It doesn't seem like you read that far into the article because I make that point about how Jews and Muslims haven't always been at war:
'When Muslims were dominant in the medieval period, they could afford to condescend to Jews and show them mercy, treating them better than Christians did. But now that the tide has turned, after the revolutions of “modernity” and the loss of the Ottoman Empire, when Muslim countries would be as dirt poor as much of Africa were it not for their oil industries, thanks to many Muslims’ antimodern fundamentalism, Israeli dominance takes on an acceptable religious significance.'
I make this point again in another article:
'But as the historian Bernard Lewis points out, Christians demonized Jews, attributing “cosmic evil” to them, whereas early Muslims followed “pagans” in merely ridiculing Jews.
'Instead of promoting Jews to the status of would-be planet-conquerors, in the manner of later, deranged conspiracy theorists, the pagan “tendency was rather to ridicule the Jews for their faceless, formless god in the clouds and for such absurd and barbarous customs as circumcision, the rejection of pig-meat, and, most absurd of all, the Sabbath. Several Greek and Roman authors noted that because of this comic practice the Jews were wasting one-seventh of their lives.”'
Only later did Muslims' condescension turn into hatred, when Jews outcompeted Arabs, opting for modernity over medievalism.
