Jews

The remarks by Helen Thomas once again prove the old adage that a Washington misspeak is when someone accidentally tells the truth. I personally have never understood prejudice against Jews. I recall many years ago seeing the Gregory Peck movie, “Gentleman’s Agreement” and being baffled by the story line. Over the years I have wondered why this prejudice existed and what might have caused it and I have come up with my own theory. During the dark ages when the Roman Catholic Church was the power in Western Europe, the only people who were literate were the royalty, the clergy and the Jewish tradition of teaching sons to read and write. It was this same Catholic Church that forbade the lending of money at interest, something that did not exist in Judaism. So you have a situation where the Jewish men are the ones in the community who can lend money at interest and are literate so it is likely that they will become the bankers. Recall Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”.

I think that there was an unspoken jealousy among the non Jews that festered over many centuries and erupted at various times, the most notable of which was the Holocaust. I have most likely known many people who were Jewish without my knowledge of their religion and I have also known Jews and those that I have known had two things in common. They were smart and ambitious. It is one of the many reasons that the Muslim world is fearful of the Jews.

Shortly after 9/11, I read a book about Islam written by Bernard Lewis, himself a Jew, but considered to be the world’s foremost scholar on Middle East history. In a nutshell he says that the people of Islam did not like to live in non Muslim countries so they tended to isolate themselves from the west. The early years of Islam 500 AD to 1000 AD were the glory years but they were left out of the industrial revolution and have suffered the consequences. As an example since 1900 the Jews have won 185 Noble prizes and the Muslims have won nine. This in spite of the fact that there are 1.4 billion Muslims and only 15 million Jews in the world.

As an American I do not always agree with what Israel does and the way they do it but compared to the nations that surround them, they are the country that best emulates my values. Just take the one area of women’s rights and compare Israel with their Muslim neighbors and you will understand what I mean.

I am concerned with the way the press seems to be leaning toward Palestine in regards to the Jewish blockade of Gaza. Have we so soon forgotten our Jewish allies in World War 11 and during the 40 year cold war while the other peoples in the Middle East were on the other side. Have we closed our eyes to the fact that in Israel they have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and a free press not to mention electing their own leaders. Contrast that with other countries in the area. There are no churches in Saudi Arabia, only Mosques. There is no freedom to speak out against the government in Iran. There is no free press in Egypt. These countries are led by royalty and potentates. I never use the word democracy when discussing countries in the Middle East as it is a loaded word, but I ask the question, would you prefer to live in a country where the people elect their own leaders and I leave it to you to guess what kind of response that I get.