The Middle East is the cradle of monotheism also known as the Abrahamic religions. Judaism was the first/earliest monotheistic religion which began approx. 4,000 years ago when Abraham made a covenant with God. Around 1,000 B.C. Solomon became king and his son David built the 1st temple in Jerusalem.
Around 1,000 B.C. Solomon became king and his son David built the 1st temple in Jerusalem.
In 587 the Babylonians destroyed the 1st temple, sending many Jews into exile (i.e. they became refugees in other lands
In 516 B.C. a second temple was built, that the Romans destroyed in 70 AD
Christianity was the 2nd (next) monotheistic religion. Jesus was born and died a Jew. His followers founded Christianity as a result of their belief in him as the messiah
Islam is the 3rd (last) monotheistic, emerging in Saudi Arabia in 610 A.D. and began spreading in the region by 613 A.D. when Muhammad began preaching in Mecca about his encounter with the angel Gabriel.
because Judaism was the first monotheistic religion and
because the region in which early Judaism was established was where modern day Israel is today
Jews have lived continuously in this land, even when many were dispersed to countries in the region and even as far as India, China, Europe, and the Americas
Over 60% of the Jews in Israel today are Jews of Arab lands (Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq) who were expelled or driven out due to antisemitism
They came to Israel as refugees. More than half the people in Israel today are descendants of people who came to Israel as refugees. There were about 60M refugees after WWII in Europe alone. Most of which never came back to their home before they became refugees
In 1947 the United Nations declared two states in the area Between “the river and the sea” — Israel and an Arab state in place of the British Mandate of Palestine that controlled the area until then. On the day Israel was declared, all Arab nations surrounding Israel started a war to eliminate the state of Israel. Israel won the war and substantial territories beyond those that were initially designated by the UN. Many Arab refugees from this ended up in Gaza and the West Bank.
Gaza was controlled by Egypt from 1948 - 1967, and the West Bank was controlled by Jordan from 1948-1967.
In 1967 Israel occupied the Gaza, which at that time was an Egyptian territory. 11 years later, in 1978 as part of the peace talks between Israel and Egypt Israel wanted to return Gaza to the Egyptian, but they refused to take Gaza.
In 1988, Jordan renounced its claim to the West Bank, an area which it controlled from 1948 until 1967.
We don’t know the exact reasons that Egypt refused to take Gaza, but it is likely that it didn’t want to deal with the Palestinian nationalism that gained momentum in the 70’s in the form of terrorist movement led by the PLO.
Which river and which sea? The Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. The land between these two bodies of water is the entirety of Israel
Free from what? Free from Jews.
This chant is the summation of Hamas’ founding mission - the elimination of the State of Israel and all of the Jews in it and worldwide, to be replaced by Muslim Palestinians in an Islamic country ruled by Shari’a law (this is stated specifically in the Hamas charte).
Hamas is expressly opposed to a two state solution
Hamas leadership and spokesmen have repeatedly stated that they their mission is to eliminate Israel, not to protect, feed, house or support Palestinian civilians. They have stated on television publicized across the middle east that a high civilian death toll is a price they are willing (happily) to pay in reaching their goal and that those civilians are “martyrs” and their sacrifice is justified.
The British did not take Palestinians away from their land.
In 1920 Britain & France gained control of large parts of the middle east after defeating the Ottoman Empire in WWI
The area controlled by the British (Palestine-> from Palestina-> from Philistine under the Romans -> Ottomans) was called the British mandate of Palestine. There were Jews, Muslims, Christians living together in this region
At the end of WWII, when Britain was ending its colonial rule (Indian sub-continent, Africa, Middle East) it turned to the UN to figure out what to do in Palestine (Jordan, then trans Jordan was also created because of strife within the royal family of Saudi Arabia - theryby Jordan was created and the “Hashemite Kingdom” was also created, but that’s a story for another conversation).
In 1947 the UN passed resolution 181 partitioning Palestine into two states - 1 Jewish, 1 Arab - with the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area to become an international city.
The plan was accepted by Palestine's Jewish leadership but rejected by Arab leaders. Note, at that time the area allocated to the Jews was small in comparison to the Arabs
On the day the British mandate expired, 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was established and approved by the UN
The following day Israel was invaded by 5 Arab armies (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia (under Egyptian command)). In advance of that invasion, Arabs in the 1-day old Israel were told to evacuate by their leaders and reassured that they would be back within the week to reclaim their properties in the new Arab state that was cleansed of the Jews. The refugees fled to Gaza and the West Bank.
