The History of Modern Israel the Impact of Neighbor Countries that Surround Israel - Assignment Example

The History of Modern Israel the impact of neighbor countries that surround Israel . Introduction The story begins several millennia ago with the call of Abraham into the Promised land and the promise that his seed would become a great nation, as set out in the Jewish scriptures, ( Bible, Genesis 15, a promise which was fulfilled. Israel of course met with many problems along the way between the time of Abraham and the present day. The Bible views history in the main as being the history of the Jewish people, at least until the years immediately before the time now referred to as the Common Era. This ancient history, as far as being the people in the land of Israel is concerned , culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. For almost two thousand years the Jews had no homeland. They found themselves dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and later into the Americas and even Australasia. Despite this, statistics from 2008 describe how among the more than 7 million people who make up the population of modern Israel there were 68% who were sabras, that is Israeli born Jews. This essay will consider how this massive change in the situation since the founding of modern Israel in 1948 has taken place ( CIA World Book, Israel, 2013) as well as the various boundary and power disputes which have taken place. . There are also some 300,000 people living within the borders of Israel who are mainly from the former Soviet Union. They are Jewish by their ancestry, yet are not considered to be Jews as defined by Jewish law ( CIA World Book, Israel, 2013). According to the Jewish Virtual Library ( 2013) 42 % of modern day Jews now live in Israel. In 1882 the percentage was only 0.3%, and in 1948, when the modern state of Israel came into being, the proportion was still only 5.7%. The story of modern Israel is concerned with how that tiny remnant grew to include almost half of modern day Jewry and the events that occurred along the way. Thesis The history of modern Israel is one of changing and disputed borders How did modern day Israel come into being? ( T.Elder 2011) ( Bard, 2013) The physical land we now call Israel has actually been under Jewish rule for only a small proportion of time since the days of the Hebrew conquest under the leadership of Joshua as recorded in the Jewish scriptures.. In the early 16th century the land came under the rule of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, an empire which continued until it was broken up at the time of the Ist World War. Towards the end of the 19th century Jews in Europe, especially in the east, came under great persecution. At the same time the Ottoman Empire was beginning to lose its power. Although many Jews were migrating to the U.S.A,. there rose up a Zionist movement which had the aim of resettling Jews in Israel once more after a gap of 1900 years. The League of Nations was formed in 1889. It began to hand out Mandates whereby one country was given the work of preparing a smaller, or less advanced countries, for future self-determination. In 1917 Britain took charge of the region of Palestine, as the land was then called, under such a mandate. In 1920 the area for the proposed Jewish National Home was mapped out, but this was quite quickly cut down to less than half the original area. The Zionist movement was strong in the United Kingdom and had some degree of political influence. 1917, Britain made the Balfour Declaration. Balfour, the then British Foreign Secretary, declared that Britain favored the creation of a national homeland for the Jewish people within Palestine. This plan included allowing the immigration of Jews back into the land so that eventually they would become the majority and so eventually gain self-rule. There was no actual mention of an Israeli state yet this seems to have been the long term intention( BBC it Figure 1 Mandate for Palestine 1920 (Hertz, 2011) The idea of Zionism has come under much criticism over the years , so much so that in 1975 a bill was actually passed by the United Nations which stated that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” presumably because it excludes the idea of non-Jews ( Tristam , undated) . Many Jews were of course persecuted , so the idea of a safe Jewish homeland had great appeal. In America however Jews were not persecuted , yet Zionism is a strong idea there. According to Ellenson ( 2009) this is because:- American Zionism consistently portrayed the movement as faithful to democratic and social ideals and argued that the highest ideal of Zionism—social justice for the persecuted remnants of the Jewish people in Europe and elsewhere—was identical with the ethos that animated the American nation. Figure 2 Mandate for Palestine 1922 (Hertz,2011). News 2001). was accepted by the League of Nations in 1922 ( Elder, 2011). The result of the mandate was a huge increase in Jewish immigration which has continued. The main Zionist leaders at the time, Chaim Weizmann in the United Kingdom and David Ben-Gurion in Palestine. According to Elder (2011) the Arab leadership was unable to come up with an effective policy to deal with