A Brief History of Israel

 

I decided to put the Introductions to Israel in one post and put Israel's brief history in this post just so each category can be kept together. Here is the brief history of Israel including what I wrote in the last geography article.

I will go through a very brief history of Israel before this article is over. Israel began with its patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God called Abraham out from Ur in Babylon or Chaldea in about 2000 BC. All three of the patriarchs wandered in Canaan without a nation of actual borders. One day, Jacob's son Joseph gets sold by his brothers to a Midianite caravan who took him to Egypt. By interpreting Pharaoh's dreams, Joseph alerts Pharaoh that seven years of plenty were to be followed with seven years of famine. Pharaoh makes Joseph second in command over all Egypt. Joseph's brothers come for food and eventually, Joseph tells them to bring all of their families to live in Goshen which was probably in the eastern Nile Delta.

Then another Pharaoh arose who put the Israelites in bondage and tried to kill all of their sons. Jochebed and Amram succeeded in keeping their son alive by putting him in the bulrushes of the Nile. The princess found Moses and adopted him. Moses had to leave Egypt because he killed an Egyptian that was beating an Israelite, but he returned to ask Pharaoh (probably the next one in the line) to set the Israelites free. Pharaoh didn't so he got ten plagues on Egypt. After the last plague (where the firstborn of everything died), Pharaoh let them go, only to pursue them to the Red Sea where he and his army were drowned.

The Israelites suffered many trials in the desert until they got to the Promised Land. Then they had to conquer all of the wicked Canaanites who sacrificed their children and did a bunch of other really horrible things. Eventually, they didn't want to have God lead them through his prophets: they wanted a king instead. The peak of Israel's history came with the reign of David, their second king. This was around 1100 BC. Then David and his son Solomon died, and the kingdom was left with Rehoboam, Solomon's son who raised taxes, causing Jeroboam to take ten of the twelve tribes of Israel with him to form Israel. Rehoboam was left with two tribes and he called his kingdom Judah. Israel gets captured by the Assyrians in 721 BC and Judah gets captured by the Babylonians in 586 BC.

The Israelites go back to their land during the Persian Empire and the Persians get overthrown by the Greeks and then the Romans. Jesus comes down to earth around 4 to 6 BC and the Jews crucify him 33 years later only for him to rise again three days again. Jesus left his followers (Christians) to spread the gospel everywhere in the world. On a quick note, Christianity is not the same thing as Judaism. Meanwhile, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. The temple was destroyed except for the famed "Wailing Wall" and many people died from hunger. At that point in history, the Israelites were scattered throughout the known world.

The next time Jerusalem appears in history as a city of importance is in the Crusades. The Crusades began in 1095 when Pope Urban II made a speech inspiring the people of Europe to take Jerusalem away from the Muslim Seljuk Turks. The first official crusade was successful in conquering Jerusalem, but the city was recaptured by Saladin between the Second and Third Crusades. The rest of the Crusades were definitely more harmful than helpful.

At this point, history becomes preoccupied with the rise of modern nations including America. Then it walks through the 1800s until we arrive at the World Wars. Great Britain tended to be an anti-Semitic country during the Victorian era and the World War I era. Some of Agatha Christie's early books show the immediate suspicions that the British had of the Jews. But once the atrocities of the Holocaust were known to the world, the Jews were viewed as victims instead of threats.

The Balfour Declaration written in 1917 proposed a permanent home for the Jewish people. The proposal did not go into effect until after World War II. In 1948, the nation-state of Israel was formed. Of course, there was opposition from the neighboring countries including Egypt and Lebanon.

For the rest of modern history, Israel has been subject to the terrorist attacks and conflicts of the Middle East. Which brings our article to a close for now. This was an extremely brief history about Israel. I wasn't trying to be thorough mostly for the sake that I want to focus on cultural, political, and geographical factors.

The quote for today is a selection from the Balfour Declaration just because I thought it would be interesting to add. It was written by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.