Castles’s Reviews > The Face of War > Status Update

I think that if Israel did not exist, the Arab leaders would have to invent it. It is the single imaginary enemy that unifies all their people. The Moslems of the Middle East quarrel among themselves, mistrust, assassinate, plot coups, change alliances, kill each other with ferocious energy; they can agree on nothing except their nourishing hatred for the Jews of Israel.

There is something childish or lunatic in this, as if the Arab leaders thought war was a fatal game of marbles: just because you won doesn't mean you can keep my marbles, give me back my marbles right now until we get ready to play another game..