the increasingly powerful Zionist movement. Between the two world wars , Zionists tried to purchase land from Arab Palestinians and to build a modern economy. They succeeded in creating a modern industrial sector through outside sources of income. Both Britain and French governments actually allowed local leaders to do the actual governing and in the following years borders moved back and forth. The Emirate of Trans-Jordan was created in 1921 east side of the Jordan River. This, done as a means of placating the Arab nations, prevented Jewish settlement in the areas to the east of the river. Abdullah, son of Hussein of Mecca, became the governor. What has happened to the people who were occupying the land in 1948? According to Assouline, (2013):- Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies. Assouline cites reports from Robert Kennedy who was a reporter in Palestine in 1948, there to see the final British withdrawal from the territory. The Jews claimed that the occupants of the land prior to 1948 were not one race i.e. the Palestinian Arabs, but rather a mixture of people. The indigenous occupants however claimed that they were ethnically cleansed by the incoming Zionist colonialists. Despite this claim Kennedy by Assouline ( 2013) is quoted as having said :- The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence. Kennedy also reported upon very real hatred of the Jews by their Arab neighbor. He also describes how the Arabs used the ancient water sources, whereas the Jews had a centralized supply with a pipe line from a distant reservoir. Some Arabs wanted to cut the supply off, but others were planning to poison the water according to Kennedy. Despite the official British presence the Arabs had bought in many armed fighters to the border area well before the May 1948 deadline.. Some were recruited from as far away as Pakistan. Kennedy’s report of the time could unfortunately for both sides have been written quite recently:- The die has long since been cast; the fight will take place. The Jews with their backs to the sea, fighting for their very homes, with 101 percent morale, will accept no compromise. On the other hand, the Arabs say: ‘We shall bring Moslem brigades from Pakistan, we shall lead a religious crusade for all loyal followers of Mohammed, we shall crush forever the invader. Whether it takes three months, three years, or 30, we will carry on the fight. Palestine will be Arab. We shall accept no compromise. This short passage gives some idea of the conflict of ideas produced by the arrival of a new state, changed borders , migrations and all the rest. Israel is a very small country surrounded by Arab neighbors, who see her as an intruder, and see her treatment of Muslims within her borders as very negative. Jews settle in Arab areas such as the West Bank, taking over space, that was formally Arab for such a long period. It is no wonder there is resentment and even the taking up of arms in what is seen as a holy war, a jihad. Despite these difficulties why did so many Jews migrate to Israel in the 20th century? ( Kolko,2007) describes the how important the concept of nationalism and nationhood became very important in the 19th century. He then goes on to say that to go to war was the easiest way of achieving this. Theodore Herzl, a Hungarian Jew living in Vienna, was the founder of Zionism. Conservative by nature, he had a fear that Jews , especially those within Russia, if not given a state of their own , would turn into revolutionaries. His idea of a state based upon a shared religion was perhaps a medieval one, at least as far as Europe was concerned. It was also a rather unrealistic idea when one considers the huge cultural differences between the various groups of Jews, not least the degree to which they wanted to follow their religion. There were particular gaps between the Jews who had been long established in Europe and those based in Arab countries. Despite these differences the idea of Zionism was taken up by wealthy Lord Rothschild. Herzl negotiated with the British powers to further his ideas. This Jewish state did not necessarily have to be in what is now modern day Israel , although that was the preferred option for the majority of Zionists. However that was in fact a very small number as Kolko ( 2007) states that , according to reports from British Intelligence in 1913 only 1% of Jews were affiliated to the Zionist cause, the majority being in Russia. Migration has always happened, often for economic reasons, but in most cases for some reason seen as a necessity. In the years between 1890 and1924 in in ten migrants to the United States of America were Jewish, and they also spread to many other places. The idea of migrating to Israel was however seen as being for others to do, despite the cries of ‘Next year in Israel!’ at every Passover. However in 1924 America more or less cut off the possibility of migration there for many Jewish people from both Southern and Eastern Europe. Then came a period of increasing pressure against Jews in Western Europe, culminating in the Holocaust under the Third Reich. In the first year after the new American law migration to Israel immediately rose by 28%. Those who got out of Germany and went to Israel were not necessarily Zionist however, in fact these were the minority according to Kolko ( 2007). The new Israel was therefore a state based for a large part upon a racial and nominal, rather than a fanatical, Judaism The many modern wars in which Israel has participated Shlaim , writing in 1996, describes by that time seven major Israeli / Palestinian wars beginning in 1948. There were also other conflicts in the Middle Eastern area during the period such as the Iran /Iraq war during the 1980s. Shlaim considers the various factors which led to these conflicts: the psychological reasons with their roots deep in human nature; the organizational and ideological factors in the domestic environment such as water supplies, land ownership, displacement of settlers and religious differences. Finally there are factors caused by the international environment, such as the support of Israel by America, or of Palestine by its various Arab neighbors. Whether one sees it as a Jewish / Arab conflict or an Israeli/ Palestinian one, there are two people groups and one land, and so they fight for what both sides see as theirs by right. With the creation of an official Israeli state in 1948 conflicts that were already present became of international rather than just local importance. This became particularly so in 1967 , when , in an attempt to restore the ancient boundaries of Israel, the Jews captured the West Bank from Jordan, took the Golan heights from Syria and ventured into the Sinai peninsula which they took from Egypt. Figure 3. Map of Ancient Israel ( Israelmessiah .com, undated) Was modern Israel merely a political state, or the result of God’s promise? Rich, (2011) cites the song of the Zionist movement, which he says is a political rather than a religious movement, and he also says that this hope of a return has always been present within Judaism :- As long as deep within the heart The Jewish soul is warm And toward the edges of the east An eye to Zion looks Our hope is not yet lost, The hope of two thousand years To be a free people in our own land In the land of Zion and Jerusalem. Figure 4 Map of Israel after the war of 1967.( BBC News 2009) At the time of the World War I, the Zionist cause was supported by Great Britain. In a famous 1917 letter from Lord Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lord Rothschild, to Jewish financier. In it he expressed the British government’s commitment to the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This statement is most often called the the Balfour Declaration. However on the other hand Britain was at the same time promising Arabs their freedom from British control if they helped in the defeat of the failing Ottoman Empire. Only months after Balfour’s letter the British government promised the Arabs that a limit would limit would be put upon Jewish settlement in what was then called Palestine. Despite this the state of Israel was finally established in 1948. There have been arguments put forward that many of those who Jews who have migrated to Israel since that date are secular Jews, that is they are Jewish by race, but not by their religious practices. Despite these ideas , according to Visions Israel (2008) , although Jewish society in Israel is made up of diverse groups from ultra-orthodox Jews right through to those who do not observe any religious obligations. Statistics are quoted which claim that Jews now make up more than 75% of the population. Of these 65% are described as believing in God and even some of those who claim to be atheists will participate in the Passover sedar. It seems that this state was formed in a political way, but for what were in the main religious reasons as far as the majority were concerned. Modern Israel was born as a Jewish state, and so the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) and all the other Jewish festivals and holy days are celebrated and considered to be national holidays and are kept by all of the population, whatever their religious background if any. Is there a real hope of true peace in Israel? Israel remains a divided country at the time of writing, despite many peace talks and even agreements over the years such as the Israel –Lebanon Cease Fire Agreement of April 1996., to give just one example of many. There are areas where Jew and Muslim Palestinian live side by side, even share the same schools, but there are still many places where people live in ghettos, especially the Palestinians ( Mid-east web.2013) ... the conflict with the Zionist enemy has never been a border issue, nor an interstate conflict but rather a total confrontation concerning the survival of our [Arab] nationalism . . . against threats posed by the Israeli entity. ( Hamma) Syrian daily Al-Ba'th, July 26, 1994 As long as views such as these are held , or if people feel that their nationalism , whether as Palestinians or as Israeli Jews , are perceived , then conflict seems more or less inevitable. According to the writer of the article Arab-Islamic Empire (2013) Arab nations are keen to expand the area of Arab influence , which he refers to as the Arab empire, and this is a major reason for their attacks upon Israel. On the other hand in 2012 “Shimon Peres calls Palestinian