A veteran New York Times reporter has conceded publicly that Prime Minister Netanyahu “had a point” when he warned against.
But, in fact, the basis does exist for such recognition. It exists not in the turmoil of current politics, but in the founding scripture of the Islamic faith, the seventh-century Koran. Believe it or not, but the Koran 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, the Koran (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.” Likewise, Koran 7:137 states, “We made those who were persecuted successors of the eastern and western lands [of the Jordan River], lands which We had blessed. In this way, your Lord’s fair word was fulfilled for the Children of Israel.”