History of Israel

Ancient Israel

Israel is the birthplace of the world's major religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The distant ancestors of the Jews were the Hebrews, an ancient branch of the Semitic people. The Hebrews are also known as the Ancient Jews. Both Jews and Arabs recognize Abraham as their ancestor, and in modern human genetics, the DNA of Jews and Arabs is close to that of other races.

Israel originally referred to a people rather than a place, and the earliest known record of it appears in 1211 BC. For more than 3,000 years, Jews have viewed Israel as the centerpiece of their national and spiritual life, calling it the "Holy Land" or "Promised Land". Israel has a special meaning in Judaism, including the remains of the Temple and related religious rituals, which are an important foundation of the modern Jewish tradition.

Israel means "one who wrestles with God," and comes from the Biblical story of Jacob, the ancestor of the Jews, who wrestled with God (an angel) and won, and God (the angel) changed Jacob's name to Israel. Jacob gave birth to twelve tribes.

Jacob led his descendants to Egypt and lived there for 430 years, leaving Egypt around 1450 BC (15th century BC) and moving back to the land of Canaan (modern-day Palestine).

In the 11th century BC, the United Kingdom of Israel was established. After King Solomon, son of David, in the 10th century B.C., it split into two kingdoms, the north and the south, with the Kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes in the north and the Kingdom of Judah, a hereditary kingdom of David's descendants, in the south.

The two kingdoms were conquered by the Assyrians and destroyed by the Babylonians in 722 and 586 B.C.E., and most of the Jews were taken captive to the region of the Two Rivers Basin until they returned in groups during the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great conquered the region in 332 B.C.E., and later the region of Israel became a site of contention between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties.

In 167-63 BC, the Israel region was ruled by the Maccabees. Then Pompey, a Roman, occupied Palestine and annexed Israel into the province of Syria, and installed the Herodian Family as the acting government. Herod expanded Jerusalem at the end of the first century BC.

In 66-70 AD, a large-scale Jewish uprising broke out due to Roman atrocities, which was later brutally suppressed by the Roman army, Jerusalem was again destroyed, and the Jews were driven out of their homeland and dispersed to other parts of the world. In 132 A.D. a large-scale revolt broke out, which was again suppressed by the Roman army. (See: Jewish War)

The Muslims seized control of the region from the Byzantine Empire in 638 AD, and since then several Muslim states have ruled the region, with the Arabs becoming the main inhabitants. Later conquered by the Umayyad, Abbasid, Khorezm and Mongol empires, it was ruled by the Mamluks between 1260 and 1516, then became an Ottoman province in 1517.

Through the ancient kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium, the Jews declined and were expelled from the region and dispersed across the globe, with synagogues remaining even in Kaifeng, China. Two of the most important Jewish scriptures, the Mishnah and the Talmud, were also written during this period.

Jewish Returns

There were several small waves of returns in the 18th century. In 1878, the first large Jewish farm colony appeared in Petah Tikva. Jews purchased land from the Ottomans and Arabs and settled. As the Jewish population grew, so did the tension between them and the Arabs.

In 1896, Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist in Central Europe, launched the Zionist movement (also known as the "Zionist movement"), which called on Jews around the world to return to their homeland and restore their way of life.

On August 29, 1897, in Basel, Switzerland, he convened the first World Zionist Congress, which resolved to establish "a publicly recognized and legally guaranteed homeland (or state)." "Corresponding organizations such as the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Land Development Corporation were established to help Jews from all over the world emigrate to Palestine.

The growth of the Zionist movement gave impetus to the Second Wave of Return (1904-1914), in which some 40,000 Jews returned to settle.

In 1917, with the British occupation of Palestine, Foreign Minister Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration: "His Majesty's Government are in favor of the establishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine and will do their utmost to facilitate its realization."

After World War I, there was a third and fourth wave of Jewish returns.

In 1920, the League of Nations entrusted Britain with jurisdiction over Palestine.

In 1922 Britain divided the trust territory into two parts: the eastern part (now Jordan) was inhabited by Arabs, and the western part was a Jewish neighborhood.

Arabs killed 133 Jews in a Palestinian uprising in 1929, and in 1922 the League of Nations adopted the British Mandate Mandate for Palestine, which provided for the establishment of a "Jewish National Home" in Palestine. "In 1922, the League of Nations adopted the British Mandate Order for Palestine, which provided for the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine. Subsequently, Jews from all over the world emigrated to Palestine in large numbers. This was followed by several riots from 1936 to 1939.

In response, Britain issued a White Paper in 1939 limiting Jewish immigration to 75,000 and restricting the purchase of land by Jews. The White Paper was seen by many Jews and Zionists as a betrayal of the Jews and a violation of the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were not put off by this and wanted to stop Jewish immigration altogether, and in 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany, setting off a fifth wave of Jewish returns.

In 1940, Jews already made up 30 percent of the local population. The subsequent Jewish pogroms in Europe gave further impetus to the Jewish return.

Between 1944 and 1948, more than 200,000 Jews came to Palestine by various means. By the end of World War II, there were 600,000 Jewish residents in Palestine.

