Israel

The Jewish religion officially started when God commanded Abraham to perform circumcision on himself and his sons (Genesis ch.17). From that moment, Judaism was born.

Another milestone was when God gave the sons of Abraham (through Isaac and Jacob) the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai in the time of Moses (Exodus ch.19-20). That sealed the deal for the "Children of Israel (Jacob)".

The term "Jewish" actually refers to the descendants of the tribe of Judah, who were separated from the rest of the Children of Israel (the 12 tribes) upon the destruction of the first Temple and the start of the diaspora.

Answer:

"Hebrews" (Ivrim) actually means descendants of Eber (Ever). Ever was an ancestor of Abraham (Genesis ch.10-11) and the earliest Hebrews were Abraham's uncles and cousins for several generations back.

You're never going to get a set of "exact" coordinates. The best you can get is

numbers that are accurate to within some specified linear distance, or to within

some specified number of decimal places.

From the satellite imagery available to me, I read the coordinates at the center of

the "Masgid Kippat HaSelah" as

31.77801° north latitude

35.23539° east longitude.

Note that I've located the center of the dome. Any point on its circumference has

somewhat different coordinates.

Since I've rounded to the fifth decimal place of each number, the true location can

be anywhere within about 4 feet of the point defined by these coordinates. If you

need numbers that are more accurate than that, you'd have to either hire your own

land surveyor, or else contact the Palestinian Authority.

It is commonly assumed that the Israelites conquered all of what we call Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River (or even to the east of the river), apart from the land of the Philistines. The Philistines occupied the coastal plains and foothills between Egypt and present-day Tel Aviv. We now know that the coastal city of Dor, and the region between Philistia and Galilee, was continuously occupied by the indigenous Canaanite/Phoenician people until at least the end of the Iron Age. Judah and Israel (and the United Monarchy, if one existed) were inland territories.

There was a time when the Old Testament account of the United Monarchy was taken at face value, with the common belief that the Bible is wholly true and inerrant. The Bible describes the kingdom of David, at least briefly, as stretching from the western (Mediterranean) Sea to the Euphrates River. This is called the 'maximalist' view and is still adhered to by pious conservatives. By the twentieth century, scholars began to doubt the extent of this magnificent kingdom, while continuing to believe that David did rule a quite sizeable Kingdom of Israel that probably exceeded the present boundaries of Israel (including the Occupied Territories). Modern archaeology began to change this position dramatically. Many scholars, even in modern Israel, now believe that there never was a United Monarchy, and that David was at most a local tribal chief within the borders of what would become Judah. Properly speaking, Israel was merely the northern kingdom that stretched south from the Jezreel Valley to the border of Judah, which itself was just a small inland enclave. Properly speaking, Israel only existed for about five centuries, from around 1250 to 722 BCE, and its size waxed and waned. There is a hint in the Bible that at one stage late in its existence Israel conquered and occupied Judah and, if so, Israel was almost as large as the present boundaries of Israel (including the Occupied Territories), excluding the coastal Philistine and Gentile territories and the desert to the south of Judah. At another point, the kingdom included only the city of Samaria and its immediate environs. After the destruction of Israel in 722 BCE, the Assyrians referred to the entire former kingdom as Samaria.

Judah was never really large, but around the time of the Babylonian Exile the Jews began referring to themselves as Israelites. In the First Book of Maccabees, not part of the Hebrew canon but written by a Jew, the Jews refer to themselves as Israelites, even as they attacked the people of Samaria itself. The outcome of the Maccabaean conquests was a brief empire that extended across the Jordan River and north into modern Syria.

The largest single Levantine entity probably existed under King Herod, but he was an Idumean imposed on Jews and Gentiles alike, by the Roman army. It included Judah, Samaria, Galilee, the Gentile coastal cities and a large area to the east of the Jordan River.

Opinion: No!

That is a loaded question that will illicit responses from both extreme sides of the issue. It is a question of opinion rather than fact but I'll dive into this since controversy has never stopped me from saying what I believe. Given the conflict since the mandate for Israel was established and the fact Israel has not acted in good faith because it continually denies the right of return to the Palestinians who fled in fear during the years Israel was forming I would have to answer a resounding NO! Israel agreed to the right of return as a condition of their Statehood yet today Israel emphatically denies Palestinians that right so in my mind the conditions have not been met and the world should revoke State status and define all of the portioned lands as a united Palestinian State.

Opinion: Yes!

There are two operative parts to that question. There is the implicit question as to whether a Jewish State is something that should exist. There is the explicit question as to whether the geographical location chosen for this Jewish State is proper for its mission. Both questions should be answered in the affirmative for the following reasons.

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 Moslems since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Moslems, 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).

Note: The "No" position is incorrect about the mandate to allow Palestinians to return to Israel being provided for in the permission to Declare a State. The UN specifically provided for two state with the intent that these two states would be ethnically pure or close to pure and that remaining minority would be granted equal rights (similar to the Balfour Declaration's idea of the Jews and Arabs living together in harmony). This explains why the regions selected for the Jewish State were exclusively those with large Jewish Settlements or almost no settlement at all. The Palestinians who assert the Right of Return do so under the United Nations Declaration of Rights which is a non-binding recommendation on Member States or do so through Resolution 194 whose implementation, Israelis assert is contingent on the "practicability" and "a desire to leave peaceably with their neighbors" which is unclear in the Palestinian Case.