PP:
you wrote:
Only a fool or someone with a religiously impaired cognitive immune system would mistake the folktales in the Bible for historical fact.
    How do negotiate a peace in the Middle East if one side says " it's our land because God gave it too us 4,000 years ago"?

There are a lot of people in the world who take those concepts a hell of a lot more seriously than you. You don't have to believe the words for yourself in order to respect the opinions of others who are, by the way, perfectly willing to kill over those words or words from other books that they have been brought up to venerate.

Regarding the 'Biblical' history of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. I have heard Christians go on from that to assume that Jews feel 'superior' to Arabs because the Arabs are descended from Abraham's 'handmaid'. I personally have never run into Jews saying that, writing that, or even talking that way. Consider that Jews teach themselves and others that they (we) are descended from slaves. To me the story inherent in the Old Testament is one big lesson in humility.

I've met many Israelis and many Arabs and as far as native appearances and capabilities are concerned, there is a lot of similarity between both these intelligent, tenacious, frustrating peoples.

Even in the Old Testament it is clear that there were people living in the land before the sons of Israel took it for themselves. You can justify either side, the current Israelis, and the current Arab Palestinians, with either the right of conquest or the Will of God. What people like Yitzhak Rabin and Ezer Weizman (who passed away this week) ultimately learned was that you have to arrive at a place from which you can make peace, and as difficult as that is, it is way way better than killing and being killed.

Considering that Europe didn't learn that lesson until the latest couple of generations, and the TWO most horrific wars in all human history, I don't think any of us have much to feel superior about from any angle. We should feel that we have a lot of work to do and pray that we be capable of it, and we should get started.