History of Israel, from 1850-present

Here are some essays on the history of the Land of Israel, "Eretz Yisroel".
Essays in italics are still being worked on.

Political Mythology

• The History and Meaning of the words "Palestine" and "Palestinians", which means "Sea Invader"
• Politically motivated mythology of "Palestine"
• Myths of the Middle East
• More Myths of the Middle East
• A Photographic Tour of the Holy Land 1831-1910

Biblical History

• Background: Timeline of "Palestine" 1273 BCE to 1948
• The Land of Israel, map of the inheritance of the 12 tribes
• Jewish forms of Government: the interplay of "Church and State"
• Persian (Iranian) assistance in rebuilding the Jewish Temple
• Non-Jewish worship in the Temple "House of Prayer for all people"
• Traditional Jewish Views on Religious Tolerance
• The Maccabees, Hasmonean dynasty and Herod until 135CE
• Jonathan Hyrcanus and the conversion of Syria and Jordan to Judaism
• Maps of Jewish "holy sites", the final resting places of Rabbis in Israel, Jordan and Syria
• History of Israel, an Overview

4th-7th centuries, The Jewish Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• After the destruction of the second Temple, the Jews fled to Arabia
• Medina, Islam's second holiest city, was originally a Jewish "settlement"
• The Islamic Crescent was originally a Jewish Symbol
• One thousand years of Jewish-Persian (Iranian) alliance, 4th BCE-7th CE
• Himyar - The Jewish Kingdom of Arabia 390-626 CE, decimated by the rise of Islam
• The Byzantine-Ethiopian conquest of Himyar and the beginnings of the Falashah Jewish community of Ethiopia

7th Century, The rise of the faith of Islam

• The Prophet Muhamed, a Jewish pseudo-Messiah
• Islam as a form of Judaism, a continuation of the Jewish Prophets.
• Islamic 'endtimes' theology requires the restoration of Jews to their homeland and Arab assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple
• Quotes from the Qu'ran and Hadith about Jews, Jerusalem and Israel

8th-13th centuries, The Jewish Kingdom of Khazaria

• Fleeing Islam, Jewish nationalists headed to Southern Russia
• The rise of the powerful Jewish Convert Kingdom of Khazaria 786-1237 CE
• Wars between Khazaria and Islam, stopping the expansion of Islam into Russia
• Movement of Khazarian Jews and converts as refugees to the Ukraine in the 12th CE

8th-16th centuries, Islamic conquest and expansion

• Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land (Samuel Katz)
• Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land (Peters)
• The Qur'an (Koran) & institutionalized anti-Semitism
• Religious Persecution of Jews by Arabs
• Throwing Stones at Jews is based in Ancient Islamic Ritual
• Forced conversions in the Islamic conquests
• The forced conversion of the Jewish community of Persia and the beginnings of the Kurds
• An appeal to Moslems of Jewish descent
• Non-Arab and/or non-Muslims in the "Arab" world
• The Islamic claim to the Temple Mount is very recent, since 1930
• The name Al-Quds is an abbreviation for "The Jewish Temple"

14th-19th Jewish Semi-Autonomy, Migration and Expulsions

• A History of the Jews, a list of expulsions for 2000 years
• Rise of European Nationalism: Expulsion from Spain to Chmielnicki massacres
• Messianic hope and rise of Shabbetai Zvi and his conversion to Islam 1626-1676
• Awakening in the Christian world in support of a Jewish Restoration 1830-1930

1850-1920 Restoration of the Jewish Homeland and Arab-Jewish cooperation

• Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, 1850
• Ottoman Rule Map (Eve of W.W.I), 1516 to 1917
• British Mandate Map 1920-1946
• British Administrative Division Map 1922 - 1946
• Palestine was inhabited by a mixed population
• Palestine, a land virtually laid waste with little population
• Bareness and oppression of Palestine due to feudal system of taxes by absentee Arab Landowners
• Joint Arab-Jewish agreement on Jewish Homeland, between Emir Feisal Husseini and Dr. Weizmann, January 3, 1918
• Jewish proposal for Jewish Homeland, presented to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919
• Feisal-Frankfurter Correspondence, further to Arab proposal for Jewish Homeland, March 3, 1919

