by Nadene Goldfoot
The truth about the land of Israel and the Middle East is something people need to know.
1000 BCE: Over 3,300 years ago Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people with Abraham and Sarah settling there.
1020 BCE: (Before the Common Era or BC to many) The kingdom was ruled first by Saul.
1004-965 BCE King David ruled.
965-930 BCE King Solomon ruled. When he died the kingdom was split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
70 ACE (After the Common Era) or AD (anno domini) and the Romans renamed the area Palestine as they caused the fall of Jerusalem. Jews that were not carried away as slaves or killed remained and called the area Eretz Israel, which we still do. THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JEWS HERE, THOUGH NOT MANY.
661 -750 AD Arabs "Abbasids", only to be replaced by the "Umayyad Caliphs" invaded Palestine 2,500 years after Jews had been in the land.
The land remained an empty wasteland belonging to nobody. The Arabs had arrived but wandered all over and did not create a state or nation.
969 AD The secessionist Fatimids of Egypt took control of Palestine from the Abbasids.
Continuation of fights between Fatimid, enemies and local Bedouins who wander.
1071 AD Seljuk Turks invaded Palestine, captured Jerusalem and march south to Egypt.
1096 AD Fatimids recaptured Jerusalem.
Crusaders came to Palestine which was divided between Fatimids and Selijuks. Jews aided Arabs.
Arabs later Arabized the country in ethnic and religious sense.
Jewish landowners were displaced by Arab settlers who took over Jewish holy places and excluded Jews entirely.
Demented Caliph Al-Hakim persecuted both Christians and Jews.
600 AD Palestine came under the rule of nomadic Arabs, but it wan't a country. They just let the land erode, and it was exposed to water erosion and destruction.
1517 AD Palestine was taken over by the Ottoman Empire. It remained practically uninhabited, a wasteland made of swamps and desert. Nobody did a thing with it. It was as if it was waiting for Jews to come back and build and create.
1800 AD Jews started returning to Eretz Israel and created Kibbutzes (kibbutseem) because of growning antii-semitism in France and Russia. They legitimately bought land, drained swamps and started settlements. They wanted their homeland back. They worked through several Zionist congresses to achieve this goal They conferred with Arab leaders.
1850's (about) nomadic Arabs came to get jobs from the Jews who were building and could use workers.
1894 AD: Alfred Dreyfus, a young French Jewish captain was accused of selling secret documents to Germany and he hadn't. Theodor Herzl, a newspaper reporter from Vienna, realized he was convicted because of anti-semitism. Herzl started the Zionist movement to earnest to return to Israel.
1700-1918 AD Turkey, which was the Ottoman Empire, had controlled the Middle East for hundred of years, lost it all in World War I. This gave England and France the mandate of caring for it after the war. Britain and Frace then created the new states of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The Balfour Declaration of England had created a large piece of land to become the Jewish homeland to fullfill a promise of a homeland for the Jews, but they renigged quickly. The promise was a reward to Chaim Weisman, whose invention of dynamite saved the European nations in the war against Germany. Jews were offered only half of the intended territory and they accepted it. They offered the other half to Arabs for a state for them and they rejected it. They felt perhaps that it belonged to the new state of Syria. Their goal was not statehood.
1918 AD Emir Faisal's father, Hussein had written and called upon the Arab population in Palestine to welcome the Jews as brothers and to cooperate with them for the common good. Much of the land that they bought was owned by Arab landowners who were living in Europe , and they bought it at high prices. Obtaining this land was all done legally.
1920 AD The French deposed Faisal from the Syrian throne.
1921 AD Faisal's brother, Emir Abdullah marched on Damascus.
Britain's Palestine Mandate separated 80% of the mandated land, east of the Jordan River and created Transjordan for King Abdullah.
1922 AD Britain transferred 2/3 of the mandated Palestine to these Hashemite Bedouins who had been driven out of Saudi Arabia by a rival clan. This became Jordan and no Jews are allowed to live inside it, even today. Yet Jordanians come across the bridge to work in Israel.
Today Jordan is made up mostly of people called Palestinians. 70% of Jordan's population is made of Arab Palestinians because of a bloody fight that they had. The king of Jordan is married to a Palestinian woman. Jordan, in reality, is Palestine. They have their state.
Israel Got the Leftovers and Jerusalem Back
1948 AD Israel had 3 slivers of disconnected land along the Mediterranean Sea and the Sinai desert and access to Jerusalem, which was like an island cut off from the slivers and it was surrounded by Arab land and under international control. 60% of our land was the Negev Desert. The original mandated Palestine that we got was only 10% of the original piece. But, we accepted this token from the UN as the State of Israel and we rejoiced!
We had lost Israel and Judea's land through a bloody massacre by the Romans. We regained the land 3,000 later through legal means. We even had the backing of the present-day King of Jordan's grandfather, Hussain! We regained enough land to create a reserve for the remnants of the worst Holocaust the world has ever seen. President Truman backed our statehood, going against his advisors, even though he was not actually fond of Jews. Whatever his reasons, the time was right. We have a land of Israel and we're not about to lose it.
Israel is a state of creativity. They have no oil but are looking for it. Because they are surrounded by enemies who have oil, Israelis have had to use their brains and have given wonderful things to the world. Their scientists have invented all sorts of medical supplies and have made important discoveries that they share with the world. All this has been happening despite some 60 odd years of being attacked and having to go to war. They invented ways of growing food where wasteland existed and have helped out other countries to do the same things. They have been good neighbors to the world, yet much of the world have not helped them in the slightest. I'll rejoice when others see their value in the world after so much anti-semitism and work toward supporting their right to live.
Resource: Notes from my speech about Israel.
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