As the West reviews its unflinching support for Israel As the West reviews its unflinching support for Israel The writer is a former caretaker finance minister and served as vice-president at the World Bank I write this as it is not clear even to those who have given their unflinching support to the Jewish state of Israel, how and when the current bloody conflict that is waging between the Palestinians and Israelis is likely to end. There are a number of reasons why the Americans and most of their government have cheered on Israel in its ways. This was the case even when the right wing of Israeli politics under long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put greater than the usual pressure on the Arabs who were the citizens of Israel. While the most enthusiastic support for Israel came from the Democratic Party, it was the Republican Donald Trump who satisfied the long-standing Jewish demand that they should be allowed to shift the capital of their country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The city has Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. The square, protected by a high boundary wall, has two of the holiest sites for Islam — the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is from this spot that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is believed to have gone to Heaven for his communion with God. Even though the square was part of the Israeli controlled Jerusalem, there was tacit understanding that Jews would not enter the compound. This they did in early May to cut off the wires that connected a number of loudspeakers to the muezzin calling the faithful for prayers. The sound was cut off so that Jews could hear the prayers of the Rabbi delivered at the Holy Wall just below the mosque. This led to a violent response from the Palestinians living in the city that was once their own. They demonstrated in the streets of the city and threw rocks at the Jews who also came out. Hamas, the Palestinian organisation that controls the narrow Gaza Strip, fired rockets into Israel and the Jewish state responded by a full-scale armed assault on the strip. Planes were used to bomb the strip while projectiles were fired using powerful cannons. Scores of Palestinians lost their lives while their houses were destroyed.