The Jews

Belloc contends that in Europe and the United States, Jews and Christians are locked in a vicious circle. Jewish elites of great ability move into a particular country where they are welcomed and prosper; masses of Jews follow and friction develops; tensions rise and Jews are expelled, or undergo persecution, or worse; the guilty nation repents, Jewish elites return, and the cycle begins anew. Belloc believes the only way out of this is for both sides to admit their own weaknesses and become honest in their relationship. Belloc frankly evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the Jews, and pulls no punches-neither does he do so when evaluating the serious flaws of the Christian host which so greatly frustrate the Jew. Writing in 1922 (with a most interesting and ominous new preface he added in 1937), Belloc observes a contrast between the cosmopolitan Jew and his landed Christian host that was definitely more pronounced than today: in a limited sense at least, citizens of nations have become more "Jewish", as advances in technology and transportation engender global connectivity and sympathies and fuzzier national identity. Furthermore, whereas the old idea of property used to mean primarily real estate, today it has come to include ownership of tangible and practically intangible things whose origins might be anywhere on the planet.