okay, as previously promised, here is an elaborate history lesson.
it is quite lengthy (as history lessons tend to be), and quite pointless (as I will explain in a moment). so please, unless you are a scholar of middle eastern history or severely uninformed (or misinformed) in the matter, feel absolutely free not to read it.
first, here is what the Bible tell us:
[spoiler]the first hebrew settelment in the contemporary land of israel (then known as canaan) was the family of Avram (later known as Avraham (Aberaham)). in the words of the Bible (all excerpts from the Bible are my translation from the original hebrew text, so don't throw a king james' Bible at me and claim misqoute) "And God said to Avram, go from your land, your place of birth, your father's home, to the land that i will show you". (intrestingly, Aberaham's land, place of birth, father's home, was contemporary Iraq. so by Avenger's reasoning Iraq belongs to the Jews...).
the land that God showed to Aberaham was canaan. specieficly, a place beetwen Be'er sheva and Hebron. Aberaham later purchesed a cave (
the cave of patriarchs) from Ephron the hittite to serve as burial grounds for him and he's family. for the cave he paid 400 silver Shekels (Shekel is an ancient measurment of weight).
Aberaham was very prosperous. his son Yitzhak (Isaac) inherited him, and Isaac's son Yaakov (Jacob), later Known as Israel, inherited him.
throughout these two generations their family and servents lived in canaan.
Jacob's second-youngest son, Yosef (Joseph), was sold to slavery by his elder brothers, and was then sold to a minister in the court of Pharoe. he became to be the Pharoe's right hand man.
a seven years' famine hit the middle east. only Egypt, under Joseph's management, has managed to store enough food. Joseph's 11 brothers came to egypt to buy supplies. they met Joseph, who convinced them to stay. those 12 brothers (including Joseph) were given the land of Goshen by the Pharoe. they flourished, and became noumerous.
this is all told in
Genesis.Centuries have pass in Egypt, and a new Pharoe ruled, who did not know of Joseph. he was worried the Israelites, now 12 tribes, named after the original 12 Brothers, would join his enemys in case of war. he therfore decided to enslave the israelites and later kill every male born. a women named Yochebed has secreted her son in a reed boat, and sent him on the nile, to avoid certain death. He was found by the Pharoe's daughter, who named him Moshe (Moses).
Moshe later came to lead the israelites in their rebellion against the Pharoe.
they were freed, and escaped through the desert to the land of their ancestors.
this is all told in
Exodus.after a 40 years travel in the desert, the israelites came to the land of Canaan. at this point, Moses died, on the top of mount Nevo, overlooking (but not entering), the promised land. he was succeded by Yhosua Ben-Nun, which was a military leader.
now, this is where it gets interesting, since from now on we have archeological and historical proofs of the following.
the land of canaan was inhbited by several tribes (the Bible lists the emories, the hittites, the edomies and several other). there were mostly nomadic tribes, and some
poleis (city-states), such as Jericho and Ay. there was no unified state and government.
the Israelites conquered the land by force. they then divided the land into 12 independent
provinces, each with it's own rule and government, unified by a common faith.
here is a
picture of the provincesthis is told in
leviticus,
numbers and
Deuteronomy.
the israelites requested God to appoint a King. he appointed Shaul, who was king of all israelites. this is the first evidence of a unified government in Canaan, rather than poleis or a patriarchal tribal rule.
Sahul was succeded by David. David's son, Shlomo (Solomon) built the
first temple, which was the focal point of Israely lives, during his reign.
the temple stood for 420 years, and was destroyed by
Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. the israelites were exiled to Babylon.
this is all told in
Kings.
during this exile, the israelites (mostly decendants of the Juda tribe, and hence, Jews) continuesly prayed and hoped to return to
Zion (which denotes both the entire land of Israel, and Jerusalem). this is the origin of the verse which appears in
Psalms "on the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and there we wept, remembering Zion" ("al neharot bavel, sham yashavnu gam bachinu, bezochrenu et Zion").
the
babilonian exile lasted for about fifty years. it ended when
Koresh (Cyrus), a persian emperor that came to rule the middle east, released the proclemation of Koresh, recorded on the
cyrus cilinder. this proclemation (which can be seen today at the
british museum in london) procalims freedom of faith to all in his empire, in their homelands. this included the exiled Jews in Babilon, who where allowed to return to Zion and re-erect the temple.
