My life for my group

The United States leaders knew that Jews were being slaughtered before World War II started. They didn't take decisive action to save them, because:

There was before World War II and there is now, a tendency to put people in groups: this group I care enough about to put my life on the line. That group I do not care enough about to save, because it will cost me a lot, maybe my life, certainly my time and effort and my resources. My family may suffer if I devote time to saving those who are not my family. We may even be in danger. There's a cost to all this.

I'm reading a novel about Charles Stuart, Charles II of England and Scotland. In the novel he lost the kingdom because the two groups supporting him, English and Scottish, could not or would not work together. The English cursed the Scots; the Scottish troops refused to continue further into England when they felt they were losing. Neither party would willingly put their lives on the line for the other.

A big part of why the United States delayed action on saving Jews was because they didn't have the whole-hearted support of the people who would be sending their sons to fight and die. Pearl Harbor gave us ironclad unifying impetus to go out and keep fighting until they all stopped fighting back, doggone it.

And even then the Europeans and many in the United States didn't want Jews to come live with them; go carve out a place for them in someone else's territory, someone who isn't powerful enough to stop us. That's one of the reasons why the nation of Israel is constantly fighting someone.

We could have welcomed a lot more Jews into the United States; we could have insisted European countries welcome them back. We could have settled them elsewhere. Our leaders chose Palestine, as a compromise, a place everyone could agree on except the people already living there.