About Jews and Israel

They don't start shit, but they sure don't take it.

About Jews and Israel

by Andrew Meblin, copyright May 17th, 2023

Disclaimer: I profess no thorough knowledge of this subject, in any way, shape, or form, and have merely utilized my limited prior experiences, The Atlantic, National Review magazine, our old friend, The Internet, to provide information in this article, as well as a few consultants.

It was said “they are the chosen people,” but, as one of them might have asked, as he climbed into a cattle car at the command of Nazi SS soldiers, “Why did they choose us?” That, given the history of oppression of Jews, is an excellent question.

In modern Liberal (and not-so-liberal) thought there exists a considerable sympathy for what Jews suffered through in The Holocaust. In some quarters, this is sharply contrasted with an extensive degree of scorn for Israel. The country is heavily criticized in the United Nations, labeled “an apartheid state,” by some, and the subject of an international call to boycott, sell off investments rooted there, and issue sanctions against this tiny country wedged between the Mediterranean, and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia and Iraq are just a hop, skip, and a brief attack jet flight away.

One joy of teaching history is that religion is intertwined with it. I could discuss Judeo-Christian ideals, and the Ten Commandments without fear of rousing the ire of atheists. Spanish missionaries had converted indigenous people to Christianity, and wars over religious doctrine are so numerous the list defies any attempt at brevity.

Many of you know this history more closely than I, but lend me the authority to summarize it to reach the goal of explaining the current attitudes of Israeli Jews.

Exile, the word has a political tint to it. It describes what the people of the Kingdom of Israel experienced at the hands of Assyrians beginning in 733BC*, and continuing to 722BC, when those mean Assyrians under Shalmaneser V, and later Sargon II, laid siege to the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, for three years. Citizens of the Kingdom of Israel were marched off into the desert toward Assyriaville.

Since history stutters, the people of Jerusalem were again besieged, this time by Babylonians, in 587BC. The siege culminated in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, and the exile of many Judeans to that city with the hanging gardens, Babylon. This brings to mind the song, Rivers of Babylon, by the Melodians, and popularized in the Jimmy Cliff, Rastafari movie, The Harder They Come. And, yeah, Bob Marley covered the song as well.

By the rivers of Babylon,

There he sat down,

Yeah, he wept,

When he remembered Zion.

Oh the wicked

Carried us away in captivity,

Required from us a song.

How can we sing King Alpha’s song

In a strange land?

Bible readers will of course recognize Psalm 137.

Heading from Jerusalem to Babylon, on foot, circa 587BC

Before the Babylonian exile many Judeans willingly left the southern Levant, and dwelled in Egypt, Rome, Crete, Greece, and Syria. It was during the exile that Jews came to be called that, being previously known as Judahites. Mordecai the Jew gets first mention in the Old Testament Book of Esther.

 The Babylonian Captivity ended courtesy of Cyrus the Great, from Persia, as his armies conquered the Neo-Babylonians and “set my people free.” And though they were let out of detention, many Jews did not return, instead migrated to Persia (I know, now called Iran), and what are now Iraq, Lebanon, Tajikistan, and Georgia (the country, not the state).

Enter the Romans, who staged what most of us are much more familiar with, the Siege of Jerusalem, executed by the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. This was followed by the subsequent loss of independence, and an era of severe oppression, during which numerous Jews were taken as slaves to Rome. Once manumission occurred, many remained there. We also know the life of Christ and the Crucifixion of the would-be King of Israel, the revolts of the Jews against Roman rule (66AD), the destruction of most of the city around 70AD, and the closure of Jerusalem to Jews in 136AD.

This Roman coin depicts two Jewish slaves. The woman’s body language is telling.

In Byzantium Jews were at times prohibited from worshipping in Hebrew, had synagogues turned into churches, and forced to convert to Christianity. Christians, however, who converted to Judaism could be put to death.

At this point, Jews began to comprehend their existence as a state-less people, and adjusted their cultural norms to accommodate that belief. Thus the diaspora became official, as Jews developed a dual cultural allegiance: “We live in Spain, but our hearts lie in Jerusalem,” someone must have said at one time or another.

