In the two decades since President Anwar Sadat of Egypt made his famous trip to Jerusalem to address Israel's parliament, a consensus has emerged that the Arab effort to destroy Israel is a thing of the past. ... Are such appraisals accurate? ... Without a doubt, over recent decades the Arab disposition toward Israel has changed in significant ways. ...
But ... in other quarters hatred of Israel has not ceased. On the contrary, Arab rejectionism -the intent to destroy Israel - continues to flourish. ... Rejectionist Arabs harbor conflicting designs for the territory where the Jewish state lies. Palestinians seek to form a new country that will extend from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean; pan-Syrian nationalists want to turn "Palestine" into a component of Greater Syria; Arab nationalists envision Israel's land as a province of a huge Arab state; fundamentalist Muslims pray for the establishment of a pan-Islamic republic, and so forth.
Some rejectionist leaders speak openly of their purposes. ... Others ... talk of two stages -accepting Israel now and destroying it later, when the wheel of fate turns and Arabs are mighty once again.
Many Westerners, and some Israelis, discount the anti-Israel vitriol. ... But if anything ... the record shows that quite a few Arab dictators show greater flexibility toward Israel than do their subjects.
