Among the factors contributing to the current parliamentary deadlock in the Jewish state is that Bezalel Smotrich, head of the newly formed Religious Zionist Party, refuses to sit in the same government as Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am party, noting that Ra’am’s 2018 charter calls Zionism “a racist, occupying project.” Daniel Pipes sees a clear, if unlikely, solution: Abbas can reform his party’s platform so as to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and in exchange Smotrich can back down. Moreover, Abbas can do so while remaining true to his principles:
Believe it or not, the Quran is a proto-Zionist document, with verses that endorse the Jewish presence in what it calls the Holy Land (al-ard al-muqaddasa), the territory that roughly makes up the modern state of Israel. For example, Quran 5:20-21 quotes Moses saying to the Jews, “O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God [Allah] has ordained for you to enter.” . . . . Other Quranic verses confirm this theme, as do hadith, [extra-scriptural sacred traditions], and leading Quranic scholars of the premodern era.
Deep research into this issue has been carried out by such scholars as Nissim Dana of Ariel University. . . . In the words of the Muslim scholar Khaleel Mohammed, “It’s in the Muslim consciousness that the land first belonged to the Jews.” Another Muslim thinker, Abdul Hadi Palazzi, comes right out and states that “Allah is a Zionist.”
I am under no illusion that Ra’am would jump at this offer, but it is well worth a try, and for two reasons. First, Mansour Abbas has shown an unprecedented pragmatism and flexibility. . . . Second, even if Ra’am declines the opportunity, such a public challenge by Smotrich to Abbas would finally introduce the Quran’s largely unknown proto-Zionist outlook into wide general discussion in Israel and beyond, a beneficial step for Jews and Muslims alike.
Read more on Daniel Pipes: http://www.danielpipes.org/20357/can-the-koran-solve-israel-political-impasse