The Zionist entity goes against the logic of history and justice and stands in the way of the rights and aspirations of a major Arab nation from the ocean to the Gulf. It has no future in our Arab world...While he then mentions the Palestinians as an afterthought, Ibrahim is honest about the real Arab problem with Israel: it stands in the way of a mythical, united, Arab nation from the Atlantic to the Gulf.
In other words, the Palestinian issue is, and always was, an excuse to oppose Israel, but never the reason.
The Arab world opposed Israel before anyone heard of the "Palestinian people," they opposed Israel before the "occupation." Their opposition to Israel was never about Palestinians, but they pretended to want to "defend" them even as both Trans-Jordan and Syria plotted to subsume Palestine as part of a "Greater Syria."
AP, October 19, 1947:
Manchester Guardian, February 14, 1947:
There was no interest in an Arab Palestine then, and there was no interest in creating such a country between 1948 and 1967. It was always opposition to a Jewish state, not support for a Palestinian state, that animated Israel's enemies - and that includes Palestinian leaders today, who have had 30 years to build a workable government but prefer a dysfunctional stub that prioritizes encouraging martyrdom over a good life for its citizens.
