill founded. The votes demonstrated a strong Palestinian commitment to and support for the fundamentalist and religiously motivated Hamas’ party, whose declared objective is the disestablishment of the Jewish state of Israel.

With this mindset there is little likelihood of any voluntary and peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict in the foreseeable future in the absence an Islamic reformation, or the occurrence of some other extremely improbable event having global ramifications. (Nassim Niccholas Taleb, The Black Swan, Penguin Books, London 2008). . “Conflict management” rather than “conflict resolution” must be the near and medium term goal in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation

This demands that Israeli and Western leaders recognise and take into account in their decision-making a number of social, political and cultural factors inherent in Arab society as differing significantly from their own. In those regional and global political arenas where there appears to be a religious and moral vacuum (and a continuing need for oil at almost any price), the expansion of Islamic values and ideology is already becoming increasingly prevalent. These may become dominant in the not too distant future such that Arab dreams, wishes, thoughts and speech will bear directly upon their political actions and become a major part of the reality in Arab decision-making. (Haviv Rettig, Report on Muslim anti-Semitism, Jerusalem Post, April 23, 2008; Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Penguin Books, London, 2007; Fouad Ajami, The Dream Palace of the Arabs, Vintage Books, New York, 1999; Andrew Hammond, Islamic Caliphate a Dream, Not Reality, Reuters, December 13, 2006 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04275477.htm)

2. Jewish Population of the Holy Land Under Early Islamic Conquest and Occupation

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Muslim rule over the Holy Land, began just four years after the death of the Prophet. Caliphs ruled first from Damascus, then from Baghdad and Egypt.

The Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in 638 CE was initially favourable to the Jews. They resumed settlement in Jerusalem and were appointed guardians of the Temple Mount in return for their aid to the conquering Arab army. In Hebron Jews and Muslims appeared to cooperate in the protection and development of the Holy Sites there.

    • “But when the Arabs who came to Hebron marvelled at the strength and beauty of the wall [that surrounded the Cave of Machpelah, [burial place of the Patriarchs] and at the fact there was no opening through which it was possible to enter, some Jews who had remained under the Greek rule approached them, saying, “Protect us so that we may live under like conditions amongst you and permit us to build a synagogue in front of the entrance to the cave, and we will then show you at what place you should install the gate and so it was done.”
    • (Canonici Hebronensis Tractatus de Inventione Sanctorum Partriacharum Abraham, Ysaac et Jacob.)
    Ummayads
    The rule of the Ummayads (661-750 C.E) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad) was a peaceful time for the Jews in Palestine. Indeed the Holy Land became a place of Jewish inward migration. Jews who were expelled from various other Arab areas, journeyed across what is now Jordan and settled in Jericho.

    Abbasids
    The mid 8th century saw the Ummayads supplanted by the Abbasid Caliphite

    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid) who founded Baghdad, making it their capital.
    It was only during this period that Jerusalem started to became an important centre for Islam

  • Between 687-691, Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock mosque to compete with the beautiful Christian churches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Malik#Art_and_Architecture) and to provide a centre of pilgrimage closer to Baghdad than Mecca, but subordinate to it. Shortly afterwards (715) yet a further Islamic shrine, Masjid al-Aqsa, was built on the site of the Temple Mount (Har Habyit in Jewish appellation)
  • During this period (8th and 9th centuries) various travellers and pilgrims make reference in their reports to a continuing Jewish presence in Palestine:

