One of the few predictable things in the Middle East today is that any violence committed by Palestinians will be met with massive, disproportionate force from Israel. Not that the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers can be condoned, but the killing of six Palestinians and the hundreds of arrests in the dragnet that followed this tragedy was the latest escalation in this never-ending spiral.

And now that 17-year-old Palestinian Mohamed Abu Khdeir has been kidnapped and murdered in an apparent revenge attack, tension has ratcheted up, threatening a new intifada. While the imbalance of force between the two sides means that Palestinians will always suffer greater losses, Israel has consistently sought to project itself as the victim.

This lob-sided equation was captured in a Steve Bell cartoon in a recent issue of the Guardian: in one pan of a scale lie three coffins covered with Israeli flags that are far heavier than the stack of Palestinian coffins in the other pan. Behind this is a high wire-mesh fence.

No matter how strong Israel has become, there is always an element of insecurity gnawing at its foundations.

On the opposite page is an article (Israel’s Fears Reawakened by Anshel Pfeffer) that seeks to explain to Western readers the Israeli psyche during this crisis. While many will reject the author’s arguments as justification for Israeli violence, it is worthwhile to study his words:

“For Israelis, the nightmare of your son’s phone ringing, unanswered, wipes away all the self-confidence that citizens of the Jewish state have built for themselves. That fear burrows into a national psyche that defines what Israel is about for its Jewish majority – a country that was founded and its military force built up so that no Jewish child should ever be captured or spirited away again. No other political arguments or realities apply…

“That it is a technological superpower with one of the strongest militaries in the world doesn’t matter. And neither do the rights and wrongs of its conflict with the Palestinians, the vast imbalance between a sovereign state and an occupied population multiple injustices and humiliations… Love or hate Israel, that is its core. You can’t begin to grasp its society without understanding this…”

Related: Jewish extremists held over Palestinian teenager’s murder

In a way the rest of us cannot begin to understand, the Holocaust and the centuries of persecution that led up to that epic tragedy has shaped the Israeli consciousness and the attitude of its people towards Palestinians and the rest of the world. No matter how strong Israel has become, there is always an element of insecurity gnawing at its foundations. Surrounded by enemies and dangers, its leaders strive to dominate its violent neighbourhood.

Most of us in the Muslim world — and now elsewhere as well — condemn Israeli oppression in the occupied Palestinian territories. Indeed, many view the Jewish state as an illegal, colonial enterprise. Despite the enmity it has faced, Israel has expanded and thrived.

Many attribute its success to the unstinted support it has received from the West, and particularly from America. But it cannot be denied that its own people have been inventive and hard working. The reality is that Jews have far more in common with Europeans and Americans than Arabs do, and therefore get much more sympathy and support from the West.

Now, as violence engulfs large parts of the Middle East, Israel seems like an island of stability in a stormy sea. For the United States, in particular, Israel is a staunch ally in a region where the world’s only superpower has crucial interests. Here, the Pentagon has pre-positioned a vast arsenal to use in case it needs to fly out troops urgently to meet a crisis. Interestingly, Israel can access these arms if it is threatened.

Also see: Israeli court hands US teen 9-day house arrest

Many think the American support for Israel stems from the role traditionally played by the Zionist lobby in politics, finance and the media. The truth is somewhat more nuanced. It is certainly true that Jewish votes are critical in a handful of swing states like Florida and New York. But American evangelical Christians are Israel’s biggest supporters, and politicians can’t afford to alienate these two small but highly organised voting blocs.

It is also a fact that over the years, Jews have contributed enormously to the arts and the sciences, as attested by the scores of Nobel prizes they have won. All this has interwoven them into the very fabric of Western civilisation.

In contrast, Muslims are viewed as backward, violent people who produce nothing but oil and extremism. Sadly, our words and deeds have done little to counter the negative impression about us the rest of the world has.

Given these perceptions and realities, it should come as no surprise that the Palestinian cause draws so little support. In fact, they have been let down time and again by their Arab brethren: witness the callousness with which the Sisi government in Egypt has shut down the tunnels that were Gaza’s lifeline. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia are today de facto allies of Israel.

As long as Muslims continue paying only lip service to the Palestinian cause, it would be unreasonable to expect the West to do what we have not done to end the Israeli occupation.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2014