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The Role of Radical Islamic Groups in Israel: Implications for Israeli-Arab Coexistence
[Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs] Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar - The core question is to whom does this land belong? According to the Arab narrative, this has been an Arab Islamic region since the days of Omar, the caliph who conquered the land in the seventh century. According to the Islamic approach, since Islam began in 622 CE, all of history before that time has no meaning or significance. From the Jewish perspective, this land was populated by Jews and two Jewish kingdoms were here until 1900 years ago when the Jews were expelled with no justification. It even appears in the Koran that this land had been given to the Jews. To call Israel a "colonialist" state, as the Committee of Arab Local Authorities in Israel did in 2006, means a total denial of Jewish history. The writer, who served in IDF Military Intelligence for 25 years, is a research associate at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.