Dr. Mordechai Kedar
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, 73, an Arabist at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, loves to be interviewed by Arabic news media. Fluent in Arabic, the professor is notorious for his fearless, combative style with his Muslim interlocutors. He matches their hyperbole and belligerency stroke for stroke.
When his interviewers accuse Israel with made-up charges and maintain Israel has no right to any land in the Middle East, he famously replies that the Jews were writing the Torah and the words of the Prophets in their own land while for another thousand years the ancestors of Muhammad (the founder of Islam) were still worshipping idols in the desert, drinking liquor (observant Muslims do not touch alcohol), and burying their daughters alive.
Al Jazeera and other Arab news media call on him, however, because his presence guarantees high viewership.
Kedar does not vacillate. He states he does not believe in peace in the Middle East.
His reason for that stand is faith. Not Jewish faith, however: It is Islam that prevents peace.
The Muslims at one time ruled the Mediterranean coastline from end to end and beyond. Hence, they consider the entire region a part of their waqf (Islamic property in perpetuity). A land may be ruled by infidels (i.e. non-Muslims) if the Muslims are too weak to reconquer it, but that is deemed a temporary situation.
Agreements Muslims make with non-Muslims can never be permanent. Such an agreement (hudnah) existed with the Jews of Khaybar in the seventh century. In 628, that hudnah was terminated when Muhammad conquered the Jews. He then imposed a 50 percent jizya (infidels’ tax) on the Jews.
Kedar stresses that, regardless of any agreement, it is inevitable that war with the Arabs will resume. Even if this generation of Middle East Arabs were to maintain peaceful relations with Israel, there are no guarantees the next generation will.
What about the signatories to the Abraham Accords: Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)? Are the Accords then not to be taken seriously?
These nations are predominantly Sunni-Muslim nations and believe that if Allah wanted to have the Jews destroyed, Allah would not need the help of men but could do it alone. They argue that human intervention is not needed to carry out Allah’s plan, so peace treaties and trade are permitted.
Professor Kedar opposes a two-state solution. In this he represents the majority of Israelis, both Left and Right, who have opposed a two-state solution since October 7, 2023.
Even Jewish pacifists who were involved in projects fostering peaceful relations with Palestinian-Arab neighbors now concede that it is unfeasible. Kedar and most Israelis realize that a Palestinian state, even with UN validation and international “guarantees,” would rapidly devolve into a terrorist state on Israel’s border whose chief goal would be the annihilation of the Jewish state.
Most of the Israelis who lived in the towns and villages along the Gaza border were pacifist-minded, but no longer. The horrors and the trauma of October 7 have been too great; illusion has yielded to reality.
Some geopolitical experts have suggested administering the Arab regions along traditional tribal lines with limited autonomy under Israeli sovereignty. Kedar proposes seven Arab districts along clan lines, similar to the UAE, where several clans (like Abu Dhabi and Dubai) have merged.
Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, like Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, have failed, he argues, due to the imposition of authority by one clan upon others.
Successful Arab states, however, have homogeneous, unified clan-based societies. They include Kuwait (Sabah clan), Oman (Al Said dynasty), Qatar (Thani clan), Saudi Arabia (House of Saud), UAE (Abu Dhabi’s Nahyan clan).
Kedar proposes “An emirate in Hebron for the Hebron clans, an emirate in Jericho for the Arikat clan, an emirate in Nablus for the Nablus clans, and so on for the seven Arab cities in the West Bank, plus one in the Gaza Strip” (Sky News Arabic, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, May 13, 2024, youtube.com/watch?v=Wm0zcboFuLo).
Is such a plan tenable?
Modeled on the UAE, it might be possible. After all, Arab tribal allegiances are enormously powerful, far more than loyalty to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. The latter both retain power only because of their military strength.
There is no doubt, however, that both Hamas and the PA, their rule threatened, would oppose such a plan violently. The remainder of the Muslim world, along with most nations, would not accept it either. The world is drunk with the two-state solution as the only solution, even when a century of history in the region proves otherwise.
For decades at LEMA’AN ZION we have held that we are witnessing a civilizational clash with spiritual ramifications. This is not a war of politics or history, it is a war against the promises and prophecies of the Bible, and against its Author God Himself. Our confidence rests in the assurance that His Word is true and will be fulfilled. Peace will come in His time.