History of Israel, from 1850-present

 

Here are some essays on the history of the Land of Israel, "Eretz Yisroel". Essays in italics are still being worked on.

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Political Mythology

The History and Meaning of the words "Palestine" and "Palestinians",  which means "Sea Invader"

Politically motivated mythology of "Palestine"

Myths of the Middle East

More Myths of the Middle East

A Photographic Tour of the Holy Land 1831-1910

Biblical History

• Background: Timeline of "Palestine" 1273 BCE to 1948
• The Land of Israel, map of the inheritance of the 12 tribes
• Jewish forms of Government: the interplay of "Church and State"
• Persian (Iranian) assistance in rebuilding the Jewish Temple
• Non-Jewish worship in the Temple "House of Prayer for all people"
• Traditional Jewish Views on Religious Tolerance
• The Maccabees, Hasmonean dynasty and Herod until 135CE
• Jonathan Hyrcanus and the conversion of Syria and Jordan to Judaism
• Maps of Jewish "holy sites", the final resting places of Rabbis in Israel, Jordan and Syria
• History of Israel, an Overview

4th-7th centuries, The Jewish Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• After the destruction of the second Temple, the Jews fled to Arabia
• Medina, Islam's second holiest city, was originally a Jewish "settlement"
• The Islamic Crescent was originally a Jewish Symbol
• One thousand years of Jewish-Persian (Iranian) alliance, 4th BCE-7th CE
• Himyar - The Jewish Kingdom of Arabia 390-626 CE, decimated by the rise of Islam
• The Byzantine-Ethiopian conquest of Himyar and the beginnings of the Falashah Jewish community of Ethiopia

7th Century, The rise of the faith of Islam

• The Prophet Muhamed, a Jewish pseudo-Messiah
• Islam as a form of Judaism, a continuation of the Jewish Prophets.
• Islamic 'endtimes' theology requires the restoration of Jews to their homeland and Arab assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple
• Quotes from the Qu'ran and Hadith about Jews, Jerusalem and Israel

8th-13th centuries, The Jewish Kingdom of Khazaria

• Fleeing Islam, Jewish nationalists headed to Southern Russia
• The rise of the powerful Jewish Convert Kingdom of Khazaria 786-1237 CE
• Wars between Khazaria and Islam, stopping the expansion of Islam into Russia
• Movement of Khazarian Jews and converts as refugees to the Ukraine in the 12th CE

8th-16th centuries, Islamic conquest and expansion

• Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land (Samuel Katz)
• Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land (Peters)
• The Qur'an (Koran) & institutionalized anti-Semitism
• Religious Persecution of Jews by Arabs
• Throwing Stones at Jews is based in Ancient Islamic Ritual
• Forced conversions in the Islamic conquests
• The forced conversion of the Jewish community of Persia and the beginnings of the Kurds
• An appeal to Moslems of Jewish descent
• Non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" world
• The Islamic claim to the Temple Mount is very recent, since 1930
• The name Al-Quds is an abbreviation for "The Jewish Temple"

14th-19th Jewish Semi-Autonomy, Migration and Expulsions

• A History of the Jews, a list of expulsions for 2000 years
• Rise of European Nationalism: Expulsion from Spain to Chmielnicki massacres
• Messianic hope and rise of Shabbetai Zvi and his conversion to Islam 1626-1676
• Awakening in the Christian world in support of a Jewish Restoration 1830-1930

1850-1920 Restoration of the Jewish Homeland and Arab-Jewish cooperation

• Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, 1850
• Ottoman Rule Map (Eve of W.W.I), 1516 to 1917 
• British Mandate Map 1920-1946 
• British Administrative Division Map 1922 - 1946 
• Palestine was inhabited by a mixed population
• Palestine, a land virtually laid waste with little population 
• Bareness and oppression of Palestine due to feudal system of taxes by absentee Arab Landowners
• Joint Arab-Jewish agreement on Jewish Homeland, between Emir Feisal Husseini and Dr. Weizmann, January 3, 1918
• Jewish proposal for Jewish Homeland, presented to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919
• Feisal-Frankfurter Correspondence, further to Arab proposal for Jewish Homeland, March 3, 1919

