By Yoram Getzler, Co-Host of IsraelSeen

Attacks on Israel’s legitimacy are very serious and must be addressed. One of the policies of our government that facilitates these attacks on us is the mistaken position promoted by the current government that demands the need for the Palestinians to publicly acknowledge that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people.

I believe this is not the significant issue it is made out to be and obscures the real issue that drives the Arab/Muslim worlds hostility towards us and facilitates the anti-legitimacy drive among the nations of the world.

I would like to share my conclusion that the position being demanded and promoted by PM Netanyahu and his government regarding the recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people is in fact the wrong issue at this time.

The fundamental issue here, between the Jewish people and the entire Arab/Muslim world is not over this or that hundred or thousand or ten thousand dunams, acres or square miles. . Its not about this or that city, but about the basic premise of why we are here! Is it because of the extraordinary oil and mineral wealth beneath this land?, or perhaps due to the vast fertile and well watered agricultural lands.

What we must emphasize to the world, including the Arab/Muslim world is that we are here (of all the possible places on the planet) for a specific historical reason.

I believe we must understand that the true conflict between the Arab/Muslim world and ourselves has been and continues to be their belief that we came here, for no good reason, other than to fulfill the European/Colonial assignment of stealing this fabulously valuable land from its Arab inhabitants.

This is also the basis for the success of the anti-legitimacy movement in the world. After all if we are nothing but thieves, with no real or just rights to the land, than what are we doing here, we can all agree, is in fact illegitimate.

So in my humble opinion the real issue we should be promoting is the lack of recognition on the part of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim world of our legitimate historical claim to any of the land between the river and the sea.

A second important issue we are ignoring is that if our historical claim is false, if indeed as Arafat asserted, there was never a Jewish temple or even a Jewish presence in Jerusalem, that there was nobody here before the Arabs/Palestinians, than the entire Christian narrative is also false. For the Palestinians/Arabs its a bargain, a case of killing two birds with one shot. Disenfranchising two communities with one belief argument.

I also think it worth considering that there are about one billion Christians in the world, and a majority of them believe the Jesus story. The story explicitly includes his coming to Jerusalem in order to cleanse the Hebrew (Jewish) temple, at the time of and in accordance with the traditional Jewish pilgrimage festival requirements. That story also includes various scenes in which Jesus engages specifically Jewish inhabitants of the Galilee and Judea in the context of his (Jewish) cause.

I think a sizable percentage of these believers would be outraged if and when they would come to understand that the basic position of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim world; by rejecting the Jewish legitimacy historical claim also nullifies the Christian presence here.

I think its time we actively facilitate that awareness.

Yoram Getzler

co-host, IsraelSeen.com