If you really want to deeply understand the conflict you have to study the two religions. Judaism and Islam. They both claim the same origins. Abraham, they both claim, is the father of them all. Same for Christianity, but since the question is about the Israeli (mostly Jews) vs Palestinian (mostly Arab Muslims) we’ll just address the two religions.
And it is a war between two religions and groups of people. If this war had been between the Saudis and the Houthis, or between the Iranians and Iraqis, or the Turks against the Kurds, or Pashtun against the Hazara, or a war between the Jordanians Bedouins vs the Palestinians and tens of thousands of Muslims got killed etc, it wouldn’t have attracted so much attention. Check out those conflicts tens of thousands more have perished. But when the Jews fight back, oh my. Aren’t some people unhappy? How dare those Jews fight back /sarcasm.
Judaism was the Jewish religion created roughly 3,200 years ago. They attribute it to their founder Abraham, a man from Ur in Mesopotamia, ancient Iraq. He believed God appointed him to be the leader of many nations and that his land was in this place now known as Israel.
From the Bible: Genesis chapter 12: the calling of Abraham.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
His wife was Sarah but she was initially unable to conceive. So she passed Hagar, her servant girl from Egypt over to Abraham. It was their version of a surrogate pregnancy. They had sex and Hagar gave birth to a son who was called Ishmael.
Much later, Sarah gave birth to a son and he was called Isaac. It was considered a miracle because Sarah was very old and thought to be beyond the age where women could conceive.
Ishmael bullied Isaac and Sarah got upset and expelled Hagar and her son from the house.
Abraham believed that God would bless him through Sarah’s son and he blessed Isaac, passing on what he believed was God’s blessings over to him.
Ishmael was blessed too but he was not considered part of Abraham’s and God’s plan (according to the Jews).
The Jews trace their lineage from Isaac, the son of Sarah.
The Arabs/ Muslims believe their lineage is through Ishmael, the son of Hagar.
Both of them are Abraham’s sons. But from different mothers. Both Jew and Muslim agree on this. But.
And this is the crux of the debate. Who is the inheritor and rightful heir of Abraham’s blessings?
So the Jews think they are blessed because of Isaac whom they believe was the rightful chosen son of Abraham. But the Muslims/ Arabs have a different opinion as Ishmael was the first born. It’s a sad dilemma that has fatal repercussions to this day.
The Muslims believe their beliefs are the absolute truth. And willing to fight and die for it. The others are infidels deserving of death and enslavement. They are so committed to their religion that they are eager to convert the whole world to their religion by violence if necessary.
Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.
But don’t worry about it , Muslims assure us they are a religion of peace.
The Jews were a small nation and they suffered destruction several times. Surprisingly they always seem to bounce back.
Roughly 2,600 years ago, the Babylon Empire invaded and destroyed Israel and deported their population but the Jews eventually returned back
Then 600 years later, about 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire conquered and destroyed the nation of Israel and also killed or enslaved and deported the population.
Jewish prisoners and the loot ransacked from Israel was used to construct the famous Colosseum in Rome.
Thanks in part to the Roman Empire, the survivors were spread all all the world, most of them ended up in Europe.
Meanwhile, another religion was formed.
Fast forward a thousand years or so and an Arab warlord claimed to have visions from an Angel and created what is known as Islam today. He had a different version of the Abraham story and said Ishmael was the rightful inheritor of Abraham’s blessings and not Isaac.
He promoted his religion using the point of the sword. People who did not believe in his idea were executed and enslaved. He took particular exception to the Jews who refused to accept his version of Abraham’s story. One of his wives was a Jewish woman who he had abducted after he killed her husband and children. Take your time to think about that.
The warlord and his followers were warlike. Unlike the Jews who were happy to just stay in Israel. These other people wanted to convert the world to their new religion using violence if necessary.
Islamic armies later on conquered a lot of territory, advancing into North Africa, and even advanced into Europe. They conquered Spain and advanced into the Balkans. They tried to invade Austria and Italy. There was also a popular trade in the Muslim world of enslaving women into sexual slavery, white female slaves were particular popular. You don’t hear the Metoo or lefty groups saying anything about that.
Painting of a white female slave in the Middle East.
