In the early 1920s, Haj Amin al Husseini, the newly appointed grand mufti of Jerusalem, crystallized the expectation that the nascent Zionist enterprise would be crushed. Jewish immigration, sparked by a spike in pogroms, mostly in Eastern European lands, had been rising since the 1880s, and Arab opposition was quick to follow. But al Husseini, who would later team with Germany to plan a “final solution” in Palestinian land, fanned the hate that continues to this day. The fact that those expectations of vanquishing the Jewish immigrants have continually been unmet for over 100 years provides a source of humiliation that has grown ever since.
Nobody suffers humiliation well. The Arab culture is proud of its hospitality, history, religion, and strength. A narrative of chronic humiliation has taken root and been fostered to maintain what is seemingly an unending thirst for revenge, as repeatedly seen in Palestinian and other nations’ rhetoric.
