The bad news is bland and predictable: a permanent peace between Israel and its Muslim neighbors is, according to Islamic law, or sharia, impossible: any land that was once part of Dar al-Islam—that is, any land that was ever conquered by Muslims for any length of time—is always part of Islam and must be recovered by any means necessary—preferably jihad. . . .

There is some good news, however, which may, in fact, overshadow the bad: Temporal circumstances have always factored in the application of sharia.  For example, Islamic law has always allowed for truces with Islam’s enemies—especially when Muslims find themselves in a weakened state.

This traces back to the prophet of Islam’s own behavior and is therefore sunna: when Muhammad was weak and outnumbered in his early Mecca period, he preached peace and made pacts with “infidels” (this is when all the “coexisting” verses of the Koran appeared, e.g., 2:256); when he traveled to Medina and became strong in that period, he preached war and went on the offensive (this is when all the militant verses appeared, e.g., 9:5, 9:29). This dichotomy—preach peace when weak, wage war when strong—has been instructive to Muslims for ages.

In short and like everyone else, Muslims—particularly their rulers—participate in realpolitik, defined as “politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical premises.”

The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco—and before them, Egypt and Jordon—established relations with what other Muslim nations see as the mortal enemy of Islam, precisely because it is in their best interest to do so. In exchange for establishing relations with Israel, for example, the United States agreed to remove Sudan from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, lift sanctions and advance discussions on debt forgiveness. Similarly, Morocco received American recognition of its sovereignty over a long-disputed territory in the Western Sahara.