Restoration of Israel

Jewish immigration had been growing steadily since the late 19th century, and the idea of Jewish restoration, influenced by the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, had gained increasing international support.In 1947, in light of escalating violence between Jews and Arabs, and thwarted efforts at peace, the British government decided to disengage from the Trust Territory of Palestine. to disengage.

The United Nations set up a Special Committee on Palestine, and in November 1947 the UN General Assembly voted on the 1947 UN Partition Plan, with 33 countries in favor (including the United States and the former Soviet Union), 13 against, and 10 abstaining, adopting a resolution: to divide the Palestinian areas into two states, with about 55% for the Jews and 55% for the Arabs, with the Jews and the Arabs respectively. and Arabs owning about 55% and 45% of the territory respectively, with Jerusalem placed under UN administration with a view to avoiding conflict.

On Nov. 29, 1947, the day the U.N. adopted the partition plan, David Ben-Gurion accepted it, but it was flatly rejected by the League of Arab States. The League's top committee ordered three days of violent raids on Israel's Jewish civilian population, attacking buildings, stores, and residential neighborhoods, followed by a response from Jewish-organized underground militia forces, and the fighting soon spilled over into a large-scale conflict that led to Israel's War of Independence in 1948.

The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, midnight, the day before the end of the British Mandate, which is celebrated as Israel's national holiday.

In national elections on Jan. 25, 1949, 85 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots, and then the first Knesset, with 120 seats, met. Two men who had led Israel to statehood became the country's leaders, David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Jewish Chargers, was elected the first prime minister; and Haim Weizmann, leader of the World Zionist Organization, was chosen by the Knesset to be the first president.

On May 11, 1949, Israel took its seat at the United Nations, becoming the 59th member.

1948 War of Independence

After the establishment of the state of Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon declared war on Israel, beginning the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Syrian, Lebanese, and Iraqi forces from the north were held back near the border, while Jordanian forces from the east took the eastern part of Jerusalem and attacked the western part of the city. However, Jewish militia forces managed to hold off the Jordanian army, and underground National Army Organization forces (Irgun) stopped the Egyptian army from the south. Beginning in June, the United Nations declared a one-month cease-fire, during which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was officially established. After months of fighting, a cease-fire was agreed upon in 1949 and a temporary border was drawn, known as the Green Line. Israel was given an additional 23.5% of the area of jurisdiction west of the Jordan River, while Jordan held a mountainous area in southern Israel and Samaria, which later became known as the West Bank. Egypt took possession of a small strip of land along the coast, which later became known as the Gaza Strip.

The exodus of large numbers of Arabs from the new Jewish state, which the Palestinians called the Nakba (?), is expected to involve between 400,000 and 900,000 people.

An estimated 400,000 to 900,000 Palestinian refugees are expected to go into exile, with the U.N. estimating 711,000. The unresolved conflict between Israel and the Arab states, as well as the issue of Palestinian refugees, continues to this day. With the 1948 war, the Jewish population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began to withdraw to Israel, and the large number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries tripled the population of Israel. Over the next few years, nearly 850,000 Sephardic Jews fled or were expelled from Arab countries, with about 600,000 of them moving to Israel and others immigrating to Europe and the United States.

The 1950s and 1960s

Israel was politically disgraced when a scandal erupted after Moshe Sharett, who was prime minister of Israel from 1954 to 1955, attempted to bomb Egypt.

Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, much to the displeasure of Britain and France. After being attacked by a series of underground Arab militia forces, Israel secretly allied itself with Britain and France and declared war on Egypt. After the Suez Canal crisis, the three countries were condemned by the United Nations and Israel was forced to withdraw its troops from the Sinai Peninsula.

In 1955, David Ben-Gurion became Israel's prime minister again and served until 1963, when he resigned. After Gurion's resignation, Levi Eshkol succeeded him as prime minister.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal and one of the masterminds of the Holocaust of European Jews, was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence service and returned to Israel for trial. Eichmann became the only criminal in Israel's history to be sentenced to death by a court.

In the political arena, relations between Israel and the Arab states in May 1967 were again strained.

Syria, Jordan, and Egypt revealed their intention to go to war, and Egypt expelled the UN peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip. After Egypt violated previous treaties and blockaded the strategic Tiran Strait, then deployed a large number of tanks and planes along Israel's borders, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt on June 5, citing Egyptian provocations. In this Six-Day War, Israel defeated the armies of all its Arab neighbors and won a complete victory in the air battlefield. Israel captured the entire West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights in one fell swoop, and the Green Line, drawn in 1949, became the administrative demarcation line between Israel's jurisdiction over its internal territories and the occupied areas. Israel later returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt after a peace agreement was signed.

During the war the Israeli Air Force mistakenly bombed a U.S. intelligence ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 American troops. U.S. and Israeli investigations concluded that the accident was a misfire due to the Liberty's identification difficulties.

In 1969, Mrs. Meir was elected Israel's first female prime minister.

