Israel

Netanyahu is an Israeli. He wants to pursue Israeli interests and wants the US to support everything that Israel does. Obama is not an Israeli and he has a more balanced viewpoint about the conflicts that Israel constantly gets involved in.


From Netanyahu's viewpoint and that of many conservative Israelis, Obama has very little understanding of the dominant political views and ideals of Arabs in the Middle East. From their viewpoint, Obama completely miscalculated the Arab Spring (which many in Israel term "the Arab Winter"), the Libyan Civil War (which has become increasingly unstable), and had limited understanding of how to prevent the rise of Islamist Extremism in Iraq and Syria (which may eventually pose a threat to Israel if they gain control of the Damascus area). Obama's inability to understand the Arab cultural psyche means that he cannot be relied upon to effectively understand what the Palestinian leadership is advocating and what goals they have set. In each case, he has seen Arab developments with rose-colored glasses, which is very problematic for a country that is seriously worried about existential threats.

To give a clear idea about where this position comes from, it would be helpful to remember when US liberals laughed (quite properly) when US President Bush said that he looked into Russian President Putin's soul and saw a good man. This was a gross miscalculation of Russian intentions and policy which resulted in key diplomatic losses for the US. Israel cannot afford similar losses.


First, this is a complicated question. Reports on anti-Obama websites and partisan blogs that Mr. Obama "hates" Israel or "wants to abandon Israel" are false. Barack Obama's support for Israel has been quite consistent, and in line with what previous presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have done.

The problem with Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama has two strands: one is that Mr. Netanyahu has a longtime friendship with Mitt Romney and came very close to inserting himself into the 2012 presidential US campaign, since he believed a Romney administration would be more "hawkish" than an Obama administration. And that leads to the other strand: while President Obama supports Israel's right to exist and its right to defend itself, he is more of a moderate: that is, he does not support building more settlements, and he does support a two-state solution. It is not clear that Mr. Netanyahu sincerely wants a two-state solution. Conservative Israelis got him into power, and he feels that he needs to keep their support by promoting tough and very conservative policies.

After the holocaust, people in Europe stopped their disregard for the Jews and their plight and that is one of the main factors behind the creation of Israel.

There were numerous effects of the Holocaust in building both the Jewish State of Israel and the Arab opposition to it. The following are the three most important of them.

State of Israel: This is probably the most common answer. The Zionist project existed long before the Holocaust. (The first Halutzim came to the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine while it was still under Ottoman control -- late 1800s and early 1900s and Ze'ev Jabotinsky encouraged Polish Jews to immigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1937.) However, after the Holocaust, it became clear to the International Community that the Jews needed a place to exist freely and without fear of persecution where previously this sentiment was confined to radicals in the Jewish community. (Most Jews were anti-Zionist or at least not pro-Zionist before the Holocaust.) As a direct result of the Holocaust, the United Nations convened and proposed the UN Partition of the British Mandate in 1947 which gave Israel a legal claim to statehood in 1948.

Nazification of Arab Nationalism: This is usually glossed over, but the root causes of the Holocaust like the Nazi ideology were important in the development of Arab Nationalism. During the Colonial Period in the Arab World, the Arabs felt that while they were the sons of conquerors who ruled vast empires, they were now humiliated and conquered by the British and the French. This feeling of subjugated superiority matched the Nazi profile and as a result, Arabs began pilfering Nazi doctrine and adding it to their own Nationalist sentiments. This caused Arab Nationalism to have a more militaristic and violent character in addition to giving it a more anti-Semitic character. Pogroms and violent persecution of both Jewish and Christian minorities ensued, especially in nations that had direct dealings with the Axis Power like Iraq. The legacy of the Nazification of Arab Nationalism is still quite strongly ingrained in the Arab World.

Mizrahi Jewish Exodus: Because of the two above results of the Holocaust, the overwhelming majority of Jews who lived in Arab countries were forced out of their homes or felt compelled to leave to avoid further persecution and went to Israel, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, in addition to other regions. The amount of Jews in the entire Arab World in 1945 is over ten times the number in 1975.

Answer 1

Not all Muslims and Jews hate each other. With regards to religion, they have no reason to hate each other; they can even be friends, and many are.

Answer 2

There is a lot of conflict between Jews and Muslims, although it would be an exaggeration to say that ALL Jews and Muslims hate each other. Some get along. The source of the conflict is a dispute over the ownership of the particular territory known currently as Israel, formerly known as Palestine, and sometimes called the Holy Land.

Answer 3

See the links below which provide many of the reasons why there is Jewish-Arab hate. It is important to note, however, that it is a great exaggeration to say that even the majority of each group hates the majority of the other group. It just happens that the minority who do happen to be very vocal. Also, unfortunately, in situations like this, the peaceful majority are virtually irrelevant.

What are the causes of the Jewish-Arab Conflict?

Why do some Muslims hate Jews?

Why do some Jews hate Muslims?

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.

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.

Short answer: you can't know for sure unless: 1) You're a Kohen or Levi

2) You do serious research into your earliest-known ancestors and their records and/or gravesites.

The Tribes of Israel today are the Jewish people. The great majority of Jews today, some 80% or so, are descended from the tribe of Judah (plus converts and descendants of converts). The remaining 20% include Levites (from the tribe of Levi), Cohanim (also a part of the Levites), the entire Tribe of Benjamin, and a small percentage from every one of the remaining tribes. (When the Ten Tribes were carried off into Assyria and didn't return, some of them had already mixed into the tribe of Judah before that, through marriage and through large-scale migration [e.g. 2 Chronicles 15:9]. Also, the Talmud relates [Megillah 14b] that, one century after the Ten Tribes were exiled [and their location was still known], Jeremiah journeyed to where they were and brought some of them back to Judea. Thus, today's Jewry includes a small percentage of every one of the Lost Tribes. [See for example the Talmud, Pesachim 4a.])
As to the location of the bulk of the lost Ten Tribes, because of the lack of a continuous tradition in this particular matter, we can only speculate. Some well-known claims, such as the suggestion that the Native Americans or African Americans are the Lost Israelite Tribes, we can confidently dismiss offhand; and DNA analyses have also debunked such ideas. Other claims, such as that which has been suggested concerning the Pathani (Pashtun), are less far-fetched but must for the time being remain nothing more than a guess.

See also:

Jewish history timeline

Are Hebrews Israelites and Jews the same people?

The Dome of the Rock is located on

the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Dome of the Rock is located

on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
It is located in East Jerusalem that is belonging to the Palestinian Territory.
The Old City, Jerusalem. Upon the Wailing Wall.