Having been booted from their homeland over time, Jews settled in several different regions of Europe and North Africa. Muslim armies had conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), and Jews were allowed to remain. Thus Sephardic Jews lived alongside Arabs, and Visigoths who had converted to Islam, for a time. That was not to last. In the mid-8^th century, the Franks under Charles Martell stopped the Islamic incursion north of the Pyrenees. As battles versus Christian Europeans continued for the next 700 or so years, the Muslims began the Islamic Persecution of Jews in the 1000s and 1100s. Then Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Isabella I of Castile joined forces, united Spain, and beat the Islamic armies at the last Islamic Kingdom of Granada. The year was 1492, and the Reconquista was complete, sort of.

Coinciding with Columbus’ excursions to the western hemisphere, Sephardic Jews were ordered to either convert to Christianity, or (once again) relocate. Many did adopt Christian beliefs, accepting Jesus as the Son of God, whereas approximately 100,000 migrated to North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, or northern Europe.

Jews who, in the ancient times, had been taken to southern Europe as slaves, at some point received emancipation. After getting their freedom, and bearings, they populated southern parts of the German states, France, England and Scotland, the Low Countries, and elsewhere in Europe. The emancipated Jews, the OG’s, were joined by others who travelled directly to northern Europe, following the expulsion from Jerusalem. Together these are known as Ashkenazi Jews. Of course, a few Jews remained in the former Kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

This gets us to the triad of prohibitions that contributed to the relative wealth of Jews in Europe. The Old Testament discouraged charging interest on money loaned, but Judean law permitted the practice if the loan was to non-Jewish borrowers. Jesus notably chased the moneylenders off the steps of the temple. As a result of this Christians were forbidden to collect interest, which reduces the financial incentive to lending money. It makes sense that for, say, every ten borrowers, one will fail to pay back the loan. Interest collected from the other nine goes toward covering the default of the deadbeat borrower. Kept from collecting interest that should balance out the potential defaulting borrowers, few people desired to take on the risk.

Jews were prohibited from owning land, in most cases. As late arrivers to the party of European feudalism, they were kept out of the landlord class. No collecting rent from peasants in exchange for their use of land. No chance of ordering the menfolk to join the king’s army in the hopes of conquering one’s neighbors and stealing their wealth.

Furthermore, the craft guilds kept the number of craftsmen low to artificially inflate their income. Supply and Demand, here. While Christians might be allowed in a guild when the economics were favorable, Jews were kept out. They were left with the following as possible lines of work: subjecting oneself to serfdom, operating as a merchant, or lending money. Toiling in the fields lacked that certain panache, and certainly the pay sucked, but as a vendor of products of craftsmen, the portable goods needed by crofters and craftsmen themselves, money could be made. And when one had gained a small pile of gold coins and someone needed a loan, collecting one gold coin more than lent out made sense. Since many Europeans did not want to socialize with Jews, they stuck to their own kind, and in turn did not socialize with gentiles (non-Jews). Over time, Jews (usually) supported each other in business and amassed small fortunes, which turned into larger fortunes.

It is these larger fortunes that never fail to attract the interest of powerful men who have depleted their treasury of gold in pursuit of expanding or defending the realm. Armies don’t fight very hard if the soldiers aren’t paid. Armies run on food too, and though plunder and pillaging are strong motivators for those who engage in life and death battles, gold coins work well too.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, living up to his last name, conquered England. As he moved his stuff from Rouen, France, east of Normandy, across that English Channel, he invited the Jews of Rouen to “come on over.” He needed a source of cash, in addition to payment of taxes “in kind,” which was grain, wool, mutton, beef, leather, and timber from the estates of the landholders. This was way before the advent of fiat currency, those otherwise worthless pieces of paper or non-precious metal coins back by the full faith and credit of the king. No, European money was either gold or silver, and unless there was an influx of either into the kingdom, the amount of money remained stagnant.

Other kings continued this arrangement of allowing Jews to lend money and charge interest, no matter how distasteful the wealthy believed it to be. Jews in England existed in a unique state of limbo – direct subjects of the king – and not covered by the protections provided in the Magna Charta. They were appreciated for their ability to accumulate silver and gold, and their willingness to surrender coin to tax collectors to fund the kingdom.

