"Imagine," writes Jamie Kirchick, "how history might have changed had the Arab powers accepted the mere presence of a Jewish state in their midst." Or, conversely, and much more realistically, imagine if a consortium of Western powers hadn't decided to assuage their guilt over early inaction in World War II by carving up somebody else's land and giving it to the Jews.
The central, heartbreaking fact of the Israeli/Arab conflict is that it was all perfectly predictable. There were riots in Palestine in 1920, protesting the Faisal-Weizmann agreement and the Jewish state it presaged. The creation of Israel was a noble and historic act, but it was also a supreme instance of colonialism, during which foreign powers constructed a new, sovereign nation in a land which was not their own, creating an obvious tinderbox whose occasional detonations wouldn't -- in theory -- harm the West. And both the Jews and the Arabs have been paying for it ever since. Imagine.
Also: Read Tony Karon on the elite response to The Israel Lobby.
