Arab News; By ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

Since 1948 till today, the Arab states have been in a state of war with Israel. There were four major wars (1948-56-67-73) and many more military conflicts. And till 1979, there were no formal relations between any Arab country and Israel.

The first breakthrough came in 1979 after the signing of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. With this agreement, Egypt achieved what they couldn’t achieve by war. They got back the Sinai Peninsula. And in later years, we saw diplomatic relations between Israel and another four Arab countries (Jordan, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia). The relations were strained during the Palestinians’ Intifada (uprising). Later on, two Gulf states had the first contact between any of the Gulf states and Israel since 1948 with the opening of trade representation offices in Qatar and Oman. Jerusalem is important to all Abrahamic religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity), so, why Jerusalem is dividing people of different faiths rather than bringing them together?

Why a city, which represent the three main religions had been destroyed, besieged, attacked and captured and recaptured many times by people who claim their respect to the holy shrines in it. And why is it, that when an Arab or Islamic figure decides to visit Jerusalem, it is the Muslims and Arabs who oppose the visit and you would hear religious Fatwa (ruling) and negative political speeches from Arabs and Muslims about the visit, even if the visit is for sightseeing or studying history? There are many Muslims who can’t differentiate between the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Read more