This article is biased but very interesting nonetheless

“History

1. Right now, Israel has Lebanon to its north, Syria to its northeast, and Egypt to its southwest. The state of Israel was created out of the region formerly know as Palestine. Palestine was the Holy Land of the Bible.

It all starts back with the story of Moses. Moses rescues his people from their slavery in Egypt. They go into the wilderness for 40 years. Moses and everyone over 20 years of age does not make it into the Promised Land. It’s Joshua and Caleb that lead the younger generation into the Promised Land (which is the Palestine area).

This Promised Land is initially the land of Canaan. It was inhabited by the Canaanites. Joshua leads his people into this land. They defeat and drive out the peoples who are on the lands that God wants to give them.

The Jewish people then form a tribal confederation and form out the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Later on, the kingdom of Judea is then formed. From this time forth, the biblical kingdoms of Israel-Judah-Judea have been the only independent sovereign nations or states that have ever existed in Palestine (Israel). No other groups of people have ever managed to do this after the Jewish people were driven from this land in 70 AD.

2. After the Romans conquer Judea, Palestine then becomes a province of Rome. After the Roman Empire falls away, the land of Palestine then falls under the Christian Byzantine Empire.

Then in 638 AD, an Arab Muslim caliph takes Palestine away from the Byzantine empire and makes it part of an Arab Muslim empire. During this period, many of the people living in Palestine become Arab Muslims and convert to the religion of Islam. However, Palestine still never becomes an official state, nation, or country even under the rule of these Muslims.

Then in 1099 AD, Christian crusaders from Europe conquer the Palestine area and take it away from the Muslims. But again, the Christian crusaders fail to make Palestine an official state or country. They just basically used it as a military outpost.

Later on, Palestine ends up in the hands of Syria. Then from Syria, Palestine falls into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Then after World War 1, the British take Palestine over from the Ottoman Turks.

The British then temporarily govern Palestine under the League of Nations. Again, during all of these transitions and takeovers, not one of these other peoples or countries ever make Palestine an official state or country!

3. Now here is the real interesting part. Right around the 1850’s, the Jewish people started to migrate back to Palestine in small droves. The land was basically dry, barren, desolate and unlovely.

The Jewish people that came back in started to farm and cultivate the land and started to make it flourish and prosper again. The reason it was so desolate was because no other countries or peoples had ever claimed Palestine for its own and thus no one ever took proper care of this land or ever attempted to cultivate its true potential.

When the land started to flourish and prosper once again due to the farming and agricultural efforts of these Jewish settlers, other peoples saw this and started to migrate back into this land.

One group to come in were Arabs from some of the surrounding Arab countries in the Middle East.

The Palestinians have always complained that it was the Jewish people that had dislocated them from this land. However, it was really just the opposite. It was the Jewish people who first came back and started to make the land flourish again due to their own farming efforts – not the Palestinians or Arabs.

The Arabs did not start coming back until after the Jewish people had already started to migrate back and make the land flourish.

So after the Jewish people started all of this development in the 1850’s, other peoples started to come into the land, including the Arabs. Palestine then started to get a real mix of peoples in its land. However, it was predominately Jewish people and Arabs that were starting to inhabit it.

Then when World War 2 started to break out in the early 30’s, more Jewish people started coming back to Palestine. Finally, at the end of World War 2, after going through the horrors of the holocaust, many more Jewish people from all around the world decided to migrate back to Palestine.

They thought they would have a better chance for security and independence by going back to their ancestral roots, the land of Palestine.

However, just as Jewish people were migrating back to Palestine, so were other Arabs. Finally on 5/14/48, the Jewish people were able to declare Israel (Palestine) an official state. Palestine is now Israel, and the Arabs, who are now living in Israel, are called Palestinians because they are now claiming that this land belongs to them, not to the Jewish people.

Shortly after Israel becomes an official state under Jewish rule, the Palestinians start to get support from some of the other Arab countries. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan all now start to side with the displaced Palestinians and start war against Israel.

The United Nations then gets involved trying to establish peace and truces among all of these countries. During this time, many of the Arabs in Israel are driven out of Israel and are forced to live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, etc. These Arabs that are driven out are the so-called Palestinians. For a while there is peace. People start to forget about the displaced Palestinians, who are now in refugee camps and have no real home to call their own.

4. Now here is where the real trouble starts. Seeing the plight of these dislocated Palestinians in refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries, a group is formed called the infamous PLO, which stands for Palestine Liberation Organization.

Organized resistance against Israel actually started to grow in the 1950’s. Other Arabs finally formed the PLO in 1964 and their goal was to literally wipe Israel off the face of the map. They blamed the Jewish people for running the Palestinians out of Israel and they would now wage war against them by terrorists’ acts.

Yasser Arafat became official leader of the PLO in 1969 and has been waging war against Israel ever since! This war with Israel has now been going on for the last 42 years.”