At the same time, Jews were particularly disliked for several reasons, including the rejection of the teachings of Jesus and the disciples, and the role the Jews of Jerusalem played in the crucifixion. While it was the Romans who wielded authority there, the established Jewish community saw Christ as a threat to the relative peace in which they lived. A trial by the Sanhedrin, a Jewish judicial body, preceded the trial by the Romans. Pontius Pilate, the head guy in Jerusalem, according to the Bible, said Jesus had committed no crime. And he “washed [his] hands of the matter.” Even though Romans nailed him to the cross and hoisted it up, the Jews took the rap. Much is made of the insistence on the part of the establishment Jews to have Jesus put to death, but the ultimate authority lay with the Romans. There wasn’t anyone going around persecuting Romans following that monumental event. Just saying.

Another charge leveled against Jews was that they engaged in blood libel, the supposed murder of boys to obtain their blood to include as an ingredient of matzo bread. That must be why I’ve never developed a taste for the stuff. I can’t figure out who started that awful rumor, but it is fairly disgusting. And that was before the Internet.

Lastly, Jews were occasionally accused of poisoning wells in Europe, and practicing witchcraft. Remember, these were the times before science reared it ugly head to ruin superstitious beliefs in weird things, such as: evil spirits caused fruit to rot, and the fruit flies were manifestations of that evil. Or this one; vapors and miasmas caused diseases, but could be warded off if herbs and garlic were placed in front of the nose and mouth..

All things considered, the act of charging interest is obviously a realistic complaint, as who doesn’t resent the credit card companies and wealthy bankers? Occupy Wall Street wasn’t just a bunch of Nazis and KKK protesting Jewish bankers. But if NO interest can be taken in as payment for the loan of money, who the heck will take on the risk?

And so it was that rather than pay back a significant amount of money, the English king kicked them out. In July of 1290, King Edward ordered Jews to be expelled from England by All Saints Day, November 1st. Prior to this, interest lending had been banned. King Edward and major Barons bought up debt from Jews hoping to foreclose on the lesser estate holders when they defaulted. In Gascony King Edward had a test run, and expelled Jews as their outstanding loans were transferred to the crown.

Rather than make a stand, the two thousand or so Jews in England up and left for a nicer neighborhood, Central and Eastern Europe. This “your money or your life” choice was not a difficult one to make. English had gone beast-mode on Jews on several occasions, killing a hundred or so, and thus it was time to head out.

Everyone knows about the yellow star Jews were forced to wear in Germany and other countries occupied by the armies of the Third Reich, but the Nazis merely copied the practice begun by Muslims in the Middle East. Other European countries enacted laws requiring Muslims and Jews to self-identify. Jews and other Infidels, non-Muslims, were allowed to live in Islamic territories, but only if they paid a special tax. And to many, that seemed reasonable. Do you want to pay the tax, travel across dangerous and hostile territory to a new home, or die? Tax, please!

Jews in the Germanic regions didn’t necessarily thrive, but they survived by importing goods from the Levant and other regions to the east, or sold those and other products of local cottage industries. Jewish life in Europe was perhaps fairly tolerable until the time of the Crusades. The armies marching and riding to Jerusalem to battle the (in Christian minds) unfaithful enemies of The Church reasoned that it would be good to practice on the non-believer Jews along the way. This ended the era of relatively good times, as thousands of Jews were attacked and killed in the villages along the Rhine River. These events normalized acts of oppression and aggression against Jews in Germany, and many migrated to Francia in what was perceived as a nicer neighborhood.

Above: No, this is not an early version of Where’s Waldo. This image shows the plunder of Judengasse in Free Imperial city of Frankfurt, in the Holy Roman Empire, 1614.

Below, the Hepp! Hepp! riots in the Kingdom of Bavaria, 1819. The violence and destruction of private property was triggered by the emancipation of Jews in the German Confederation.

Jews in France were granted full citizenship during the French Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte continued the liberation in regions he conquered.

Napoleon awarded civil rights to Jews, yet he restricted the practice of interest-based lending and hindered free transit by Jews within the empire.

The phrase pogrom entered the lexicon hundreds of years later, but these riots against “the Chosen People” became every-once-in-a-while practices whenever some unexplained event such as The Black Plague, or ergot fungus infections afflicted the rye crop.