the proclamation of Koresh is cited in
Ezra, in
chronicles, and is the ending verse of the Jewish Canon.[/spoiler]
next, ancient historical texts:
[spoiler]the Jews returned to Zion and built the
second temple. it stood for about 500 years. in 68 AC, a Jewish rebellion broke out against the roman empire, which ruled the land, and named it
Iudaea Province. following the rebellion, the temple was destroyed by
Titus, a roman emperor. following later rebelions, the last of which was in 132, most of the Jewish people were exiled, and
the province was renamed syria palestina, to dissociate it with the Jewish people.
this is chronicled in the
dead sea scrolls, and in the writings of
Josephus[/spoiler]
next, followed an 1800 years long exile (during which only small communities of Jews lived in the land of Israel), which end is modern history.
[spoiler]throughout the dark ages the land of Israel, and mainly Jerusalem, was the scene of the crusade. the 1900's dawned on an
ottoman empire rule in the land of Israel, named
Ottoman sirya. this rule ended after the first world war, when britain and france were given a mandate over the levant by the
league of nations (the predeccessor of the UN), a mandate they divided amongst themselves in the
Sykes-pikot agreement. the mandate was to govern the land, until it can be governed by the people to whom it belongs. from the outset of the mandate, it was realised that the land would have to be divided beetwen the Jews and the arabs. several partitions were suggested, such as the
peel commission suggestion. finally, on the 29th november 1947, the UN voted and accepted the current suggestion, named "
the partition plan". a day after the vote, Arab riots begun, killing and woundin Jewish innocents. on may 14 1948, a day before the british mandate expired, the Jewish leaders announced the state of Israel, in the borders Voted upon by the UN. the Arab leaders did not accept the partition plan, and attacked the Jewish settelments. what insued is known as the
israely war of independence. at the end of the war, the state of israel reppeled the aggressors (which included expedition forces from Syria, Iraq Egypt, and the Hashmic kingdom of Jordan), and managed to secure further land. when truce was declared, the borders of Israel included the contemporary Borders of Israel, excluding the Golan heights, which was under syrian rule, the west bank, which was annexed to the hashmic kingdom of Jordan, and the Gaza strip, which was under Egypt military rule. no new arab state was declared.
i'll state it again: at the truce, both the Gaza strip and the west bank was under Arab rule. yet, no palestinian state was declared.
during the next 60 years there were two major wars (the 1967
six day war, and the 1973
yom kippur war), and three minor ones (the 1956
Kadesh campaign, the 1982
lebanon war, and the 2006
second lebanon war). during these wars Israel conquered the sinay peninsula (in the kadesh campaign, AND in the six days war), and returned it to egypt, annexed the Golan heights (in the yom kippur war), which is considered a strategic vantage point, and placed the Gaza strip and the west bank under martial law. Israel accepted the palestinian right to self definition, and enabled a palestinian autonomy, under the government of the
PLO. israel upholds a constant regime of military actions in those territories, following a large number of suicide bombings. these regime has proven to be the
only effective means of preventing terrorism in israel.
in 2005 Israel withdrew
all civil settelments and military forces from the Gaza strip. the Hammas was elected by Gaza citizens to govern Gaza.
today, Israel supplies Gaza with electricity, fuel, food, medication and other needs. in return, Israely cities are constantly bombarded.
Both the Hammas and PLO cite the destruction of the state of Israel as one of it's main goals.[/spoiler]
having said all that (and i do believe i deserve atleast a +3 addition to my post count following that post...) here is why i believe this lesson is pointless:
First of all, I, as an israely citizen, do not feel the need to justify the fact i live here.
if all modern nations (save, perhaps, for the UK, the far east, and scandinavia) Justify THEIR rights to live in their lands, i might reconsider.
Second: Israel as a state is a fact. there is NO legal instrument by which to disperse a member of the UN. the only means is war. and unless youre advocating that, you have to accept the state of israel.
now, what you DON'T have to accept, is some of Israels policies. I would like to hear your (well written, well argued and well based, preferably) thoughts on those. as i said, this is not a debate, it is a discussion. i am not out to prove a point, i am out to hear yours.
also, I, as a citizen of Israel, will not advocate the dispersing of Israel.
that is not to say i accept every Israely policie.
), with the exception of the UN being involved. i would suggest an independent and entirely new body be set-up...but that's not really the issue at this point in time.
