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History
Israel is regarded as a National Home for the world's Jews.
Jews
The Jews are a people who emerged from the Middle East as a distinctive
cultural and religious group. Their origins appear to have been
as a wandering Beduin Arab group (Ancestor: Abraham), confirmed
by genetic research on modern Sephardic Jews. Their experiences
in Egypt (perhaps
in the time of the monotheist revolution of Akhenaten) may have
given them a distinct religion of monotheism. Their early history
may be described in the books of Genesis and Exodus; their later
in Judges, Chronicles and Kings. Their religion and culture have
been interpreted as a synthesis of the traditions of the Babylonians
or Chaldeans (Abraham) and the Egyptians (Moses). Abraham is
described as having come from the Sumerian city of Ur, now in
southern Iraq. While led by Abraham they wandered as Beduin in
part of what is now Palestine, though
sharing it with other peoples. (Arab traditions suggest Abraham's
people roamed also over the area of the western parts of modern
Saudi Arabia, including Makkah. As the world of those times had
a tiny fraction of the modern population this could also be true).
The Arabs also regard themselves as being descended from Abraham
through Ismail the son of Abraham's slave Hagar.
After a period in Egypt, possibly as slaves of the post Akhnaten
regime, the Sons of Abraham left again for Palestine, by then
a much larger people, perhaps including a mixed group of revolting
slaves escaping from the Pharaoh. (It has been suggested they
were led by the dissident priests of the Akhnaten monotheist
faction.) They became known as the Habiru (?wanderers). This
is commemorated in the ceremonies of the Jewish Passover and
described in the book of Exodus. In Palestine they formed the
two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. However, even in the time of
David and Solomon, the kings of a large united kingdom, many
other peoples lived in the same area: theirs was not a modern
homogeneous nation state.
The area was for periods part of the Egyptian Empire and later
the people were conquered at different times by their neighbors:
the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks. Until
the time of the Roman Empire they lived mainly in Palestine but
there were also large communities in other places, especially
Babylon (modern Iraq) and Egypt, following deportations of Jews
by their non-Jewish rulers. They spread throughout the Roman
Empire as traders, much as several modern peoples do today.
Their main religious center was the Temple at Jerusalem. From
70 AD their rulers were dispersed by the Romans throughout the
Roman Empire and Middle East (the Diaspora) and the Temple destroyed,
bringing to an end the Temple ceremonies and beginning modern
Judaism, based on the Synagogues rather than the Temple. It is
believed however that many of the peasants probably remained
in Palestine, later to be converted to Christianity and Islam.
Another center of similar practice was located in southern
Egypt at the temple on the island of Elephantine. From here a
form of Judaism extended into Ethiopia.
Are the Jews a nation or a religion?
Jews always resemble the non-Jews around them. This suggests
that they are a religious or cultural group rather than a genetic
community and that there has always been a good deal of intermarriage
with non-Jews. (That is, the idea of a Jewish race is unfounded).
The religion has also spread by conversion of other peoples.
The most notable of these conversions was a Turkish tribe,
the Khazars, which converted to Judaism in 740 and built an important
state in the area of the Black Sea and Caucasus. However, it
is possible that only the ruling group around the kings actually
converted. Their descendants are believed to be some of the Jews
of eastern Europe and Russia and joined with the Ashkenazim
whose traditional language has become a Creole of German and
Hebrew known as Yiddish (Jewish).
(It must be said that although the evidence for the Khazars
is good, there are dissenters to this view. Extensive controversy
on the topic can be found on the internet for example)
In the early Christian era there were Jewish kingdoms in Arabia
and Ethiopia. One of the first acts of the early Muslims was
to massacre a community of Jews living in Madinah, the oasis
to which Mohammed and his followers fled when he was expelled
from Makkah. Their language was probably Arabic. (But Islam shows
the influence of Jewish culture in several important ways and
Jews have usually lived peacefully in Muslim countries, such
as Spain and Morocco).
The other main stream of Jews derives from those of the Mediterranean
and especially of Spain during the pre-Conquest period when they
co-existed with Muslims. They are the Sephardim (Hebrew
for Spaniards) and are almost certainly the descendants of the
Jews expelled from their original homeland by the Romans. Their
traditional language was a version of Spanish known as Ladino.
They were expelled from Spain in an early version of ethnic cleansing (1502). Both Yiddish and
Ladino are still spoken in Israel and are written with the Hebrew
alphabet.
The ritual language of the Torah, Hebrew, was continued and
used for scholarly purposes, even though in the Roman period
Jews actually spoke Aramaic. Hebrew has been revived as the official
and domestic language of Israel. Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic have
a common origin.
