History of the Middle East

This is a complicated question because the answer is complex and can become inflammatory quite easily. Please bear this in mind as you read the answer.

1) Palestinian Indigenous Rights: The indigenous Palestinians and their descendants are aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember and buy that land from the Ottomans without consulting them. Moreover, these people had a particular agenda to establish a state on the land they called their own. Understandably, the Palestinians, and many of their Arab brethren who support them, are opposed to the Zionist project for these emotional and political considerations. Additionally, the Israeli Military Occupation of the West Bank Territories and the Blockade of Gaza represents a true legal and humanitarian crisis for Supporters of an Independent Palestine and the Palestinian People. To many Arabs, the Palestinians must have the right to go back to their homes (although it is doubtful that they would have permitted that right to the Jews should the Arabs have been victorious in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9).

2) International Legal Violations: Israel has engaged in a number of policies in violation of international law, such as the unification of Jerusalem, the settlements in the West Bank, the annexation of the Golan Heights, etc.. Israel is not reticent for performing such acts and claims that it violates those laws because they are prejudicial to its rights and interests. If other countries did the same, (Iran is a great example), they are sternly reprimanded by the international community and forced to toe the line.

3) Anti-Semitism: This should be self-evident. The Logic goes thus: Anti-Semites oppose any Jewish aspiration to freedom and/or power. Zionism promotes Self-Determination for the Jewish people which is an aspiration to freedom and power. Therefore, Anti-Semites oppose Zionism. Additionally, many people who are Anti-Semitic see Jews as running some sort of international cabal to strip power from everyone else. Equipped with a country, who knows what further havoc Jews could cause. The Arab World is prone to these types of conspiracy theories, making the Protocols of Zion and Mein Kampf bestsellers in the Arab World. There are many respectable Arabs who take these works seriously as historical discussions of Jews.

4) Jewish Reversal of Dhimmi System: The Arab class system during the Islamic Empires had always been very clear. Muslims were of a superior class to the non-Muslims (usually Jews and Christians) called Dhimmi (which means protected ones). This is coupled with the Islamic assertion that once a land comes under Muslim domination that the land should not convert to non-Muslim power. A small minority of Muslim Revanchists make claims at controlling Spain, which was only ruled in parts by Muslims for 700 years over 500 years ago. Israel sits on lands that were under Islamic domination for nearly 1300 years (with a less than a century under the Crusader States). Therefore, many Muslim Arabs rejected the Jewish state purely because it was Jewish. Had it been just another Muslim group, a separate state would have been accepted without controversy, like has been the case for the 22 other Muslim Arab states. But it was intolerable to allow the Dhimmis to set up a state, especially one in which Dhimmis would rule over some Muslims.

Some information on the discrimination against the Dhimmi: The Dhimmi was required to pay a number of taxes that were connected with his dhimmi status. The most famous was the jizya, which was a tax that Dhimmi had to pay for Muslims for the right to not be killed where they stood for not acknowledging Mohammed's Prophecy; it was a form of humiliation. Additional taxes included the kharaj, which was a tax on non-Muslim land-holdings in the Muslim World. The kharaj was so untenable that most Dhimmi were forced to live in the cities where the tax would not be applicable. On paper, a Christian or Jew could testify against a Muslim, but in reality, such testimony was not acceptable and the attempt to "defame" a Muslim would receive retribution. Christians and Jews were not allowed to build new houses of worship, restore old houses of worship, proselytize in any way (this included religious debate or dialogue), or allow wine or pigs to be shown in public.

5) Arab Nationalism: Arab Nationalism as a movement crystallized in the 1930s and came to the political fore in the 1960s. Arab Nationalism is a movement that seeks to create an Arab State or multiple Arab States based on common cultural and historical markers. This movement began to make a tether between Arab cultural identity and Islamic religious identity. This was especially keen in places with large non-Muslim communities because those communities typically worked closely with the European colonizers seen to be repressing the Arab identity. Zionism, which is a movement based on a European cultural identity and a Jewish religious identity was antithetical to the Arab Nationalist movement ideologically and claims territory that Arab Nationalists also claim putting them at odds politically.

6) Islamism: Islamism, the political philosophy that Shari'a or Islamic Religious Law should be the grounds upon which a state is ruled, strenuously opposes any Western-style of government because it does not uphold Islamic moral standards (for example: gays and haram meats are permitted). Israel, as a secular, Westernized State is opposed for this reason. Israel, specifically, is also hated by Islamists for two reasons unique to Israel. The first is that the Jews are the ones in power. In the Islamist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before.

