ORIGIN OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. By Peter M. Friedman

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1 ORIGIN OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL By Peter M. Friedman Hebrews have resided and traveled in the Land of Israel since early Biblical times starting with Abraham as recorded history some 5763 years ago. If we draw a starting line at the Exodus, the current origin of the State of Israel will be easier to understand. The Hebrews left their slavery in Egypt about the time of Ramses II, approximately 1260 BCE. They wandered around the Sinai Desert for 40 years as the Bible states before entering the land of Canaan, called Palestine today. The following map depicts the wandering of the Hebrews in the Sinai. It clearly follows the description contained within the Book of Exodus as to the route they followed. Regardless of the political implications in the Book of Exodus, what history records is that the Hebrews were originally settled in the Palestine area, moved to Egypt to avoid the Great Famine (as did many others), and then left their enslaved condition some 300 years later arriving back in Palestine around 1260 BCE. They left and returned; it was as simple as that. The point is that Hebrews have resided in the Palestine area since recorded history of the area began. While they were always in the minority, they were always a part of the indigenous population of the area. 1

2 The next map shows the Palestine area during the period when Canaan was divided between the Twelve Tribes, around 1200 BCE, some sixty years after the Exodus. As can be seen, it appears that the Hebrews were in control of the area to a great extent. This period included the Great Kingdom period of the Hebrews which included the building of the Temple of Solomon and the reign of King David, approximately 1012 to 932 BCE. In 928 BCE the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were divided after the death of King David. In 726 BCE the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and assimilated it into the Assyrian Empire. In 586 BCE the Babylonians conquered Judah and destroyed the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem down to only one wall and the Temple foundation. (This is now what is called the Wailing Wall where Orthodox Jews come to pray.) Most of the Jewish community was forced into exile in Babylonia, now the country of Iraq. Between 549 and 330 BCE the Persians ruled the area until Alexander the Great conquered the Persians in 330 BCE. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, the area was divided between his generals until the Romans arrived in 167 BCE and put down the Maccabean revolt which is the subject of the celebration of Hanukah today. During the reign of Herod the Great, around 37 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem. However, the Romans invaded and conquered the area around 70 CE and they destroyed the Temple once again. Between 135 CE when the Bar Kochba revolt was put down by the Romans and roughly 637 CE the populations lived relatively peacefully in the Palestine area. In fact, the word 2

3 Palestine, or Felastina in Greek, was created by the Romans to remind the Jews who had revolted that the area was once controlled by the hated Philistines, an enemy of the Jews at the time of David and Goliath. In 638 CE the area was conquered by the Muslims from Arabia who continued to rule until the first Christian Crusaders arrived in 1096 CE. The Crusades continued until the last Crusade around 1185 directed by Pope Innocent III and led by Richard the Lion Heart, the son of King Henry II of England. The Arabian Muslims continued to rule the area unopposed until the Ottoman Turks took control around 1600CE. The following map shows the area ruled by the Ottomans just prior to World War I. The Ottoman Empire extended from the Persian Gulf to the east, to Aden in the south, to the Black Sea in the north, and Egypt and Libya to the west. (Notice that the majority of land extending from Aden in the south to Jerusalem and Damascus in the north is described as desert. This area included most of Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.) In 1867 the American writer Mark Twain visited Palestine. In 1869 he published an account of this visit in a book called, Innocents Abroad. He was shocked by what he saw and wrote: 3

4 Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it of being sorrowful and despondent. The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee sleep in the midst of a vast stretch of hill and plain wherein the eye rests upon n pleasant tint, o striking object, no soft picture dreaming in a purple haze or mottled with the shadows of the clouds. Every outline is harsh, every feature is distinct, there is no perspective distance works no enchantment here. It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land. After visiting Jerusalem, Twain remarked: He went on: There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem. The only difference between the roads and the surrounding country, perhaps, is that there are rather more rocks in the roads than in the surrounding country. [Jerusalem] was no larger than an American village of four thousand inhabitants. A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in an hour. I do not know how else to make one understand how small it is. The population of Jerusalem is composed of Muslims, Jews, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians, Greek Catholics, and a handful of Protestants. Rags, wretchedness, poverty, and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of Muslim rule more surely than the crescent flag itself, abound. Lepers, cripples, the blind, and the idiotic assail you on every hand, and they know but one word of but one language apparently the eternal baksheesh. To see the numbers of maimed, malformed, and diseased humanity that throng the holy places and obstruct the gates, one might suppose that the ancient days had come again. Jerusalem is mournful and dreary and lifeless. In 332 BCE, when Alexander the Great visited the same area, his comments were the same. Obviously nothing had improved in the intervening two thousand years. When World War I broke out the Ottomans sided with the Germans. The British made numerous promises to the Arabs in the area that they would assure them independence if they sided with the British and the Allies. The Arabs sided with the British, but the British broke their promises especially in view of the formation of the League of Nations after the War. Another factor involving the area was the Balfour Declaration. This was a statement by Lord David Balfour in 1917, on behalf of the British Government, that declared the British intention to establish a Jewish homeland within their Palestine Mandate, made a part of the Mandate of the League of Nations in As a result of the Ottoman s loss, the League of Nations divided the area up between Britain and France. The following map shows this division. It is interesting to note that the original area of mandated Palestine included the area of Transjordan, now called Jordan. Notice also that Transjordan was held exclusively for the Arabs and closed to Jewish settlement. In fact, the area remaining for Jewish settlement comprised only 17% 4

