“I am confident that the Lord is at work here,” said former US secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo last week. Pompeo, a probable 2024 presidential candidate, was affirming the US’s unwavering support for Israel as that country steps up military operations, which have already killed dozens of Palestinian civilians this year.

His message was not surprising, but — as an antithetical mirror of the stance of fundamentalists among Muslims — its religious burnishing jarred. What are the roots of such feelings? Rather than simply assuming a state of perpetual hostility between Western nations and the Muslim world, perhaps we can try to understand the genealogy of the oldest conflict in history. ..

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