All Hank, all the time.

[Adder]

Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
Perhaps a silly question, but anyhoo...does the Arab hatred of Israel and Jews predate the establishment of the Israeli state? Is the basis of the fundie Muslim objections that this is holy ground, such that any group who occupied that land would be now hated (e.g., Mennonites, Yankee fans, African-American Muslims)? Or would they still hate Jews (perhaps slightly less) even if the state of Israel did not exist, or existed outside of the old Caliphate?

I'm trying to figure out how much of this conflict is historical (as in pre-1948) and how much of it has to do with (rightly or not) the perceptions of injuries inflicted upon Muslims in the half century since then.

I suspect that without the Israeli state where it is, the Muslim world would hate Jews less than they hate Christians, and less than Christians have historically hated Jews. Which is not to say that there isn't a historical component to it.