> Figure 1.--

Israeli history spans millennia from ancient biblical times through the establishment of the modern state of Israel (1948). It is marked by significant cultural, political, and religious developments. Israel has tribal origins. The actual origins are unclear. Much of the Bible is based on fact. but not the origins of the Jewish people. The history of Israel is better seen as a history of the Jewish people. The history of Israel begins with the biblical narrative, where the Jewish people, led by figures like Abraham, Moses, and King David, established their presence in the region then known as Canaan (around the 13th century BC. King Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem, marking a significant religious and cultural milestone. The kingdom of Israel split into two after Solomon's death: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The Assyrians conquered Israel (722 BC). The Assyrians conquered Israel leading the Los Tribes. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple (586 BC)E, leading to the Babylonian Captivity. Following the Roman conquest and the destruction of the Second Temple (70 AD )and led to the Diaspora throughout the Middle East and Europe. Christianity developed from the Jewish community in the Roman Empire. Jews faced a long period of persecution and anti-Semitism across various regions. This led to wide spread immigration to America in modern times (19th century). The largest numbers came from Russia where Tsarist officials promoted terrible pogroms to redirect public hostility from the Tsarist regime. The Ottoman Empire was more open to Jews than Christian Europe. The Ottomans added the Levant/Holy Lands to their Empire (1517). Because of anti-Semitism in Europe, Zionism developed in Europe (late-19h century). This was a movement advocating for the return of Jews to their ancestral homeland. More Jews however, emigrated to America than Palestine. The British government issued the Balfour Declaration, supporting the establishment of a 'Jewish homeland' (1917). This intensified the rising tensions between Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine. David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel (1948). The neighboring Arab states invaded. Israel emerged victorious, leading to the survival of the new Jewish state the displacement of many Palestinians and Jews.

Ancient Hebrews

Archeological evidence shows that many mostly small kingdoms rose and fell over time in the area between the two great centers of civilization, Mesopotamia and Egypt. While these peoples are mostly of only minor importance in the grand sweep of history. One of these people, however, the Hebrews have come to play a major role in the development of Western civilization. The origin of the very name is shrouded in the mist of pre-history. Scholars associate it with the word "Hiberu". It first appears in writing sent to Egypt from one of the small client states which the Egyptians left after withdrawing from Canaan in the 1300s BC. These client states faced waves of nomadic tribes. The Egyptian word "Hiberu" meant "outsider" and originally was probably used to describe migrants in general and not one specific people. The early Hebrews apparently were semi-nomadic headsmen who gradually began some limited farming They did not have metal tools or a written language. Like other nomads, the ancient Hebrews lived in tents and were organized in extended families combined into kinship groups. 【Smitha】 Biblical scholarship has developed extensive information on the Hebrew people who for a tome were captives in both Egypt and Babylonia.

The Jewish Diaspora

The Jewish Diaspora began with Assyrian conquest when Jew from Israel were exiled (8th century BC). These exiles are lost to history--The Lost Tribes of Israel. As a result, many histories of the Diaspora begin with the Babylonian conquest (6th century BC). Many Jews at the time came to saw their exile as a punishment for their sins and came to believe that they would be unable to return to their land unless God redeemed by sending a Messiah. Some of the Jews taken to Babylon survived and thanks to Cyrus the Great, eventually returned to Palestine. Another dispersal was conducted by the Romans. The Romans suppressed Jewish revolts and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem (1st century AD). The Romans slaughtered and enslaved the Jews. Survivors spread throughout the Roman world, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. This is today known as the Diaspora. Over time as the Jews moved into distant lands and memories of Palestine were lost, Jewish scholars came to redefine exile from a geographic sense to separation from God. The Diaspora which began with the Babylonian Captivity spread the Jews east. The Roman suppression of the Jews spread them west. The extraordinary aspect of the Diaspora is that it did not destroy the Jews as a people. They did not like so many other conquered peoples disappear from history. While dispersed, the Jews refused to abandon their faith and assimilate. Jews since the Diaspora have lived in separate, often small religious community living among Gentiles--for the most part, Christian and Islamic majorities. There are two great traditions of European Jews. The Ashkenazi (meaning German) are Eastern European Jews with traditions in some cases dating back to Roman times. The Sephardic (meaning Spanish) Jews are Western European Jews with roots to the more tolerant Umayyad Caliphate of southern Spain. Their intellectual tradition developed in an atmosphere of toleration of the People of the Book. This was the Sephardic Golden Age. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella after the completion of the Reconqujista with the fall of Granada expelled the Jews (1492). The Sephardi carried this tradition with them to the other areas of Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire which accepted them. 【Perera】 The various Jewish communities of the Diaspora interacted to varying degrees with the local culture. The Jews of the Diaspora developed remarkably diverse cultural lives as well as religious outlooks.