It is worth noting that not all Muslims are opposed to the State of Israel and there are several Islamic arguments in favor of the State of Israel, such as those advocated by Sheikh Hadi Palazzi, Irshad Manji, and Tawfik Hamid. None of these individuals, though, is an Islamist. Of the Muslims who oppose the State of Israel, not all of them are Islamist either, many are Arab Nationalists or have no general political affiliation and oppose the State of Israel for one of the many other reasons listed here. Finally, Islam/Muslim/Islamic is the religion and Islamism/Islamist is the political philosophy; the two are different.

7) Anti-Colonialism: While Arab Nationalism was an anti-colonial movement, the general principles of the anti-colonialism led to a rejection of States based on European values in non-European locations with a large number of non-European (ethnically speaking) inhabitants. This sentiment was felt most strongly towards (South) Rhodesia, South Africa, and what would become Israel. Anti-colonialists believe that Asians and Africans had the right to Self-Determination pursuant to their cultures. However, Rhodesian and South African institutions could and did eventually convert to being African nations (in the true sense of the term) because their racist infrastructure could be reformed. Zionism is by default a government by the Jews and would cease to be Zionist if the Jews were taken out of the leadership position. Thus Zionism catches the ire of anti-colonialists.

8) Non-Jewish Holy Sites: Since the Holy Land does not only have Jewish Holy Sites, but also has Christian and Muslim Holy Sites, there is opposition in these communities to Jews having a physical monopoly and control of these holy sites. Therefore, Arab Muslims and Christians opposed the idea of a Jewish Nation State that could do exactly that.

9) Political Antagonism: If State A has a lot of wars with State B, State A and B will develop a mutual animosity towards each other and their raisons d'être. There are a number of politically independent or partially independent Peoples and States that came into conflict with the Halutzim (Jewish Pioneers in the British Mandate of Palestine), the Haganah et al. (Jewish Militias), and Tzahal (the Israeli Army). This has only increased with the numerous Arab-Israeli Wars, the Intifadas, the Occupation of the West Bank and the Blockade of Gaza, and Israel's acquisition of nuclear weaponry.

10) Anti-Nationalism: In today's world, as things like globalization, cultural diffusion, and mixed ethnicities in major districts become more prominent, the Zionist model of a Nation-State dedicated to one race or religion seems anachronistic. Germany, founded on the same model, now has the issue of integrating Turks (and their children) into the German state, but since Germans always lived in Germany and constituted a majority there, as opposed to being a reorganized Diaspora, nobody suggests that Germans should "return" to a more cosmopolitan type of existence. This is, however, oftentimes suggested by Anti-Nationalists and Post-Nationalists concerning the Jews and their State.

the main rivers of south-west Asia are Euphrates and Tigris. Tributaries of Euphrates are R.Khabur and R.Balikh and those of Tigris are the Great and the Lesser Zab, Diyala and Karun rivers.

Arab Opinion

Because in 1948 something called Nakba from Palestinian History, in this year most of Palestinians were forced their houses lives and lands to live now in refugees in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and other Arabic countries with almost very bad situations specially the once living in Lebanon.

The number of refugees lives outside Palestine estimated with 4 to 6 millions, they are not allowed even to visit Palestine.

Israel didn't stop at that point it keeps taking lands to build Israeli settlements, they are increased day by day due to the large increase of Jewish immigration, and the most important problem is that Israel keeps digging under Al-Aqsa mosque which increase the chance for it's collapse, and because it's one of the most important places for Muslims unequal fights always happens.

Also Jewish only allow people above 50 years to pray at Al-Aqsa. Younger people are not allowed, and so and so on, without stopping.

May god help Palestine, and set it Free soon, to live in peace for once.

Israeli Opinion

The Zionists and others who supported the Creation of the Jewish Nation were finally able to get the International Community to see the entrenched nature of Anti-Semitism in Europe after the Holocaust. This international perspective finally allowed Jews to successfully campaign for a State. When the United Nations was formed and indicated this would be a goal of theirs (the Partitioning of the Mandate of Palestine), a large number of Jews from refugee camps across Europe began to immigrate both legally and illegally to the territory. Arabs, who were repulsed by the idea of a Jewish State, used militias formed to oppose the British occupation and turned them against the Jews. The Jews responded with similarly formed militias and targeted the Arabs.