The Arab countries lost that war. Israel gained some territory formerly granted to Palestinian Arabs under the United Nations resolution in 1947 in the war. Egypt and Jordan retained control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively. These armistice lines held until 1967.
The fighting ended in 1949 with a series of ceasefires, producing armistice lines along Israel's frontiers with neighboring states, and creating the boundaries of what became known as the Gaza Strip (occupied by Egypt) and East Jerusalem and the West Bank (occupied by Jordan).
Egypt ruled Gaza between 1948 and 1967 and refused, then restricted, free movement of Arabs in and out of Gaza to find employment in Egypt, creating much economic hardship
Between 1948-1967 Israel was continuously assaulted by terrorist groups based in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan
In 1967, prompted by increased attacks by Syria and Egypt on Israel, Israel won control (in the 6 day war) of the Golan Heights, the Gaza strip and the West Bank. It also won control of Jerusalem (previously controlled by Jordan, which wouldn’t let Jews pray at the Wailing Wall/Kotel.
In 1987 Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood created an armed Palestinian branch, Hamas, with its power base in Gaza. Hamas, dedicated to Israel's destruction and the restoration of Islamic rule, became a rival to Yasser Arafat's secular Fatah party.
Since then Hamas has gotten material support and training from Iran, and material support from Qatar (plus its leadership are billionaires living in Qatar). Something to the tune of $11 billion, plus aid money from the US and Europe intended for civilians but diverted to Hamas’ military/ terrorist wing to build massive tunnel infrastructure and arm up.
Hamas aims to establish an Islamic state, encompassing the entirety of present-day Israel, the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria through violent armed conflict.
Hamas’ charter calls for the killing death of all Jews and does not recognize Israel's right to exist.
Hamas exerts total control over the Palestinian population in Gaza. It controls what Gazan civilians say, what Gazan children learn and spreads propaganda and hatred in every way possible, from major news outlets and social media to children’s TV shows in Gaza.
Hamas passed legislation to segregate boys and girls in schools, force women to cover their hair, and ban them from leaving their home without permission from a male guardian.
Hamas intentionally positions its fighting forces (Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades) within and beneath schools, mosques and hospitals forcing the Palestinian civilian population to shelter and protect them, intentionally making their own civilians human shields.
This is a strategy that has been openly shared by Hamas leadership. When Israel fights back the missile barrages, Hamas can then claim that Israel is murdering civilians.
When Hamas returns the Israeli hostages, stops bombing Israel, stops putting its civilians on top of its war infrastructure to claim casualties, Palestinians civilians will stop being killed. This will only happen when Hamas is eliminated, so enter contracts with Gaza/Hamas to provide these, but they have not engaged
Sadly, this is a war that Israel did not ask for but has to fight. It is not chaos; it’s targeted urban warfare much like what the US and its allies fought for 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chaos would have been Israel flattening Gaza.
Israel has informed the civilian population with a week’s notice of where it would be operating. Hamas has not let most of the civilians leave target areas and has fired on civilians that have tried to flee. In previous operations they would warn before they were bombing a building. In this war they didn’t likely because if they did then Hamas would put hostages in the building to have them killed by the Israeli bombing.
They did, for weeks, asked Gazans to move south. They used leaflets, text messages and phone calls
Understanding the geopolitics of Iran vs. Saudi Arabia is critical to understanding what’s happening. Israel and Saudi Arabia (plus other Gulf countries) were on the verge of signing a peace deal that would have de-fanged Iran. The war in Syria is not going well, and despite years of effort, Lebanon’s government is still limping along, meaning Iran (and by extension Russia) is losing power in the region
Hamas’ charter refers to the "problem of Palestine" as a religious-political Muslim issue and frames the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a clash between Islam and the "infidel" Jews.
This perspective results in an absolute refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist as an independent, sovereign nation, alongside a commitment to massacre all Jewish people and discriminate against other minority groups. Hamas’ charter opens with a quote attributed to Hassan Al-Bana, one of the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood, stating that "Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out."
Peace will only be possible when Arab countries stop using the Palestinians as a distraction from their own terrible mis-rule and when the Palestinians acknowledge that they will not get the entire territory of Israel as a sovereign Palestinian state (the meaning of “from the River (Jordan) to the Sea (Mediterranean)” = destroying the country of Israel, exterminating all the Jews and making it into an automatous, Palestinian jihadi country). I.e. when everyone agrees to a two state solution
Hamas will never agree to a two state solution, they effectivey had this since 2005 - it obviously didn't work.