Christianity

Too often ignored or forgotten is that Christianity has a Jewish foundation. Christianity began as a a small Jewish sect--the Jesus Movement and thanks to the work led by St. Paul, this movement flowered into Christianity. Over half of the the Christian Bible consists of Jewish religious texts--the Old Testament. And the all important moral code of Christianity is based on the Jewish moral code--the Ten Commandments. While ritual and dietary codes may differ, the fundamental moral foundation of Christianity is unmistakably Jewish. And Christianity along with Classical thought are the two principal pillars of Western Civilization.

Western Civilization

It is not just that Marx was so wrong about economics and religion. It is impact of the Judaeo-Christian culture not Marxism that is in fact at at the heart of most of the central tenets of Western Civilization. The relation was not always obvious or direct. Western civilization is responsible for modern science, capitalism, democracy, protection of human rights, women's rights, the rule of law all emerged from Christian Europe and America. One of the great questions of history is why modernity did not emerge from China. For millennia, China not Europe was the richest most inventive society. So we are left with the question of why modernity and all the values we today hold so dear today emerged in Europe and not China. Central to answering that question is Christianity. Here Christianity was important not only for its ethical teachings, but because of St. Paul's fusion of classical thought with the Judaeo-Christian ethic, Christianity became the vessel through which the classical heritage was presented and passed on. Many of the critics of Christianity while castigating Christians as ignorant Bible thumbpers or making gratuitous statements like 'clinging to their Bibles and guns', are themselves blissfully ignorant of the role of Judaeo-Christian faiths in creating our modern world. A strong movement at major universities is to deemphasize Western civilization. In addition to these monumental achievements there are also a range of social benefits including strengthener the family structure. And it is the family that is at the center of so many vital social issues like education, law obedience, drug avoidance, marriage, child care, income, and much more.

Anti-Semitism

The Jewish people over time experienced periods of benign toleration followed by ruthless suppression. Anti Semitism became a prominent aspect of European life during the Medieval Era. Throughout the Medieval era Jews were the target of persecution by the Catholic Church. The history of the Jews and the extent of persecution has varied widely from country to country. Many states expelled the Jews entirely. The most famous such event was Spain's expulsion of the Jews (1492). Other countries also expelled the Jews, including England. There were a few islands of toleration, the most prominent being the Netherlands. Historically Islam was more tolerant to Jews and other Christian sects than the Catholic Church. In the late Medieval era, Jews in Poland and Russia were the target of horrific pogroms. Only in the 19th century did Jews begin to gain full civil rights in Western Europe. The most horrific explosion of anti-Semitism was the NAZI attempt to eradicate European Jewry during World War II. After the War anti-Semitism declined, a trend based on having witnessed what anti-Semitism can lead to. In more recent years, however, anti-Semitism has become a growth industry around the world, including Europe. In the Arab world fired by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, anti-Semitism has become a useful scapegoat for Arab leaders who have poorly managed their countries. 【Timmerman】

Zionism

Zionism is the Jewish national movement seeking the return of the Jewish people to their Biblical homeland. This involved both political and spiritual aims. Jews of all persuasions, left and right, religious and secular, orthodox and reform, joined the Zionist movement and worked for the creation of the homeland that was to become Israel. The term "Zionism" was coined in 1893 by Nathan Birnbaum. Only a small minority of European Jews supported Zionism. A much larger number turned to socialism as the route toward the creation of an egalitarian society. Western Jews were generally satisfied with the improvements in their condition and the progress toward emancipation. More resonance occurred among the huge, largely assimilated Jewish population in Tsarist Russia--the Pale of Settlement. Not all Zionists were wed to Palestine, but the emotional ties eventually made Palestine the focus of the movement. Small scale settlement began in the 1880s. This became more organized after te foundation of the World Zionist Organization. The British made an ambiguous commitment to a Jewish homeland with the World War I Balfour Declaration. The Russian Revolution and the development of the Stalinist state isolated the Russian Jewish community. Zionism was a fringe movement n Europe after World War I, but with the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs Jews began to turn to any way of leaving Germany. For most European Jews there were few opportunities to reach Palestine before being engulfed in the NAZI holocaust. After the War with the surviving Jews of Europe, Zionism was no longer a fringe movement. The British even after the War attempted to limit Jewish immigration. Rising communal conflict forced the British to withdraw. Israel declared its independence (1947) promoting an invasion by the neighboring Arab states. The first in a series of Middle-East wars.

