History repeats...again

Given the current state of the world, I wish I knew more about the conflicts between Jews and Muslims, about Judaism itself, about the creation of the modern state of Israel. 

Or is it Palestine? Or is it Canaan?

I'm not quite sure what Hamas is. Or Hezbollah. Are they more than terror organizations? Are they states? Are they governments? From where do they get their power? From where do they get their financing? From where do they get their endless flow of arms? With whom do you negotiate?

The recent brutal assault by Hamas against Israel has thrown all these questions into my head. Israel has declared war, but war against an organization. I think. Wars are generally declared between states. Between governments.

And all of this is happening when Ukraine (who is led by a Jew) is fighting for its sovereign survival in yet a different upheaval. So just where are we in world history? Are these conflicts ultimately interconnected? Is it all about oil money? What does this all mean?

Because I am something of a World War II buff, I guess my first serious introduction to antisemitism was Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews and the subsequent Holocaust in the 1940s. But even the Holocaust is really just a pinpoint on the million-year timeline of Jewish persecution.

So is the Holocaust why Israel was carved out of Palestine by the United Nations in 1947? One has to think that while the concept of a Jewish homeland was noble, perhaps in the end it wasn't so clearly thought through if the result is never-ending conflict. Is shortsightedness the reason why we are where we are right now?

All I know about the creation of Israel can be found in the movie "Exodus." I should be better than that. 

To me, the most sorrowful thing from all of this is the generational fighting between the combatants. It really does go back a million years, perhaps more. The conflicts serve to magnify human bias, human hatred, human capacity for brutality, continuing as they do from one generation to the next.

Where does it end?

How does it end?

When do we learn?