On the logic, here, I think that the Arabs, and Palestinian leadership, have the best of it. As noted, Israel long demanded recognition of its right to exist, and this was granted by the Palestinian leadership, which revised their founding document. It is only Mr. Netanyahu who now has insisted on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state--and, wonder of wonders, this issue now overshadows the peace process being pursued by President Obama. A nice new obstacle to peace for Mr. Netanyahu.

Some 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinian and their integration into the country is a credit to what might be called the "old" Israel. Even now, they are less than equal or full citizens, although their rights might be the envy of most citizens of Arab nations. But how would they be affected by declaration that they live in a Jewish state? And, of course, such a declaration would be an indirect abandonment of the "right of return" for the roughly 750,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs driven off the land during Israel's War of Independence." It is called, of course, "the catastrophe," by the Palestinians, because they were the victims of what today would be called "ethnic cleansing." (The issue is complicated, as you might imagine, and has been debated endlessly by historians.)

One change behind Mr. Netanyahu's new demand, I think, is a radical alteration in the composition of Israel's population beginning in the 1950's and continuing to this day. Original Jewish immigrants to Palestine were mostly from Europe, particularly Eastern Europe--in other words, Ashkenazim. Many were European liberal leftists, among them many socialists and communists, mostly secular, although many others were orthodox and ultra-orthodox. After 1948, when, in retaliation for the treatment of the native Palestinians by the Israeli Defense Forces, but, also, by Irgun and Lehi terrorist organizations, and in retaliation for the mass expulsion of Muslims, the Arab nations began to persecute and expel their historic Jewish populations. The influx of immigrants into the new nation became overwhelmingly Middle Eastern. Many called them, not entirely accurately, "Sephardim," but, in any case, they were Jews steeped in the sectarian, tribalist, decidedly UNsecular approach to religion.

This new population, which the Israelis and the diaspora made many sacrifices to settle (as no Arab country with the exception of Jordan did for Palestinian refugees), became antagonists to the secular, European, Enlightenment views of the Ashkenazim. They formed the orthodox and ultra-orthodox parties and coalitions that, today, dominate the Israeli government. They are every bit as fundamentalist, tribalist, dogmatic, and--yes, fanatical--as the Islamic fundamentalists in the countries from which they come.

Mr. Netanyahu personally is not of this stripe. Although thoroughly Israeli, he is Western educated (MIT), suave, speaks English with a Philadelphia accent, has been a successful businessman, and has an ability to move through the world and among world leaders. But his political constituency--both his party and the electorate--are increasingly and vehemently fundamentalist. As you can imagine, the Jews who endured centuries of discrimination--and much worse--in their former Arab countries, and endured only by their intense piety--have no use at all for Muslims or, indeed, Christians. And this is the ideological and political ocean in which Mr. Netanyahu swims.

And so, brilliantly attuned to world opinion, and having studied marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management, he talks to the West, to Mr. Obama, to the American people, in terms they wish to hear. But what he is saying comes from a place as ancient, tribal, sectarian, and parochial as the four great gates of Damasus: Postern of Fate and the Desert Gate, Disaster's Cavern, Fort of Fear...