(Page 3 of 3)  Riddle Of The Sands  The History Of The Middle
East, In 5 Very Difficult Lessons  August 20, 1990|By Ron
Grossman.  In turn, Lowther and FitzMaurice`s report set British
ruling circles thinking of the Jews as a powerful, if sub rosa,
political force, an image magnified over the years. Afterward,
the Jews were alternately pictured as behind-the-scenes movers
and shakers in Germany, banker-manipulators of the czars of
Russia, etc. In fact, most of the world`s Jews then were either
dodging pogroms in Eastern Europe or were penniless newcomers in
America`s immigrant neighborhoods.  Still, British diplomatic
circles were fixated on the thought that the Jews were a people
they`d surely want on England`s side in any push-comes-to- shove
situation. So during World War I, Lord Balfour put his
government squarely behind the Zionism that would later achieve
a Jewish state in Palestine.  The consequences of this piece of
diplomacy-which to Arab eyes seemed to place England, and
afterwards the other Western