If the conflict is about the size of Israel, then long and difficult negotiations can eventually resolve the problem. But if the conflict is about the existence of Israel, then serious negotiation is impossible.
Interpretation
The quote distinguishes between negotiating territorial disputes and existential conflicts.
Bernard Lewis emphasizes that some conflicts can be resolved through negotiation if they pertain to specific issues, like territory. However, if the conflict centers on fundamental existence, such negotiations are futile, highlighting the depth and complexity of certain disputes in geopolitics.
In practice
During a discussion on international relations, one might reference this quote to emphasize the complexity of certain negotiations.
During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.
There is a door. It opens. Then it is closed. But a slip of light stays, like a scrap of unreadable paper left on the floor, or the one red leaf the snow releases in March
Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.
God always forgives, always. But he asks that I forgive. If I don't forgive, in a certain sense I am closing the door to God's forgiveness.
What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.
How small life is here and how big nothingness. The sky, tired of light, has given everything to the snow. The two trees bow their heads to each other. Clouds cross the world’s silence in a circle dance
I can not imagine a God ... made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him 'great'.
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