Crash Course in Middle East History

Crash Course in Middle East History

Nationhood and Jerusalem

Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE - 2,000 years before the rise of Islam.
Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible.
Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for 1,000 years, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.

For over 3,000 years, Jerusalem has always been the Jewish capital.
Jerusalem has never once been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. In the 20 years that Jordan occupied Jerusalem (1948-1967), they never sought to make it their capital, nor did Palestinians demand it as theirs.

King David founded the city of Jerusalem 3,000 years ago.
Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

Jews pray facing Jerusalem, wherever they are in the world.
Moslems at the mosque in Jerusalem pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

Arab and Jewish Refugees

In 1948, approximately 630,000 Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

In that same era, approximately 630,000 Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to brutality, persecution and pogroms.

Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of 100 million worldwide refugees since World War Two, these Arabs are the only refugee group in the world that has not been integrated into their own peoples' lands.

The Arab - Israeli Conflict

The P.L.O. Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.

Under Israeli rule, all Moslem and Christian holy sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated: all synagogues in the Old City were torched, and tombstones from the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery was used to pave roads and build latrines. Jews were also denied access to places of worship at the Western Wall, Tomb of Rachel, Tomb of Joseph, and cave of the Patriarchs.