The 1970s

The period between 1968 and 1972, known as the War of Attrition, saw many skirmishes break out frequently along the borders between Israel and Syria and Egypt. In addition, in the early 1970s, the Palestinian armed forces carried out terrorist attacks on an unprecedented scale against Israel and Jews in various countries, culminating in the Munich tragedy at the 1972 Summer Olympics, when armed Palestinian militia took members of the Israeli delegation hostage and killed all the hostages. Israel retaliated with Operation Wrath of God, in which a group of Israeli Mossad agents traveled around the world to assassinate those responsible for the Munich tragedy.

Finally, on Oct. 6, 1973, the traditional Jewish day of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise offensive against Israel. Though the Arab states succeeded in hitting the ill-prepared Israeli army early in the war, Egypt and Syria were eventually repulsed by Israel due to its reliance on strong foreign aid from the United States and satellite technology. The situation became calmer in the years following the war, and Israel and Egypt were finally able to reach a peace agreement.

In 1974, Yitzhak Rabin succeeded Mrs. Meir as the fifth prime minister.

The 1977 Knesset elections became a major turning point in Israel's political history, when the Labor Party coalition (?), which had dominated Israeli politics since 1948, was was defeated by Menachem. Begin's United Party was defeated in an election that has been called a "revolution" in Israel.

Then, in November of that year, Egyptian President Sadat made an unprecedented visit to Israel to address the Knesset, the first time Israel had been recognized by an Arab country since its founding. Reserve officers of the Israeli army also formed a peace movement in support of the peace talks. Following Sadat's visit, peace talks between the two countries culminated in the signing of the Camp David peace treaty.

In March 1979, Begin and Shadat reached an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in Washington, D.C., USA. With the signing of the treaty, Israel withdrew its troops from the Sinai Peninsula and evacuated the settlements it had established there since the 1970s. Israel also agreed to give the Palestinians autonomy based on the Green Line drawn in 1949.

The 1980s

On June 7, 1981, the Israeli Air Force bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak, stopping Iraq's attempts to build a nuclear weapon, in a mission also known as Operation Babylon.

In 1982, Israel launched an offensive against Lebanon, becoming involved in the Lebanese civil war that had been raging since 1975. Israel's reason for going to war was to protect Israeli colonies in the north, which at the time were subject to regular terrorist attacks from Lebanon. After establishing a forty-kilometer barrier zone, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued to advance and even captured the capital, Beirut. The Israeli army expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon, forcing the PLO to shift its base to Tunisia. Unable to bear the strain of the war, Prime Minister Begin resigned in 1983 and was succeeded by YitzhakShamir. Israel finally withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon in 1986, and a buffer zone along the border was maintained until Israel made a unilateral withdrawal in 2000.

During the 1980s, the rightist government led by Yitzhak Shamir was replaced by the leftist Shimon Peres. Peres served as prime minister from 1984, but was replaced in 1986 by Shamir, who struck a deal for a coalition of parties. Shamir was re-elected as prime minister in 1988 elections after the Palestinian Intifada, which broke out in 1987 and ignited a series of riots in the occupied territories.

1990s

In the Persian Gulf War, although Israel was not part of the anti-Iraqi coalition and was not actually involved in the fighting in Iraq, it was hit by 39 Scud missiles. The missiles did not kill any Israeli citizens directly, but some were killed by improper use of prepared gas masks, in addition to one Israeli who was killed by a fragment of a Patriot missile. During the fighting, Israel also provided gas masks to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protect them from Iraqi biological and chemical weapons. Despite this, the PLO continued to express support for Saddam's regime, and some Palestinian residents even stood on their rooftops and cheered for incoming Scud missiles, although they ended up using the gas masks provided by the Israelis.

In the early 1990s, large numbers of Jews from the former Soviet Union began to immigrate to Israel, where, under the country's law of return, they were able to acquire Israeli citizenship upon arrival. About 380,000 people arrived in Israel in 1990-1991. Although the Israeli public was initially quite supportive of the Law of Return, many of the problems caused by the new immigrants were used by the Labor Party in the election campaign, criticizing the ruling coalition party for failing to solve their job and housing problems. As a result, in the 1992 elections, the new immigrants voted for Labor in large numbers, allowing the left to rise again. After the election Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister. During the election, Labor had promised to greatly improve Israel's internal security and relations with the Arab countries. By the end of 1993, the Israeli government abandoned the framework of the 1991 Madrid Accords and signed the Oslo Accords with the PLO. In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab state, after Egypt, to commit to peace*** with Israel.

Initially, there was widespread popular support for the Oslo Accords in Israel, but after the signing of the accords, Israel continued to be subjected to frequent attacks by the Hamas militant group, and support for the accords began to dwindle considerably. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated by an extremist Israeli nationalist.

As a result of Rabin's assassination, public opinion of the Oslo accords improved slightly, boosting support for Shimon Peres and enabling him to win the 1996 election. However, a new wave of suicide bombing attacks coupled with Arafat's statements praising the bomber turned public opinion around again and in May 1996 he lost to Benjamin Netanyahu of the United Party.