Who does Israel trace its origin to?

Answer 1

Israel has always been the historic homeland of the Jewish people, although the modern state only came into existence in the 20th century. The exact founding of Israel is uncertain, but it probably came into existence about 3,000 years ago. Ancient Israel housed the majority of the Jewish population of that time. After wars with the Roman Empire, the Jews were expelled from the region, and spent the next 2,000 years as a diaspora, spreading in Europe and the Americas, with a sizable Mizrahi Jewish population remaining in the Middle East.

The Zionist movement emerged in the late 19th century, as a result of the Enlightenment in Europe, Jewish emancipation, and the revival of a Jewish national identity among Ashkenazi Jews in response to European nationalism. Through this period and the early 20th century, Jews from Europe and beyond made aliyah (immigrated) to Palestine, increasing once the territory became a British mandate following the first world war. Palestine, as the region had become known, had acquired a large Arab population (the Palestinians) , and had been under Muslim control for centuries, with the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) controlling the territory from the 16th century until 1919, when it was forced to cede it's Arab territories to the Triple Entrente (the Allies). Following the Holocaust, Jewish Immigration from the remnants of Jewish communities in Europe increased rapidly, as did the desire for a national state. The British, trying to resist a civil war esculating between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, announced it would transfer control of the territory to the United Nations. The State of Israel declared independence, and the Israeli War of Independence began.