The Arabs killed and enslaved Africans and Europeans. You can read up about the horrendous history of slavery in the Middle East. It wasn’t just white Americans who enslaved black Africans. The Arabs did it too happily for thousands of years. Slavery was officially banned in Saudi Arabia only in the 1960s. Some of them still enslave the unwary and unfortunate today.
Photograph of a female slave auction in the Middle East in recent times.
Green part represents conquered Islamic territory in the 6th century AD.
Istanbul, Egypt, Syria, etc… were once Christian territory - but the Christian population there were killed, enslaved or forced to convert to Islam.
It sort of sucks if your founder Jesus Christ preached mercy and turning the other cheek to the enemy, going to the extra mile for them and essentially being a simp. Love conquers all Jesus preached. And he got crucified for it.
Jesus Christ: You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Bible, Matthew 53
Good on you, Jesus.
Meanwhile, the other guy was preaching a different more violent message. This debate over who is right or left is still ongoing. And the Christian side is losing badly. the Christian nations had the opportunity to convert the Middle East back to Christianity in the 19th and early 20th century when they had overwhelming military might but they weren’t very keen about it and preferred to fight amongst themselves instead.
And now, the number of Christians are getting smaller. The number of Muslims are growing exponentially. More mosques are built in Europe than in the Middle East. Don’t worry, its probably nothing.
Followers of the religion of peace in a peaceful demonstration in a Western Christian country.
Who remembers that Istanbul was once Constantinople, the capital of Orthodox Christianity? It was created by Emperor Constantine who established Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire and eventually became the state religion for Europe. Constantinople had been the important Christian city for a thousand years and then catastrophe befall the Christians living there. What happened to the Christian majority population there? I guess they somehow disappeared like the one million Armenians living in the region too, eh?
Meanwhile in modern day Europe…. don’t worry about it, its probably nothing.
Meanwhile, the Jews had been spread all over the region due to persecution by the Christians, Arabs, and everyone else. Christians in Europe used to kill the Jews whom they blamed for everything. England would kill them, Spain would kill them, France would regularly kill them, the Poles would kill them, the Russians favourite past time was killing Jews, it was the European’s habit to kill the Jews whenever anything went wrong. Many of them ran to Germany which was safe for awhile until Hitler showed up. Coincidentally, during this entire time Europe suffered from two thousand years of constant bloody warfare.
You might not think much of this “blessings of Abraham” that the Jews claimed they received. But check out the top list of rich people, bankers, scientists, musicians, doctors, entertainers, etc.. and you will find Jewish people at the top listings. For a small ethnic population size, they certainly have a huge impact on all important fields. Why’s that? Just another random coincidence?
By all accounts, the Jews should have been wiped out a long time ago or pushed toward utter irrelevance like the fate of many small ethnic minority groups. They suffered continuous massacres everywhere they went (except for America and China). But they survived while their perpetrators did not. The Babylon Empire was destroyed, the Roman Empire was crushed, the Russian Empire collapsed, the last Tsar was executed 100 years ago, Hitler attempted to kill all the Jews and he nearly succeeded but the Nazis were defeated, he shot himself, and their cities turned to ash in scenes reminiscent of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Just a coincidence of course.
Hitler’s capital, Berlin 1945.
I try and not be superstitious but it is strange how people who try to annihilate the Jews get destroyed in the end. It seems someone is watching over them. Slow to act, but inevitably it happens.
Of all the countries that the Jews settled in large numbers, only America was the most welcoming. There, they didn’t suffer from the pogroms in Middle East and Europe. And America prospered. Some people will say its pure coincidence.
Anyhow back to the question.
After WW2, many Jews decided to return back to their original homeland. There already had been a push by Jews to return back Israel due to the persecution they suffered in Europe in the previous centuries. There were already half a million Jews in Israel before 1947. Even after WW2, Jews were being killed in Europe due to extremists.
Many Jews had already purchased land in Israel then called Palestine by the British Empire. And there were Jews already living there for hundreds of years.
But the British didn’t want to allow the Jews from Europe to return and tried to block them from returning. The British controlled the area because they defeated the Ottomon (Turkish) Empire who had control over the area. British diplomacy also gave vague promises which infuriated both the Arabs and Jews. Soon after, the British Empire also collapsed. It’s just a coincidence.
