On other hand, Arabs afford Israelis an opportunity to continually certify their biblically bestowed "chosen" status—and to assure themselves of post-corporeal rewards implicit in anointment—by constantly threatening, but never accomplishing, Israel's destruction. Persistently testing Israel's exalted designation, but never disproving it, enabling Israel to be embattled and remain intact, Arabs are every bit blessing to Israel that Israel is to Arabs. It follows that violence each side visits on other must be measured; balances and proportions need to be kept. For one side to win, after all, would be for both sides to lose; would, that is, end game and return both sides to a contemplation of void. We might call this aiding and abetting of one another's immortality illusions—the cooperation and accommodations it requires--the deeper definition of "social contract." So we can engage ad infinitum in most earnest discussions about anti-Semitism, about Hamas, about Sharon, about territory and occupation, and forever miss real dynamic of situation. The Arab-Israeli problem is, again, a solution to a more pressing problem, to what is, literally as well as figuratively, mother of all problems. And what accounts for tenaciousness of conflict is ongoing success it's enjoying in service of its underlying agenda. As long as this holds true, Arabs and Israelis will, for all anguish it induces, remain at odds because enmity between them is their buffer against spectre of oblivion. The pain we are witnessing is a palliative. These are not worst of times in Middle East.