History of Israel

While the state of Israel was formally established on May 14th, 1948, the history of its nation and its people can be dated back thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The Israelites were travelers, nomads so to speak, and were rarely established in one region or another up until the mid 20th century. The history of the Israelites, also known as the Jewish people, is extensive, dating back almost 4,000 years ago. Abraham, referred to as the founding father of the Jewish people, was believed to have been a prophet called upon by God some 1,800 years before the arrival of Jesus Christ. He was to share the knowledge to the Israelites that there was but one God, and that they were to pray to and honor this God unconditionally. This epiphany, gave way to the belief in monotheism among the Jewish people, which consequently separated them from the majority of other cultures and religions at that time. After accepting this monotheistic view, the Jewish people were looked down upon throughout the Middle-Eastern, Asian, and European regions of the world (which were predominately polytheistic). They were tortured, ridiculed, and eventually enslaved- most notoriously by the Egyptians. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people worked under the supervision of the Egyptian Pharaohs, until they were eventually freed by Moses, another prophet called upon by God to deliver his people from the land of Egypt. It is believed that this deliverance occurred around 1300 years before the birth of Christ, which then gave way to the wandering of the Jewish people for 40 years throughout the Middle-Eastern deserts until they eventually stumbled upon the land now known as the Land of Israel- which was promised to the Jewish people by God. The prophet Moses was also responsible for introducing the Jewish people to the Ten Commandments as well as the Torah (which in the Christian Religion is the Old Testament of the Bible). Both the Torah and the Ten Commandments remain vital parts of Jewish law in today’s society, as well as the basis of the Jewish religion, Judaism.
From the year 1000 B.C. to around 580 B.C., Israel was a successful nation ruled by many kings. Its capital of Jerusalem had been established under the reign of King David, while the first Jewish temple was built by David’s son and predecessor, King Solomon. The Nation of Israel seemed to have finally found stability, until Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army arrived in 587 B.C., destroyed the Jewish temples, and ultimately captured Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. This marked the end of Israel’s stability for the next 2,500 years. The Babylonians lost this region to the Persians, the Persians lost this region to the armies of Alexander the Great, Alexander lost this region to the Romans, the Romans to the Byzantines, the Byzantines to the Arabs, Arabs to the Crusaders, the Crusaders to Mamluks, the Mamluks to the Ottomans, and finally, the Ottomans to the British Empire, which brings us to the year 1917. Up until this time, the Jews were again enslaved, tortured, ousted from the Middle-Eastern region, and ridiculed by the majority of their enemies. Their temples were destroyed, and Mosques, Palaces, and Castles were built in their place. Finally, on May 14th, 1948, the British Empire decided a homeland was owed to the people of Israel. After wandering aimlessly under oppression for thousands of years, the Jewish people were allotted the Land of Israel inside the Palestinian nation, which has now been divided into two nations- Jordan and Israel.