To a certain degree Arabs have the tie of language—the classical Arabic of the Koran, but there are in fact wide differences between dialects. More important is their religion with a common centre in Mecca, but there too, they are split into many widely [unclear: senarate] creeds. They bear a general grudge against the colonialism from which they have all suffered, but it is the thorn in their sides', the issue of Israel, which really draws them together.

The present problem is derived from the conflicts and differences in 1948/49. The British left Palestine in a state of flux—no one was quite sure what the situation was. The Israeli-Arab war ended in an armistice unacceptable to most. Arab propaganda seized on the masacre of Deir Yassin by a group of Israeli irregulars to persuade nearly a million Arabs to flee Israel. Now out of Israel's population of 1,800,000, there are only 200,000 Arabs.