Why did Jews move to Israel?

Answer 1

Short answer: because they had been persecuted just about everywhere else they went. Slightly longer answer: because at the end of WW2, they were looking for a place to set up a Jewish State where people who hated them would leave them alone, and at the time, nobody wanted the land that is now Israel, so the Jews moved in. As soon as the Jews moved in, the other residents of the middle east decided that they would destroy every settler of Israel, and haven't given up since. Their problem was, the Jews didn't particularly want to be destroyed, and they have defended themselves, quite admirably I might add.

Answer 2

The Land (Haaretz) was given by God to Abraham and his seed as a covenant land.

Ge 15:18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates. Further in Genesis 17, God promised Abraham the land he was inhabiting at the time, the land of Canaan. Ge 17:7 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Ge 17:8 "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." So where Israel is currently located is but a small part of the land that God promised. Notice that in Chapter 15, it says to the great river Euphrates? That river is currently in Iraq. In short, God chose the descendants of Abraham through Isaac to give the land of Israel; they didn't choose where they were to settle. In Exodus, God moved them back to Israel where they set up a kingdom. The books of the prophets and the kings tell the story of that kingdom.

Answer 3

Israel has been the home of the Jewish people for 3,500 years, and there has been a continual Jewish presence in the land for that long. For many Jewish people, moving to Israel is like coming home.

Answer 4

Jews believe that Israel is their homeland because it has been so for over 3000 years. Israel has never not had a Jewish presence in that time. This is no different than the English considering Britain to be their homeland, Italians considering Italy to be their homeland, Indians considering India to be their homeland, etc.

Answer:The Jewish relationship to Israel is is based upon the Torah, which states that God gave Israel to the Israelites (Genesis 28:13 and many other verses).

Here is a very brief outline of the Jewish presence in Israel:

The Patriarchs and their family were in Israel (Canaan) for 220 years. The era from Joshua until the First Destruction (including the Judges and Kings) was 850 years. The Second Temple era was, according to traditional chronology, another 420 years (not 586), which included the Hasmonean dynasty. That's a total of 1490 years.
After the Second Destruction, there were thousands of Jews who remained in Israel (Judea; Palestine) throughout the Talmudic era and beyond (see for example the Talmud, Sanhedrin 17b). They were the majority of Palestine's population well into the fourth century, with records attesting to at least 43 Jewish communities, most of them in the Galilee and Jordan valley. After that, there were still Yeshivas in Israel with at least some thousands of community-members.
In the fifth century, the Jerusalem Talmud was completed in the yeshiva of Tiberias, by the disciples of Rabbi Johanan; and the Christians of Palestine declared Judaism to be a tolerated minority.
In the sixth century CE, Mar Zutra and his descendants served as head of the community and the Rabbinical academy in Tiberias.
In the seventh century, the Palestinian Jews joined the Persians in a battle to take Jerusalem from the local Byzantines, and enjoyed a brief autonomy, which the Byzantines under Heraclius officially recognized in 628. At the time of the Moslem conquest of Palestine in 638, the Jewish population has been put at no less than 300,000; and a period of flourishing began. Caliph Umar encouraged Jews to resettle Jerusalem.
In the eighth century, there were 30 synagogues in Tiberias. A Jew named Abu Issa brought his forces in battle against the Caliph.
In the ninth century, the Jews of Palestine instituted their own Gaon (leading sage) in Tiberias and later in Jerusalem.
In the tenth century, we have the greatest of the Massoretes, Aharon ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, flourishing in Tiberias.
Contemporary with Rashi (11th century), we have a Rabbi Abiathar and others, who lived in Israel (see for example Rashi commentary, Talmud Berakhot 62a), and large Jewish communities in Rafah and Ramle, Hebron, Acre, Caesaria, Jaffa, Ashkelon and Gaza.
In the 12th-13th centuries, the Palestinian Jews were harshly persecuted under the Christian Crusaders, yet many Jews continued to live in all the above-mentioned towns as well as Haifa, with Judah Halevi journeying to Palestine in 1141, Maimonides in 1165, and Nachmanides in 1286. In 1187, Saladdin invited more Jews to settle Palestine. In 1204, a group of Maghreb Jews arrived; and in 1211, 300 Rabbis arrived from France and England. In 1260, Rabbi Yechiel of Paris established a Talmud academy in Acre.
Since that time, the continual presence of Jewish communities in Palestine (Israel) is well-known and needs no reiteration.

Answer 5

According to historical, religious, legal, and political grounds, the territory of Israel, belongs to the Jewish people.

1) Historically: The Jews have an undeniable presence in the land from at least 700 BCE until 70 CE and this is proven not only by the Biblical account, but from Assyrian Ruins, Babylonian documents, Hellenistic inscriptions, and Roman volumes. Jews had a continuous presence in the land from 70 CE until the present day (even though they were nowhere near the majority) even though they were forcibly deported from the territory. The fact that they survived, as opposed to the Arameans or Hittites who were similarly exiled does not illegitimate their claims.

