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Originally Posted by Kansas Bear
Granted this is a "what-if ", but what would the ME be like if the Arab nations hadn't attacked in 1948 and instead used diplomacy to resolve the issue of the Palestinians(as if that was the 'real' issue).
The Arab response was solely(IMHO) motivated by their ultra nationalism. After centuries of having the Ottoman Empire's boot on their neck, they responded as most have done(Serbians 1914) with violence.
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An interesting point. Have you read "War and Peace in the Middle East" by Avi Shlaim? He calls it the Post Ottoman Syndrome.
I doubt that the Arab states would have attacked if the Palestinians themselves had chosen to resolve the issue peacefully. If they had, you might have seen the Jews and the Palestinians fighting side by side to repel the invaders. In any case, there wouldn't have been any refugees. On the other hand, there wasn't much chance that the Arabs would have stayed out of it if the Palestinians went to war, which is what happened historically. If they had stayed out of a purely Palestinian was against Israel, the Israelis would probably have taken all of Palestine west of the river, the Palestinians would have become citizens of Jordan, and that would have been the end of it.