OK, so you’re interested in digging a little deeper into what makes the Holy Land really tick (some might even say the tick-tick-tick of a time-bomb…). This article gives a short history of Israel, a highlights package if you like, and is based on facts researched – if we’ve drastically erred and something is wrong, please let us know. And if you need more about the history of Israel, we can highly recommend these books, most of which have been read and devoured by this author.
Are you settled comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
A Jewish presence in Israel can be traced back to 3000 BC with the land called Kanaan, populated by Kanaanites, and a certain Abraham, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, known as the patriarchs of Israel. These guys are buried in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Abraham’s descendants managed to unite as a nation in about 1300 BC after their Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Uncle Moses, who soon revealed a certain Ten Commandments.
Over many years the Jews were banished by various conquering empires and then returned triumphantly from exile, only to be swarmed over by Romans in 63 BC. During one revolt in 66 CE, the Jews named their land Israel for the first time. Another revolt (yes, the Jews were a rebellious bunch) in 135 CE saw the Jews barred from Israel and the land was renamed Palaestina (oh, can you spot the latin form of Palestine?). Palaestina became part of the East Roman Empire until 634.
In 634 Palaestina was conquered by the Caliphate (Islamic rulers). This rule was interrupted between 1099 and 1187, when the Christian Crusaders crusaded their crusade through the Middle East, killing Jews and Arabs with religious fervor. From 1187 Palaestina was ruled by the rulers of Egypt. The Ottoman Empire conquered the area in 1517 and it became a province of Syria.
At this point the history trail goes a little cold, until efforts were initiated to establish a sovereign nation for the Jews at the end of the nineteenth century, by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement. Uncle Theo was backed up by the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which plugged the British governments support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. After defeating the Ottomans in World War I, Palestine was seized by the United Kingdom in 1917/1918 and the area became the British League of Nation Mandate of Palestine in 1923.
In the subsequent years, Jews immigrated from all around the world, perhaps most notably from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Violence between Arab and Jewish communities was common. British efforts to keep their Arab buddies happy and restrict immigration were countered by the world’s support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis during World War II. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration.
In 1948, the Jewish Community in Israel under David Ben-Gurion, modern Israel’s first real icon, complete with wild hair, reestablished sovereignty over their homeland. Declaration of independence of the State of Israel was announced on May 14, 1948. The next day, the neighboring Arab countries, who were understandably kind of pissed, rejected the UN partition plan and attacked Israel, but Israel actually ended up conquering more of Palestine than reckoned by the United Nations. Many Palestinian Arabs fled the country, a contentious issue that still plays out today…
Israel made it until 1956 without another war before the Suez war grabbed international attention. In response to Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran, French, British and Israeli forces fought Egypt. Ultimately there were no gains in territory and was followed by several years of terrorist attacks and infiltrations across Israel’s borders.
In what was perhaps Israel’s finest hour, Israel launched the Six Day War in 1967, in response to Egypt’s order to UN peacekeepers to withdraw from the Sinai and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel’s borders. After 6 intense days, all parties agreed to a cease-fire. Israel retained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem. Areas which were to play a central role in shaping Israel over the years to come.
In 1973 Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Although Israel was hit hard the first few days by Egypt and Syria, Israel managed to push them back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped bring about a ceasefire. But Israel’s golden post-67 era was over.
The Yom Kippur war resulted in Prime Minister Golda Meir being succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. In 1977 the conservative Likud alliance won the elections and for the first time Israel had a government without strong socialist influences, led by Menachem Begin. The 1970′ s also saw Israel’s emergence into the international community of culture. Most notably, two consecutive Eurovision contest wins (78-79) and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s conquering of European basketball in 1977.
Negotiations led by Begin in 1979 resulted in the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, including the dramatic visit by President Sadat of Egypt to Israel. This also led to the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai in 1982. In the same year, in an effort to force Yasser Arafat’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) out of Beirut, Israel invaded Lebanon. The PLO eventually withdrew its forces from Lebanon.
The end of Saddam Hussein’s threat during the Gulf War in 1991 led to negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. After the election victory of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, Israel and the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles in 1993; this set out a number of principles, including the transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently signed agreements in 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians. In the same year Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty.
This new era of hope was soon tempered by the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, perhaps Israel’s most heart wrenching moment, bringing the bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Rabin was succeeded by Shimon “2nd place” Peres (good old Shimon, always ready to step in), but he still managed to lose the 1996 elections to Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-of-center Likud. In 1999 Ehud Barak of the more left-of-center Avoda won elections. After further Israel-Palestinian talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel and the Palestine territories in 2000.
For a number of years confidence on both sides diminished and terror struck the streets of Israel with alarming regularity, leading once again to the return of the Likud party, in the guise of Ariel Sharon. His sudden hospitalization led to the rise of Ehud Olmert, once mayor of Jerusalem and since much maligned leader, especially after the failure of the 2006 Second Lebanon War. His decision to stand down in the autumn of 2008 means another new era for Israel.