An infestation of ergot fungus on rye seeds

The ergot fungus, in the genus of Claviceps, can be particularly tricky. First a spore infects a floret of the rye blossom, producing mycelia that hijack the reproductive system of the plant, and attaches to the vascular bundle. A spongy white sphacelia results which drops asexual spores, called conida, to the soil below. There the spores lie dormant until a spring rain revitalizes the species, purpurea, grohii, nigricans, or zizaniea, which then spread to other rye florets. The sphacelia dries up and develops alkaloids that cause intense reactions in cattle and humans. The consumption of bread made from affected rye seed produced intense sensations of one’s limbs burning and extreme hallucinations, referred to as St. Anthony’s Fire, now called ergotism. After several days, gangrene and limb separation often resulted, and in many cases, death followed. It was discovered that the compounds in the sphacelia contain lysergic acid, from which LSD is derived. WOW, you be trippen’.

Early drawings of rye plant parts and ergot fungus details. The science behind this was not developed in the Middle Ages.

Now, after some 40,000 people died of St. Anthony’s Fire or by suicide from self-defenestration, or immolation (leaping from tower windows or walking into fires), the lack of scientific knowledge meant people looked around for answers. One could either believe that these screaming hallucinations and deaths were caused by an infection of C. purpurea producing sphacelia that developed into an alkaloid-laden sclerotium, or they could blame it on Jews. Considering the top scientific minds of the day, it was easier to look at Jews as the cause of the insanity.

Bubonic plague was one major event in medieval times, and the world population actually decreased for a few hundred years when it hit. Once again, the learned men of the time blamed plague on the Jews. So, at irregular intervals, Jews were forced from their homes and sent packing.

Five hundred years of moving from one country to another in Western and Central Europe. Not fun.

Russia had very small Jewish population prior to 1772 when Russian Empress Catherine II, aka, The Great, began imperialist expansion, grabbing the fertile grain fields of the steppes - Ukraine, the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and other eastern European countries that had received many Jewish immigrants. Once these regions had been annexed, Russia had plenty of Jews, and since tolerance was not (and is not now) a trait for which Russians are known, this was a turn for the worse for Jews.

Six years after the territorial expansion (AKA invasion) had been accomplished, Russians began whooping ass on Jews. Jewish villages were looted and burned. Russians then restricted Jews from living outside what was called The Pale of Settlement, essentially the areas that had been dragged by force into the Russian Empire.

A Jewish Russian serf seeking permission from his landlord to depart to another estate

Semi-official riots against Jews were called pogroms, a name that came into common usage in the late 1800s after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Hesya Helfman, a Jewish woman, was a close friend of one of the conspirators, who were all atheists. So naturally the Jews of Russia received the brunt of blame.

Throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries, there continued to be frequent pogroms against people “who are not like us,” and “who killed Christ.” These were justified, and in many cases encouraged, by rulers desperate to direct attention away from their failings. Tsar Nicholas II was one. Nicky Dos (his rapper handle) had engaged Japan in armed conflict, which grew into the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) in which the Japanese served up Russia’s pathetic navy on a plate. The proud Russians wanted to know why their navy was so weak. Never mind, said the Tsar’s cronies, the Jews must be smote. Go get ‘em, yo!

In a few instances Jews took up arms to protect their families and property, and the actual number of dead Jews remained low, but lack of deaths does not negate the terror experienced by women raped, or those who suffered serious wounding, and loss of property. But for the most part, Jews just turned the other cheek, or immigrated to safer locales, such as the United States.*

Jews at Ellis Island, New York harbor, early 1900’s

Thus, for thousands of years, Jews have been subject to demands for money, chickens, sheep and goats, and a once-in-a-while roll in the hay with your daughter or your wife. And while submission could result in survival, given the relatively small populations of Jews in any one location, resistance almost certainly meant death. These people developed a belief that, “This too will pass.” The ones that had the mindset of “Over my dead body, bitch,” were granted that choice. So the dead Jews issued no more offspring, and only Jews who had submitted and survived lived to pass on their genes, as well as the personal philosophy of going along to get along.

In 1792, Austrian Emperor Joseph II, in keeping with a general attitude of religious tolerance and liberalization in Western Europe, issued laws that gave Jews civic equality. Prussia granted Jews citizenship in 1812, yet enacted numerous laws specific to eight of the older Prussian states, requiring Jews to follow each law closely. These strict rules for Jews, but no one else, caused the beginning of migration of Jews out of Germany. But the pendulum swung back, as it often does. As a result of some very effective nudging of public opinion by Hamburg lawyer, Gabriel Riesser, equal rights were conferred upon Jews in Prussia in 1848, and soon other German states followed suit. The March Revolution, also in 1848 consisted of protests by citizens of the thirty-nine states of the German Confederation against heavy taxation and government censorship, and contributed to the acceptance of equal rights for Jews.