5 of the complete mandated area. Notice also that the area now called the Golan Heights was ceded to Syria in As a result of the mandate of the League of Nations in 1922, an agency was created to implement the migration of principally European Jews to the mandate area set aside. The agency created was started in New York City and was called The Jewish Agency. The Agency raised money and purchased plots of land in the mandate area, especially along the costal plain, from both the local owners and the Grand Mufti who resided in Cairo, with the support of Great Britain. One of the largest plots was the Negev Desert. 5

6 The Jewish Agency paid more than three times the actual value which delighted the Arab owners because the land was pure desert. There were only a few small fertile areas in the Negev Desert around which nomadic Bedouins lived in tents. Between 1922 and 1937 there were numerous violent clashes between the Jewish settlers, the Bedouins, and the serf farmers who had worked the land purchased by the Jewish Agency. Numerous plans for Arab population transfer were submitted to the League of Nations as well as the Arab leaders in Egypt, Arabia, and especially Iraq. In fact, Emir Feisal of Iraq offered to accept the Arab farmers, but not the Bedouins because they were too hostile. In 1937 Great Britain created the Peel Commission to travel to the Palestine mandate area to see what the situation was and how it might be remedied. The following map describes hat the Peel Commission thought might alleviate the hostilities: 6

7 You will notice that the area set aside for the Jewish population was reduced to less than 7% of what the original mandate area was in After the Peel Commission submitted their report, there was complete rejection by the Arabs, while the Jews accepted the plan because they felt it was the best they could get. Because of the Arab hostility, the Peel Commission plan was discarded. Another factor was that Great Britain did not want to irritate the Arabs because it was the eve of World War II and they didn t want the Arabs siding with the Germans the way they did in World War I. The Arab-Jewish population issue continued to fester through World War II until the formation of the United Nations in Finally, in 1947, the United Nations determined that the only way to resolve the issue was through Partition of the western area of Palestine. The following map depicts the Partition plan: Notice that Jerusalem was designated as a neutral International Zone. 7

8 On May 15, 1948 David Ben Gurion declared Israel to be a sovereign State. The United States under President Harry Truman immediately recognized Israel and recommended the United Nations to accept the State of Israel as a member State, which the UN shortly did in spite of the threats of the Arab nations who had voted against Partition. An interesting side note is that Russia voted for Partition in defense of Israel. However, it was not a friendly vote in that the European Communist Party had many Jewish members as leftovers from the Russian Revolution. Stalin assumed that when these Jews migrated to Israel they would further Communism, but it never happened. On May 16, 1948, the day following Israel s declaration of Statehood, the combined armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt attacked the Jews from all sides threatening complete annihilation. (The movie Exodus starring Paul Newman depicts very accurately the conflict that took place. It can be rented at Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and many other video rental stores.) However, things did not turn out as the Arabs planned. The following map illustrates the Arab invasion: 8

9 The ensuing conflict produced about 500,000 Arab refugees living in the Jewish territory, while nearly 750,000 Jews were displaced from the invading Arab countries finding their refuge in Israel. With virtually no protest from Palestinian Arabs or international observers, Arab countries occupied much of the land reserved for the Palestinian State. Finally, in early 1949, an armistice was concluded because the Arabs realized, with the prodding by the United Nations that Israel would continue to defeat them. As the following map illustrates, Israel s victory over the combined armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Jordan pushed their borders to the East and South increasing the territory controlled by Israel by some 50% over what the original Partition Plan had allotted. 9