    • Michael the Syrian relates that 30 synagogues in Tiberias were destroyed in the earthquake of 748 CE. This event is verified by St Willibald, a pilgrim from Britain who visited all of the holy places, an account of which was written by his relative, a nun of Heidenheim.
    • During the 8th century Jews were among those who guarded the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, in return for which they were absolved from paying the poll tax imposed on all non-Muslims.
  • However with the rise of the Abbasids, relations between Muslims and non-Muslims (both Jews and Christians) deteriorated.  Non-Muslims had to wear a special badge on their clothing.  Increasing discrimination – social and economic – against non-Muslims caused many Jews to move to Fustat, Egypt, to establish a new community there.
  • In 772 C.E., when Caliph al Mansur visited Jerusalem, he ordered a special mark should be stamped on the hands of the Christians and the Jews. Over-taxed and tortured by the tax collectors, the dhimmi villagers went into hiding or migrated into the towns. Many Christians fled to Byzantium in the face of the fiscal oppression which devastated both the Jewish and Christian peasantry.  Bat Ye’Or, quoting from a detailed chronicle completed in 774 by an eighth century monk, states:
    • The men scattered, they became wanderers everywhere; the fields were laid waste, the countryside pillaged; the people went from one land to another.
  • A mosaic synagogue floor from this period located in Sussiya, South Judea contains an inscription which attests to the continued Jewish presence in Palestine at this time. The inscription reads:
    • Should be remembered for good and blessing our Master, His Holiness, R(abbi) Issi the Cohen, the Respected, the son of Rabbi who has donated this mosaic and plastered and whitewashed its wall as he promised at the banquet of his son, R(abbi) Johanan the Cohen, the Scribe.  Peace be upon Israel.
  • During the 9th century a listing of Jewish communities shows over 40 towns and villages in Galilee and Golan, several in the Jordan valley, and a handful across the Jordan.  Other towns with Jewish communities  include Jerusalem, Jaffa, Kfar Kasem, Kfar Saba, Bnei Brak, Lod (Lydda), Emmaus, Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ein Gedi, Jericho, Shilo, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
    Fatimids
    The 10th Century brought further political upheaval in the Middle East. The Abbasids lost power to Fatimids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimid ) who founded a new capital for their empire at al-Q?hirat (Cairo) in 969. After conquering Egypt, they continued to conquer the surrounding areas and Egypt became the centre of an empire that included North Africa, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. While Egypt flourished under the Fatimids , they nevertheless persecuted and imposed heavy taxation on the Jews in Palestine compelling them to leave their rural communities and move to the towns.
  • Arab geographer, Al Muqaddasi, writing in 985 CE complains in his “Knowledge of Climes”, that in Jerusalem
    • “…Learned men are few and the Christians numerous, and the same are unmannerly in public places… Everywhere the Christians and the Jews have the upper hand, and the mosque is void of either congregation or assembly of learned men.”
    He also notes that the Jews were employed as official money-changers, dyers and tanners.  Those who lived near Lake Hula, in the north, wove mats and ropes.  In Tiberias, the Jews specialised in the traditional manner of reciting, cantillating and interpreting the Scriptures.
    These were not the only activities in that city. Al MuQadassi also reported the residents of the town “led a life of decadence — dancing, feasting, playing the flute, running around naked, and swatting flies.”
  • At this time there was a continuous flow to Jerusalem of Jews from various countries, seeking shelter. A letter sent at the end of the 10th century from the Karaite Sahal ben Mazzli’ah to the Egyptian Diaspora, states:
    • “And know that Jerusalem at this time is a sanctuary to all who seek shelter, and gives rest to all who mourn, and comforts all who are poor and in want, and all the servants of the Lord come into her from every family and from every city, and amongst them women weeping and wailing in the holy tongue and in the Persian tongue and in the tongue of Ishmael.  Men and women dressed in sack-cloth and ashes… and they go up to the Mount of Olives all who are heavy of heart and in pain.”
    Unfortunately, Jerusalem did not remain a haven for Jewish refugees for long. Fatimid ruler, Caliph Al-Hakim (996-1021) destroyed both synagogues and churches, banished Christian priests and emptied Jerusalem of Jews. Although he eventually rescinded some of these restrictions, nevertheless the Jewish academy of Jerusalem had to move to Ramla. However in 1033 earthquake in the region forced the Jews to abandon the town temporarily. They returned some later.

4. The current status

Friday, September 12th, 2008

It is difficult to find a logical historical starting point in an examination of the legal and political issues arising from this long-standing conflict.

Since much of the Palestinian argument settles around the “illegality” of Israeli action and Israeli “legitimacy” as a sovereign Jewish state, the material contained in this resource book will centre on these issues. They must, however, be examined against the backdrop of the political, social and economic components of the situation to which they gave rise.

  • At the local level most of the conflict revolves around Israel’s purported expulsion of Arabs who claim to have held land in Palestine from “time immemorial.”
  • Regionally, especially after 1967, Israel’s presence in the Middle East is viewed as a destabilising factor. Its democratic government and society – with the freedom of expression and religion- is very different to that of its neighbours and presents a threat to the more or less autocratic secular and theocratic Arab governments in the Middle East which are still tribally constituted.
  • Globally, both from a secular and religious perspective, which is now beginning to express itself far beyond the confines of the Middle East,
    • the  commercial demands by Western states, particularly America, for a politically free and stable access to Middle Eastern controlled oil must be ensured; and
    • expansionist Islam is unable to accept the existence of a Jewish state asserting sovereignty over territory considered as part of Islam’s hegemony and the fact that some of its religious adherents are placed under the “domination” of a dhimmi people (inferior “protected”) is anathema.

The Revd. Dr. James Parkes (1896-1981), one of the most remarkable figures in British Christianity in the twentieth century ( http://www.soton.ac.uk/parkes/about/jamesparkes.html ) has taken a different view from that described above and looks at the centrality of  Palestine – the Land of Israel – from the religious perspectives of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. He concludes that the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel lies at the core of Judaism, whereas in Christianity and Islam it is more peripheral. (James Parkes, A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times, Victor, Gollancz, London, 1949; also  Whose Land? A History of the Peoples of Palestine, Penguin Books,  Harmondsworth, Mddx,1970)

In Parkes’ opinion, Palestine owes its unique position in the international political arena because the members of three world religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – are concerned in its destiny despite the fact that most of their respective adherents do not dwell in the country. Nevertheless, Palestine (the historical Roman name applied to the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean coast) has an unequalled prominence in Judaism which placed, and still continues to place, an emphasis on its physical occupation different from that expressed in Christianity and Islam:

  • For Muslims, the issue is not Palestine as a Holy Land, but Jerusalem as a Holy City – third holiest shrine in Islam – where according to Muslim belief, it was to and from “the furthest mosque” that Muhammad was miraculously transported in order to make his ascent into heaven.
    • ”Glory to He who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the furthest mosque”. (Subhana allathina asra bi-‘abdihi laylatan min al-masjidi al-harami ila al-masjidi al-aqsa.)
    However, the Koran makes no specific reference to Jerusalem. Only some considerable time after Mohammad’s death, and for political reasons, did Islam link the “furthest mosque” to Jerusalem.

