The Big IF: Can they "abandon grievance and victimhood"?

A Palestinian shoots in the air with his AK47 during a Fatah rally in the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City in support of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. (AFP/Jean-Philippe Ksiazek)

"If they can abandon grievance and victimhood . . . they can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major center of civilization. For the time being, the choice is their own." -- Bernard Lewis, in What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East.

See "Lewis of Arabia: A visit with America's greatest Middle East sage" by Tunku Varadarajan in today's Wall Street Journal.