Why are the Jews trying to take over Palestine?

Answer 1

The Jews would disagree with the framing of the question. They did not want to take over part of Palestine's land, but rather they wanted to return to their historic homeland. It would be similar to the Cherokee Nation returning to what is today northeast Georgia and wanting to create a Cherokee Reservation there. The Jews wanted their ancestral land back; it has ruins and symbols of historic Jewish States, not to mention that it has the bulk of Jewish holy sites.

Answer 2

We must first answer whether or not the Jews took over Palestine. There are three operative parts of this question which must be discussed before any viable answer can arise.

• 1) Who are Jews? This is relatively straightforward. Jews should refer to any individual professing Jewish faith or having Jewish ancestry. If we are to say that Jews performed an act, the act must either have entirely Jewish participation or must have participation of the vast majority of the Jewish community. The Zionists prior to 1950 had neither component. The Jews worked in concert with other minorities in the land such as the Bedouins who openly supported the Kibbutz movement, the Druze whose holy places (like the Tomb of Shuayb-Jethro) the Jews helped to protect from Muslim vandalism, and the Circassians, a Russian Muslim ethnicity that had its lifestyle under siege from the Ottoman Turks and Palestinian Arabs. These groups worked in concert with the Jews to establish what would be a Jewish State with equal rights for non-Jews.

Additionally, there were numerous Arab Palestinians who joined with Jews in a passive way since they were committed to the enterprise of creating a nation of Israel. The Arab community of Abu Ghosh is prime example of just such a Zionist-sympathizing Muslim-Arab community. The combination of the above minorities and some of the Arab majority would dispel the myth that "it's just Jews". Israel is a state with a wide variety of citizens and has a larger minority percentage of its population than any Middle Eastern State accept Turkey (which refused to recognize its Kurdish minority until the 1990s).

• 2) What is Palestine?Palestine, prior to 1949, was never used in the context of describing an actual nation or state. It was a regional term that came from the Roman Province Syria-Palaestina. from the 1500s-1919, Palestine was part of several different Ottoman governates like the Vilayet of Beirut, the Vilayet of Damascus and the Mutasaffirat of Jerusalem. The British Mandate of Palestine was the way that the British merely decided to redraw the lines. While there is certainly a legitimate Arab nationalist aspiration to create a Palestinian Arab State, there never was such a state in the past.
• 3) What does "take over" mean? Take over in this context traditionally means to forcibly assume control of something that was previously controlled by someone else. Since the British, a foreign power, were in control of Palestine, not the indigenous Arabs, the Israelis could not take over Palestine from the Arabs. This is similar to how the United States annexing Texas is not construed as taking over Mexican land. Texas and the United States were states separate from the Mexican population of Texas even though the majority of Texans at the time of annexation were Mexicans. Israelis (not just Jews as explained above) fought the British for the control of a region of land. That land just happens to be called Palestine because of the way the map was drawn.

Result:

As this explains, Israel did acquire the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine as the result of a war that was declared on it. However, this does not mean that Jews took over Palestine if we hold to the definitions that we have already reasonably established.

Now that we have established that Jews did not take over Palestine, we also need to establish why a Jewish State was formed in the region of Palestine. There are two operative parts to that question, firstly the creation of a Jewish State and secondly its location and borders.

1) Why a Jewish State:

Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.

2) Why Palestine:

Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).

Answer 3

Answer 1

Jews originally lived in Palestine when it was called Judaea in the times of the Roman Empire. They got kicked out when the Romans took it over and the Jews stopped paying taxes and doing what they were told by the Romans. They were forced to move to other countries, especially in Europe. After the Holocaust and the rest of the world found out about the what had happened to their race, there was a general feeling of sympathy for them so they were helped back to Isreal. Moses said that it was the Holy and Promised Land when he led them out of Egypt and there is a lot of religious places there, like the city of Jeruselem.

Answer 2

Because whomever controls Jerusalem controls the world.

Answer 3

We must first answer whether or not the Jews took over Palestine. There are three operative parts of this question which must be discussed before any viable answer can arise.

1) Who are Jews? This is relatively straightforward. Jews should refer to any individual professing Jewish faith or having Jewish ancestry. If we are to say that Jews performed an act, the act must either have entirely Jewish participation or must have participation of the vast majority of the Jewish community. The Zionists prior to 1950 had neither component. The Jews worked in concert with other minorities in the land such as the Bedouins who openly supported the Kibbutz movement, the Druze whose holy places (like the Tomb of Shuayb-Jethro) the Jews helped to protect from Muslim vandalism, and the Circassians, a Russian Muslim ethnicity that had its lifestyle under siege from the Ottoman Turks and Palestinian Arabs. These groups worked in concert with the Jews to establish what would be a Jewish State with equal rights for non-Jews.

