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As Long as the Arab World Views Israel as a Temporary Aberration to Be Conquered, Israel Will Stand Fast
(Fathom-BICOM) Einat Wilf - The prevailing Muslim, Arab and Palestinian view is that Zionism is a historical aberration that will not - and must not - last. Any Israeli effort to end the military occupation in the West Bank in a manner that would bring it peace and security thus clashes with the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian view that no place for compromise and agreement exists that would grant legitimacy to Zionism and the State of Israel and that would accept its permanence. Zionism was always going to challenge human imagination - the story of an oppressed and persecuted people, living among hostile host nations, who found the will to rise up, liberate themselves, and rebuild a sovereign nation in their ancient homeland. It is unsurprising that to the Muslims and Arabs who occupied the land since their conquest of it in the seventh century, the story appeared insane. The Jews represented a people whom the Muslim Arabs have, over centuries, come to view as their inferiors. The idea of Jews as the equals of Muslim Arabs could not be allowed to stand. In the negotiations following the 1948 war, the Arabs not only refused to meet with representatives of the State of Israel, but took great pains to emphasize that the armistice lines were not to be borders. Borders implied permanence. These were cease-fire lines only, because the war was not over and sooner or later there would be another war that would erase that humiliating eyesore from the Arab region. In 2000 and 2008, the Arab Palestinians refused to say "yes" to Israeli proposals that would have ended the military occupation of the West Bank. For most Israelis, the repeated Palestinian failures to say "yes" reinforced the view that more than they wanted a state for themselves, they wanted to deny a state to the Jewish people. It is necessary to demonstrate to the Muslim-Arab world that their view of history is wrong, and that rather than constituting a second Crusader state, Israel is the sovereign state of an indigenous people who have come home. This can only be achieved through Jewish power and persistence over time. And it can only be achieved if those who truly seek peace send the message to the Arab world that the Jewish people are here to stay. The writer, a senior fellow with the Jewish People Policy Institute, is a former Knesset member.