At that time there wasn’t much information to indicate who was behind the attack. The Palestinians were happy to see anyone give the U.S. a bloody nose.

Most Palestinians are secular nationalists, and Hamas are religious nationalists. Overwhelmingly they want a Palestinian state. Al Qaeda, in theory, wants to absorb all Islamic states into a Caliphate.

OK, enough praise, on to the critical comments. I’m interested in the fact that Palestinians (leaders? people?) definitely do not want bin Laden to appropriate their cause. What’s the support for this claim? Public opinion surveys? Anecdotal evidence? I remember Palestinians celebrating in the streets on 9/11. And even if you’re right about Palestinians now, bin Laden could easily appropriate their cause if he wanted to: just attack Israel. Palestinians would beg him to appropriate their cause, just as they begged Saddam Hussein during and after the Gulf War.

Your idea that the Israeli-Palestinian war can (in the foreseeable future) be “resolved” to the satisfaction of Israelis and Palestinians, much less of jihadis, is uncharacteristically utopian. All parties in the Middle East have understood for the last nine years or more that it can’t be resolved, only managed. That news is just now making its way to Washington. The “anti-jihadists” may manage it differently (though I think the “Islam is peace” camp is vastly more dangerous), but mismanagement by the “anti-jihadists” will not make the situation qualitatively worse, barring fantasy scenarios like “transfer”. The only realistically possible change in US policy towards Israel-Palestine that would make any qualitative difference to the jihad is disengagement. But even then, it would only matter if it were part of a US disengagement from the whole region.

Examples?

Do you mean that some, most, or all of ‘the people trying to challenge it’ will ‘inevitably’ react that way?

Of course Islam has had a lot to do with ‘Islamic conquests’. Anyone with even a nodding acquaintance with European history has to know that Christianity has had a lot to do with Christian conquests.

Momentum and self interest will insure that our own anti-jihadists will do their utmost to thwart all efforts to resolve this conflict. Conflict works for them, c.f. Pentagon spending vis a vis the cold war and the war on “terror.” Any argument, no matter how specious, will do for them to keep the enterprise afloat. They are fat and feeding at the trough. These people are beyond the sway of reason. We are talking here in the main about greed and power lust protected with a Gordian knot. Good luck trying to get at them with reason. Would that you could. Kennan tried, but couldn’t.