dardnerThe professors will know better than me but for what it’s worth i think western civ after 1500 might be more germane. I believe the roots go back to the 1800’s but this whole issue seems to start within the time of the Balfour declaration and the Sykes Picot agreement. The middle eastern jews living under the Ottoman empire did not face the kind of hatred they see today in the region. Consider if the central powers had won world war 1 and created a muslim state in the US. Compounded by the success of the jews in the region similar to the conflict of the chinese in malaysia. The effects of nation building after the first World War were not limited to Israel but can be seen throughout eastern europe to this day.
I find the idea of returning these people to their biblical promised land dubious. Genetically speaking many of the RETURNED jews had become so thoroughly assimilated over the centuries that they were Jewish by religion alone. On some level this idea of giving them a place of their own shows just as much antisemitism as Hitler claiming he would send them to Madagascar.
I can’t say that everything would be fine today but without western imperialism many of the Middle Easts conflicts would look quite different. Regardless of the Koran, Jews and muslims got on fine together as the radical fundamentalist element was quelled by the governments in the region. In my uneducated simpleton opinion to understand what is causing the problems in the east we should start looking in the west.