And so it goes on . . . and on . . . and on. Any attempt to delve into the history of this conflict in order to work out the whys and wherefores is doomed to a slow death similar to being sucked down into a swamp. Of course, if you are parti pris as a supporter of one side or the other then suddenly all is clear and there are no doubts, no uncertainties and you stand firm on your foundation of hate. A prime example comes from Steve Bell, the 'cartoonist' for The Guardian. I place doubt-filled inverted commas around the word 'cartoonist' because he barely qualifies for a title that implies entry into a group of usually intelligent, perceptive, witty and talented men capable, at their best, of summarising a situation in a picture that does indeed say more than a thousand words. All Bell can come up with on this subject is a thuddingly tendentious illustration of the old Jewish puppet-master shtick of which the late Joseph Goebbels would have been proud.
From, thank God, the outside looking in, it seems to me that the Jews lost their argument for a homeland some 2,500 years ago. Great shame and all that but some you win, some you lose! It was, in my opinion, an act of sentimental folly to attempt to set up a new Jewish homeland in the midst of an Arab continent. The Jews, despite their protestations, have no right to a homeland until they can point to some supreme being who has granted this 'right'. Alas, Jehovah doesn't cut the mustard with people who believe in Allah or Jesus and their Gods, or those with no Gods at all!
Even so, we must deal with the situation as we find it and the Jews, against all the odds, have succeeded in setting up their homeland. It's there, it exists and that's the reality. The 'Arabs', by which I mean all the non-Israeli Middle East, will never rest until Israel ceases to exist. Actually, to be more accurate, I should refer to the 'Arab leaders' because I do not doubt that the so-called 'Arab street' is a lot less bothered by Israel than it is by the obvious failures of their own governments to actually govern sensibly. The governments concerned, of course, continue to whip up the Jewish problem in order to deflect attention away from their own misdeeds. In the meantime the Jews continue to fight for their existence which is entirely their right so to do.
There are only three possible outcomes to this saga. First and most likely, the 'war' goes on and on ad infinitum and ad nauseum! The second is that the 'Arabs' find some new and increasingly painful problems of their own that will force them to re-arrange their priorities. For example, the chances are that over the next 20 years and onwards the price of oil will drop dramatically as plentiful shale oil and gas becomes available to the West and the Far East (ie, China). A drop in oil revenues will have huge consequences in the oil states. The third possibility, an unlikely one but you never know, is that the Jews lose the 'war' and the State of Israel ceases to exist. The brain-dead but hate-filled pro-Palestinian mob (I can think of no other more suitable collective noun) in the West, led by the likes of The Guardian and its untalented 'cartoonist', who urge the Palestinians on to even greater efforts to destroy Israel never spell out what would happen in that event. The answer is simple - some 7.5 million Jews - men, women and children - will be exterminated. It will make the holocaust look like a tea party. And lo, there will be rejoicing in Islington!
