I shamelessly snagged this off Quora... I was taking a break at work and was reading it, and yes I have been very busy,
Props to Ted Kord for writing this.
It’s not about land. The Muslim world occupies about 14 million square miles of the Earth’s landmass. Israel occupies a miniscule 8,550 square miles. The issue isn’t land. It’s the mere existence of the Jewish people. But it’s not just that.
There are two main causes of the conflict: (1) Jew Hatred (2) Culture of Jihad
I. Jew Hatred
During the time of Mohammed, there existed a thriving Jewish community in Arabia. The prophet attempted to a convert these Jews to his new religion. The Jews refused to be converted so he made war on them. The Jews eventually sought peace with Jihadis.
The Banu Qurayza particularly resisted conversion. After being defeated by Jihadi’s, Mohammed's companions beheaded somewhere between 600 and 900 Banu Qurayza Jewish men. Their wives and children were taken as slaves and as the spoils of conquest.
The prophet is seen as the most perfect man, and his followers are expected to follow his example. It that example includes beheading 900 Jews and taking their wives as slaves, then those are the actions that some will emulate. But there is also the direct words of the prophet:
“Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.”
So in the prophets own words, it is the obligation of the faithful to kill Jews. During the October 7th attack, one of the Hamas terrorists took the time to brag to his family about how many Jews he killed. He did so using the phones of one of his Jewish victims, and the conversation was recorded. Here's a partial transcript of what he said:
“Hi dad — Open my WhatsApp now, and you’ll see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!”
And his dad says “May God protect you.”
“Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her, and I killed her husband. I killed ten with my own hands! Dad, ten with my own hands! Dad, open WhatsApp and see how many I killed, dad. Open the phone, dad. I’m calling you on WhatsApp. Open the phone, go. Dad, I killed ten. Ten with my own hands. Their blood is on their hands. Put mom on.”
And the father says, “Oh my son. God bless you!”
“I swear ten with my own hands. Mother, I killed ten with my own hands!”
And his father says, “May God bring you home safely.”
“Dad, go back to WhatsApp now. Dad, I want to do a live broadcast.”
And the mother now says, “I wish I was with you.”
“Mom, your son is a hero!”
And then, apparently talking to his comrades he yells, “Kill, kill, kill, kill them.”
And then his brother gets on the line, asking where he is. And he tells his brother the name of the town and then he says “I killed ten! Ten with my own hands! I’m talking to you from a Jew’s phone!”
And the brother says, “You killed ten?”
“Yes, I killed ten. I swear!”
Then he says, “I am the first to enter on the protection and help of Allah! Hold your head up, father. Hold your head up! See on WhatsApp those that I killed. Open my WhatsApp.”
And his brother says, “Come back. Come back.”
And he says, “What do you mean come back? There’s no going back. It is either death or victory! My mother gave birth to me for the religion. What’s with you? How would I return? Open WhatsApp. See the dead. Open it.”
And the mother sounds like she is trying to figure out how to open WhatsApp…
“Open WhatsApp on your phone and see the dead, how I killed them with my own hands.”
And she says, “Well, promise to come back.”
This follower of the prophet was ecstatic to have killed 10 Jews with his own hands. He’s overjoyed because he has been taught to hate Jews his whole life, and he finally has been able to follow the path of the most perfect prophet.
II. Culture of Jihad
Over the last four decades there have been almost 50,000 incidents of Jihadi violence. Most of that violence has been directed at other Muslims. The overwhelming majority of these attacks have nothing to do with Israel, or even Jews. There have been 82 attacks inside France. Pakistan, a Muslim country, has suffered some 2000 terrorist attacks.
In 2014, six jihadis affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar. These jihadis came from outside of Pakistan—there was a Chechen, two Afghans, and three Arabs. They murdered nearly 150 people, more than 130 of whom were children. A teacher was burned alive in front of her students. The Jihadis killed all the children they could get their hands on. No hostages were taken. No demands were issued. All the jihadis wanted was martyrdom.
One apologist for the terrorists explained how the terrorists actions made sense to them:
Human life only has value among you worldly materialist thinkers. For us, this human life is only a tiny, meaningless fragment of our existence. Our real destination is the Hereafter. We don’t just believe it exists, we know it does.
Death is not the end of life. It is the beginning of existence in a world much more beautiful than this. As you know, the [Urdu] word for death is “intiqaal.” It means “transfer,” not “end.”
Paradise is for those of pure hearts. All children have pure hearts. They have not sinned yet… They have not yet been corrupted by [their kafir parents]. We did not end their lives. We gave them new ones in Paradise, where they will be loved more than you can imagine.
They will be rewarded for their martyrdom. After all, we also martyr ourselves with them. The last words they heard were the slogan of Takbeer [“Allah u Akbar”].
Allah Almighty says Himself in Surhah Al-Imran [3:169-170] that they are not dead.
You will never understand this. If your faith is pure, you will not mourn them, but celebrate their birth into Paradise.
Mind you, this attack killed now Jews and likely didn’t extinguish a single Christian life. This attack killed only Pakistani Muslims, but it’s OK because if they were righteous Muslims they would go to paradise, and if they weren’t righteous, they would burn in hell, like they were supposed to.
I’m not saying that every Muslim hates Jews. I’m Not saying that every Muslim wants to kill and die for Allah. Some clearly do. I don’t know how many. I do there are 1.8 billion Muslims on the planet. If 1 percent of them hate Jews and wish to kill and die for their religion, that’s 18 million potential Jihadis.
The total Jewish population of our planet is about 14 million.