I’m looking for what was the original cause of tension between Jews and Arabs. Not the current stuff, but the root cause. From what I understand, there was fairly peaceful coexistence for quite a while, but I could easily be wrong here. But what changed that? At what point did they become mortal enemies?
Is this even an answerable question?
Tension? That’s got to be the understatement of the century. 
To some extend it has been there at least from Muhammed’s time, at least if you look at some of the parts of the holy writings. E.g. like this from the Hadith: “The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Muslims make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: ‘Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”. Apparently Muhammed also praises and admire the Jews in other places. Also it’s often been pointed out that the Muslim world during the middle ages was more benign to the Jewish community than the Christian world - but that probably says more on the persecutions in Europe than brotherly love in Arabia.
I don’t think you’ll have too long to wait for some answers (of a sort).
Someone called A who types with a dyslexic Albanian keyboard will be along shortly to explain the basis of the dispute to you shortly.
Someone else called T will follow up with a soothing tale about spiritual ukulele playing Sufis causing calm to prevail in the world of Islam.
I won’t tell you what tnd will say. Let’s leave it as a surprise.
All in all, just lie back and enjoy it.
(Note that each side will necessarily twist each element, from whatever year, to their own argument.)
“Bullet” points (to use an unfortunate phrase):[ul][]1917: Balfour Declaration.[]1947: UN Partition of Palestine.1967: Israeli-Arab war.[/ul]If you wish to delve into ancient history, you will notice that the two peoples follow different religions, and that that particular region has few natural resources, and so any available resources will be sought after quite forcefully.
Muhammad had some early allies in Jewish groups of the area and expected Jews to flock to his new religion. When they did not he was insulted and got a little po’d. Hence some conflicting POVs in his writings.
Jews were treated in ways tolerant and not throughout the heights of Islamic rule. Their status was always second class but they were sometimes not treated too badly as long as they knew their place. Massacres occurred but overall it was a better place for Jews than were Christian lands.
Jews that remained in the ME throughout were a small enough minority that they were could be tolerated in the main. As numbers grew, Arab concern grew, occassionally finding expression in massacres and alliance with Nazis. For their part, not all early Jewish settlers respected the Arab population. These immigrant Jews most certainly were not Jews who were second class citizens in an Islamic world, they defended themselves and more. From there follow the timeline already provided.
There in no doubt some problems are simply built into the Noble Quran. Sort of like the death penalty, God put it in there and men cannot take it out.
History is certainly the major practical reason for the long-term hatred, but I would like to add two points:
[ul]
[li] Fights between brothers are always the worst. The three Sacred Religions share a lot. As a result we tend to argue a lot. Can a Catholic work up are really good bloodlust for a Hindu? I think not. [/li]
[li] Islam is a young religion. The current Islamic year is 1425. How were Christians and Jews getting along in 1425AD? Not very well. I cannot help but think (and pray) eventually passions will fade. [/li]
[/ul]
The key date is the Balfour Declaration in 1917, before this date there was no major tension between the two peoples, the Jews living in the region where subject to periodic relgious intolerance, but where certainly treated better than other relgious minorities (the crusades and subsequent events had served to cretae tensions between Muslims and Christians in the region. Even by this time these tensions were confined mostly to Palestine and were focused on the newly arrived immigrants rather than Jewish Arab populations. However soon after the rise of Arab nationailism (i.e. panarabism) led to wider tensions.
The folowing passage was written (by an Anglo-Canadian, with strong imperialist leanings)in the early 20s before the fist occurances of the intercommunal violence:
According to some people the real enmity is because both Jews and Arabs are decendants of Abraham. Here is one overview of the story.
Basically, this idea suggests the origin of all the hostility comes down to “which nation is the true heir of Abraham?” Ishmael, the firstborn, but not the son of Abraham’s wife, was the ancestor of the Arabs and Isaac, the secondborn and allegedly prophecised son of his wife Sarah, was the ancestor of the Jews. So, there’s an added argument of legitimacy. Ishmael was born out of wedlock, but it was according to a custom of the time, and so was considered proper. On the other hand, Isaac’s birth was promised to Abraham by God, although it wasn’t entirely clear that they would have to wait as long as they did for his birth. (Abraham was 100 at the time)
It’s all a neat story and, like much in the bible, seems a little too neat. It’s too easy of an explanation, but if taken metaphorically it might point to the actual history. Let’s just say I doubt it’s true, but I think some people do believe it.
[QUOTE=SentientMeat]
Timeline.
(Note that each side will necessarily twist each element, from whatever year, to their own argument.)
“Bullet” points (to use an unfortunate phrase):[ul][li]1917: Balfour Declaration.[]1947: UN Partition of Palestine.[]1967: Israeli-Arab war.[/ul]If you wish to delve into ancient history, you will notice that the two peoples follow different religions, and that that particular region has few natural resources, and so any available resources will be sought after quite forcefully.[/li][/QUOTE]
What about the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, when the Arabs rejected the creation of Israel?
Israel’s victory in that war is what led to the distruction of the partitioned Palestine.
Yes, TBC, that is also covered in the BBC Timeline.