Well, Guest Ian P I think that was the gist of my point, (or the point of my gist, I'm not sure). Europe has gone a heck of the way toward unification, and has profited greatly thereby, but only after centuries of trying 'everything else'.

The Arabic / Muslim expansion starting from ACE 600 was an important event in human history, but my argument is it is still in process and is inherently 'younger' than the European one, which was set in motion by the Roman conquests of all or most of the barbarian tribes. The Romans gave the kick-start to European culture that the Arab world so desperately needs several hundred years before the birth of Mohammed.

Taking a somewhat remote view to that normally found here, it could be argued that the presence of a new group of Europeanized Jews in the midst of the Mid-East presented a powerful moment of potential cross-fertilization to the area, a small yet vital conglomeration of technological, social, and intellectual ferment, as receptive as it is aggressive. This could have brought a renewed development across the area, since numerically Israel has too few to present a threat to the Arab flavor and culture, just enough to add spice.

And in fact, I think more than anything else it is the force of reaction which has worked against Israel. Peoples such as the so-called Palestinians are displaced all the time. It is the powerful reacionary elements of the established and totalitarian Arab States and the reactionary anti-modernist sub-culture calling itself Islam that forces the Palestinians into their horrible situation, because it is a public and humiliating un-acceptance of Israel. The far better tactic for all would be the resettlement of the Palestinians into Jordan the full embrace of the Israeli state, which if anything would have absorbed the Jewish citizens into the far larger Arab/ Muslim entity much as the Chinese absorbed the Mongols.

At the same time that powerful religious sub-culture is capable of getting millions of human beings willing to sacrifice their lives to its imaginary ends.