Ain't no love in this part of town- A very, very brief history of Israel

Before I begin; I would just like to take a moment to thank everybody who has read my blog. I honestly was not expecting this much feedback at such an early stage. So thank you very much. This blog was mainly intended to be a place for me to practise my writing and to be a diary for me to look back on. But to have all you on board for the ride is much appreciated and I promise to continue delivering some cheap entertainment for you all.

This following blog is not the story of my time in Israel. It is instead; a little bit about the country itself and why it's in the situation it is. I am not going to post my opinion in this blog (that will be at a later date). I'm going to try and explain one of the worlds most complex and sensitive issues, happening today, in an easily digestible format. So if your not interested, just close the window. I will be continuing my story after this blog...

Many of you will have seen Israel on the news occasionally. Usually the story will have something to do with war. But what's it all about exactly? Who's fighting and what's it all about? I'm pretty certain a lot of you reading this: A- haven't a clue B- couldn't give a toss or C- 'know' what's going on and have a clear view of what you think about the whole thing.

This is Israel:

Many years ago, back in the times when Jesus and pals were spreading the word of God whilst getting everybody shitfaced on cheap water-based wine, Israel was home to the Jews. In 63 BC, our good friends the Romans rolled up and decided to add Israel to their Pokemon card collection. The Jews weren't best pleased about this and decided they weren't going to take this. The Roman occupation was soon followed by many Jewish revolts objecting to having their country run by the Mario brothers. 

The first of these is called 'The Great Jewish Revolt'. About 300,000 Jews rose up to free their nation from Roman occupation. The Roman's, being true to form, wouldn't just quell this revolt. They would absolutely smash the Jews from being Usain Bolt into something more along the lines of Stephen Hawkins. Hundreds of thousands died at the Romans hands. The Romans then proceeded to destroy the Jews most sacred temple and most of Jerusalem with it.

This led to the 'Jewish Diaspora'. Which is when the Jews left their homeland of Israel and spread out all over this world. This event, that happened 2000 years ago, is the reason we have Jewish communities all over our home nations today.  They wanted to escape this slaughter they were being subjected to under the Romans. Unfortunately for the Jews, things weren't going to be much better in their new found homes. Especially in Christian Europe. The Jew was everyone's favourite scapegoat. In England, King Edward I expelled the Jews from our country in 1290. This wasn't revoked until 1656 when, one of our national heroes, Oliver Cromwell (f*ck the haters) decided they should be allowed to settle in our green and pleasant land.

So for 2000 years, the Jews just wandered from nation to nation. Hated in most countries they tried to find a home in. This persecution and hatred peaked in the 20th Century during the continental rule of Nazi Germany. I'm pretty sure we all know this story. 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in death camps all over the continent. But what people have to realise is, yes, the Holocaust was by far the worst thing that happened to the Jewish people, arguably to happen to any people in this world ever. But this hatred towards the Jews wasn't just the Nazi's. 

The world as a whole wasn't too keen on them, for 2000 years straight. It wasn't a rare sight in medieval Europe to see a bunch of Jews being burnt alive by some Christians for a crime they didn't do. I'm pretty sure if you ask your grandad what he thinks of Jews, he won't have something that positive to say about them. Whilst not as extreme as the Holocaust or other medieval persecutions. It still shows you how long the Jews have been disliked for. Of course, the world doesn't just hate Jews and there is hate being given from all over. But this item is purely about the Jews.

Finally, having enough of this global rough treatment. The Jews wanted a home again. Somewhere they can live in peace and harmony with one another. Without being treated like cockroaches by everyone around them. So in 1897, a fella named Theodor Herzl gathered some of his fellow Jews together and formed the World Zionist Organisation (WZO). The aim of this organisation was to form a homeland for the Jews. The place they wanted this homeland to be was where it all began; Judea aka Israel. What an amazing idea. Isn't it? Well yes...and no. 

After the Jewish Diaspora, the land that was 'Israel' was renamed 'Palestine'. As well, the land wasn't completely uninhabited when most of the Jews left. It was to become inhabited by Arabs who were later to become converts to Islam. It was their home now, nobody else lived there, so why not? Naturally, when the Arabs heard that the Jews wanted to make Palestine their new homeland, they weren't best impressed. Palestine was by now ruled by the Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire), so it was them the WZO had to talk to. Funnily enough, the Ottomans (Muslims) swiftly rejected this offer.

In 1914, the world's second deadliest war broke out, World War 1. During this war the Ottoman Empire were allied with Germany. With much blood spilt, the British defeated the Ottoman Empire and took over many of their colonies. This included Palestine. This opened way for the 'Balfour Declaration of 1917' when the British Government declared: "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".

Which basically means, the British Government will allow the Jews to finally have their homeland. A very naive move some may argue, others believe they did it to win US support in the war as the US had many influential Jews in Government. The reason is irrelevant really. Because the fact is; it happened.

                                    

So now the Jews could finally form a new homeland. Unsurprisingly, the Arabs weren't going to let them just waltz on in. Which is fair enough. It's the same way the native Americans resisted white occupation of their country, or the Celts (Welsh, Scottish, Cornish etc.) resisted the Anglo-Saxon (English) from occupying modern day England. This is the conflict we have today in Israel. The Arabs vs The Jews. The British tried to draw up borders for an Arab home in Israel and a Jewish home. They also put an immigration cap on how many Jews could travel to this new homeland. The Jews didn't listen to this, they were fed up of being treated like scum and wanted a new home. They then started a brutal guerilla warfare against the British occupants. Despite the efforts of the British soldiers to quell the troubles, the Brits were told to stop this and leave by the US. The Brits left Israel in 1948 and the shit was well and truly about to hit the fan.

The moment the last Tommy left Palestine, all hell broke loose. The Arabs attacked the Israelis on all fronts. Soldiers from every nation surrounding Palestine attacked the newly born nation. But with the, not so distant memory, of 2000 years of pain and suffering behind the Jews; they weren't going to give this new chance to be free again, go easily. The moment this war kicked off in 1948, it has carried on until the present day. So THIS is what you see on the news.

The Jews have expanded their borders since 1948. The most significant of expansion was in 1967, after 'The 6 Day War'. This was when Israel pre-empted an Arab attack on all fronts and smashed them all in 6 days. Impressive ay! After this they occupied a lot of Arab land and made it their own. It was after this war that a  lot of the international criticism of Israel begun. There have been many wars after this, but I shan't go into detail on them. If your interested, then Wikipedia is the one. So now, the Palestinians are living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank (check 1st map, dark shaded areas). The Israeli's have the rest. 

I have my own opinion on all this. But you will hear this as I go through my story another time. I have tried to be unbiased as possible in this and just state the facts of what has happened. I apologise to those who have a deep knowledge of the subject, I am just trying to give a bite size history of it all. I have missed out A LOT. But I know a lot of you don't care much about history etc. so I've tried not to bore you too much! This is it for the history lesson. I hope some of you have learnt something new. It's important you know the foundations of it all, my future blogs will make a lot more sense to you. More importantly though, it's good to know about this topic as it's one of the major issues on our planet today. Thanks for listening. Knowledge is power my friends.

p.s. Sorry for if there's typing errors but I never double check my work.  I will be back to my story tomorrow!