1920-1948 The British Mandate for Palestine

• Document: An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine to the League of Nations, June 1921, on the condition of Palestine
• Evidence of Haj Amin al-Husseini Before the Royal Commission in 1937 stating Jewish land was legally purchased from Arabs
• The Myth of Palestinian Nationalism, narrowly defined, anti-Semitism
• Arabs in, Jews out: Britain's role in trying to create an artificial Arab majority in Palestine 1920-1948
• British Plans against France, and against the Jews in 1915
• Britain, Haj Husseini and the Arab Riots of 1920
• British Efforts Against the Nascent Israeli State, in 1948
• The proposed partition of Western Palestine in 1938 & The British Policy of Appeasement
• The Struma & The unmitigated policy of the British against Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's war against them
• Britain's Partition Map 1946
• U.N. Partition Plan Map 1947 
• Document: Official British Police Report Regarding Jews' Appeal to Arabs to NOT leave Haifa in 1948
• The Arab Invasion of 1948

1948 Arab and Jewish refugees

• Palestinian Refugees, invited to leave in 1948
• How many Palestinians Refugees? inflating the numbers
• Arab-Jewish Refugees, the other Middle Eastern Refugee problem
• Exchange of Populations
• Why are Palestinian Refugees treated differently than all other refugees in the world?
• Legal Background to the "Palestinian Right of Return"

1948-1967 Early Israeli History

• Armistice Agreements Map 1949
• Fedayeen Raids Map 1951 - 1956 
• The Sinai Campaign Map 1956 
• Palestinian Refugees, unlike other refugees in the world, were denied resettlement opportunities, for political reasons
• A collection of historical quotations relating to the Arab refugees
• History of Jordan, Jordan as Palestine & Two states for two people, Jordan must contribute
• The Communist - atheist - anti-religious roots of Israeli's political "Left"

1967-1984 Later Israeli History

• Position of Arab Forces Map 1967 
• Six Day War Map - June 1967 
• Cease Fire Lines Map 1967 
• Discrediting Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries, Official Arab "Invitation" for Jews to return, 1970-1977
• "Palestinian" as an Arab ethnic group is a modern political creation since 1967
• Palestinians only one politicized segment of the larger problem of state-less, citizenship-less migrant workers of the Middle East
• Who are the Palestinians?
• Record of the United Nations, why is it so anti-Israel
• Jewish Settlements are Legal according to International Law
• Egyptian Attack Map 1973 
• Syrian Attack Map 1973 

1984-2000 The Olso Years and the rise of Arabic-Islamic Nationalism

• The First Oslo Agreements, 1993-1995
• U.S. House of Representatives: Task Force on Terrorism, 1996
• Al Aksa Tunnel Riots of 1996
• Corruption within the Palestinian Authority, 1997; PLO has $10b in assets
• U.S. House of Representatives: The Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Challenge - Myths and Reality, 1998
• Peace with Jordan 
• The Wye Agreement - November 1998 
• Sharm Agreement, 50% Withdrawal, 1999 
• Israeli Withdrawal from Lebanon, May 2000 
• Proposed 80% Withdrawal, May 2000 
• Proposed 95% Withdrawal, July 2000 
• Israel's Compromise on it's "Red Lines", Camp David II 
• Proposal for dividing Jerusalem, Camp David II, Taba 
• Relative sizes of areas in Middle East
• Israel size comparison maps 
• Graphs of Increase in Terror and Crime since Oslo
• Arafat’s Strategy: Lebanonization and Entanglement 
• The rise of Israel's Oriental Jews (Sefardim), Israel's shift away from secularism

