The Disappearance of Israel: The Superstition That Ruined the Minds of Arabs and Muslims (article)

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The Disappearance of Israel: The Superstition That Ruined the Minds of Arabs and Muslims

In the midst of the successive defeats suffered by Arabs and Muslims over many decades, a remarkable psychological and intellectual phenomenon emerged: the stubborn clinging to the superstition of Israel's disappearance. Over time, this superstition ceased to be a mere wishful fantasy and became a firmly entrenched doctrine in the collective consciousness, a distorted lens through which millions view reality. This phenomenon is neither incidental nor marginal; it lies at the very heart of the intellectual crisis afflicting the Arab-Muslim nation, for it represents an escape from confrontation into illusion, a substitution of action with waiting, and a transformation of the Palestinian cause—from a genuine struggle—into a religious and political myth that drains energies and obstructs any genuine revival.

The roots of this superstition run deep into modern history, specifically to the moment of the Nakba in 1948, when the Arab armies collapsed and Palestine was lost. Finding no other recourse in the face of this catastrophe, the Arabs turned to esoteric interpretations and religious prophecies promising the imminent demise of the new entity. Since then, generations have handed down this superstition, adding new layers of interpretation and prediction each time, until it became an integral part of popular and political heritage, endlessly repeated by preachers, politicians, and media figures whenever crises intensify or defeats accumulate, as if it were a magic wand that dispels despondency and restores confidence to broken souls.

What is truly striking is the manner in which these prophecies are constructed. They rest on no objective analysis or realistic reading; rather, they consist of selectively picking Quranic verses and prophetic hadiths to interpret them tendentiously, linking unrelated events to form an elaborate conspiracy theory, and weaving imaginary threads between the conflicts of great powers and Israel's disappearance, as if all of world history revolved around this single issue. Examples abound, from the hadith of the Gharqad tree to the interpretations of Surah al-Isra, from the mystical calculations of Jafr to the annual predictions that fix a precise date for the disappearance, only for the following year to bring a new date postponed by these charlatans under flimsy pretexts.

The most dangerous aspect of this superstition, however, is that it does not stop at the common masses but extends to political, intellectual, and religious elites who are presumed capable of objective analysis. Unfortunately, these elites feed this illusion and exploit it for their own narrow purposes. Rulers find in it a justification for their political and military failures, clerics see in it a means of gaining quick popularity, and media figures find in it rich content to attract viewership and increase ratings, all while Palestinians pay a heavy price for this intellectual atrophy that prevents any real support for their cause.

From a psychological perspective, the superstition of Israel's disappearance constitutes a complex defense mechanism reflecting a deep sense of helplessness and failure. Believing that the enemy will vanish through divine force is far easier than acknowledging repeated defeats and striving to overcome them. This mechanism is exactly like that of a child who closes his eyes in the dark, believing this will make dangers disappear—a sure sign of intellectual rigidity and an inability to confront reality with objectivity and courage.

If we scrutinize Arab and Islamic history, we find that this superstition is not a product of the modern era but an extension of the myth of a glorious past constantly reinvented to distort consciousness and deform facts. Andalusia, which collapsed due to decadence and internal divisions, is portrayed as a lost paradise stolen by external conspiracies. The Islamic conquests, which were imperial wars like any other, are presented as pure epics. Saladin, who fought more Muslims than Crusaders, is transformed into a legendary symbol of unity and victory. Thus, the past becomes an inverted mirror of the present, reflecting what we wish for rather than what actually happened, deepening our disconnection from reality.

As for future prophecies, they express the same morbid desire to escape responsibility, because if the disappearance is inscribed in divine decree, then we need neither sacrifice, nor planning, nor the building of strong institutions, nor self-development. All we have to do is wait and pray until that longed-for day arrives. This is precisely what Islamist groups and political currents do when they speak of the imminent caliphate and the return of Jews to Palestine under the influence of the hadith of the Gharqad tree, forgetting that these hadiths speak of the signs of the Hour, which only God knows, not of a political conflict that can be resolved by numerical equations or casual interpretations.

Comparative analysis between the Israeli discourse on the state's disappearance and the Arab discourse reveals an immense gulf that cannot be ignored. When Israeli leaders and thinkers speak of potential collapse, they address their own society as a wake-up call to encourage reform, development, and cohesion, not as a wish to be fulfilled by miracle. The Arab discourse, by contrast, speaks of disappearance as a collective waking dream, not to warn against failure but to compensate for it, not to push people to act but to soothe and entertain them, as if the Palestinian cause were merely a commodity for emotional consumption rather than an existential issue demanding real action.

With each repetition of Arab defeats in all their wars against Israel—from 1948 to 1967, from 1973 to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza—attachment to this superstition has grown stronger as a last refuge, because acknowledging defeat would mean acknowledging the failure of the entire project, collapsing before the option of peace and normalization, and abandoning the grand dreams that have nourished collective consciousness for decades. This is why every new war generates a new wave of prophecies whose authors announce the imminence of disappearance, even as Palestinian cities are devastated and human losses mount, as if history were repeating itself in a never-ending loop.

This attachment to superstition is no longer a marginal phenomenon; it has become the main driver of Arab and Islamic policies toward the Palestinian cause. Opinion-makers transform any international event, however remote, into a sign of imminent disappearance—whether a financial crisis in the United States, the rise of Chinese power, or a shift in Russian policy—and link them all in a vast conspiracy theory aimed at perpetuating the collective illusion and diverting attention from the real causes of backwardness and defeat.