Other groups lived in Ethiopia, the Yemen and other Arab countries.
The Falasha of Ethiopia have been brought to Israel and
have customs which show they split off in Solomonic times, before
the abolition of animal sacrifice. Some anthropologists believe
there are people whose origin was Jewish as far south as the
Lemba in Southern Africa (Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe)
who claim to have migrated from the Yemen before Islam began
and have some Jewish customs. Some other African peoples as far
apart as the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Luhya of Kenya claim as
their origin the Jews of the Middle East. The Muslim Pashtuns
of Afghanistan also claim plausibly
to be the Beni Israel, descendants of those Jews who were carried
off by the Babylonians.
Persecution
The Jews have a long history of being persecuted by non-Jews,
dating back in Europe at least as far as the Crusades. One of
the first acts of the crusaders on their way east to reconquer
Palestine was to massacre Jews they found on the way through
Europe. The Jews living in western Europe represented the civilized
east in a very undeveloped country. They were used as bankers
(Christians were not supposed to lend money at interest; Jews
were not allowed to own land). The various kings felt no inhibition
to taking money from the Jews when they needed it, nor reluctance
to expel them when they wanted to. Casual lynchings and massacres
were common. Jews in England were expelled in 1290 and were only
officially allowed back in the time of Oliver Cromwell in 1650.
In eastern Europe Jews were compelled to live in certain quarters
of towns: the Judengasse or Ghetto (after the Borghetto in Venice).
All this can be called anti-semitism.
Zionism
In the late 19th century Jews in Russia and Poland were being
persecuted and killed during government supported Pogroms (massacres).
Many of them fled to western Europe and the United States. Theodore
Herzl (1860-1904) proposed a Jewish state in 1896. He founded
the World Zionist
Organization in 1897. The British government offered him land
in what was then called Uganda - the highlands of Kenya - in 1903 but he rejected it. Herzl
formulated the idea that Jews had better find a national home
like all other nations - first asserting that Jews were a Nation.
(He lived at a time when various linguistic
groups in Europe, especially those in the Hapsburg Empire, were
experiencing nationalist movements. Probably he was influenced by these.
The outcome of many of these new "nations" such as
those in Yugoslavia and the Balkans has not been
happy.) He proposed that they should return to their "original
home" from which they had been dispersed by Titus during
the reign of the Emperor Vespasian (70 CE).
Some Jews began to move to Palestine, then administered by
the Ottoman Empire as part of the province of Syria (Esh Sham),
and bought land mostly from the absentee landlords who had acquired
title to it from the Ottomans. The actual occupiers of the land
were often evicted. (The Arab population was much smaller then
than now).
The British foreign minister A.J.Balfour announced during
the first world war that the British government favored the creation
of "a national home for the Jews" in Palestine. He
did not define the meaning of "home" but the intention
seems to have been to set up a British dominion or colony over
the whole Arab area of the Ottoman Empire so that the Jewish
area would then have been a corner of the Empire. The text was
approved by the other allies. It required the interests of the
existing inhabitants to be safeguarded. The purpose of the Declaration
seems to have been to attract the help of American and other
Jews in the war against Germany but also to weaken the Ottoman
Turks who were allied with Germany. British troops fighting the
Ottomans during the first world war occupied the land and captured
Jerusalem after advancing from Egypt.
When the British were awarded the land by the League of Nations
as a Mandate more Jews moved there and formed co-operative settlements
(Kibbutzim). As their numbers increased the Arabs began to be
concerned that their land was coming into the hands of immigrants.
The Common Land was declared State Land by the British and then
sold to Jews who built settlements on it.
The first British governor of Jerusalem, Sir Richard Storrs,
wrote of British support for Zionism that Palestine would be
for "for England a 'little loyal Jewish Ulster' in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism."
(quoted by Tom Paulin in the London Guardian 8 Jan 2003.)
Fighting between Arabs and Jews began during the 1930s when
the country was still under British rule.
Holocaust
In Europe the large Jewish communities were threatened by the
Nazis in Germany. After Hitler's armies had conquered most of
western and eastern Europe he held a meeting at Wannsee near
Berlin on 20 January 1942 at which the decision was made to kill
all the Jews in the parts of Europe the Germans controlled. The
result was the death of about 6 million of the Jews of Germany,
Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, France,
Netherlands, Greece and other countries. Some survivors made
their way to British controlled Palestine. A few who had foreseen
Hitler's intentions (stated in his autobiography Mein Kampf)
had reached Palestine before the war began. Others had fled to
Britain and America, but immigration rules deterred many who
wished to move.
