Pipes' Reversal

Submitted by Prof. PAul Eidelberg (Israel), Jul 9, 2009 at 17:42

It was not long ago that Dr. Pipes said it would take at least two generations to overcome the Jew-hatred with which the Palestinian Arabs have been imbued. Arab children are still being indoctrinated to hate Israel and to emulate homocide bombers. And what about 1400 years during which Muslims have been indoctrinated by the ethos of Jihad? Is the Koran going to be purged of its racist attitude toward "infidels"? Will Iran be indifferent to the Palestinian state Pipes envsions? I'm astonished by his naivitee. Add callousness: for what about the 300,000 Jews living in such a state?

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Muslims never perpetrated a crime anywhere near the magnitude of the Holocaust; and look how rapidly Germans changed after 1945.

The main insight of the historian - one that others need steadily reminding of - is that things change over time, often in unexpected and abrupt ways.