It is disconcerting to watch Pope Benedictus XVI twist and squirm over having quoted some Byzantine emperor who said that the Prophet Mohammed commanded Islam to be spread by the sword. It is hard to believe that the leader of a billion Catholics would take fright at his own words and do somersaults to soften their impact and appease the Muslims (nearly 20 million in Europe alone).

After the attack on the Twin Towers, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman described the situation as a clash of civilizations. Maybe it is that, too. But anyone who has read the work of Bernard Lewis, a man who knows Islam better than anybody, will realize that a clash of religions is more like it. In principle, the Byzantine emperor was right in his own times, and he is also right today. Islam today is even more violent, more radical and more confrontational than it was in the Byzantine era.

Religious fanaticism is a contagious disease. When the president of Iran says that Israel must be wiped off the map and makes no effort to hide that we are first on his atomic bomb hit list, it is only natural for our own extremists to start crawling out of the woodwork.

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This week, a political observer known for his moderacy stated in no uncertain terms that Israel must not go back to the 1967 borders. Why this sudden deviation from the international consensus? Because, he said, the noose of Islamic fundamentalism is tightening around us. What are the words that suicide bombers say before they murder Jewish women and children? Allah akbar - God is great. The backdrop is Islamic, not political. They see us as infidels in the heart of an Islamic region, and they do not want us in any shape or form - not as a political entity, and certainly not as a religious one.

The Oslo Accords were a political agreement. But Yasser Arafat soon turned this agreement into a holy war. The signatories on the Palestinian side were waging the battle of fundamentalist Islam. Islamic fundamentalism is worrying the whole world, and we should be especially worried. Why? Because fundamentalism is nearby, and it is in our midst.

But for us, it is important that political conflicts of interest not be wrapped in religious clothing. When Ariel Sharon told us that the dream of a Greater Israel would have to be renounced, he was excising the religious element from the political system. Unilateral disengagement was meant to be a political move, a kind of proof of our goodwill. It was a way of showing that political accords and ceding territory are possible. But like Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, the pullout from Gaza backfired. Instead of promoting agreements based on Bush's vision of two states and the Quartet's plan, our readiness to compromise only intensified the anti-Israel activity of Islamic extremists.

Hezbollah, deploying along our border, launched unceasing attacks on Israel. On top of that, after Gaza was evacuated, the vacated territory became a base for firing Qassam rockets at us. Not only did the disengagement not lead to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, but it brought Hamas to power - an extremist wing that takes orders from the outside and is linked to fundamentalist Islam and Al-Qaida.

Now, a growing number of Israelis are saying that even if we return to the 1967 borders, Israel will continue to be a target of terrorism and missile attacks. The foregone conclusion seems to be that disengagement and unilateral withdrawal are dead, and the right-wing religious extremists in our camp pose a hovering threat.

But things could be different if we developed closer ties with moderate, secular Islamic countries like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey and treated the Saudi initiative, which has been around for two years, with greater seriousness. Things could be different if we were wiser in our actions: if we came to a decision that it might be worthwhile to give up the Golan in return for full peace with Syria, a secular state, before it, too, falls into the clutches of fanatic Islam.

It is also possible that a permanent accord with the Palestinians, a withdrawal to the 1967 borders as set out in the road map, and peace with the ring of moderate countries around us will not end the Islamic fundamentalists' desire to throw us into the sea. What we need to strive for is a situation in which the Arabs, too, renounce a dream.