Turning to the religious dimension, the instrumentalization of religious heritage in this superstition is its most dangerous face, because it drags sacred texts into ephemeral political quarrels, uses the word of God and His Prophet for worldly purposes, and distorts meanings to fit momentary desires. The hadith of the Gharqad tree is often cited as a divine promise of the annihilation of the Jews, whereas the prophetic context speaks of the great signs of the Hour and the apocalyptic war that precedes it, which still belongs to the knowledge of the unseen, and cannot be reduced to a political prophecy about a modern state that did not even exist at the time of the Prophet.

Moreover, the Quranic texts explicitly call for taking means, planning, and preparing, such as the verse "Prepare against them whatever you can of force" and the verse "God does not change a people until they change what is in themselves." These are clear calls for effective change, yet they remain neglected amid the preoccupation with distant prophecies and wishes for disappearance, because inner change is far harder than waiting for a miracle, requiring effort, sacrifice, learning, and development—something most purveyors of the superstition are unable to undertake.

Remarkably, this superstition, despite its resounding failures and repeated disproof each time, remains capable of attracting crowds and regenerating itself after each new defeat, as if failure gives it additional strength, and as if evidence of its falsity becomes evidence of its imminence—a stark logical contradiction that reveals the depth of the intellectual crisis besetting the nation. This phenomenon closely resembles that of millenarian sects awaiting the end of the world: when the end does not come, their faith in its proximity is strengthened, and they reinterpret failure as the fault of their members or their lack of fervor, and a new cycle of waiting and wishing begins anew.

Speaking of the "superstition of Israel's disappearance" is not a way of diminishing the Palestinian cause or denying the rights of the Palestinian people; rather, it is a call to rethink the way Arabs and Muslims handle this cause, a call to move from the logic of wishing to the logic of action, from dependence on the unseen to trust in material causes and human will, because Palestinians do not need prophecies, nor fiery speeches, nor illusory promises; they need real, material, and political support, and a unified Arab and Islamic position built on genuine interests and effective power.

If Arabs and Muslims have lost all their wars against Israel, this is not evidence of divine abandonment or weakness of prophecies, but clear evidence of intellectual, political, and military backwardness, of the inability to build modern institutions, of internal divisions that drain energy, and of the absence of a strategic vision that sets achievable goals and strives to realize them through rational means. It is intellectually perilous to continue feeding the collective illusion at the expense of self-criticism, to seek external enemies to blame for failure, and to resort to the occult every time we fail to confront reality.

There will be no real solution to the Palestinian cause as long as Arabs and Muslims have not understood that Israel has endured all these decades not only through Western power, but also through their own weakness, their failure to offer a strong and attractive alternative project, and their absorption in secondary conflicts and grand illusions. One of the greatest ironies is that the Zionist project, despite all the controversy over its legitimacy, succeeded where the Arab and Islamic project failed, because it was built on realistic foundations, firm will, and solid institutions, while the other camp remained a spectator, betting on the imminent disappearance.

The continued clinging of Arabs and Muslims to the superstition of Israel's disappearance means the continuation of their backwardness and defeat, because it prevents them from conducting a serious revision of their policies and positions, prevents them from recognizing their mistakes, keeps their minds captive to the illusions of the past and predictions of the future, and obscures the present, which is the real arena of every conflict and every struggle. The Palestinian cause is too great to be left to preachers and soothsayers, too noble to be consumed in the race for media trends, too precious to serve as material for psychological compensation and emotional catharsis.

If some Jews and Israelis speak of the disappearance of their state, they do so within the framework of self-criticism and reform, not within the framework of religious or political wishfulness, which means they approach the issue from a position of strength and will, not weakness and resignation. This fundamental difference must be the focus of reflection and study, because it reveals that the secret of survival and growth lies not in the occult or in wishes, but in the scientific mindset, objective analysis, and effective will that places a hand on the wound and works to heal it.

Ultimately, speaking of the "disappearance of Israel" as a superstition that has ruined the Arab and Muslim mind is speaking of a major existential crisis, a crisis that begins with the individual who prefers the beautiful dream to bitter reality, and ends with a nation that prefers to withdraw from history rather than engage in its tumults, content to invoke past glories and future prophecies instead of building a strong and radiant present. The way out of this abyss will only come through a frank recognition that this nation is not only a victim of external conspiracies, but also of its own accumulations of intellectual, political, and educational backwardness, and that the only path to revival is abandoning superstitions and delusions, engaging seriously and sincerely in a comprehensive renewal project that begins by changing minds before borders, and by confronting oneself before confronting the other.

It is possible that Israel will disappear one day, but this will not happen through prophecies and wishes, but through a shift in global and regional power balances, through major transformations within the Israeli state itself, and through the evolution of Palestinian and Arab society toward the better. Until that day comes, if it comes, the moral and political duty of Arabs and Muslims is to offer Palestinians what is more useful than speeches and prophecies, to place their hands honestly and courageously on their deep wounds, and to begin a long and difficult healing process, but necessary and inevitable, because illusions do not build homelands, wishes do not liberate lands, and the occult does not create renaissance—only the enlightened mind is the sole path to confronting challenges and building a different future.

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