God promised Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan if Abraham left his homeland. This land is known as Israel, it was named after Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. Jacob’s descendants are the Jewish people.Israel is known as the Promised Land because God repeatedly promised the land to Abraham and his descendants. The land is described as “a land flowing with milk and honey,” in the Torah. The desert images we see now are the result of repeated abuse by conquerors that were determined to make the land uninhabitable for the Jews, but since the Jewish people have returned the land and agriculture have shown huge improvement.
From the time of the original conquest by Joshua, 3200 years ago, the Jews have lived continuously on this land until present day. Even though Jews weren’t always the majority of the population and didn’t have political control. Israel is the central to Judaism, and much of the Jewish law can only be performed in the land of Israel. Some rabbis declare that it is a mitzvah, or commandment to take possession of Israel and to live in it. The Land itself is so holy that walking on it can gain you place in the World to Come, is the way the Talmud indicates it.
In daily prayers, holidays, and special events there are prayers for a return to Israel. Being outside of Israel is unnatural for Jews and is referred to “diaspora,” sometimes even as “exile” or “captivity.” After being defeated by the Romans in 135 C.E. the Jews were exiled from the land of Israel and didn’t gain any control of the land until 1948.
Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann founded a political movement dedicated to creating a Jewish state, or Zionism, in the late 1800’s. “Zionism” comes from the name of a stronghold in Jerusalem, “Zion.” This term began to be applied to Jerusalem in general and the idea of utopia to the Jewish. Zionism was primarily political, not religious. Early Zionists wanted, through purely legal means, to establish a secular state of Israel that was recognized by the world.
Theodor Herzl didn’t feel much attachment to his Jewish heritage until the trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a Jewish captain in the French army that was wrongly convicted of passing secrets to Germany. Herzl realized the need for Jewish state after the charges against Dreyfus brought out a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment.
A proposal to create a Jewish homeland in Uganda, Alaska, or Siberia was discussed because the Zionists were so desperate. Unfortunately, Jewish people were only inspired by their ancient homeland that, at the time, belonged to part of the Ottoman Empire (Palestine).
Great Britain began to support the Zionist cause during WWI. In a letter from the British foreign secretary to the Jewish financier, the British expressed a commitment to creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, in 1917. (Balfour Declaration) The British also promised the Arabs their freedom if they helped defeat the Ottoman Empire, which controlled most of the Middle East, at the same time as sending the letter to the Jews. The Arabs were promised that the British would limit Jewish settlement in Palestine just months after the Balfour Declaration.The League of Nations assigned Palestine to the United Kingdom as a mandated territory after WWI. The lands that are now Israel and Jordan were included in the initial Palestinian Mandate, but later all the lands east of the Jordan River were placed under the Transjordan (now the nation of Jordan), a separate mandate. The Palestinian mandate promised the creation of a national Jewish homeland within the mandated territory, incorporating the terms of the Balfour Declaration.
If the Arab lands in the Middle East were under Arab control, most Arab leaders were willing to give Palestine to the Jews. Arabs living in Palestine opposed the idea of a Jewish homeland and the immigration of Jews into the territory. Around this time, Palestinian nationality began to appear. The British began to believe that the conflicting claims were irreconcilable, due to the riots in the territory, and recommended partition of the territory in 1937.
The Holocaust, for Jews and the rest of the world, brought the need for a Jewish homeland into focus. Due to immigration laws at the borders of every country, the Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany were often turned back. Most of the Jews that were sent back to Germany ended up in death camps.
In 1947, the British handed the problem to the United Nations because they were unable to think of a solution that would satisfy the Arabs and the Jews. The U.N. developed a plan that divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab portions that was ratified in November 1947. On May 14, 1948 the mandate expired and British troops pulled out of Palestine. Palestinian Jews declared the formation of the State of Israel and it was recognized by several Western countries.
Arab nations didn’t recognize Israel, claiming that they were “filling a vacuum created by the termination of the mandate and the absence of any legal authority to replace it,” and invaded. Israel won the yearlong war, along with every other Arab-Israeli war, that was to drive the Jews out, and each time they did, they gained land.
The 5 million Jews that live in Israel make up 80% of the total population and more than a third of the world’s Jewish population. Jews are also in political control of the land, even though non-Jewish citizens have the same legal rights as Jewish citizens. There are a few Arab Knesset (Israeli parliament) members.Half of all Israelis are descendants from Jews that have been on the land since ancient times or were forced out of Arab countries after the founding of Israel (known as Mizrachim). The rest are descendants from Jews who fled persecution in Europe, Holocaust survivors, or other immigrants (Ashkenazic). Black Ethiopian Jews that fled the Ethiopian famine in the 1980’s make up about 1% of the population. Any Jew can automatically become an Israeli citizen as long as they haven’t renounced their faith. This has led to continuing Jewish immigration in large numbers. After going a naturalization process, much like the one required by the U.S., gentiles can become Israeli citizens.
The Knesset, the legislative body that governs Israel, is made up of 120 members. Voters vote for a list of candidates that each party presents instead voting for individuals. The number of seats a party receives is based on the percentage of votes the party gets. Governmental business is conducted by coalition building and no Israeli party has ever had the majority of the seats in the Knesset. Minority groups have significant power because of this system since their support is needed to gain majority. The Knesset elects the president and the Prime Minister is elected directly.
Even though most Jews support the State of Israel, there are some who are anti-Zionist. A group of right-wing Orthodox Jews objects the state of Israel because they believe that it is a sin to create a Jewish state when the messiah hasn’t come yet. This opinion doesn’t reflect the opinion of Orthodoxy. Even though it isn’t the theological state of Israel that will be brought by the messiah, most Orthodox Jews support the existence of the state of Israel.