In addition to the population-part of the historical claim, Jews have physical ruins and cities that are very sacred to them in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Bible. The city of Nablus used to be the Northern Metropolis of Shechem. Hebron was the first capital of Ancient Israel whence Saul ruled and David ruled until he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Even more recent sites like Masada document the Jewish presence and struggle to persevere.

2) Religiously: The Jewish claim to have a connection to the land of the British Mandate of Palestine is firmly grounded in their religion. Jews as early as the Babylonian exiles wrote about returning to the land because God had promised it to them. According to the Pentateuch, God promised Abraham that piece of land. (This promise is even acknowledged in the Qur'an 5:20-21 and 17:104.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) Legally: By international law, the Ottoman Empire took the territory from the Seljuks and Abbassids by internationally recognized conquest. The territory was ceded to the British as a Mandate by the Ottomans as a term of surrender in World War I. (Even though the British had promised the territory to both the Arabs and Jews during the War, neither promise is legally binding.) According to the terms of the Mandate, even though the British were in control, the League of Nations had official jurisdiction. In 1947, the British gave direct authority to the League of Nations' successor, the United Nations, in accordance with the terms of their Mandate. The UN passed the 1947 Partition Plan that gave both a Jewish State and an Arab State the Right to Declare Statehood. The fact that the Arabs decided not to immediately declare such a state does not make the Israeli declaration any less valid. (It is important to note that Palestine did declare statehood on these grounds in 1988, which further cements the legality of this view.)

4) Politically: Jews invested a lot in building the political and physical infrastructure of the land even before they had control. Jews built farms, trained military brigades, created political parties, studied government, and defended themselves. This created a system that was able to repel the Arab Attacks in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, secure expanded borders in the Six Day War of 1967, and hold those borders in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Israelis were actually able to exert control over this territory.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but should capture the sentiment of the question.

Answer 6

• Genesis 13:14-17 And the Lord said unto Abram... "Lift up your eyes, and look...northward and southward and eastward and westward. All the land which you see, to you I will give it, and to your seed forever...Arise, walk through the land..for unto you I will give it."
• Genesis 17:8,18,19 "And I will give unto you (Abraham), and to your seed after you...all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. ...And Abraham said unto God: 'would that Ishmael might live in Your presence!' And God said: 'No; Sarah shall bear you a son; and you shall name him Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.' "
  
• Genesis 21:2,3,12 "And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son...And Abraham...named his son Isaac....And God said unto Abraham...'through Isaac shall it be called your seed.' "
  
• Genesis 26:1-3 "And Isaac went unto Abimelech...And the Lord appeared to him, and said...'Sojourn in this land...unto your seed I will give all these lands.' "
  
• In Genesis ch.25: Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 28:13,14: "And behold, the Lord stood beside him (Jacob), and said: 'I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your (grand)father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are laying, to you I will give it, and to your seed...and you shall spread to the west, east, north, and south.' "
• Genesis 35:9-12 "And God appeared unto Jacob...and He called his name Israel...And God said unto him...'the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to you I will give it, and to your seed.' "
• Exodus 3:7,8 "And the Lord said (to Moses): 'I have seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, and ... I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land...unto the place of the Canaanites...' "
• Numbers 33:51-54 "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say....'unto you I have given the land to possess it; and you shall inherit the land' "

See also:Facts about Israel (and the links at the end of the Answer)

The conflict over Israel (and the links there too)

What a Muslim scholar says

Answer 7

Israel is important to Jews because God promised it to Jacob (Genesis ch.28), the father of the Israelites, and his descendants. Jacob was renamed Israel by God (Genesis ch.35); and the Israelites lived in Israel during the era of the Patriarchs (220 years), during the era from Joshua until the First Destruction (850 years), during the Second Temple era (420 years) and afterwards. They remained a majority in the land for another 300 years after the Second Destruction; and a minority of Jews remained there throughout the ensuing centuries.

Link: Jewish history timeline

Israel had been the site of the First Temple, built by King Solomon; the dynasty of King David; the Second Temple, built by Ezra; and the Hasmonean Dynasty. It was where the Hebrew Prophets lived, and where the Mishna (Oral Torah) was codified. Also, many of the Torah's commands apply only in Israel.

Link: Jewish history in Israel

See also the other Related Links.

Link: Is Israel still protected by God?

Link: Does Israel belong to the Jews?

Link: What a Muslim has to say

Answer 8

Israel is the heart of the Jewish people, and it was their ancient homeland.

Answer 9

Israel is the ancient Jewish homeland, and a symbol of hope and unity for the Jews of all countries.

Answer 10

1) Their tradition states that they have a historical connection to it.

2) The fact that Israel is economically much better off than Ethiopia is also relevant to a degree.