Holocaust deniers
These events are as well established in history as any event,
backed by tonnes of evidence in the form of Nazi internal memos,
railway timetables, films and personal testimonies both from
those who escaped the extermination camps (few) and those who
worked in them. The so-called Revisionist historians who deny
they happened are all of them Nazi apologists, and overt or covert
Nazis themselves with an attitude of antisemitism. In December 2005 the extremist
President of Iran repeated
these denials.
It seems likely that this event will continue to be as important
in Jewish history as the Egyptian Captivity, Exodus and other
events described in the Torah (Old Testament).
The Jewish settlers in Palestine formed defense organizations
which fought against both the Arabs and the British. After the
second world war finished the fighting intensified, especially
as the British tried to prevent the arrival of Jews from Europe
who had been released from the Nazi camps. Some of these had
fought the Nazis. (See Eva Figes and her suggestion that many
of these may not have wished to go to Palestine - as it then
was.)
Israel
The State of Israel was declared in 1948 on the territory of
Falestin/Palestine after withdrawal of the British from the Palestine
Mandate. The British withdrew on the grounds that they could
no longer maintain the peace and asked the United Nations to
make new arrangements.
The UN ordered the land to be divided between Jews and Arabs.
Israel then occupied the part awarded to Jews in the Palestine
Partition plan; then in the 1948 war occupied some of the Arab
area after being attacked by Egypt, Jordan and Syria. In 1967
Israel occupied the West Bank - the whole of the UN designated
Arab area - and Sinai and the Gaza strip from Egypt as well as
the Golan Heights of Syria. Later withdrawal from Sinai left
Israel in occupation of the area to the west of Jordan (the West
Bank), the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Israel also controlled
through proxies and military occupation part of southern Lebanon.
Israel was admitted to the United Nations in 1948 with the
support of all the permanent members of the Security Council.
However, for the duration of the Cold War the Soviet Union supported
the Arab states and broke off diplomatic relations with Israel.
A UN resolution 242 ordered Israel to withdraw from the occupied
territories of the West Bank of Jordan, Gaza Strip and Golan
Heights but Israel, believing itself to be backed by the United
States, has refused to comply and the Security Council has never
ordered measures to make Israel comply (which weakens UN prestige
in the Arab world).
Israel has been opposed by all the Arab states but since the
Camp David agreement in 1979 has had diplomatic relations with
Egypt after returning the occupied Sinai peninsula to Egypt.
According to the Israeli constitution (the Law of Return)
every Jew in the world is automatically entitled to be a citizen.
If they all came there would be serious problems of overcrowding
and unemployment, not to mention increased Arab hostility. Recently
many came from the former Soviet Union. (Who is a Jew? then becomes
an important question as some of them may have been ordinary
Russians escaping from a collapsing system. Some of these may
already be returning to Russia.)
The situation of Israel, like all the Middle East, is uncertain.
America and other western powers have a strong interest in preventing
Arab hostility so that they can continue to receive oil. A well-organized
Jewish voting block (as well as certain Eschatological Christians)
in the United States persuades politicians to vote aid for Israel.
Without this aid the Israelis would have to negotiate a solution
with the Arabs. During 1992 the US government under President
Bush the Elder appeared to be resisting this political pressure
and trying to stem the flow of money to Israel. But Clinton may
have had more electoral support from the Zionist organizations.
The attitude of Bush the younger is not clear (though he has
supported everything done by the Israeli government, possibly
from a religious point of view - that of the Apocalyptic Protestants
in the US, who expect Israel to be the forerunner of the Second
Coming).
Isolation and a continuous state of war or preparation for
war has produced a psychological condition in which Israelis
are coming to see Arabs as inferiors. A significant, small but
increasing, minority wishes to expel all Arabs from the land
now controlled by Israel and expresses its views in terms similar
to those used by whites in South Africa and by extreme anti-Jewish
groups in Europe, thus proving that Jews are not immune from
politico-psychological diseases. Some wish to claim exclusive
control of the area said to have been ruled by King David (but
within his borders he ruled over many other peoples besides Jews).
Some Orthodox and Hasidic Jews living in Jerusalem and other
parts of the world do not recognize the state of Israel as they
claim that only the Messiah has the right to proclaim a Jewish
kingdom. Not all Jews living outside of Israel are Zionists.
There are some Arab citizens - those who had been living in
the territory before 1948 and did not become refugees. These
are Christians and Muslims.
Israel was attacked by Iraqi missiles during the 1991 Gulf
war. In the period following Israel continued to resist peace
talks, although the American government expressed public irritation
with this attitude (but there seems to have been no pause in
military assistance). The Israeli policy seemed to be to avoid
talks and rely instead on their military power which in the past
has always been superior to the Arabs'. Israel has an unknown
number of nuclear weapons, some may have been made in South Africa.
