After the establishment of Israel, David Ben-Gurion was pessimistic about the possibility of peace.
"Why should the Arabs make peace?" he said.
"If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We came from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country."
Roger Cohen, "How Bad Are Things, Really?", International Herald Tribune Magazine, December 2, 2011, p. 18.
