How did Isreal ever come into existence? How can you take a chunk from an existing country (Palestine)?

Question

I never understood this in history. I can't imagine someone taking a chunk involuntarily out of an existing state and giving it to some group. Why has Palestine not had a fixed border or running government?

Answer 1

Basically Palestine has never been a seperate country. It has always been part of Muslim empires, most recently the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

After World War 1, The UK and France got a considerable amount of Arab territory from the Ottoman Empire collapse.

From these terrotories several nation states emerged including Iraq and Jordan.

Jews were allowed to immigrate to Palestine because the Jews at that time had no homeland and Palestine had religious and cultulral siginficance for them as a nation.

During and after World War Two, large amounts of Jews emigrated to Palestine. The British tried to stop this. The Palestinians sided with the Nazis, who ironically also wanted the Jews to emigrate to Palestine.

Anyway the British tried to split the land into two for Jews and Arabs. Arabs rejected this as they felt the deal was unfair.

Israel then declared its independence. Arab states attacked and Israel won. That is how Isreal ended up with lots of land and how the Palestinians are mostly refugees.

The created of a Palestinan state has been delayed for various reasons, mainly Palestinian terrorist groups,right wing Israeli goverments and inability to heal religious divisions.

Answer 2

It was quite straight forward and Palestine was a British protectorate, with about 600,000 Jews by 1939. I believe. It is the inability of some to accept the present reality, that leads to so much unrest in the area. When that acceptance happens, then maybe there will be a Palestinian state. You seem to forget that the Jewish state is a valuable allie of the US, and other countries. The Palestinians have few allies to speak of, though they get a lot of " lip service " You need to come into the real world.

Answer 3

Without trying to get involved in thousands of years of Middle Eastern history/turmoil/war/etc here(as Robert and Jon have done an excellent job explaining above me), or trying to argue for or against the "legitimacy" of "creating" Israel after WWII, think of this. Pretty much the whole history/creation of nations like the US, Canada, Australia, etc. was based on taking over complete "nations" of the various original peoples that had lived in these places for thousands of years(let's see- the Spanish, French,English Russians,Dutch,etc all had claim to various parts of the US as well at some point in history); the various tribes/nations that lived in the Americas also fought continuously with one another for lands, resources, etc. for centuries before European settlers ever stepped foot in the New World. African tribes also fought continuously with one another South of the Sahara while the Northern African nations/empires fought with another and/or European nations/empires for land, resources, etc. (Trojan War? Greek states versus Troy? Punic Wars? Rome versus Carthage?). Everything I've ever learned about history, especially European/US History (although the same is true from the Mid Eastern History, Asian History, North American and Latin American History I have studied) is that it has involved one group, clan, tribe, nation, or, empire, trying to take land resources, etc to increase their power at the expense of their neighbors and rivals. Various other nations have also been totally eliminated or artificially given birth countless times (not too mention how many times nations borders have drastically been changed) following wars (I guess the creation of an East Germany would be as obvious example as any; Russia/Soviet Union/Russia is perhaps my favorite example). Study some history, geography (I could suggest looking at Europe following WWI, WWII or even earlier- even in the MidEast and Asia)(I could point out that the country of Panama never existed until the US wanted to build a canal there early last century and encouraged revolution in Columbia to gain access to this region for building the canal), etc and you will see nations are born and wiped off the map constantly- Israel is really nothing new or special in that regard.

Answer 4

I am a little weak on the recent history also. I believe that God gave Israel (the promised land) to his chosen people back in the time of Moses. Since then it has slipped through their fingers several times because of their sinful ways. Different tribes settled in different areas. Wars were fought. Property changed hands many times. I am way unclear on everything that happened but, I am sure that a careful study of the Old Testament would answer your question.