There is a fundamental difference in approach towards negotiations between Jews and Arabs.  The Jews (and these days the Israelis) were an oppressed minority for two millennia, and did not have the option to employ force.  Hence, they needed to negotiate, often for their very physical survival, and always from a position of weakness.  Over time, Jews developed not only negotiating skills but a philosophy of negotiation. They would negotiate against impossible odds, and learned to accept a negotiated status with the hope of improving their lowly and unprivileged status in later negotiations and through their good works.  Peaceful settlement rather than force was the objective.  That is why Jews by and large, refrained from physical resistance during the Holocaust.  The European Jews, who used to negotiate rather than fight for their rights, believed that they could negotiate their survival with Hitler’s Nazi regime.
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