Future
What is the long-term prospect for Israel? The uncommitted historian
has to observe that Israel has much in common with the medieval
Crusader states which occupied Palestine. These were surrounded
by a hostile people and gained their main support from the west
through constant military reinforcement by new settlers from
western Europe. But they were all defeated in the end mainly
because the flow of reinforcements dried up, and also because
the Muslims united under strong leaders, the most famous of whom
was Salah ud Din (Saladin). The Crusader states lasted nearly
200 years. The Jews would argue that they are not safe anywhere
else, given their long history of being persecuted by Christians
and Muslims (though Jews have usually not been disturbed by Muslims).
In today's crowded world they argue that the danger remains,
especially in Russia and eastern Europe where anti-Jewish fascist
parties are organizing again. Israelis also argue that Israel
is their own home, promised them by God as recorded in the Hebrew
Bible (Torah). This is an uncomfortable argument as most of the
world's people are descendants of ancestors who have come from
somewhere else. At present Israel's legitimacy rests, like other
states, on the recognition by the world community as expressed
through the United Nations.
(However, we should note that the UN
of 1948 was very different from now. It consisted overwhelmingly
of the colonial powers. The present Arab states were either not
represented or only by regimes controlled by the British and
French. A large number of the present membership were still colonies
of Britain or France. The Cold War had not quite begun. It seems
unlikely that a modern, more representative UN would vote for
the 1948 settlement.)
A Peace Conference sponsored by the United States and the
Soviet Union opened in Madrid in October 1991. Few observers
expected there to be much progress. However, an agreement was
signed with the PLO. Will it have a peaceful result? In February
1994 the process was impeded by a massacre by a Jewish extremist
(whose views resembled those of fascists: racist, unhuman, nationalist)
in the mosque at Hebron, the traditional burial place of Abraham,
sacred to Muslims and Jews alike. Nevertheless a Palestinian
political entity was created in Gaza and Jericho. In July 1994
a peace agreement was signed with Jordan.
For most of its life Israel has been dependent on the support
of the United States. This support seemed to be reducing during
the former Bush period. Could Israel survive without it? Some
have suggested that Jews in the United States were less wholehearted
in their support of Israel and the recent Likud government than
in the past. There are still far more Jews outside Israel than
in it. Unless a new mass anti-Jewish movement arises these are
unlikely to attempt to move to Israel. There are also Israeli
citizens leaving Israel.
Middle East Community
Before and during the first world war the British had plans for
a united Middle East as a British dominion. Could this be recreated as a
religiously neutral political organization covering both the
Arab and Jewish states? It seems visionary even to imagine it
but it might provide the only permanent security for the Jews
of Israel, as well as the solution to the fragmentation of the
area into powerless Arab states. In addition it would give Israel
access to the oil and to the Arabs the powerful scientific and
technological expertise of the Israelis. So much mutual hatred
has been generated since the 1930s that it is difficult to imagine.
But several other systems of hatred have been defused in the
last few years. The quasi-Fascist regimes in Iraq, Iran
and Syria would have
to fall first. Although the Saddam Hussain regime has fallen,
what has replaced it is not encouraging. Perhaps it would be
helpful to recall that during the biblical period (smaller population)
the Jewish states shared the land with other peoples and therefore
could do so again.
If the land had really been empty, Israel would seem to be
an admirable state with high level of inventiveness and the renewal
of an ancient culture and a democratic political system.
In some respects Israel is similar to the settlement colonies
of European powers in Africa: Algeria, Rhodesia and South Africa.
These may represent the three possible outcomes of the Israel
experiment.
War
By April 2002 the war with the Palestinians was escalating day
by day and threatening to involve the whole Middle East. The
election in 2005 by the Palestinians of a Hamas majority in parliament
makes uncertain what the Palestinians will do, as this group
refuses to recognise the right of Israel to exist, but they probably
represent the real opinion of the voters.
In June 2006 large scale fighting broke out in Gaza after
Hamas (=Zeal) fighters had kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
In July 2006 Hezbullah in Lebanon
captured two soldiers, possibly hoping to bargain them for a
prisoner exchange. Israel then attacked Lebanon on a large scale,
opening up a new war, claiming to have the intention of disarming
Hezbullah (=party of god, sponsored by Iran).
In December 2008 Israeli forces bombed Gaza from the air, followed by a ground attack. Was this urged by the Bush presidency in its last few weeks? The fighting was called off two days before the inauguration of President Obama.
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