Did people live in the land of Israel (ancient Palestine) before the Jews? Of course. Neanderthals and various early human tribes lived there, but it would be tough to call that a civilization. Various tribes became more advanced, such as the Canaanites, but these were still polytheistic religions that were generally organized into city-states. These early tribes and their beliefs eventually evolved into Judaism, which would be the dominant monotheistic religion until Christianity broke away.
Enough with the religion. Bottom line: Israel was settled by the Jews, who formed the civilization, built the temples, etc. This fact, and not the Bible, is the strongest reason why the Jewish people should lay claim to the land, just as the Chinese and Japanese can lay claim to their land.
Besides the Jews, others have also controlled Israel, such as the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, etc. But the Jews were the originals, so the Arab claim to Israel is about as valid as the Italian (Roman) claim. The only difference is that they live closer by. So maybe its like the French wanting a piece of Germany.
So 60 years ago, Israel achieved its independence from the British and many Jews who were displaced by WWII and holocaust survivors found a new place to call home.
The root of the current turmoil is that the British and United Nations were very weak and unable to keep the peace, so skirmishes broke out that continue to this day.
Since 1948, Israel has survived countless bombings, wars, and international condemnation. Israel remains the only truly civilized country in the Middle East. The fact that Israel has stood the test of time by not only surviving, but prospering in spite of being surrounded by hostile forces gives a legitimacy to the country that is even more persuasive than a religious text.
As with any other country, Israel is not perfect. Its form of government, the parliament system, is conducive to a revolving door of leaders. Israel has alternated between left and right wing governments 8 times since 1948. It would be going overboard to say that the government is unstable, but the styles of leadership can vary greatly, such as a switch from a Benjamin Netanyahu (think Dick Cheney) to Ehud Barak (think Jimmy Carter). These changes can make it difficult to broker peace agreements. Of course, the other side is much, much worse when it comes to its leaders.
Israel is now the only true democracy in the region and an important ally of the United States. We know that Israel would likely stop any threat (like Iran) before it got out of control. They are the night watchman of the Middle East. However, these close ties between the US and Israel can be problematic. When Israel kills Arab civilians, some of the anger gets directed at the US. Likewise, when we invaded Iraq, some of the anger got sent to Israel.
Israel should continue on its own course. We must remember that it is a young country, much younger than the United States and that perfection is something that no country will ever achieve.
Happy birthday Israel.
2 comments:
Thank you for writing a good story about Israel.
Who has heard that in the 1930's Bagdad every 3rd citizen was a native Jew? The Sefardi (Safrati) Jews have a 400 year old history and the Mizrahi Jews over 2,500 year old history in the Middle East - outside the location of the state of Israel (Palestine).
Here's the statistics regarding not ONLY the expelsion of Jews from various Moslim countries in the last 60 years that Israel has been an independent state, but also numbers expelled from the Europe in a longer time interval. The Jews are no settlers of colonialism:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-Jews-statistics.htm
60 years of survival. This is statistics, not Zionism. When the military means have lacked the power, it is now a time of a media war to spit on the Jews and curse the Jewish Scriptures. Both the Old and New Testament were written by Jews. Although Jasser Arafat in his books claimed that there never was any Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and that Jesus was not a Jew, he could not deceive the honest spectator
As a matter of fact, the population of Arabs (my beloved friends and brothers, just like the Jews, our common fathers) under the Israeli government was increased ten-fold (10X) in only 57 years. This is close to the world record for any tribe, nation, tongue or culture on the whole planet at the same time interval. The Sefardi Jews were expelled from Spain in the very date when Christoffer Colombo lifted up his anchors and sailed away from Spain. The Jews had to leave and their possessions were stolen. In the case of the Mizrahi, the Jews have lived for millennia all around the Middle East since the first exile of Israel 500 B.C., in what are now Muslim-dominated countries. While much has been made of the 700,000 Palestinians having been made homeless with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, it's peculiar that there is no official recognition of their Jewish counterparts. A greater number of Jews - some 856,000 - were forcefully expelled from Arab countries after the creation of the State of Israel, their homes forfeited, their belongings seized. They became refugees, migrating to Israel, mainly. But they did not spoke any Hebrew but Arabic and Farsi (Persian).
The Second Intifada is called the Oslo War. Israel has been forced to damage the very infrastructure she has constructed and administrated while hunting the weapons from the milittant "freedom fighters". Between 1967-1993 roads, system of siewers (gutters, ditches), electricity supply, water supply, schools, health care system, and social welfare system to the West Bank and Gaza. Even for the Arab citizens of Israel, ideal was that everyody gets the same salary for the same job, with the same social benefits. This is stated in the law, officially. In contrast, even the official law in Jordan which has the peace treaty with Israel, it is forbidden for a Jew to live in the country. The health care services have been free for the Arab population, only a portion of the price of the drugs must have been paid by the patients. Under the administrations of Great Britain (1920-1947) or Jordan (1948-1967), no universities were established for the Arabs in the country. Also, an independent newspaper has appeared in Jerusalem since 1969, which has never been put under a censorship.
The Palestinian life expectancy increased from 48 to 72 years in 1967-1995. The death rate decreased by over 2/3 in 1970-1090 and the Israeli medical campaigns decreased the child deat rate from a level of 60 per 1000 in 1968 to 15 per 1000 in 2000. (An analogous figure was 64 in Iraq, 40 in Egypt, 23 in Jordan, and 22 in Syria in 2000). During 1967-1988 the amount of comprehensive schoold and second level polytechnic institutes for the Arabs was increased by 35%. During 1970-1986 the proportion of Palestinian women at the West Bank and Gaza not having gone to school decreased from 67 % to 32 %. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in West Bank and Gaza increased in 1968-1991 BKT from 165 US dollars to 1715 dollars (compare with 1630$ in Turkey, 1440$ in Tunis, 1050$ in Jordan, 800$ in Syria, 600$ in Egypt. and 400$ in Yemen).
One-fourth of the judgements of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations strike Israel. Out of the incidences dealt in the Security Counsil one-third is having to do with Israel. I think this resembles the hysteria seen in the Black Plague in Europe, when the European Jews were accused of the pandemia and burned alive. The phobic mob was really scared and saw the peculiar Jews as a threat.
Pauli.Ojala@gmail.com
Helsinki, Finland
PS. Statistics of the beneficial impact of Jewish population to the host country in terms of inventions, science and technology:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Indicator.html
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