Creation of Israel

Despite the Jews have appeared in many historical contexts and period, it is ironic that they haven’t had a home country since the time of Judaea. They have also tended to be the center of numerous conflicts within the world, ranging from the persecution of the Jews in the First Crusade, to the Holocaust in Europe.

The Jews have been harshly beat down over the years and all over the world. It all began in the Kingdom of Judea. Since the Paleolithic Age, this area has been inhabited by various groups of people, most notably the Jews. They retained their kingdom until 560BC when their homes were conquered by the Babylonians, and dissimilated its people into different parts of Europe. Prior to this was the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt, resulting in a higher degree of separation and developments of the Jews (this was recorded and added into the Torah and Bible as the Book of Exodus). When the Roman Empire was established, it initiated the Jewish Diaspora, Hebrew for “exile,” around 7 BCE. The Diaspora was responsible for moving Jews away from the Judea region in the Roman Empire. This contributed even more to the spreading of the Jews into Europe, and also a new front: the Middle East. From this point on, they had been continually moved from location to location. Nations and people alike have dispersed them to other nations as their way of avoiding to deal with them. This Diaspora has continued for two thousand years, and it could be argued that it is continuing today. The most recent re-location of the Jews, however, was in the recreation of a Jewish nation, one which was deserved after years of separation from their homeland. This new nation was Israel.

The first ideas for an all Jew nation were proposed by Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism. Zionism is the concept that an individual nation for the Jews should be created. It also refers to the actual mass movement of the Jews into the (spoilers) eventually created nation. In the late 1800’s, the beginnings of this mass immigration into Palestine resulted in conflicts with the Arabs who had the majority of control over the area; it was the beginning of the tensions that would rack the Israelis and the Arabs for years to come. Theodor Herzl was responsible for encouraging this mass movement. On September 3, 1897, he called for a congress for Zionists in Basel, Switzerland, where ideas for an independent Israel and the making of the World Zionist Organization. Fast forward to a year before the end of World War I, 1917. Arthur Balfour, a British Foreign Secretary, established a mandate for a creation of an all Jewish nation in Palestine. This mandate was called the Balfour Declaration. Not only did this concept had widespread support of nations around the world, it gained immense popularity with the Jews themselves. Since their forceful removal from Judea, Jews worldwide had been wishing to return to the “Holy Land” of their ancestors. It was essentially a form of nationalism that fueled their well purposed desperation for their own nation. When the oppressive pogroms of Russia further discriminated the Jews, and Adolph Hitler’s insanity racked through the Jewish population in the form of the Holocaust, the nationalistic feeling of the rightful owners of the Holy Land increased rapidly. But of course, the Arabs had a huge problem with this: Palestine was their nation. They ked riots against the British until 1939, when the British parliament issued the White Paper, a document that said only 75,000 Jews could immigrate into Palestine for the next five years (ironically coinciding with the length of Hitler’s Final Solution).

The second World War ended in British victory. I assume that because Britain was too weak itself to handle any political problems with Palestine, it ceased the Balfour Declaration, and dropped all the weight of the problem onto the United Nations. On November 29th, 1947, in UN Resolution 181, it was agreed that Palestine would be partitioned. One side would become all Jew and the other would become all Arab. As one would think, the Arabs rejected it, and the Jews accepted. Arabs argued that it was their rightful land. But the same applied for the Jews. The Arabs claimed to be descendants of Abraham, who said that this land would be for his descendants. But the same applied for the Hews. The Arabs said it was important for their religion. But the same applied for the Jews. This monotonous, but serious conflict needed a final agreement. Nations like the United States were for the proposal, so it came to be. On May 14, 1948, Israel, the land for and of the Jewish people and Judaism was created, as was it was predicted in Bible prophecy.

Apparently, Israel was hated. Really hated. The day after it was created, it was attacked on all sides by its everlasting enemies: the Arabs. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq all combined forces and attacked Israel. Call it divine intervention, or just advance weaponry and a strategic location, Israel emerged victorious for the war in 1948. But it was not the end of conflict. To escape turmoil, many Jews and Arabs alike fled their countries. In the Rhodes Armistice of 1949, Arabian refugees settled along the West Bank, creating a crisis in that region still present today. More wars ensued in the region until present day.