Welcome now, the 20^th century, and The Great War. When Germany went to war, the country’s comparatively small population of Jews volunteered in vast numbers to fight what they saw as a defensive war. Contribution to the war effort by Jews was proportionally the highest of all the minority groups inhabiting the newly formed German Empire. Fighting against Russia was only logical for Jews as the mistreatment of Jews under the tsars was fairly recent history. The fact that German Jews fought against Russian, French, and British Jews suggests a patriotism that surpassed the bonds of Judaism.

Following the cessation of hostilities on November 11, 1918, Jews participated in government policy and economic functions of the Weimar Republic. But a growing suspicion that the one-sided blame for The Great War and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles were the product of disloyal forces within Germany. The suggestion that the traitors were Jews bubbled beneath the surface of political knowledge of the masses. One man would take this sentiment and make it his stepping stool to national power, Adolf Hitler.

Hitler’s Nazi Party received just 33.1 percent of the vote in November of 1932, but that was enough to elevate him to power. Once Von Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler enjoyed free rein and reign. The first official anti-Jewish act was in April of 1933, when The Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service was implemented. This excluded Jews from positions in government and at universities. Laws restricting Jewish judges, lawyers, teachers, and doctors soon followed. Jews were prohibited from taking the bar exam, effectively keeping them out of the legal profession.

Two years later, in 1935, the so-called Nuremberg Laws were passed. These were the Law for Protection of German Blood and Honor, and the German Citizenship Law. Together these outlawed marriage - and even casual hook-ups - between Jews and Germans, and conferred German citizenship to persons “with German or related blood.” Jews became foreigners in their own country.

In April of 1938 Jews were forced to register their assets, which allowed the government to begin to exclude Jews from economic activity. Three months later Germans who sought care from Jewish doctors were would not have the treatment covered by the national health insurance.

By August 1938 Jews whose names did not clearly indicate they were Jewish were required to add the names “Israel” (for men) or “Sarah” (for women) on identity papers.

On the 5^th of November 1938, the Law Against Over-Crowding at German schools prohibiting teaching concepts of democracy and equality. Jewish children could only amount to five percent of school enrollment resulting in the expulsion of thousands of students. On the 25^th of November, the German Reich Ministry of Interior restricted the movement of Jews inside Germany.

A decree banning Jews from farming, implemented in 1933 was followed up with a law against Jews having vegetable gardens in 1938. Additionally, Jews were forbidden to go to movie theaters, operas, and concerts.  

In February of 1939, Jews were ordered to turn in all jewelry of value to the government.

After the invasion of Poland by Nazi and Soviet armed forces, Jews were required to move to major cities, register, and move into specific neighborhoods. This was followed by the required display of a yellow Star of David sewn to outer garments or on an armband.

By 1940 Auschwitz had been built and began the extermination of “The Chosen People.”

Because of this slow, incremental method of restriction, many Jews, who had survived similar oppression in earlier times, were at first inclined to abide. After all, Germany was their home, and Hitler wouldn’t last forever, would he? With financial assets frozen or unavailable, and few countries willing to accept migrants without money, how could they go? Where could they go? The United States and many other countries severely restricted immigration by Jews. By the time they were being crammed into the ghettos, it was too late.

So, the historic surrender of one’s chickens and sheep, and the giving up of gold coins to the Cossacks to assure survival, created in some Jews the willingness to once again submit to more powerful authorities with minimal resistance. The phrase, “This too will pass,” comes to mind.

A very few Jews escaped Germany to other countries. Even fewer evaded capture by soldiers and SS troopers by hiding in the forests of Eastern Europe. In the book The Avengers, the true story is told of Polish Jews who fled the ghettos, took up with partisans in the woods, and fought a guerilla war against their oppressors.

Some Jews survived the death camps. Due to a strong will to live, a tough mental and physical composition, a very small number of them actually made it out (barely) alive. According to one source, out of 3.3 million Polish Jews at the start of the war, only 380,000 remained alive in Poland, Germany, Czech territories, Austria, and the Soviet Union. Other than Poland, these were all places where they had been sent as slaves for the war efforts.