The United Nations eventually decided to grant the Jews their own nation in 1947. Around the same time Pakistan was formed by dividing India to placate the Muslim community there.
The Arabs should have agreed to this deal because the land that the Jews had, mostly bought from the Arab landowners, wasn’t that great.
But their disagreement goes back to the ancient idea of who is the rightful inheritor of Abraham’s blessings. Isaac or Ishmael?
And it wasn’t a pleasant feeling for the Muslims to entertain the notion of Israel returning back. It might cast doubt on their religious belief that Ishmael was the chosen one. To run in their dominance over the Jews, the Muslims even went and built a mosque over the ancient temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the holiest site for the Jews. I heard they are building mosques over Christian churches in Europe supported by Saudi money. How many churches are being built in Muslim lands? How many Muslim nations are ok with Muslims who renounce their faith and become atheists or Buddhists or something else? Take your time to think about it.
In 1947 after the UN had officially declared the return of the state of Israel, the Arab Muslim nations decided to wage war on Israel and exterminate it. Obviously because Islam is a religion of Peace.
By all accounts, the Arab nations should have annihilated the newly born Jewish nation. The Arabs had the weapons. They had well trained armies. They had the numbers. And they have Allah on their side.
It was Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon VS Israel. And they had Allah (God) on their side! How could they not lose?
The Jews were mostly recent refugees who were poorly armed. The Jews had to beg, borrow or steal their weapons because the British Empire preferred to give the weapons to the Arabs. The British elites harboured an ancient dislike for the Jews.
The Jews would create film companies in Europe so that they could stage fake WW2 movies and buy surplus war equipment from the West to stage these movies and then fly the other way to Israel with the weapons and planes.
(Israeli soldiers, 1948)
Facing them were the Arab states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, etc.. their enemy was more numerous. And of course Allah was on their side.
(Arab soldiers, 1948)
Strangely enough, the Jews somehow defeated all the Arab nations and they haven’t gotten over this.
The Jews didn’t have a choice. They either fought or they would get killed. For most of the Arab nations, if they lost the battle they could just go back home to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan etc.. The Jews however had no choice.
The Arabs tried to wage war a few more times but they got defeated each time.
Each time it was the same scenario, the Arabs would build up their military strength, threaten to annihilate Israel. Imagine if a gang appeared outside your front door and threaten to rape and murder your entire family. What would you do? Sit back and think of Jesus? So the Jews fought back and predictably, their enemy cried for mercy and blamed the war on Israel.
“We have offered them [Arabs] a sensible way (for peace) for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat (the Egyptian premier) woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, "Save me!" He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (leader of USSR, 1960 -1982)
This doesn’t include the numerous terrorist attacks Israel had to endure. The Soviet Union decided to support the Arab armies, sending tons of weapons, missiles, tanks, fighter jets and then the USSR collapsed. Probably just another strange coincidence. And Israel grew in power.
Israel is now the world leader in agri-science, medical, computer tech and the list rolls on.
The Arabs have Dubai and boast an impressive number of gold plated cars and palaces using their oil money. I heard there is a push to phase out oil as a major fuel source but don’t worry there’s still plenty of gold in Saudi Arabia.
One comment about the descendants of Ishmael. They indeed are blessed. You might have noticed every land which is controlled by Muslims somehow is blessed with oil. Even far off Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei!
Meanwhile Israel, the land of the Jews, is one of the few places in the Middle East which has no oil. nada. NO OIL!!!! Moses their leader had them walking around in the desert for 40 years on a trip that should have taken 7 days and ended up in a land which had no oil. Some say God in his wisdom didn’t give them land with natural resources like oil but blessed them in other ways. lol.
(Apple recently reached the trillion dollar mark.)
Photo from the movie Stars Wars. The two leading characters Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford have Jewish ancestry. George Lucas, the creator of SW, is also a Jew. Don’t forget it’s Just a coincidence that the best and brightest have Jewish ancestry.
Anyhow, after the Arab nations declared war on Israel, the Arabs who used to stay in Israel had fled the country because they expected the Arab nations in 1947, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, to steam roll into Israel and kill every single person or Jew they could find and they wanted to be out of harm’s way when that happened. Allah (God) was on their side, how could they not lose?
