A guest blogger joins us today to share two fascinating timelines of the history of Israel. More information may be added later...
Israeli History
2000 BC 12 loosely-connected groups of Semitic
peoples (now called the 12 tribes of Israel) entered the Land of Canaan
1800-1500 BC Abraham
established a Semitic population in the Holy Land, of Semitic peoples called
Hebrews or Israelites, who came from Mesopotamia
Some Hebrews went on to Egypt &
were later led back to Canaan by Moses
1000 BC First king of the Israelites was Saul. His
successor David unified the 12 groups into the Kingdom of Israel
957 BC First Temple
constructed by Saul (destroyed 586 BC by Babylonians,) 538 BC Second Temple
Started, rededicated 165 BC
63 BC This land fell to the Romans
70 AD Siege of Jerusalem, Romans destroyed Herod's
Temple, as the Temple was now known.
66 AD & 132 AD Jewish revolts
against Romans
135 AD Romans forced most Jews
to leave, began calling it Palestine, now ruled by Romans & later by
the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empires
AD 600's Arabs conquered the
region, which was now ruled by the Ottoman Turks to 1917
Mid-1800's European & US
Jews formed the Zionist Movement to return to their Holy Land, still controlled
by Turkish Ottoman empire
11-9-17 British Balfour Declaration gave Britain a
mandate to occupy the land, due to the skirmishes between Arabs and arriving
Jews.
12-9-1917 British forces expelled Ottoman Turks from
Jerusalem
12-11-1917 British General
Allenby entered Jerusalem
1919 Paris (Versailles) Peace
Conference created League of Nations & awarded Britain the Palestine
mandate as part of post-war partitions.
1920 Palestine became a mandated territory of
Britain. Periodic Arab riots 1917-1947.
11-29-47 The UN divided
Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Jews were given a thin
strip of central coastline, an inland
wedge of Galilee, and the
barren Negev Desert.
The Jews accepted this. The
Arabs rejected it, being dissatisfied with less than everything.
5-14-48 The nation of Israel was declared and the
British left Palestine.
5-15-48 Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq & Jordan
attacked Israel & their defeat resulted in the Jews expanding their land
holdings
11-30-48 Jerusalem hastily carved up during a
temporary ceasefire. Jews hoped for a permanent peace treaty, but Arabs didn't
accept that.
early 1949 Israel had defeated the Arabs, & controlled
half the land planned by the UN for the new Arab state as war spoils &
protective borders.
The Arab nations signed
armistices, but never treaties, refusing to recognize Israel, hoping for
victory and all of Palestine.
1949-1953 “The Ingathering of the Exiles” by Israel.
Arab Fedayeen terrorists continually cross borders & kill Israeli
civilians.
1950 The Knesset passed the Law of Return
offering a home to nearly all Jews everywhere
10-29-56 Israel invaded Egypt due to Nassar having
seized, nationalized & closed the Suez Canal, and the unrelenting fedayeen
attacks.
The invasion was intended to
re-open the Straits of Tiran @ Sharm el Shek
U.S. Threatens to stop all aid
if “Israeli aggression” not stopped with return to “armistice lines.”
11-5-56 Suez War. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip
and Sinai Peninsula due to the Suez Crisis. British & French control Suez
Canal.
UN set up a peacekeeping force
in Gaza and the Sinai.
1964 PLO founded, a confederation of Palestinian
Arab groups. Russia arming the Arabs.
5-67 The UN removed its peacekeeping force in
Gaza and the Sinai. The Russians armed Nassar with tanks, fighterjets, and
bombers.
Egypt sent large numbers of troops
with Russian tanks into the Sinai, closed Straits of Tiran & blocked
Israeli port of Eilat, essentially declaring war
6-5-67 Israel launched a
preemptive air attack against Egypt, seeing war as imminent and unavoidable.
Syria and Jordan then attacked
Israel. Israel defeated all 3 in the 6-Day War & Jerusalem fell
under exclusive Jewish rule
for the first time in 3000 years.
