An Interesting Read on the Origins of the Palestinian-Isreali Conflict. [View all]

I rarely tread into this forum, since I have nothing to say to either side about the intractable cold/hot war in this region. Everyone is wrong and nobody is right is how I deal with this ongoing horror.

One of my best friends, an American, served in the Israeli Army as a youth, and, in fact, patrolled Gaza, 40 years ago. I am reluctant to discuss any of this with him. (His ex-wife now lives in Israel, where he met her.)

Nevertheless, I am currently reading - and will soon put it aside unfinished - Elkins' Legacy of Violence, which is a big, long, deep book about how the British Empire screwed the entire world and left it in a shambles of war and violence when the British Empire was shrugged off (violently) by the natives.

It has an interesting read on the origins Palestinian/Israeli conflict, the casual and thoughtless issuance of the Balfour Declaration, which had its origins basically in British antisemitism, coupled with contempt for the Arabs.

The idea of the British endorsement of Zionism was basically about getting Jews out of Europe is the way I read it.

Knowing about this does nothing to resolve the situation, but it does delineate quite nicely the origins.

It's all I have to say.

Please don't kill me.