The people who fled call themselves Palestinians. Did you know Gaza was once Egyptian territory? Why won’t they take it back?
The other Muslim countries in the Middle East also had Jews staying in their land. From Algeria to Iran, the Muslim governments and population expelled or killed the Jews who were staying in their lands in 1948. 800,000 Jews were forced out. In places like Libya, their citizenships were revoked and they were pushed out of the country or killed.
(Jewish refugees fleeing from Yemen, 1948)
Most of them ran to Israel for safety. And Israel granted them citizenship. There were even Jews in Ethiopia who fled from the civil war there to Israel.
Photo of an Israeli Jewish female soldier
The Palestinians ran to other Muslim nations. Notably Jordan which occupies a significant section of Israel’s historical territories. But they were mostly denied citizenship in their resident countries.
The Palestinian leaders repaid their kindness and tried to kill the King of Jordan a few times and take over the country. King Hussein got fed of this and bombed the Palestinians killing tens of thousands of them and expelled many more.
The Palestinians led by their leader Yasser Arafat, supported Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait. Surprisingly, Kuwait expelled a lot of them afterwards. Apparently, Kuwait is still a big supporter of the Palestinian cause, from a distance….
The Palestinians went to Lebanon and started a Civil War there. That country once a Christian majority nation and considered the gem of the Middle East, is still in chaos to this day.
The Saudi Arabians say they support Palestinians but you’ll be arrested if you wave their flag in the Saudi Kingdom.
I think they also caused some trouble in Egypt which is why Egypt has erected a massive wall to block the Palestinian people from Gaza entering their land. Egypt is reinforcing the wall as we speak.
For people who don’t understand what a wall is for - it is to keep out people you don’t want from entering into your property. You can understand why Israel has a wall but why does Egypt have a border wall with Gaza?
A wall even Donald Trump would envy
Anyhow the Palestinian people receive a lot of aid from the Muslim nations. Even Indonesia sends aid. But it does them little good. The Palestinian leaders use the money to gild their bank accounts in Europe and live lives of luxury in Dubai or Qatar. And the other money they use to buy crude weapons to “kill the Jews”.
The Palestinians refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. And they want to kill all the Jews or throw them into the sea to disappear somewhere. They teach their children to kill the Jews. You can check out their children’s tv program. While on Sesame Street, children are taught to count to ten by monster puppets, Palestinian children are taught to count the number of things they hate about the Jews.
It sounds like an awful joke but its reality. So the Palestinians want to kill all the Jews in Israel so the Palestinians can have their one state final solution.
If you don’t believe me, just google the interviews made with Palestinians and many Muslims, they all want one thing : a bloody termination of the state of Israel. They refuse to acknowledge the right of the Jews to their ancestral homeland.
(Gal Godot is an Israeli film actress; she served in the Israeli Army as part of her National Service)
Its hard to bargain with people who want to kill you. And it won’t get better. The population of Gaza grew from 265,800 to 2,100,000 in 2023. Each family has five to ten children. They practice no birth control. Half of them live in poverty. And their govt leaders are using the aid money to gild their bank accounts in Europe and to buy crude weapons to attack Israel and kill more Jews.
Its just going to end in blood and tears. Just remember, everyone who tried to exterminate or harm the Jews somehow ended up worse off.
It doesn’t depend on the context, it is an uncanny historical fact. Probably just an incredible coincidence lol. You can say all the nasty antisemitic stuff and try and harm Israel and the Jews but really bad stuff eventually happens to you and your descendants. Probably just a coincidence eh?
In Asia we call it karma. Other people describe it as the Wrath of God.
So don’t do it!!!! Of course, many of you won’t believe this. Well then, good luck; you’re going to need it. Like Hasan from Turkey here.
Hasan Bitmez, a Turkish lawmaker suffered a heart attack and collapsed in Parliament seconds after a speech proclaiming Israel would face "the wrath of Allah".
Probably just a coincidence.
Sending him #thoughtsandprayers for a swift recovery. I’m sure he’ll be fine.
Remember, it’s just a coincidence, don’t worry about it.
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