10 Notice that Israel now controlled the western portion of Jerusalem. Jews were now permitted to visit Jerusalem, at least the western part, and at least view the only remaining wall of King Solomon s Temple. (It would not be until 1967 that all of Jerusalem was accessible to Jews.) Between 1949 and 1967 the borders of Israel remained constant. In June, 1967, Israel attacked Egypt after Nasser had made numerous threats. When Nasser finally threw out the UN Observers who had been in the Sinai since the conflict of 1956, and then closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, Israel assumed that Nasser would attack! Once the conflict began, the other Arab nations came to Egypt s aid and attacked Israel. Within six days Israel had completely destroyed the Egyptian Air Force, mostly on the ground, and had destroyed some 800 Egyptian tanks marshalling in the Sinai to attack Israel. Israel defeated the Egyptians in the Sinai and completely occupied it. On the seventh day of the conflict, when it was obvious that Israel was overwhelmingly victorious, the United Nations finally stepped in and demanded a truce! During the first six days the UN was absolutely silent on the matter. The following map describes the truce lines effective on June 13, 1967: 10

11 During these six days in June, 1967 Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Jordan ignored Israel s warning not to participate and began shelling West Jerusalem. As a result, Israel captured the West Bank and unified Jerusalem. Israel offered to negotiate peace, but the Arab nations refused and issued what is known the Khartoum Declaration : no peace with Israel; no recognition of Israel; and no negotiations with Israel. In September, 1967 the United Nations issued Resolution 242 that called for Israel to retreat to borders that would guarantee Israel s security in exchange for recognition of Israel and assurances that Israel would not be attacked again. The Arab nations refused this offer and the conflict continued until Egypt and Syria conducted a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, in One must also remember the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 by Yasser Arafat. During the 1973 conflict Israel s army advanced within 25 miles of Damascus and crossed the Sinai into Egypt. Israel s borders were not enlarged as a result of this conflict. Israel, in fact, returned the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt when Anwar Sadat concluded a peace agreement with Israel in The borders of Israel remain today as they were at the conclusion of the Six-day War in 1967 and have not been enlarged by any subsequent victories. While Israel exercises control over the Gaza Strip and West Bank, not attempts have been made by Israel to annex these territories. It is anticipated that future negotiations for peace will include granting control over these territories to Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 conflict. These Arabs currently reside in camps operated and/or funded by the United Nations. The following map illustrates these camps: 11

12 The population of the State of Israel is approximately 6 million. The total area of Israel is about the same size as the State of New Jersey, about 7800 square miles. This equates to a population density of some 770 people per square mile. Israel s topography includes the fertile Mediterranean coastal plain, a triangular-shaped desert region known as the Negev, which extends from Beersheba in the North down to the Gulf of Aqaba in the South. The Eastern border drops into the Jordan Valley which includes the Dead Sea and Lake Tiberias, more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee. The Dead Sea is 1312 feet below sea level and is the lowest point on the Earth s surface. The capital of Israel is Jerusalem. Jerusalem has a population of some 600,000. The government of Israel is a Parliamentary democracy very similar to Great Britain. While Israel has a President who is the Head of State, the actual head of government is the Prime Minister. The economy of Israel includes diamond cutting, textiles, electronics, machinery, food processing, and aviation-related industries. In fact, Israel Aircraft Industries not only manufactures a complete line of military and commercial aircraft for worldwide sale, it also takes other countries hardware, including France and the United States, and modifies them to make them better. Two classic examples of this are the KFIR fighter, a French fighter modified with a US engine, and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The chief crops of Israel include citrus fruits and vegetables. Israel is rich in minerals to include potash, copper, phosphates, manganese and sulphur. The currency of Israel includes the shekel, equal to the US dollar. Out of a gross national product of some $60 billion US dollars, tourism now only accounts for about 2%. Israel s transport system includes a railway system, and there are more than 1 million passenger cars and 200,000 commercial vehicles. Israel maintains five commercial airports, the largest being Tel Aviv, and three main shipping ports, Haifa, Eilat, and Ashdod. Israel has a population increase of only 1.5% per year. The infant mortality rate however, is less than 9 in 1000 live births, a rate much lower than most European countries and a tribute to the medical expertise and care to be found in Israel. Education is important in Israel and there is compulsory schooling much the way it is in the US. The literacy rate for Jews is more than 90%, and the rate for the Arab community is now over 70%. SOURCE: The World Almanac and Book of Facts,

13 BIBLIOGRAPHY Internet: http// Books: Bard, Mitchell G., Myths and Facts, A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, Chevy Chase, MD, Durant, Will, The Age of Faith, Simon and Schuster, NY, Friedman, Elisha M., Survival or Extinction, Thomas Seltzer, NY, Lapping, Brian, End of Empire, St. Martin s Press, NY, Spencer, Robert, Islam Unveiled, Encounter Books, San Francisco, Stein, Kenneth W., The Land Question in Palestine, , Univeristy of North Carolina, Twain, Mark, The Innocents Abroad, New American Library, NY, Wells, H.G., The Outline of History, Doubleday & Company, NY