Additionally, there were numerous Arab Palestinians who joined with Jews in a passive way since they were committed to the enterprise of creating a nation of Israel. The Arab community of Abu Ghosh is prime example of just such a Zionist-sympathizing Muslim-Arab community. The combination of the above minorities and some of the Arab majority would dispel the myth that "it's just Jews". Israel is a state with a wide variety of citizens and has a larger minority percentage of its population than any Middle Eastern State accept Turkey (which refused to recognize its Kurdish minority until the 1990s).

2) What is Palestine? Palestine, prior to 1949, was never used in the context of describing an actual nation or state. It was a regional term that came from the Roman Province Syria-Palaestina. from the 1500s-1919, Palestine was part of several different Ottoman governates like the Vilayet of Beirut, the Vilayet of Damascus and the Mutasaffirat of Jerusalem. The British Mandate of Palestine was the way that the British merely decided to redraw the lines. While there is certainly a legitimate Arab nationalist aspiration to create a Palestinian Arab State, there never was such a state in the past.

3) What does "take over" mean? Take over in this context traditionally means to forcibly assume control of something that was previously controlled by someone else. Since the British, a foreign power, were in control of Palestine, not the indigenous Arabs, the Israelis could not take over Palestine from the Arabs. This is similar to how the United States annexing Texas is not construed as taking over Mexican land. Texas and the United States were states separate from the Mexican population of Texas even though the majority of Texans at the time of annexation were Mexicans. Israelis (not just Jews as explained above) fought the British for the control of a region of land. That land just happens to be called Palestine because of the way the map was drawn.

Result:

As this explains, Israel did acquire the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine as the result of a war that was declared on it. However, this does not mean that Jews took over Palestine if we hold to the definitions that we have already reasonably established.

Now that we have established that Jews did not take over Palestine, we also need to establish why a Jewish State was formed in the region of Palestine. There are two operative parts to that question, firstly the creation of a Jewish State and secondly its location and borders.

1) Why a Jewish State: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.

2) Why Palestine: Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).

Answer 4

The Jewish religion teaches that the "Land of Canaan" i.e. modern Palestine was given (by God) to the Jews on their exodus form Egypt (lead by Moses).

Thus after World War 2 and the horrific Jewish holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis and Hitler, the surviving world Jews felt that they needed a country of their own to be safe in and naturally looked to Palestine for this refuge because of the religious connotations.

The problem is that Palestine was not 'empty' for them to do this and now it is the Palestinian people that feel they have no home.

Answer 5

There are several reasons that Jews want Israel.

1) It Was Historically Theirs: 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) It Has Religious Significance: 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, 17:104, and 26:59.) Many Jewish Holy Sites are in Israel such as the Kotel Hama'aravi (Western Wall).

3) The Jewish Claim Is Supported by Law: 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) Jews Invested In Creating a State There: 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.

5) For Refuge: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe.

6) For a Jew's Spiritual Health: Ahad Ha'am explained that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah.

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

Answer 6

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.

See also the Related Links.

Link: Jewish history in Israel

Link: Is Israel still protected by God?

Link: Does Israel belong to the Jews?

Link: What a Muslim has to say

Answer 7

Jews have been in Canaan/Judea/Palestine/Israel for many centuries.

The Patriarchs and their family lived in the land of 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.

• Link: Jewish history timeline
  

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 collated in the yeshiva of Tiberias, by the disciples of Rabbi Johanan; and the Christians of Palestine declared the Jews to be a tolerated minority.
In the sixth century CE, Mar Zutra and his descendants served as head of the community and the Rabbinical academies.
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 in the land 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 in Jerusalem.
In the tenth century, we have the greatest of the Massoretes, Rabbis 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 the Jewish communities of 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 continuous presence of Jewish communities in Palestine (Israel) is well-known and needs no reiteration.

A brief timeline of Israel and the Jews:
1) c.1950 BCE: Noah delegated what is now called Israel to the Semites (children of Shem) (Rashi commentary to Genesis 12:6).
2) c. 1750 BCE: The neighboring Canaanites gradually take control of the land (ibid) which therefore becomes called Canaan.
3) 1737-1522 BCE: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spread their teachings in the land. God promises this land to them and their descendants (Genesis ch.28).
4) 1272 BCE: The Israelites under Joshua, at God's command, enter the land (Joshua ch.3-4) which now becomes called the Land of Israel. They remain for 850 years.
5) 422 BCE: The Babylonians destroy the First Temple, exiling the Jews.
6) 352 BCE: The Persians permit the Jews to rebuild the Temple. Tens of thousands of Jews resettle in Israel, now called Judea, while others remain in Babylonia.
7) 68 CE: The Romans destroy the Second Temple. Most of the Jews in Judea slowly scatter afield, but some thousands remain. Judea is renamed Syria-Palaestina by the Romans. The Galilee region remains heavily populated by Jews
8) 1096-1270: the Crusades.
9) from 1492: after the Spaniards expel all Jews from Spain, many thousands relocate to the Jewish communities in Palestine.
10) c.1780-1880: The first wave of modern Aliyah, mostly religious Jews, who move from Europe to Israel (Palestine) in the thousands.
11) c.1880 onward: the large-scale Jewish return to Israel gets underway.

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