akuperma – despite your knee jerk anti-tzioyni reactions to every single article on this site I’ve seen you provide an intelligent response here and there so I know you’re not a stupid guy – yet your naivete regarding the arabs is beyond the pale. Even if things weren’t as bad traditionally for us in the Muslim world as they were in xtian Europe, it was still certainly no walk in the park. The expulsion from Spain and the Inquisition weren’t necessarily as bad as the Shoa either but that doesn’t meant it wasn’t really bad. If there was honestly a chance of having a benevolent arab/muslim government that would truly offer Jews full personal/human/religious rights and a degree of autonomy I would take them up on it in a heartbeat. However I don’t buy the argument that such a scheme would have EVER been realistic (look at how they slaughter their own kind left and right in the most barbaric ways). Even the Turkish sultanate only offered us superficial and often ineffectual protection against the arabs in EY. Besides, even if you would like to truly believe that such a scenario could have theoretically played out pre-state – that ship has LOOOOOONG since sailed my friend. There is no turning back the clock on this one, arab pride won’t allow it.
The fact of the matter is while they may not be fond of us, many of the big arab players prefer us over the palestinians whom they view as a violent unpredictable headache/liability and they even have come to see us as a strategic ally against mutual enemies such as Iran even if they will never be able to admit it publicly. The Egyptians fully cooperate with us in maintaining a blockade on Gaza and they are a 1000 times more brutal with their treatment of Gazan palestinians then we are. If they were really so interested in wiping Israel out in the name of palestinian “rights” or arab conquest why would they work with us and even one up us like that? There is big money coming from the west eternally propping up this idea that the arabs will make nice with us if we just give away all our land and even many arab heads of state aren’t interested in it anymore. Stop buying into the lie.