July 4, 2006 was the 230th anniversary of the American independence. It was also unfortunately the 60th anniversary of the Kielce pogrom in Poland. Below is a brief description and analysis from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielce_pogrom:
Kielce pogrom refers to the events on July 4, 1946, in the Polish town of Kielce, when 39 Polish Jews were massacred and 82 wounded out of about 200 Holocaust survivors who returned home after World War II. Among victims were also two Gentile Poles. While far from the deadliest pogrom against the Jews, the pogrom was especially significant in post-war Jewish history, as the attack took place 14 months after the end of World War II, well after the Nazis were defeated and the extent of the Holocaust was well known to the world.
The brutality of the Kielce pogrom put an end to the hopes of many Jews that they would be able to resettle in Poland after the end of the Nazi regime. In the words of Bożena Szaynok, a historian at Wrocław University:
Until July 4, 1946, Polish Jews cited the past as their main reason for emigration...After the Kielce pogrom, the situation changed drastically. Both Jewish and Polish reports spoke of an atmosphere of panic among Jewish society in the summer of 1946. Jews no longer believed that they could be safe in Poland. Despite the large militia and army presence in the town of Kielce, Jews had been murdered there in cold blood, in public, and for a period of more than five hours. The news that the militia and the army had taken part in the pogrom spread as well. From July 1945 until June 1946, about fifty thousand Jews passed the Polish border illegally. In July 1946, almost twenty thousand decided to leave Poland. In August 1946 the number increased to thirty thousand. In September 1946, twelve thousand Jews left Poland.
The Kielce pogrom was the turning point for Polish Jews to emigrate to Palestine. It also sent a message to the other 500,000 Jewish displaced persons in Europe that they were not welcome back to their home countries. Truman's Secretary of State George Marshall was vehemently against the establishment of the State of Israel. The U.S. State Department was also against the Jewish state partly because of the political turmoil that they envisioned in the oil rich Arab world. Truman convinced the State Department to accept the establishment of Israel in part because a mass immigration of Jewish displaced persons into the U.S. and other democracies was not desireable. The result was a Jewish state in the most hostile part of the world. The location of the Jewish state in Palestine had more to do with biblical mythology than political reasoning.
I believe that Israel made a mistake in the early period of the Cold War. Israels's alliance with Britain and France in the 1956 Suez crisis put Israel forever in the camp of the anti-Soviet world. This later turned to a U.S. alliance as England and France gave up on colonialism. Unfortunately, the Soviets became an enemy of Israel and aligned themselves with the Arab countries. I believe that Israel should have been a neutral country like India during that period. As a consequence, since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel has by necessity been in lock-step with U.S. foreign policy. Their leaders have generally seen this as a no choice situation.
Today, the bulk of the world justifiably sees the U.S. in negative terms because of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attack. That is why I believe that the leaders of Israel made a mistake by invading Lebanon so quickly. Perhaps they were advised by the U.S. that it would not oppose this incursion. But, like the 1956 Suez crisis, the world in general is looking at Israel as having made a mistake. It is true that Israel is justified in its position that Hezbollah is a terrorist group. It is also justified in its own defense from border incursions from Hezbollah. But, it should be smart enough to know that sensible people have had enough of the killing in the Middle East. Just as Bush tried to shame the U.N. in 2002 for standing idle on Iraq disarmament, the politcal leaders of Israel should have chosen to go before the U.N. and shame them for its inaction over southern Lebanon control by Hezbollah. Two kidnapped Israeli soldiers may have been the straw that broke the proverbial camal's back, but it should not have been the imprimatur of the attack. Israel could have taken the high road by asking the U.N. to condemn Hezbollah. Unfortunately, their attack of Lebanon puts them again in the eyes of the world on the side of aggression.
It is time for Israel to mature into its next phase of growth as a country. The Holocaust is a 20th Century catastrophe that resulted in the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the worst possible place from the Jewish point of view. If the State of Israel wants to have a true and lasting peace, it is time for them to be smart enough to walk the tight-rope of diplomacy as frustrating as it may be. The 21st Century has been moving to sympathies of all exploited people of the world including the impoverished Arab population. Israel's 20th Century sympathisers are becoming a minority as Israel seeks an obsolete 20th Century military solution.