Remember the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah? With the expulsion of Jews from The Levant, the people who remained came under the governance of various states throughout history. Beginning in the 1800’s, Jews from Russia, Romania, and Yemen had migrated back to their historical homeland. In 1897, Theordore Herzl led the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. The goal was to establish a new state where Jews could live in relative safety.

Theodore Herzl, the Godfather of the Zionist Movement

During the Great War, The Brits and French secretly plotted to control territory of the Ottoman Empire once it was defeated. In 1917 the Balfour Declaration the British government agreed to support the Zionist movement – the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland. But where?

One scheme proposed early in the 19th century, and seized upon by the head of the Nazi SS, Heinrich Himmler, was to forcibly relocate Jews to Madagascar, which would then become a police state ruled by the Schutzstaffel, the SS. Imagine how differently the movie Madagascar would have been had not Hitler’s Third Reich been defeated.

In 1903 British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain offered up a plan to Herzl to create a Zionist state in Britain’s colony of Uganda, on a plateau in what is now Kenya. Italy’s fascist government proposed a Jewish state in Ethiopia, which had been conquered by Italy in the 1930’s. Some suggested Argentina as a Zionist homeland. The Soviets offered territory in the farthest eastern region of Siberia for an autonomous Jewish oblast (province).

With the Treaty of Versailles, in 1919, Britain and France divided up the territories that included what are now Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, part of Turkey, and Israel. Am I leaving anyone out? The borders drawn by British Prime Minister Lloyd George were artificial, dissected ethnic groups, ignored sectarian traits, and were essentially designed to assign the oil-bearing land to Britain and the non-oil lands to France. Obviously Georges Clemenceau (the French guy) was not knowledgeable of the underground wealth of the region, and went along with it.

Now, let us consider Darwin for a moment. His theory of evolution is associated with the phrase, Survival of the Fittest. Only those living things that are strong and or able to adapt can overcome adversity. The Jews who escaped to the countryside and lived to see the end of World War Two carried on in life. Those who survived the death camps and forced labor in atrocious conditions in the Soviet Union and Europe were released back into civilization (of sorts) to try to rebuild their lives.

People of both of these groups – those who had survived the Holocaust and those who had avoided it by fighting back -  immigrated to the British-governed state of Palestine.  

The land was to be partitioned, to create a region for Arabs who had occupied the land since the Diaspora, and Jews fleeing the ultimate persecution. The United States, and subsequently a United Nations Special Commission supported the partition. The adoption of UN Resolution 181, in November of 1947, recommended the partition, and is featured in the movie Exodus, which was big in the 1960’s.

Map of the original borders of the partition of Palestine, as a resolution by the United Nations

The Arabs of Palestine were pissed. T. E. Lawrence, the British Colonel who had encouraged Arabs to rebel against the Turks and motivated them with a promise of self-governance one the war had ended. Now the Brits and Yanks, and the whole dang United Nations seemed to be colluding with the Jews to slice off a portion of their land.

The UN Partition Resolution, as No. 181 was called, went into effect in May of 1948. Immediately Palestinians and Arabs from neighboring countries took up arms and sought to block the establishment of the new Jewish homeland. Jews fought back, mobilizing their secret militia.

Invasion routed of armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon after the declaration of Israeli independence

On May 14^th, Israel declared independence. Arab countries then officially went to war, bombing Tel Aviv, and sending ground troops in to partitioned lands. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, and a fighting unit from Saudi Arabia battled the militia of Israel. The UN nudged into place two cease-fire agreements, but fighting continued until February of 1949. The state of Israel had survived its first war in thousands of years.

In 1967 Arab countries – Syria, Jordan, Egypt, with help from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iraq, and Kuwait, attacked Israel. A glance at a map shows the nearly surrounded Israel, dwarfed in size by countries home to millions of Arabs. Yet Israel prevailed in this conflict. Again, in 1973, during the observance of the holy day of Yom Kippur, Syrian and Egyptian forces invaded.

When it wasn’t fighting off aggression and invasions by its neighbors, Israel has experienced thousands of acts of violence by militant Palestinians, the terrorist organization Palestine Liberation Organization, and others.

