"Do you think that a coalition of the socialist party and the peace now activists can ever win enough votes to do something about those theiving settlers?"

"Ever" is a long time... I think it will happen one day, but I am afraid that the next elections, in only 11 days, are doomed. This is due to fear: many Israelis are upset by the rockets launched from Lebanon and Gaza and by the Iranian threat, so they are looking for a "strong" leader who will, supposedly, protect them.

What is needed is a strong leader from the Left/Centre, but right now it is hard to find someone who is both strong AND not corrupt.

The person who most fits this description right now is... Obama...

"What is really behind the latest settler expansion?Is it some real estate scam under the disguise of religion?"

It is a mystical belief, specifically promoted by the late Rabbi Kook, that claims that the formation of the state of Israel is not a coincidence, but rather a stage in divine-intervention, part in a series of events that would culminate in the coming of the Messiah, who would redeem the nation. According to this theory, the nation of Israel is perceived as God's bride, and it is her duty to open the door slightly for her groom: once Israel, the bride, opens a slit in the door for her groom, God would open it wide... and according to this doctrine, opening the slit is done by settling the ancient land of Israel.

I believe that the reason why Rabbi Kook has so many followers, is the dismay of religious youth at the growing secularization of the state of Israel, which has not turned out to be as religious as they wanted.

Yuyutsu, I had read some where there were about 6million Jews killed or expelled during WW11 and I had assumed these were from Germany, obviously given that there were only 500.000 (approx) Jews in Germany at the time (as you pointed out) the rest must have come from surrounding territories.

Reading some of the history it appears that the Germans and Jews have been territorial rivals going back over many centuries. This is one paragraph I read.

‘The main rivals of the Jews since the 13th century had usually been the Germans the dominant group in Polish towns. Disturbances against the Jews in the cities were usually of German Making. The motives were economic rather than religious.’

It seems to me that there is a prevailing mindset around the world that the war was over religious intolerance and I was trying to make the point that these genocides are usually about territorial control rather than religion.

It was also stated that before the war started Germany was in a bad way economically.

Sharkfin, we are really diverting from the original topic.

There is lots of literature about European-Jewish history.
I am not an expert, but from the little I know, it is ridiculous to claim that Jews were rivals of Germans since the 13th century... and over what? land?!

These are the middle-ages. Most of the land in Europe was inhabited by bears, wolves and other wild creatures and the little that was inhabited by humans was divided among feudal barons. The vast population were analphabetic serfs. What is now Germany was divided into many small tribes. The Jews were the exception, the thin middle-class layer, and particulary, the only bankers, the only group that was capable of international trade. They created those jobs because they were not allowed to have land and work in agriculture.

Now bankers are very much liked when you want to get a loan, but not when it is time to pay it back. Add to that religious differences and superstitions (on both sides), and you have an explosive mix.

Jews lived in cities and continued to be part of Germany's middle-class even to the 20th century. They never had, or wanted to have land there.

When I was small, I was still told horror stories about gypsies that storm out of nowhere in a fast carriage through the street, pick up children and train them to work in the circus, never to see their parents again. The intention was probably to make me beware of strangers and cars, but when similar tales spread and get a life of their own, then reach a twisted warped mind, exacerbated by an economic depression, then you can get the kind of madness that the world saw in Germany.

Yuyutsu, The war between the Arabs and the Jews at the present moment is over land. Show me an historical account of any war in history and after I have read it I will pinpoint the territorial reasons( resources, land etc) for that war. Vilification is always part of the lead up to these massacres.

For example the aim of the Catholics was always to install a catholic queen on the throne of England and so take control of the country and all it's resources for the catholics, and so they branded the protestants heretics, thus giving themselves a holy excuse to commit slaughter

As for the The Jews being bankers in Germany. Well the purpose of money is to buy food, shelter,medicines etc. things all mankind needs to survive. These goods are territorial resources grown, dug, harvested, leeched, from the land. If the Jews had a tight control on the money supply then they also had the ability to confer or deny prosperity to whomever they chose. That is very much a form of territorial power

Well, Sharkfin, you seem to know everything already, so why do you ask me?

To summarize your insights:
1. Jews were always in control of the world.
2. Jews always acted coherently as one entity to achieve this control.
3. Jews are the devil behind each and every bad thing that happens on this earth and beyond.

OK.

Never mind that most of the people in the 13th century never knew how money looks. They ate what they grew in the fields, or what was left of it after giving their feudal lord his due. Medicines, oh well, if one was to see a doctor, it was probably the last thing they ever saw. Shelter? was normally shared with animals. Money? it was used by lords and barons for some luxuries that could not be obtained locally, to hire armies to conquer their neighbours and slaves to build their castles. Jews were an exception - neither lords nor serfs and well, they could also read and write, a skill which even many among the clergy did not possess. Those awesome territorial powers were often kicked out at short notice, killed or maimed at the local baron's pleasure (but I guess their lives were still slightly better than the serfs).

Now, if you want the Jews to leave their homes in Israel, pick up their packs once again and move to the next place, until such time that they are kicked from there as well, or better still, until a "final solution" is found, then why can't you say so? what excuses do you need and why? take the example of the wolf in http://www.aestheticrealism.net/poetry/Wolf-Lamb-LaFontaine.htm