Judaism is one of the oldest religions and the Jews are therefore an ancient people. The Jews believed to have emerged about 3,500 B.C.E. in the lands now known as Israel.
Jews held sway in the Middle East for over 3000 years, until the emergence of the Roman empire (625 BCE to 476 CE) and then further suppressed by Christianity since past 1,700 years and then further eroded by the rise of Islam in the past 1,000 years.
Not only was their wealth, power and influence reduced they landed up being openly persecuted, by Muslims and Christians since their inception. The Roman Catholic Church officially condemned the Jewish people as the killers of Jesus, right until 1964 when this condemnation was withdrawn. And not long ago Hitler and the Nazis carried out the gruesome holocaust.
Ostracised and persecuted, the Jews were not permitted to own property, land, nor farm. All sorts of restrictions were imposed upon them to suppress and keep them down. Deprived of the right to own hard assets, the Jews focussed on trading, knowledge, science, technology, art, literature and money lending. The latter now known more respectably as 'finance' has always held great power and influence over the politics and economy of every society. This occurred because both Christianity. and Islam forbid lending of money on interest.
The Jews have dispersed far and wide across the world and have learnt to live with and thrive in adversity. With great skill, discipline and ability to network they have to come to globally dominate finance and politics making them immeasurably the most powerful and influential group of people in the world. This is highly visible in America and to a marginally lesser extent in the UK and Europe, the three most dominant spheres of influence over the world in the past 350 years.
The Jews successfully financed whoever could pay, or those who could be used to protect and further Jewish causes. They supported the Allies with tremendous resources to win the two world wars. In return, the Jews extracted a promise from the Allies led by America and Great Britain, that they would restore the homeland for the Jewish people back to them. Israel, to where they could at last return to live peacefully and without persecution.
As per the Balfour Declaration, the British in 1948 carved out in the sparsely occupied, mostly barren desert land we know as Palestine conquered from the Ottomans, to create the state of Israel for the Jewish people.
Israel was recognised and admitted into the United Nations (UN) in 1949. But to this day Israel is not recognised by 28 countries, all Islamic.
In 1979 all parties agreed under UN guidance to divide the country into 3 parts, Gaza and the West Bank for the Arab population and Israel for the Jews and local Arabs. East Jerusalem would remain under international control of the United Nations.
The new Arab states were grappling with freedom and its rulers their new found power. There was jostling for power and dominance within the Arab world and nothing united them more than the created common enemy, Israel.
Soon thereafter the Arabs changed their minds and decided that they did not want the Jews and decided to wage war against them and to drive them out. The Arabs failed and in spite of the request of the Israelis to the local Palestinians to stay, many fled.
Palestine may have been ruled by the British, but the people were mostly Arabs and they could not tolerate the immigrant Kafir intruding into their midst. Thus began the constant skirmishes and a series of bloody series of Arab-Israeli wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006.
The main interest of America and UK in Israel is to use into keep the oil rich region in the Arab world on perpetual boil and ensure a ceaseless supply of cheap energy to fuel their economies. Sadly the Palestinians have been reduced to nothing more than pawns in the hands of great powers, to be used and abused as convenient.
The global media played their part of rousing tempers by ensuring that there was constant coverage with a target of a daily minimum of a quarter to half page coverage on the Palestinian conflict.
Politicians, never implemented the United Nations brokered agreement for a two state solution with the right of both Palestine and Israel to coexist.
There is no shortage of hardcore elements in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam who are eager to see the end of the world, calling it Qayamat, Judgement day etc. when all will be destroyed and the chosen Messiah will return and then ......
Most of the world's 1.9 billion Muslims are openly against the world's 14 million Jews. The Jews are also clandestinely opposed by most of the world's 2.38 billion Christians. In their desperate quest to survive and prosper, the Jews are themselves accused of the most horrible acts that they have long accused others of.
Martyrdom seeking leaders driven by a desire for death rather than life are now in charge. They it seems are reluctant to give peace a chance.
All the horror we see and hear are mere semantics born out of their delusions of heaven and hell in the afterlife.
Organised religion cannot know reason. It is a powder keg of emotions thus little space for people to sort out their differences. The Palestinians and the Israelis fight, they tire, they recuperate and then the cycle of violence and destruction begins all over again.
With the passage of time the problem has grown in size, complexity and toxicity. Rational people have been replaced by the most extreme and hardcore of radical and violent elements in their societies. Israelis and Palestinians both have now adopted maximalist positions during negotiations and thus no compromise except conflict seems possible. And that is what we are repeatedly witnessing in which the Palestinians are bound to lose.
In spite of the gloomy outlook, a solution and a lasting peace is possible provided there is a change of mediators and guarantors of the security of the Israeli and Palestine people. In the next article I shall cover the past and current conflicts known as the intifāḍah (uprisings) and their causes and suggest what will be possible solutions in a changing world order.
Interesting Links:
Israel’s Wars and Operations: First Intifada (1987 - 93) ~ Mitchell Bard (The Jewish Virtual Library)
Why Israel and Palestine are fighting - Caspian Report
Former Kuwaiti Information Minister Sami Abdullatif Al-Nesf: The Palestinians Made A Mistake By Rejecting The Deal Of The Century; Every Time They Reject An Offer, They End Up Losing - MEMRI TV (July 2020)
Jewish Population by Country ! Wisevoter
Why aren't there any poor Jewish communities anywhere? ~ Proactive Thinker
Jordan Peterson talks to Netanyahu on the Israel-Palestinian conflict ~ JP Education
Written and Posted: October 2023 ~ Gurvinder Singh
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