An important anti-Israel Arab meme

A Jordanian newspaper, Assabeel, has published an op-ed that rehashes a theme that I have seen before in the Arab world but that rarely gets mentioned in English.

The article, by Salah al-Khalidi, states that while Israel may be 64 years old now, that is still very young in terms of history. Israel, to Khalidi and most Arabs, is a minor aberration of history that will ultimately disappear and be forgotten.

A Jewish state in Palestine is a bizarre cacophony, ...it is like a festering strange virus that appears in the human body, and acts as a parasite from the body's organs...The State of the Jews on the land of Palestine is a rotten infestation in the body of humanity and does not have any justification for its survival; despite the lapse of these years it has existed - and it will go through more years yet - but those years are short, and humanity will get rid of it, God willing, at the hands of the Mujahideen God willing.

Ages of nations is analogous to ages of individuals, and if the age of individuals is measured in years, or tens of years at most, the age of nations is measured by centuries. History tells us that the pre-Islamic nation Israel did not last for centuries on the land of Palestine, that is, they did not live the lifetime of even one individual, and the state of Israel ended after the death of Prophet Solomon peace be upon him.

History tells us that any nation invading and occupying another nation will not last for long...The Crusaders went to the Holy Land for permanent residence therein; but they didn't last even two centuries, before they were expelled by the Muslim Ummah to wake up the spirit of jihad for the sake of God, mere years in human terms.

We must learn from history. We live with a Jewish-based challenge, to truly witness history, and we must look ahead, and not remain prisoners of the Arab reality, and in fact the Jewish might is transcendent and empty!! The signs and signals that indicate the short life of the Jews in Palestine are many, and is growing, but Muslim seers must deftly pay attention to it, and draws the attention of the nation to it!!

History will record that the State of the Jews on the land of Palestine, died in her childhood crawling, before standing on the her feet, God willing.

This way of thinking - in terms of centuries and millennia, not years and decades - is part and parcel of the Arab world. This is why they can talk about non-permanent truces with Israel - as long as the direction is that Israel is losing its land, then the Arabs can afford to be patient. They know that Westerners think in terms of election cycles and not eras.

Sacrificing a few generations of Palestinian Arabs to being stateless is a small price to pay in the long run for the ultimate good of reclaiming "Palestine."

And this is why they are not afraid of Zionism. They regard Zionism as a temporary political phenomenon like Communism, and political fashions don't last too long. But they are deathly afraid of Judaism. Judaism is far older than Islam, and committed Jews have the ability to think in terms of centuries - and look at the Arab conquest of Palestine as a temporary phenomenon that only lasted a few centuries itself, before the Ottomans and then the British. Jews can look at Islamic history as an anomaly, and their continued existence as a nation is what scares Arab Muslims silly.

When Zionists base their territorial claims on international law, the Arabs are happy; as that is another fad that can change over time. But when Jews assert their claim based on their history and faith, Arabs go crazy - because they have no answer to that, and no realistic hope that Judaism will fade away the way they think Zionism will.

But they remain hopeful that the Jews will disappear as well. The name of the essay, after all, is "The brief age of the Jews."