I've thought quite a long time about whether or not to contribute here and I am not sure I can do so successfully, but I'll have a go.
I think the only real reasons why Jewish people have been subject to persecution over the centuries is not because of some intrinsic 'bad gene', but because they have shown over 3,000 years that they retain a distinct and cohesive genetic, cultural and religious distinction wherever they live. This isn't unique to the Jewish people, but maybe theirs is the most long-lived example. Modern equivalents are Moslem populations living in majority Buddhist communities such as Myanmar, in Hindu majority populations such as India, and in communist countries such as China. To my mind, the reason why such sub-groups suffer persecution is because their differences make them difficult to control politically and their claim to ascendency in terms of their intrinsic values make them a threat, or to seem like a threat, to the surrounding majority.
The same thing is happening in present day Israel between Moslem and Jewish people. Israel has the greater economic and military power and is backed by America, a superpower, so things are reversed compared with previous centuries, but it's the same sort of story, played out over the ages and amplified by the way that Palestine as a geographical area is claimed as both home and as holy ground by both sides.
I don't think it helps much to go back over the history of how the state of Israel came into existence. It's now getting on towards the better part of a century since its first foundations were laid and the Jewish folks who live there are second and third generation who have no other home elsewhere in the world. For the founders, their homes in many cases lay in Europe amid the ashes of the holocaust and the fear of that must lie heavily on their national psyche. While it's true that the state of Israel came about partly as a result of American and British political manoeuvring, the primary cause lies in European fascism which was born in Italy and then proceeded to flourish in the Germanic states.
These are all problems that lie in the inaccessible past and cannot be undone. If we look at the present, the situation in the Middle East is very complicated and cannot to my mind be simplified into only a judgement against Israel for what has happened in the last three years. Israel set up territories that gave Palestinians a fair measure of self control 20 odd years ago, so it certainly isn't true that they have been implacably in favour of destroying the Palestinian people, but the terrorist Hamas group came into power immediately in Gaza with a clearly stated, implacable aim of the destruction of the state of Israel. As far as I can see, if they had the power, they would attempt to do to Israel what people accuse Israel of doing to them - the events of 7 Oct 2023, aimed almost entirely at civilians, are a clear indication of this.
But maybe a lot of the problems in that part of the world could be calmed down if the hotheads on each side were to take a break and let things be, long enough for peace to take hold and good political solutions to evolve. Unfortunately this cannot happen, because Iran is using the Palestinian cause as a way of pursuing its own ambition for Middle East hegemony. Iran is as committed to the destruction of the state of Israel as Hamas, and with a far greater and more realistic threat. The leaders involved on the Palestinian side - both from Hamas and Iran - are as evil and as cynical as can be, in my opinion. They don't give a damn about the ordinary Palestinian folks living within Israel-controlled territory - they deliberately provoked Israel into the response they got, knowing it would lead to the deaths of countless thousands of their own people, which they use as a propaganda weapon against Israel.
This has inevitably pushed moderate politicians in Israel into the background and the country is now led by extremist Zionists and war-mongers. Politically it has been almost impossible for them to entertain the possibility of a settlement based on two states. Many people in the West think this is a good way forward, but a two state solution would have borders that are much harder to defend than present day Israel, and it seems very possible that a new full Palestinian state would retain the objective of the elimination of Israel - with continued and reinforced Iranian backing.
It's a disgrace that Israel seems to be reluctant to stamp out West Bank settlement by Israelis which seems to me to risk pushing West Bank Palestinians into extremism too. I don't understand why they allow what seem to be a minority of Israelis to continue doing this.
But in the end, the whole thing seems to me to be an awful tangled mess. For myself, I take the line of line whoever has not sinned should cast the first stone, because every Western and Middle Eastern society is party to how this mess has come about over the ages. Are Israelis to blame for where things have got to - Oh yes! But so is Hamas, so is Iran, so is Europe, so is America, so was the Roman Empire, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Ottoman Empire, the ancient Egyptians.
Are the Jewish people as an ethnic group in some sense to blame? Is it in their genes and their souls to be uniquely divisive and to be cruel when they hold some sort of power over others? I think every distinct people on Earth can be like this in given circumstances - it's a human trait, including one that the liberal West can exhibit all too easily. I don't think Jewish folks are unique in this regard, only in the cards dealt them by fate over the millennia.
