Zionism and the Creation of Israel

Introduction

100 years ago if someone were to mention a country named Israel, a country that was founded as homeland for Jews, people would laugh at the idea. Let 40 of those years pass and that idea came into fruition when the United Nations voted to spilt a strip of land known as Palestine into two separate states, a Jewish state and an Arab state. Thus Israel was born after years of Zionists promoting the idea of the state, the Holocaust, and fighting against the British Palestine mandate.

Immediately after the state was created, the neighboring Arab nations who opposed the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine immediately attacked starting a string of wars after the initial 1948 Arab-Israeli war (Zipperstein, Steven J, and Frerichs, Ernest 12). The location of the state has received unanimous opposition from Arab nations due to the Israel displacing the Palestinian people who no longer have land to call their own and have to stay in an Israeli controlled territory.

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Countries have even supported terrorists until the “collapse of Israel” (Ahmadinejad vows support to Hamas).

The idea of creating a homeland for the Jewish people

Since conception many countries in the middle east have not acknowledged Israel as a country and claims that it has no right to be in existence, despite opposition and frequent attacks at cities within, the state of Israel has shown its ability to maintain and become a prosperous country which success that shadows over their neighbors, showing the right they have earned and deserve.

The foundations of Zionism: Persecution To understand why so many Jewish people were warm to the idea of Zionism was, it is necessary to know some of the long history of persecution that has unfortunately followed them everywhere they went after the Diaspora.

Persecution is basically what founded the idea of creating a homeland for the Jewish people. In Europe the people experienced extreme persecution, it seemed wherever they went, the country would use them as a scapegoat for their problems. In Russia, Poland, Germany and many others they were blamed for the problems of the masses, were forced to live in ghettos, in Russia the Pale Settlement, paid extreme taxes, and were not allowed to own land. While the Jews were usually subject to violence on a regular basis, in the late 19th century the Jewish people in Russia had to suffer through a series of massacres known as pogroms (Greenberg 78).

This persecution started to die down in the early 20th century, in France the people were no longer considered a second class, and in Germany and Austria they gained rights and began to assimilate into the population. This was all true until a new German political party known as Nazis rose to power. Germany had suffered major losses in the last war, and was blamed for WWI. This new party chose extend the blame and the problems Germany was facing onto the Jews. With the blame and the degree of anti-Semitism already being faced, the Jews felt a new degree of persecution.

The “Final Solution”

On the brink of WWII, Nazi Germany began to take away rights from Jews and violence escalated to a new level. Once the war had started in 1939 the leader of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler had decided that he was going to eliminate the Jews of Europe and initiated the “Final Solution”. This solution spawned one of the greatest crimes against humanity. Jews were collected up from all across Europe and were sent to concentration camps to be exterminated or used as slave labor. Over 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust (Rozett, Robert, Spector 213). By 1945 the war was ending and Germany surrendered.

Most of the Jewish people who had survived the Holocaust were now without homes, many with broken families, and were seeking hope of escaping future persecution. Hope was found in the idea of founding a Jewish homeland. During WWI the British were seeking Jewish support for its war efforts; in an attempt the British issued the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration stated that the British supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine (Ciplinski 28). After the war, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the League of Nations divided the land up into mandates, the United Kingdom received the mandate over Palestine.

Zionists believed that the British were not living up to there promises as they appeased the Arabs in the area who felt that the British were giving the Jews Palestine by limiting Jewish immigration into the country. As WWII started to begin, many Jewish refugees fled to Palestine. This caused panic for the Arabs and they started an uprising. The British once again appeasing the Arabs chose to give the control over who immigrates into Palestine over to the Arabs. After the war had ended, all of the Jews who survived the Holocaust were trying to get into Palestine.

After the end of WWII

Many groups tried to force there way in, but found themselves in British internment camps on Crete. The newly created United Nations had to sort it out and they decided that the land was to be split into two states, the Arab states opposed it, and the Jews accepted it, and Israel was created. Why Israel should be a country From an economical standpoint Israel has performed phenomenally well for such a small country. Ever since the creation of the country, the industry and human development indexes were constantly increasing. In 2007 Israel’s economy flourished, the GNP grew 8%, the highest increase in the area (Stein).