    In contrast, Jerusalem (and its synonym, Zion) appears 823 times in the Jewish Bible and in the Christian New Testament, Jerusalem is mentioned 154 times and Zion 7 times.

    (Daniel Pipes, The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem, Middle East September 2001 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/84#Aqsa )

    In Islam, the central emphasis of religious practice is on the submission of the individual to the will of Allah. The Koran is not the history of the Arab people; all Muslims are equal, whatever their colour, nationality or country.

  • For Christians, Palestine is the Holy Land in which Jesus Christ lived his earthly life. In this sense it is unique and has no rival. But Christianity is neither tied to any particular geographical area nor to any particular people. Its central religious emphasis is on personal salvation and on the “second coming” of the Messiah –Jesus – marking the end of the world and the final judgment. Apart from pilgrimage, Christianity is disconnected with the Land; there is no religious obligation to settle there as there is in Judaism.
    The New Testament contains the history of no country; it passes freely from the Palestinian landscape of the Gospels to the Hellenistic and Roman landscape of the later books and in both it records the story of a group of individuals within a larger environment.” ( Parkes, p.172)
  • For Jews, Palestine is a Holy Land in the sense of being a Promised Land where the destiny of and self-determination for the Jews is integral. They have an intense relationship with the Land going beyond that of either of the other two religions. Throughout the centuries Judaism has espoused the idea of settlement and repatriation of its adherents and possesses an all-pervading religious centrality possessed by no other land. The essential objective of the Jewish Messiah is seen in the restoration of the Jewish people from all the lands of its dispersion to the Holy Land-Palestine-Israel.The central emphasis in Judaism, however, was and is the divine revelation of a way of life to be lived by men in community in this world. It relates to the whole life of a people on earth – domestically, socially, commercially, and its relations with other peoples (pre-modern ‘international’ relations) – as much as with its religion and its relations with its God.Jewish laws and customs are based on the land and climate of Palestine; its agricultural festivals of  Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost or Feast of Weeks) and Sukkoth (Tabernacles), follow the Palestinian seasons. Its post-biblical historical festivals are linked to events in Palestinian history, such as the joyful rededication of the Temple at the feast of Hanukkah and the mourning for its destruction on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar.

    Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism places much less emphasis on life hereafter than do Christianity and Islam and retains its central spiritual, physical and political existence in the geographical actuality of Palestine –Israel.

During the period of the exile from Palestine and its dispersion from the second to the eighteenth century, the Jewish people were recognised as both as a religion and as a nation.  As a religious group, they were compared to Christians and Muslims and as a Nation, they could be compared to Turks or Frenchmen. However civic unity in Christianity and in Islam especially, was based on uniformity of belief, within neither of which could Jewish destiny be fulfilled. This made it absolutely impossible for a Jewish group to be other than second-class subjects.

In their dispersion Jews built up a double religious life:

  • their loyalty in the lands of their sojourn was governed by the general principle that ‘the law of the land is law’;
  • Although religious observance in each community had to adjust Biblical and Talmudic law to the actualities of life under different rulers, nevertheless a continuous correspondence between communities and outstanding rabbis of the day ensured the continuity of traditional Jewish customs and ordinances as far as circumstances allowed.
    But behind these local adjustments, Jewish religious interest still centred on the Bible, on the Mishnaic code and on Talmud whose integral fulfilment could only take place in the Land of Israel. (Parkes p.173)


For other more secular observers of the Middle East, the resolution to the conflict was to be found in the return of land to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. However some have concluded that this is merely an interim stage in a longer process. The real conflict is still one of Islamic fundamentalist ascendancy.

Professor Benny Morris views the conflict thus:

    “It has become clear to me that from its start the struggle against the Zionist enterprise wasn’t merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper. As early as Dec. 2, 1947, four days after the passage of the partition resolution, the scholars of Al Azhar University proclaimed a “worldwide jihad in defense of Arab Palestine” and declared that it was the duty of every Muslim to take part.
    …Those currently riding high in the region-figures like Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshaal, Hizbullah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-are true believers who are convinced it is Allah’s command and every Muslim’s duty to extirpate the “Zionist entity” from the sacred soil of the Middle East.
    For all its economic, political, scientific and cultural achievements and military prowess, Israel, at 60, remains profoundly insecure — for there can be no real security for the Jewish state, surrounded by a surging sea of Muslims, in the absence of peace.”

(Benny Morris, From Dove to Hawk, Newsweek, May 8, 2008, http://www.newsweek.com/id/136085)