authority president 'true' partner for peace”(Times of India, 2012),The title of the article goes on to explain that such a stance has caused conflict even within his own government, in this case with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Palestinian leader Mohammed Abbas is quoted in the same article as having said :- We will not go back to terrorism and violence. We will only operate through diplomacy and through peaceful means. So it seems, some at least, have a real will to bring peace to this area of the Middle East. The article states that this is a position of most modern day Israelis, who are in support the two-state solution. Kropf asks whether the best answer is a two state solution or one Holy Land (2013). He questions whether such a state is either desirable or possible. He believes that there is already enough of a rift within Israel between those who perceived the modern state of Israel as being a restoration of the heights of Israel’s past during the kingdoms of David and Solomon, as against the view of those Israelis who are more or less secular and who see the future of Israel as a modern democratic and nondenominational state which would be open to citizenship for any people whatever their ethnic or religious background. That is of course before one even considers the other people who live within Israeli borders, mainly Palestinian, but also including other groups such as the Christian minority Conclusion Many people not involved in the situations described above find it very difficult to understand motivations and actions as described above, especially if they do not have a deeply felt personal religious conviction of whatever sort. The modern state of Israel is a fact, whatever the opinions felt about it. It therefore has to be accepted as fact by those countries that surround it. On the other hand Israelis also have to take into account the people they live alongside, and, whether or not these people are religious Jews , they are fellow citizens of the modern Israeli state. The majority are religious Jews, and as such should have respect for the word of their God as laid out in Leviticus:- When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34, New International Bible, 2008). When these people are no longer strangers, and are tolerated, or are even accepted as friends, then the conflict will at last be over. There have been many negotiations and even peace agreements, but until there is real all-encompassing will to live at peace, then troubles continue in this ancient landscape. Maps Figure 1.Hertz, E., Original territory assigned to the Jewish National Home, Mandate for Palestine, the legal aspects of Jewish rights, Myths and Facts 2011 , 19th November 2013, Figure 2 Hertz, E., 1922 - Final territory assigned to the Jewish National Home, Mandate for Palestine, the legal aspects of Jewish rights, Myths and Facts, 2011, 20th November 2013, Figure 3. Map of Ancient Israel, Israelmessiah .com, undated, 19th November 2013 Figure 4, Map of Israel after the war of 1967, Key Maps, BBC News 2009, 19ht November 2013, References Arab-Islamic Empire, Israel Science and Technology, Home Page, 2013, 23rd November 2013, < http://www.science.co.il/Arab-Israeli-conflict-2.asp> Assouline, P., Israel Vindicated: 1948 as told by those who lived it, The times of Israel July 1st 2013, 23rd November 2013 Bard, M., Pre-state Israel , 2013, 18th November 2013 BBC News, Israel and the Palestinians, Key Documents, 29th November 2009, 23rd November 2013 Bible, New International Version, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2010 CIA World Fact Book, Israel, 2013, 20th November 2013, 23rd November 2013 Edler, T. , Creation of the modern state of Israel , 2011 , 23rd November 2013, Ellenson, D., Zionism in the United States, Jewish Women’s Archive, 20th March 2009, 7ht December 2013, Hamma, K. , Syrian daily Al-Ba'th, July 26, 1994 cited by Israel Science and Technology Home Page, 2013, 23rd November 2013, < http://www.science.co.il/Arab-Israeli-conflict-2.asp> Israel –Lebanon Cease Fire Agreement, Jewish Virtual Library, undated , 23rd November 2013 Kolko, G., Israel: Mythologizing a 20th Century Accident, 2011, 22nd November 2013 Kropf, R., Israel-Palestine: Two States or One Holy Land?, Huff Post World 14th October 2012, 23rd November 2013 Mid-east Web, Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli Peace Plans, 2013 , 23rd November 2013, http://www.mideastweb.org/peaceplans.htm Rich, T. , The Land of Israel, 2011, 23rd November 2013, The Jewish Virtual Library, Demographics of Israel, 2013, 23rd November 2013 Shlaim, A., The Middle-East : the origins of Arab – Israeli wars , in Woods, N., Explaining International Relations since 1945 ,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 pages 219-40 Times of India, Shimon Peres calls Palestinian authority president 'true' partner for peace, Netanyahu differs, 4th November 2012, 23rd November 2013, < http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-04/middle-east/34907717_1_third-intifada-mahmoud-abbas-palestinian-authority> Tristam, P., How a UN Resolution Linked Zionism and Racism in 1975, undated m, 7th December 2013 , Visions Israel, Religion, 2008, 23rd November 2013, Read More