Europeans have long cherished the belief that centuries of history and the facts of geography, not to mention more recent patterns of immigration, have given them some sort of special relationship with the Islamic world – an often strained and sometimes bloody relationship, but nonetheless one based on deep mutual familiarity. In European eyes, Americans lack such sophisticated understanding, and often have no interest in acquiring it, seeing the land around and beyond Israel as populated largely by greedy oil sheikhs and dangerous religious fanatics.