With this pattern having been so firmly engraved on the world's consciousness, and with every other hope of living in peace seemingly having been closed to them, the creation of a state of their own came to be regarded by the Jews as their only avenue of escape. Such desperation eventually imparted to any Israeli a quasi-mystical quality, transforming it into what came to be believed as the fulfillment of a biblical prophesy.
After several decades of this intoxicating euphoria, however, grave problems have surfaced. Among these is the fact that Palestine, once a parched tract of desert inherited by the British from the defunct Ottoman Empire, has also been romanticized into nationhood by the nomadic Arab tribes who wandered there for centuries following the expulsion of the Jews. However, the miracle of having restored Israel to its milk-and-honey image, was largely brought about by Jews who purchased most of it from its occupiers, despite having an ancient but realistically unenforceable prior claim to the land. Whatever the case, the miracle of its rebirth has never ceased to rankle the Arabs, probably out of their own embarrassment at the parched desert their nomadic society and grazing goats had made of this once-verdant land.
Meanwhile the Jews, having lived under such precarious circumstances for so long, had developed a protective mechanism of trying to exist as inconspicuously as possible, or at least of avoiding stressful situations when given enough advance warning. Since being thrust to the center of the world stage by the reestablishment of Israel, however, they live in the merciless spotlight of international scrutiny, in which it is no longer possible for them to pretend that the ring of hatred that encircles them, really doesn't exist.
Even as the nations of the world piously deny their own Anti-Semitic attitudes, the fact that Israel exists at all, routinely evokes an intensity of critical judgment not bestowed on any other country. The lame excuse offered for this is that Israel is expected to meet a higher standard of behavior than anyone else, in the conduct of its affairs. When genocide occurs in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka or Bosnia, it evokes only expressions of disapproval. But let Israel bloodlessly expel a group sworn to its annihilation, and the crocodile tears of the world community constitute a serious threat of flooding.
Look at the map of the Middle East, and note the vast sea of hostility surrounding tiny Israel. Note also that Anti-Semitism somewhere in the world has never taken a day off, throughout all of recorded history. Finally, recognize that all those polite euphemisms about holy places and higher standards, fail to conceal the universal and deep-rooted hatred for this people for whom the word "ghetto" was originally coined. Viewed with less romanticism and more candor, the Promised Land begins to take on a terrifying resemblance to every other ghetto - or concentration camp - ever built to hold Jews. This one, however, adds the irony of having been conceived and constructed by themselves, and holds the unchallenged distinction of being the biggest concentration camp of them all.
Despite all the wish-fulfilling folk tales about the in-gathering of the scattered children of the Diaspora, the fact remains that this roundup of Jews - by Jews - simply saves their next oppressors the bother of doing it themselves. Any Israeli who doubts the ability of the Arabs to out-hate and out-wait them, is effectively consigning himself and his loved ones to certain extinction. So much, then for the forlorn hope of achieving "peace" with their "neighbors."
The certainty that another Anti-Semitic Holocaust will appear with the next swing of history's pendulum, should have succeeded by now in convincing any rational person that the problem cannot be made to go away by continuing to engage in same circular thinking of the past. Until such time as it is approached with complete objectivity and with a determination to create an orderly and workable plan of action, Jews remain doomed to relive, at regular intervals, all the familiar horrors of the past. The number of possible remedies is finite, but the determination of which of them will be the most effective, lies as much within the purview of a Las Vegas bookmaker or a reader of goat entrails, as it does with the great thinkers of history. A list of some of these possibilities appears on the following page.
