In the genes?

By Thomas Lifson

The success of Israel, modern, democratic, wealthy, and above all Jewish, has obsessed the Arabs. The cannot tolerate the Jews being among them. Their entire sense of themselves rides on solving their problem with the Jews. It gnaws at their self esteem. It is central to their thinking.

It's in their genes.

Be Honsest. Would you dare say something like that in public?

What if I told you that they are the view of Al-Jazeera's Editor in Chief?

Pierre Heumann of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche spoke with Al-Jazeera's content czar Ahmed Sheikh in Doha. The interview was published in German, but we can read them in English thanks to a translation by the estimable John Rosenthal of Transatlantic Intelligencer. World Politics Watch publishes the entire interview.

An excerpt:

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?
I think so.
Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?
The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.
In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It's because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this. [emphasis added]