With Muslims, whether in Europe or throughout the Arab world, Jews must seek a completely different way to their hearts and minds: one that involves a better understanding of Arab psychology, and sensitivity to the humiliation and bitterness produced by Islamic civilisational decline, to the results of constant abuses by their own corrupt rulers, the legacy of colonialism and the blow to their self-esteem inflicted by Israeli military victories and technological successes. Sensitivity is not a question of apologetics, nor should it preclude frank dialogue based on finding common interests, while standing firm on the raison d'être of Israel and its huge potential for benefiting the entire region. This will not resolve the problem of Arab or Muslim anti-Semitism by itself. But it can create a more conducive atmosphere for neutralising the negative fallout from hate propaganda.

Israel has the right and the duty to demand that the contemporary Arab-Muslim culture of hatred be totally dismantled. Failure to emphasise this principle in negotiations has already cost Israel heavily and has been disastrous to the Muslims. The results are daily visible in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In combating Islamist terror and anti-Semitism, it is important to emphasise how self-destructive this has been to Muslim societies and especially to Arab development, how alien it is to their best traditions and to the more enlightened forms of Islamic culture that prevailed in certain periods. Anti-Semitism and the negation of Israel are completely negative forces which have held the Arab world back. They are not however irresistible. There are other Arab voices - still very much a minority, but they do exist - who recognise the toxicity both of the indigenous and European-imported anti-Semitism for Arab society and culture. We have to find more ways to encourage and empower them.

I am well aware that this will not be easy. The anti-Semitic virus has spread extensively and penetrated deeply into the body politic of the Arab world and it has also returned to haunt Europe. Even the United States is not immune. There is no proven cure to this disease of the mind. But the irrationality and mythical power often associated with anti-Semitism does not mean that we cannot neutralise it. A determined and organised effort would contribute to containing the infection.

We can help limit the damage if the common intellectual, political and societal resources of enlightened Jews, Christians and Muslims are judiciously applied in concert with those of other interested parties. True, there are no quick fixes or short cuts. But with more moral clarity, political judgment and strategic thinking, with a more systematic and global approach, we might have a chance. Where there is hope, there is a way.