[Jerusalem Post] David Horovitz - In his new book, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, historian Benny Morris insists that the religious dimension of Arab opposition to Jewish sovereignty, the rejection of Israel as an "infidel" and "alien" presence, was overwhelming from the earliest days of the struggle for statehood. Many, if not most, in the Arab world, he writes, viewed the war against Israel's establishment as a holy war. He recalls the Muslim Brotherhood declaring in 1938 that "To fight for Palestine was the 'inescapable obligation on every Muslim,'" and that the mufti of Egypt in 1948 "issued a fatwa positing jihad in Palestine as the duty of all Muslims." Morris contends that "The drift of the Arab world, the Islamic world, and the religious character of Palestinian nationalism means they'll never compromise and agree to a two-state solution in our lifetime." "They may agree to tactical cease-fires of one kind or another for a few years," he allowed. "But even that I doubt. There'll always be groups that oppose this. There won't be peace in our time because those 30, 40 or 60% of Palestinians with political consciences won't agree."
2008-04-15 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive