Here's a translation of an Egyptian girl's posting on a Arabic cultural forum that would have never been thinkable some 20 years ago:

"Who amongst you isn't impressed with Israel?
Praise be to Allah and peace be upon his prophet and his companions.
Brothers, who amongst you isn't impressed by Israel?
I shall answer my own question. I'm very impressed with the state of Israel for the following reasons:

1- They have successfully revived Hebrew, a dead language, which is now spoken by a people of diverse backgrounds.

2-They have gathered people from the four corners of the world to create their state, while we have shattered our great nation into numerous statelets and emirates.

3-They have created a country in the midst of their enemies. While we lost Palestine which was surrounded by Arab countries on all sides...

I recently blogged about going to all the major Arabic language online newspapers to see how they referred to Israel, and to my surprise they all called Israel by name rather than "The Zionist Entity", which was the term I was used to while growing up. That said, I'm convinced that most Arabs, while still disliking Israel, increasingly view it as a fait accompli. While the general attitude regarding israel remains hostile, I have personally met people with that girl's opinion. I have a friend from the UAE at Harvard, and once when visiting Boston, I had dinner with a group of Gulf Arabs who spoke perfect Hebrew and who were being groomed to become the next ambassadors to Israel when peace and recognition were to ever come. This is certainly not the same Arab world of 20 years ago..Then there's Palestine fatigue.. scratch deep enough and you'll encounter it...