1920-1948 The British Mandate for Palestine

• Document: An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine to the League of Nations, June 1921, on the condition of Palestine
• Evidence of Haj Amin al-Husseini Before the Royal Commission in 1937 stating Jewish land was legally purchased from Arabs
• The Myth of Palestinian Nationalism, narrowly defined, anti-Semitism
• Arabs in, Jews out: Britain's role in trying to create an artificial Arab majority in Palestine 1920-1948
• British Plans against France, and against the Jews in 1915
• Britain, Haj Husseini and the Arab Riots of 1920
• British Efforts Against the Nascent Israeli State, in 1948
• The proposed partition of Western Palestine in 1938 & The British Policy of Appeasement
• The Struma & The unmitigated policy of the British against Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's war against them
• Britain's Partition Map 1946
• U.N. Partition Plan Map 1947
• Document: Official British Police Report Regarding Jews' Appeal to Arabs to NOT leave Haifa in 1948
• The Arab Invasion of 1948

1948 Arab and Jewish refugees

• Palestinian Refugees, invited to leave in 1948
• How many Palestinians Refugees? inflating the numbers
• Arab-Jewish Refugees, the other Middle Eastern Refugee problem
• Exchange of Populations
• Why are Palestinian Refugees treated differently than all other refugees in the world?
• Legal Background to the "Palestinian Right of Return"

1948-1967 Early Israeli History

• Armistice Agreements Map 1949
• Fedayeen Raids Map 1951 - 1956
• The Sinai Campaign Map 1956
• Palestinian Refugees, unlike other refugees in the world, were denied resettlement opportunities, for political reasons
• A collection of historical quotations relating to the Arab refugees
• History of Jordan, Jordan as Palestine & Two states for two people, Jordan must contribute
• The Communist - atheist - anti-religious roots of Israeli's political "Left"

1967-1984 Later Israeli History

• Position of Arab Forces Map 1967
• Six Day War Map - June 1967
• Cease Fire Lines Map 1967
• Discrediting Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries, Official Arab "Invitation" for Jews to return, 1970-1977
• "Palestinian" as an Arab ethnic group is a modern political creation since 1967
• Palestinians only one politicized segment of the larger problem of state-less, citizenship-less migrant workers of the Middle East
• Who are the Palestinians?
• Record of the United Nations, why is it so anti-Israel
• Jewish Settlements are Legal according to International Law
• Egyptian Attack Map 1973
• Syrian Attack Map 1973

1984-2000 The Olso Years and the rise of Arabic-Islamic Nationalism

• The First Oslo Agreements, 1993-1995
• U.S. House of Representatives: Task Force on Terrorism, 1996
• Al Aksa Tunnel Riots of 1996
• Corruption within the Palestinian Authority, 1997; PLO has $10b in assets
• U.S. House of Representatives: The Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Challenge - Myths and Reality, 1998
• Peace with Jordan
• The Wye Agreement - November 1998
• Sharm Agreement, 50% Withdrawal, 1999
• Israeli Withdrawal from Lebanon, May 2000
• Proposed 80% Withdrawal, May 2000
• Proposed 95% Withdrawal, July 2000
• Israel's Compromise on it's "Red Lines", Camp David II
• Proposal for dividing Jerusalem, Camp David II, Taba
• Relative sizes of areas in Middle East
• Israel size comparison maps
• Graphs of Increase in Terror and Crime since Oslo
• Arafat’s Strategy: Lebanonization and Entanglement
• The rise of Israel's Oriental Jews (Sefardim), Israel's shift away from secularism