The Holocaust

The most horrific explosion of anti-Semitism was the NAZI attempt to eradicate European Jewry during World War II. The most cataclysmic action against the Jews was of course the Holocaust during World War II. The Holocaust was a crime without presidence in modern history. The NAZIs targeted the Jews for death camps. Many were killed by SS Einsatzgruppen in large-scale actions at first in Poland and than on a larger scale in the Soviet Union. Others Jews were concentrated in Ghettos for slave labor and eventual dispatch to the death camps. Tragically it was not just the Germans involved, but in many countries the local population led by Fascist groups were all to willing to participate in the robbery and killing. Jewish children were among the first to be killed by the NAZIs. They had no economic value which could be exploited. They also were the seed for the future of the Jewish people. The NAZIs also saw them as a force for future retribution if they were not killed. The NAZIs are estimated to have murdered over a million Jewish children. One can not forget the images of the starving Jewish children on the Warsaw Ghetto whose parents had been killed. A great body of literature exists on the Holocaust including the experiences of the children.

Foundation of Israel

The decision for Israeli independence was taken by the Minhelet HaAm (מנהלת העם‎‎), the People's Administration (May 12, 1948) The Minhelet HaAm was essentially Israel's pre-independence parliament with representatives from the different political parties. Tel Aviv was a largely Jewish city and thus a safe place to for officials to meet and decide the independence question. This could not be done in Jerusalem because the city was surrounded by largely Arab areas and the Jews in the city were besieged. Three of the 13 members were missing, The Minhelet HaAm meeting convened 1:45 PM and went on until after midnight. The issue was whether to accept: 1) a proposal for a truce and a U.N. Trusteeship to replace the League Mandate or 2) declaring independence. The members voted on the second alternative. Six of the ten members in attendance voted for it. The British Mandate originally granted by the League of Nations over Palestine expired (May 14, 1948). The British High Commissioner for Palestine, Lt. Gen. Sir Alan Cunningham, and British military forces completed their withdraw by midnight. The Jewish People's Council, the leadership of the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, on the same day meeting at the Tel Aviv Museum approved a proclamation establishing the State of Israel. News of the announcement leaked out and people on the streets of Tel Aviv began singing Hatikvah in the streets before David Ben-Gurion even began reading the declaration.

Arab-Israeli Conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is often dated from the World War II era. Jews were a primary target of the NAZIs ans many Arabs, especially the Palestinians sided with the NAZIs. After the War, Jews understandably pushed for their own country. The issue came to ahead in 1947 when the United Nations voted to partition the British mandate of Palestine between its Jewish and Palestinian population. The background to the conflict, however, goes back many years before that. Here we are assessing the conflict beginning in the 19th century. Of course the conflict between Arabs and Jews predates the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We have compiled a chronological assessment of related developments both before and after the United Nations Partition. Oppression of Jews in both Europe and the Middle East led to the creation of the Zionist movement in the 19th century. There is a vast difference of opinion over this conflict. Of special importance is the emigration over time to Palestine. Of course the Romans did not succeed in expelling all Jews and some Jews lived in Palestine even before the foundation of the Zionist movement. Many people including supposedly well read journalists like Helen Thomas seem to think that Israelis have European origins. Many do, but even more have Middle Eastern origins. Over time, Jews have fled from persecution in Middle Eastern countries. Many were actually expelled. There is a great deal of basic historical fact available on the conflict.

Sources

Perera, Victor. The Cross and the Pear Tree.

Timmerman, Kenneth R. Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America (Crown Forum, 2003), 370p.

Created: 9:03 AM 1/19/2026
Last updated: 9:03 AM 1/19/2026