Scenes from the Gaza Strip remain filled with misfortune. They feature crowds of unwashed, hungry children, mountains of rubble and ruins, blood-stained body bags, masses of displaced wandering people, unspeakable poverty and continuing, unending human suffering. The theater is called the Gaza War.
The War’s eruption, October 7, 2023, is but the latest in a long list of conflicts between Jews and Palestinians. Some originated decades before 1948 and the founding of the State of Israel. Space allows but a limited overview.
Hard-core issues separate Jews from Palestinians. They turn primarily upon rights for use and possession of a small, bleak, arid territory lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (site of present-day Israel). The area is comparable in size to the State of New Jersey.