The response to these wars was to take territory that could act as a buffer. While the UN Partition placed Jerusalem in a region that would be controlled by an “international regime,” as a corpus separatum, a separate body, following the air attacks on Tel Aviv, by what was then Transjordan, Israeli military occupied and kept the West Bank regions, once again, as a buffer against future aggression. Was that justified? Many differing opinions fly in on this.

Similarly, the Golan Heights afforded an excellent artillery base for Syrian forces. Bunkers had been constructed to house the gunners who could then lob high-explosive shells into Israeli farms and villages. Israel had an operative work his way into the Syrian leadership posing as a wealthy exporter. The agent toured the Golan Heights as a guest of the Syrian defense minister, and managed to convince the minister to allow him to purchase shade trees for the benefit of the artillery units who were otherwise roasting in direct sunlight. The Syrians unwittingly allowed trees to mark each bunker, making them easy targets for Israeli jets once the 1967 war started. Israel continues to hold on to the heights. The spy was caught and executed, but he enabled the taking of the high-ground for the Israeli military.

Reaction by Israel towards Palestinians has been heavily criticized, and on American college campuses, Israel is anathema. Israeli soldiers stand accused of unjustifiably killing Palestinians, including, recently, a journalist in Gaza. I am certain that there have been what one would term atrocities committed by Israeli armed forces against Palestinians, and this work is not in any way intended to justify unwarranted brutality.

That tiny strip of land, if considered a sovereign political unit, would be the third most densely populated in the world. In 2006 the Palestinian Islamic organization was voted into a leadership role. A rift between the previous political government, the Palestinian Authority, resulted in a divided Palestine, West Bank and Gaza. Hamas has constructed numerous tunnels into Israel, which it claims are for defensive uses, the protection of Gaza residents. Israelis are quick to ask: how does a tunnel into Israel from Gaza helps protect anyone in Gaza?

Having never visited Israel, let alone lived there, I cannot write intelligently about the justification of the government responses to aggression. I do not know if the government has over-reacted, nor do I know if it has used restraint in its policies.

But I do know this: many of the Jews inhabiting Israel are descendants of those who survived or avoided the Holocaust, and they have survived 75 years of existential threats by armies and governments who hope to wipe the country from the face of the earth. One member of the US House of Representatives has been photographed wearing a shirt in which a map of the Levant shows Israel gone. Some maps in Arab countries and Iran do not depict Israel, and some textbooks for use in Arab countries label Israel and Palestinian lands together as Palestine. These attitudes continue despite, or because of, the amazing successes Israel has had in technology and trade. The country’s per capita GDP exceeds that of Japan.

Where’s Israel?

Currently, the uranium enrichment program conducted by Iran has achieved a product that is 84% pure, six per cent short of weapons-grade specifications. Once Iran has built a nuclear arsenal, the future of Israel will hang by a thread, and at the mercy of religious leaders who force women to cover their heads, a regime that hung dissidents from cranes in the capital, and sends arms to Russia to further killing of Ukrainians.

Will Israel conduct a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, or will the gifted diplomacy of Joseph Biden convince Iran to cease its quest for an atomic arsenal? Only time will tell. But if Israel does act, now you know a little bit about what makes Israel so protective of its people.

Regarding the, some will say, disproportional or asymmetrical response by Israeli military to acts of aggression by Palestinians, an analogy exists in the form of this maybe-fictional tale:

A naive visitor to a region distant and culturally different from his own accidentally trespasses on the estate of a wealthy and powerful leader (insert warlord, duke, king, khan, tsar, sultan, etc.) and is taken captive. As punishment for the transgression, the powerful leader has the infidel buried in a hole up to his neck in the middle of an earthen arena.

The leader’s prize bull is admitted to the enclosure, where he snorts and paws the sandy soil angrily. A henchman waves a brightly colored flag over the head of the infidel to draw the bull’s attention, and then leaps out of the way as the horned beast charges at the head, narrowly missing his target. Another charge ensues, and the infidel dodges his head to the side avoiding the sharp horns. As the bull makes a third attack, the infidel forces his face into the dirt yet again escaping injury. As the bull’s back half passes above the man’s head, he lifts up his face and grabs ahold of the bull’s testicular sack with his teeth. The momentum of the four-legged executioner carries him forward, and his scrotum is torn open, the bull’s blood contrasting starkly with the white sand of the arena, glistening in the desert sunlight.