When the Partition plan was announced, the Jews were not happy with the small piece of land that they were awarded, but figured that some land would be better than none. The Arabs on the other hand refused to tolerate the idea that they would have to compromise at all. Jewish militias returned to defend the Partition borders, but were forced to engage with the Arab militias throughout the Mandate. As the Jewish-Arab Engagement of 1947-1949 became compounded by Israel's declaration of Statehood and the intervening of seven Arab countries, the War got bloodier. As the Arab opinion above notes, not all of the Jewish soldiers behaved honorably and there were numerous massacres of Arab civilians during the Jewish-Arab Engagement, but there were also attacks on Jewish civilians during the same period and prior to (as mentioned above).

Islam

Akbar's court had Navaratnas (Nine Jewels), meaning a group of nine extraordinary people. They included:

Abul Fazl (1551-1602) was the chronicler of Akbar's rule

Faizi (1547-1595) was Abul Fazl's brother. He was a poet who composed beautiful poetry

Miyan Tansen was a singer for King Akbar

Raja Birbal (1528-1583) was a poor Hindu Brahmin who was appointed to the court of Akbar for his intelligence, and became the court jester

Raja Todar Mal was a Hindu khatri and was Akbar's finance minister,

Raja Man Singh was the foremost ablest among Akbar's military commanders

Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana was a poet was

Fakir Aziao-Din was a mystic and an advisor.

Mullah Do Piaza was a advisor to Akbar.

• Abul Fazl (1551-1602) was the chronicler of Akbar's rule. He authored the biographicalAkbarnama. Abul Fazl documented the history meticulously, over seven years, in three volumes, the third volume is known as the Ain-i-Akbari and a Persian translation of the Bible.[1]He was also the brother of Faizi, the poet laureate of emperor Akbar.

• Faizi (1547-1595) was Abul Fazl's brother. He was a poet who composed beautiful poetry. His father was Mubarak Nagori, a scholar in the philosophy and literature of Greece as well as in Islamic theology.

• Miyan Tansen was a singer for King Akbar, born as Tanna Mishra, a Hindu, in 1520, he was a poet himself. He learnt music from Swami Haridas and later from Hazrat Muhammad Ghaus. He was a court musician with the prince of Mewar and later was recruited by Akbar as his court musician. Tansen became a legendary name in India and was the composer of many classical ragas. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab (of Central Asian origin). He was buried in Gwalior, where a tomb has been constructed for him. It is unclear if Tansen converted to Islam.

• Raja Birbal (1528-1583) was a poor Hindu Brahmin who was appointed to the court of Akbar for his intelligence, and became the court jester. Born by the name Maheshdas, he was conferred the name Raja Birbal by the Emperor. Birbal's duties in Akbar's court were mostlymilitary and administrative but he was also a very close friend of the emperor, who liked Birbal most for his wit and humor. There are many witty stories of exchanges and interactions between the monarch and his minister that are popular today. Birbal was also a poet and his collections under the pen name "Brahma" are preserved in Bharatpur Museum. Raja Birbal died in battle, attempting to quell unrest amongst Afghani tribes in Northwest India.

• Raja Todar Mal was a Hindu khatri and was Akbar's finance minister, who from 1560 onwards overhauled the revenue system in the kingdom. He introduced standard weights and measurements, revenue districts and officers. His systematic approach to revenue collection became a model for the future Mughals as well as the British. Raja Todar Mal was also a warrior who assisted Akbar in controlling the Afghan rebels in Bengal. Todar Mal had developed his expertise in Sher Shah's employment. In 1582, Akbar bestowed on the raja the title Diwan-I-Ashraf.

• Raja Man Singh, was the Kacchwaha Rajah of Amber, a state later known as Jaipur. He was a trusted general in Akbar's army and was the grandson of Akbar's father-in-law. His family had been inducted into Mughal hierarchy as amirs (nobles). Raja Man Singh was the foremost ablest among Akbar's military commanders and assisted Akbar in many fronts including holding off advancing Hakim (Akbar's half-brother, a governor of Kabul) in Lahore. He was also the Mughal viceroy of Afghanistan, led campaigns in Bihar, Orissa, Deccan and was also the viceroy of Bengal.

• Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, a poet was the son of Akbar's trusted protector and caretaker when he was a teenager, Bairam Khan. After Bairam Khan was murdered treacherously, his wife became the second wife of Akbar. He is most known for his Hindi couplets and his books on Astrology.[2] The village of Khankhana, named after him, is located in the Nawanshahr district of the state of Punjab in northwestIndia.

• Fakir Aziao-Din who was a mystic, and an advisor. Akbar regarded his advice in high esteem.

• Mullah Do Piaza, an advisor to Akbar who was known for his intelligence.