The U.N. Brokered a ceasefire.
Israel now occupied
Jerusalem, The Sinai, the Gaza Strip, Syria's Golon Heights & Jordan's West
Bank, land invaded and occupied in 1948
by Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
These lines are what some refer to
as “The 1967 Line” seized by Israel in defensive wars, east of which some now
call occupied territory.
9-1-67 Khartoum Declaration by Arab governments: no
recognition, peace, or negotiations with Israel, goal of ethnic cleansing
1969 Yasser Arafat president of the PLO for 35
years until 2004, ruining the Palestinians' chances of a homeland.
1970 Nassar's War of Attrition against Israeli
civilians, border fighting along Suez Canal.
9-5-72 Eleven Israeli athletes murdered at Olympic
Games in the Munich Massacre
3-73 I visit Israel 3-4-73 to 3-26-73 from the
Sinai Desert in the south to a Kibbutz (Moshav) 1 hour by bus and 1 hours' walk
north of Tiberias.
10-6-73 The Yom Kippur War launched by Egypt &
Syria in a failed attempt to take back the Sinai
10-24-73 Cease-fire along the Suez Canal.
12-21-73 Geneva Conference to disengage forces toward
a peace path.
1975 Israel withdrew from
about 1/3 of the Sinai.
7-4-76 Entebbe hostage rescue, 100 people rescued
Entebbe Airport, Uganda by Israeli commandos
1977 Egypt's Anwar Sadat visited Israel and
spoke to Knesset.
1978 Israel invaded southern
Lebanon to stop PLO attacks coming from there.
9-17-78 Camp David Accords, Anwar el Sadat, Menachem
Begin, Jimmy Carter.
1979 Peace treaty signed between Israel and
Egypt (condemned by the UN as they weren't included), effective January 1980
Israel still technically at war
with its other Arab neighbors.
Israel withdraws from the second
third of the Sinai.
6-7-81 Destruction of Iraqi nuclear reactor by
Israeli jets
10-6-81 Anwar Sadat murdered by an Egyptian Islamic
Jihadist because he'd gone to Israel and brokered peace.
4-82 Israel withdraws from the final piece of the
Sinai, leaves it to Egypt
1982 Israel invaded south Lebanon again, to
try to stop PLO attacks from there
1985 Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon,
except for a small security zone along the Lebanon border.
12-27-85 Palestinian guerillas kill 19 people in Rome
and Vienna airports.
12-9-87 to 1991 1st
Intifada uprising in Gaza Strip and West Bank
8-2-90 U.S. First Gulf War began, Saddam Hussein
scud missiles attack Israel.
1991 Madrid Conference.
1993 Oslo Accords, Rabin and Arafat. Without
the West Bank Israel (60 miles wide) would be only about 20 miles wide at its
center
9-93 An agreement signed by Israel & PLO
recognizing each other & for the start of self-government plan for Gaza
Strip & West Bank
10-26-94 Israel-Jordan Peace
Treaty
11-4-95 Yitzhak Rabin murdered at celebration of Oslo
Accords by Zionist Israeli because of his attempts to make peace.
7-11-2000 Camp David 2000 Summit, Arafat rejects
Israeli land give-away offers which had included most occupied Arab lands
9-2000 to 2005 2nd
Intifada following Arafat's refusal of land offer.
7-12-2006 Lebanon War, Israel invades southern Lebanon
for 34 days to stop Hezbollah raids & missile attacks.
6-10-07 Battle of Gaza, Hamas militants defeat
Fatah Palestinians & seize control of the Gaza Strip.
12-6-17 Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel, some call for 3rd Intifada
12-13-17 Organization Of Islamic Cooperation, Muslim
group at summit meeting in Istanbul, declare East Jerusalem the Palistinian
capital
5-15-2018 Israel has been continuously attacked and at
war for 70 years.