Scientists, engineers, and so forth, have made great advances in their respective fields. Israel has one of the greatest military forces in the world; they have been able to fight off outside threats from neighbors every since it the day after the country came to be. Israel can hold its own when it comes to defending itself. From a cultural standpoint Israel showed the ability to do what many cultures and regions have tried to do, but usually fail, and what was done is the rebirth of a dead language that hasn’t been around since 600 B. C. (Hagege 174).

Many languages have come and gone, but few languages leave and find their way back. The Hebrew language was virtually eliminated after the Jewish people scattered across Europe and the adopted Yiddish. If it weren’t for the Zionist movement, the urge to return to the roots of their culture may have never occurred. With the return of Israel, Hebrew found its way back from the dead. Claude Hagege explains this with a little more detail: “Where there exists a powerful human will to breathe life into a language, then revival is possible. The example generally cited is that of Hebrew, evived following the progressive arrival of Jewish communities into Palestine after the Dreyfus Affair, in the wake of the Pogroms of the Tsarist era and subsequently during the early decades of the twentieth century. After the Second World War, when the state of Israel was created, the Jews arrived in a country that had since the 1920’s equipped itself a language: Hebrew. ” Majority of the World Supports Israel The majority of the countries in the world supported Israel 60 years ago, and many still do today.

Take the United States for example, 60 years ago the U. S. supported Israel with money and pull in the U. N. and now the Israeli soldiers train the U. S. Special Ops Soldiers. In Europe it took some time for the support to build up but it did eventually, and they are now some of Israel’s biggest backers. Even countries in the pacific support Israel, including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Reasons why Israel shouldn’t be country The majority of Arabs and Arabic nations support the Palestinians opposition to the state of Israel. The Palestinians oppose Israel’s existence for a number of reasons, but biggest reason is over the land that was sanctioned to them, they never received. They feel that the land is rightfully theirs.

The situation in region after the creation of Israel

Since the creation of Israel only four Arab states accept its existence. There are two major organizations that are for the Palestine, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Arab League. The PLO was founded in 1964 and it was designed to be the, “sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. " (Rubenberg 4). The PLO, which is recognized by the United Nations, seeks the cessation of Israel and to create a state for the 8 million Palestinians. The Arab League consists 22 Arab states that ban products from Israel, and work with the Palestinians in efforts towards creating a state for them.

When the Palestine mandate had expired the United Nations announced the area would be divided into two states. On May 14, 1948, the first out of the two states was introduced Israel. The Palestinians, who did not agree with the two state plan attacked Israel with the neighboring Arab nations. By the time the fighting had ceased, Israel had held territories beyond the borders set by the UN plan. The land that was originally left for the second state, Egypt and Jordan had taken control of. The land that Egypt occupied was the Gaza Strip, while Jordan had the over West Bank.

Israel / Palestine Peace

Without a second state to live in about 700,000 Palestinians either were driven out of Israel, or chose to flee and seek refuge in the neighboring countries (Aruri 56). Israel / Palestine Peace talks Israel has shown its right to exist through the efforts towards peace that they have made. Ever since 1988 when the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist, efforts towards peacemaking have been made between the two groups. Throughout the 90’s, Israel and the PLO worked together to aid the creation for a place that the Palestinians could stay; they achieved some goals such as the Gaza Strip, and cleaning up the West Bank.

In 2002, issues over land arouse and the two resumed to fighting. By the end of 2002, Israel had reoccupied the West Bank. After the 2002 war, it hadn’t been since 2006 that the Israelis and the people who occupy the Gaza Strip fought. To the alarm of many, recently all UN efforts towards an agreement by 2009 have been abandoned due to the broken truce between the Gaza Strip and Israel (The return of blood and anger). Since December 27 2008, after the Hamas launched missiles at towns neighboring the Gaza, Israel and the Gaza Strip have been at war (Barzak, Federman).

But peace efforts between the two have already begun. Starting with a 3 hour humanitarian aid cease fire Israel allowed that would give UN humanitarians the opportunity to enter the Gaza and help the injured. With the progress being made, a 2nd state should eventually see existence. If second state ever sees existence, the odds of other countries that have shown hostility and lack of acknowledgement to Israel, will recognize what the rest of the world has recognized all along, and that is Israel’s right to exist, will increase exponentially.