WHEN CAN IT END?

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At a time when there are so many demonstrations for either the Israelis and the Palestinians these are highly emotive but need to be understood when looking at historical development.

To obtain an overview on what has brought us to this situation one has to return to an era long ago where Romans controlled most of the known world and the Jews gave them a hard time. Part of this was always about finance, taxes which in many countries singled out Jews and as in the Jesus example, had him turning over the money lenders in the temple. Usury or charging interest on interest was illegal for Christians seen as unfair. Anyone who studies compound interest knows that in the end it is possible for some to get really rich and as demonstrated in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, people then don’t like you very much even if they need your services. Not only that but as a community it becomes wealthy on usury and people start owning real estate and set up their own banking system. Consequently with this money lending the role of the Jews, the local King would thrown out the Jews to seize what he could, followed by the next King and on to someone like Hitler, same story, seizing the real estate and wealth taking it further by killing them as well. ???

Meanwhile what we now know as traditional banking had started in Italy and western nations were catching up but the Jewish leadership was well in front and the distaste for their wealth continued. With the world still shocked by the atrocities in Germany, the surviving German Jews dissipated around the world but were not always well received and still had a financial advantage through their secular grouping particularly those who had moved to America bringing their money with them. One should remember how Switzerland had acted as a financial haven for Jews who could get their money out of Germany before they could escape. This financial base has formulated a strong Jewish lobby is the States explaining their influence in the Middle East.

Meanwhile in post WWII, the world was still in a quandary over how to handle the Jewish situation with no one really putting their hands up in welcome. This led to 1947, the Balfour Declaration towards partition and the eventual UN resolution to partition Palestine and give the Jews, not a race but a religion outlined in Zionism, a separate country the locals had always called home. The local population did not find this fair and when Israel started to expand and take over Palestinian land, resistance began and has continued since.

Looking to the future it is unlikely there will be a solution other than agreement on partition which seems to still be a long way off with Zionists stated objectives for taking over the whole country, or the Palestinians even if they were driven out not taking that kindly, given that for every family member killed it creates a host of new enemies. Hopefully countries like Iran will not take the current opportunity to become involved to escalate the situation but one needs to remember of the Jews in the words on Polish born Zionist Yishuv leader Ben Gurion played by Paul Newman in Exodus, "Where else are we going to go?". But then he is also famous for his earlier belief that in Jewish arrival the Palestinians would welcome them...