Arabic settlement policy in the West Bank and Gaza 

• The West Bank population under Jordanian rule 1948-1967
• Draft Report of Arab Settlement Activity in the West Bank (261 settlements since 1950)
• Illegal Arab immigration into "Palestine" - part of Oslo
• Arab Population in the West Bank & Gaza - THE MILLION-AND-A-HALF PERSON GAP
  

2000-present The Multi-Media War

• Erasing Jewish History, Destruction of the Temple Mount
• The Main Reason for the Present Middle East Conflict: ISLAM not "The Territories"
• Who Started the Al Aksa Intifada? List of events of Temple Mount Destruction in June, until Ariel Sharon's visit in September
• "How PA Violence was planned", Report by Palestinian Media Watch
• Palestinian Authority Communications Minister says Al Aksa Intifada was planned since July (for six months)
• Breakdown of casualties during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
• "Palestinians" killing "Palestinians"
• Who killed Muhammad al-Dura?
• I am a Jew. I am a poet. I am heartbroken
• Document: Israeli Government White Paper on PA/PLO non-compliance 
• Document: Israel's Preliminary Report To the Mitchell Inquiry
• Journalists describe constant Palestinian intimidation
• Why Israel Newspapers are the most anti-Israel in the world
• History of Israel's Broadcasting Authority: a Politically Left-leaning (Relativistic, Revisionist) Ideological Entity
• Media Bias: CNN and others are misreporting the news
• CNN, BBC and others in fierce competition for lucrative, emerging Middle Eastern Markets

Muftism, Nazism, Communism and Traditional Anti-Semitism give birth to Islamism, 1917-present

• The new Arab "identity" derives from the impact of the West in the last fifty years
• Wahhabism, the Saudi Arabia-based puritanical heresy at the base of Islamism
• Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem
• Muftism and Nazism: World War II Collaboration Documents
• Bosnian Moslems recruited the Nazi SS by Yasser Arafat's 'Uncle'
• Turning the West Bank into another "Bosnia" (Photo Album)
• The Farhud, the Mufti inspired Krystallnacht in Iraq, 1941
• A "Fatwa " Issued by Haj Amin al-Husseini in Iraq, pro-Nazi coup May, 1941
• The Syrian-Iraqi Baath party and its Nazi beginnings
• The Roots of Muslim Rage: Why so many Muslims deeply resent the West, and why their bitterness will not easily be mollified
• The history of the PLO and the International Legitimization of Terrorism 
• History of Fedayeen, PLO, Fatah, PFLP, PFLP-GC, DFLP, etc Militant Palestinian Groups 
• Saddam Hussein, nephew of Khayrallah Tulfah, of the 1941 Pro-Nazi coup in Iraq
• Hitler and the Arabs, How could they have missed it?
• A technique of propaganda called "Turnspeak"
• Arafat's use of "Turnspeak" to say Israel causes terrorism
• Yasser Arafat's Biography
• Yasser Arafat worthy successor to Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini
• Yassir Arafat, 1929-2004
• Islamic Sermons on Temple Mount by the grandson of the Haj Amin al-Husseini, 2000

After World Trade Center bombing, Sept 11, 2001

• Al Qaeda Training Manual (United States Department of Justice Website)
• Israeli Government uses PsyOps on Settlers (Government pursuing appeasement of terrorists policy)
• Israeli Government Violations of the Civil Rights Of Opponents of Disengagement (Israel Policy Center)
  

Other Essays

• Catholic Views on Israel, Dealing with the theological problems of a successful Jewish State, illustrating growing moderation and tolerance
• The Roots of Anti-Judaism in the Christian Environment
• Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

Rabbi Joseph E. Katz
Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst 
Brooklyn, New York 
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"This site is dedicated to many: to the countless thousands whose lives have been lost in Arab-Jewish conflict; to the courageous on both sides whose longing for lasting peace between Arabs and Jews transcends politics"