Arabic settlement policy in the West Bank and Gaza

• The West Bank population under Jordanian rule 1948-1967
• Draft Report of Arab Settlement Activity in the West Bank (261 settlements since 1950)
• Illegal Arab immigration into "Palestine" - part of Oslo
• Arab Population in the West Bank & Gaza - THE MILLION-AND-A-HALF PERSON GAP

2000-present The Multi-Media War

• Erasing Jewish History, Destruction of the Temple Mount
• The Main Reason for the Present Middle East Conflict: ISLAM not "The Territories"
• Who Started the Al Aksa Intifada? List of events of Temple Mount Destruction in June, until Ariel Sharon's visit in September
• "How PA Violence was planned", Report by Palestinian Media Watch
• Palestinian Authority Communications Minister says Al Aksa Intifada was planned since July (for six months)
• Breakdown of casualties during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
• "Palestinians" killing "Palestinians"
• Who killed Muhammad al-Dura?
• I am a Jew. I am a poet. I am heartbroken
• Document: Israeli Government White Paper on PA/PLO non-compliance
• Document: Israel's Preliminary Report To the Mitchell Inquiry
• Journalists describe constant Palestinian intimidation
• Why Israel Newspapers are the most anti-Israel in the world
• History of Israel's Broadcasting Authority: a Politically Left-leaning (Relativistic, Revisionist) Ideological Entity
• Media Bias: CNN and others are misreporting the news
• CNN, BBC and others in fierce competition for lucrative, emerging Middle Eastern Markets

Muftism, Nazism, Communism and Traditional Anti-Semitism give birth to Islamism, 1917-present

• The new Arab "identity" derives from the impact of the West in the last fifty years
• Wahhabism, the Saudi Arabia-based puritanical heresy at the base of Islamism
• Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem
• Muftism and Nazism: World War II Collaboration Documents
• Bosnian Moslems recruited the Nazi SS by Yasser Arafat's 'Uncle'
• Turning the West Bank into another "Bosnia" (Photo Album)
• The Farhud, the Mufti inspired Krystallnacht in Iraq, 1941
• A "Fatwa " Issued by Haj Amin al-Husseini in Iraq, pro-Nazi coup May, 1941
• The Syrian-Iraqi Baath party and its Nazi beginnings
• The Roots of Muslim Rage: Why so many Muslims deeply resent the West, and why their bitterness will not easily be mollified
• The history of the PLO and the International Legitimization of Terrorism
• History of Fedayeen, PLO, Fatah, PFLP, PFLP-GC, DFLP, etc Militant Palestinian Groups
• Saddam Hussein, nephew of Khayrallah Tulfah, of the 1941 Pro-Nazi coup in Iraq
• Hitler and the Arabs, How could they have missed it?
• A technique of propaganda called "Turnspeak"
• Arafat's use of "Turnspeak" to say Israel causes terrorism
• Yasser Arafat's Biography
  Yasser Arafat worthy successor to Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini
• Yassir Arafat, 1929-2004
• Islamic Sermons on Temple Mount by the grandson of the Haj Amin al-Husseini, 2000

After World Trade Center bombing, Sept 11, 2001

• Al Qaeda Training Manual (United States Department of Justice Website)
• Israeli Government uses PsyOps on Settlers (Government pursuing appeasement of terrorists policy)
• Israeli Government Violations of the Civil Rights Of Opponents of Disengagement (Israel Policy Center)

Other Essays

• Catholic Views on Israel, Dealing with the theological problems of a successful Jewish State, illustrating growing moderation and tolerance
• The Roots of Anti-Judaism in the Christian Environment
• Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

Rabbi Joseph E. Katz
Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst
Brooklyn, New York

"This site is dedicated to many: to the countless thousands whose lives have been lost in Arab-Jewish conflict; to the courageous on both sides whose longing for lasting peace between Arabs and Jews transcends politics"