However this shared 1,000 years of history has been the kind of history most indigenous people "share" with their conquerors. The Arabs Muslims (or, rather more predominantly the Ottomans) impose the jizya, the Aramaeans pay it. The Arab culture waxes, the Aramaean wanes. The Arabic language becomes dominant, the Aramaean disappears. Maps show an Arabized cartography; Aramaean landmarks and place-names are forgotten. The Arabs write the history, the Aramaeans lose their destiny.
Wanting to extricate themselves from that "shared history" -- that I understand.
....And also they want to show to the other struggling Christian communites that you can come to Israel to live not only your Christian faith in full, but also be free from all that is Arab.
All good points.