Bellowing in pain, the bull retreats to a shaded portion of the arena and slumps over, gingerly licking his wound. The leader is outraged and leaps to his feet, and he shouts.

“Fight fair, you bastard, fight fair!”

The analogy goes both ways in this dispute between Israeli Jews and those who oppose their right to exist. After Arab countries attacked numerous times, with armies that vastly outnumbered the Israeli military, and Israel prevailed, and took more land, the response has been, fight fair!

After thousands of rockets have been fired into civilian neighborhoods in Israel, dozens of suicide bombers have exploded buses filled with tourists and citizens, and soldiers are kidnapped and hustled through tunnels into captivity in Gaza, the Israeli responses have been harsh. Then Palestinians and their supporters shout out, “Fight fair, you bastards, fight fair!” However, it is essential to stress that this writing is an excuse for wanton cruelty by either side in this conflict. The background presented and the positing of the reasons for the perhaps unyielding nature of Israel, is a reason why, and not intended to consist of an absolute justification of disproportionate response.

As always, your comments, criticism, addition, and or corrections are welcome.

Is Meblin a Jew? No, a Pantheist.

* It wasn’t just Jews who emigrated from Germany. Catholics and Lutherans bailed out as well. Around this time, the Birsners of Bavaria immigrated to Missouri, and continued the family business of brewing beer. My mother was a grandchild of August Birsner, and the daughter of August John Birsner, all good German Catholics.

** In 1906 the Meblins of the Russian-ruled country of Belarus got the heck outta Dodge (Orsha), and disembarked in New York City. After a bit of R and R at Ellis Island, they took a train to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Why? Because the flat, dreariness of the eastern North Dakota landscape reminded them of Belarus. There, the Meblin brothers, Josef, and Saul sold household goods and light farm implements from a horse-drawn wagon. Later they opened Meblin Mercantile, in Grand Forks.

*** I was raised pretty much neutral – neither Catholic nor Jewish. Since my maternal grandmother lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a bunch of states in between, we visited her infrequently. Grandma Birsner was old and infirm, and passed away when I was perhaps 12 years old.

My father’s entire family relocated to the SF Bay Area shortly after we established our residence in Menlo Park. Grandfather Joe and Leah lived in an apartment in the building they owned, but Joe died when I was very young. Leah was installed in the Home for Jewish Aged, in the Oakland Hills. This was a very stately building, but of course, inside it smelled like urine at times. What a joy it was to sit on her bed as dad and she conversed about God knows what for (it seemed like) hours. One time, as any young boy who found himself in this situation, I expressed that I was hungry. That was a huge mistake. Grandma Leah opened her desk drawer, and produced a cold boneless, skinless chicken breast wrapped in a linen napkin. I learned to shut the F up thereafter.

Our family celebrated Christmas, and I was not required to commit to dual-citizenship, so to speak, so no Chanukah. That was fine. The only Jews we knew were the Greenspans, who lived behind us and had two thoroughly annoying boys, one my age and the other a peer of my older sister, Amy.

Several times we were dragged to the Jewish home for “shows.” Remember, this was the late 1950’s, and many East Coast people had migrated to the Golden State. Think New Yorkers, coming west and bringing their lovely New York culture. I remember a boy my age, nicknamed Chickie, with Brylcreem slicking back his black hair, in black slacks, and a red gingham shirt, moving like a marionette, and tap dancing away to the amazement of the audience. Other acts have faded from my memory, but I suppose Lawrence Welk crossed with Yehudi Menuhin was an approximation of the musical offerings. Sadly, I began to associate Judaism with the pain of a long car ride, dried up cold chicken breasts, and an East Coast culture that was entirely foreign to me. To this day I eschew (not chew) chicken breast.

Jews who survived Polish death camps: https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/fate-of-jews/poland.html

Map of Arab-Israeli War 1948:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/images/maps/War-of-Independence-Invasion.jpg

Information about the Partition of Palestine:

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war#:~:text=The%20Arab%2DIsraeli%20War%20of%201948%20broke%20out%20when%20five,Israel%20on%20May%2014%2C%201948.

Israel does not appear on maps in textbooks in Middle East schools:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-not-included-in-harpercollins-map-used-by-children-in-middle-east-9951550.html