Why does Israel exist?

Question

In 1947 when Israel was declared a state the guilt of the Holocaust was still relevant. The idea of a Jewish state is only mentioned in the Torah, that has never existed. Israel is a construct of the Askhenazi and American Jews. They made a country out of nothing. I am a Catholic so have a great deak invested in this!

Answer 1

A land of their own was promised to them by God.

Answer 2

Beyond the traditional scriptural references to God and prophesy concerning the restoration of a Jewish state after it's destruction by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and finally the decimation of the Temple during the Jewish war with Rome, I tend to focus on your statement that 'they made something from nothing.'
What existed there after the fall in antiquity and the establishment of the new state in 1947? A new world empire? A centre of commerce? Pretty much nothing besides Bedouin nomads and small tribal communities with precarious claims to territory.
I wonder if someone in Israel is asking the question about the United States. Pretty much the same conditions existed here for thousands of years with the Native Americans.
People talk about the plight of the Native Americans, yet for hundreds of years, little has been done to right the wrongs.
Israel works on allowing self rule to the very people it displaced in order to become a nation. Can we say the same?

Answer 3

First off, Isreal existed before 1947, but was conquered by surrounding countries (Babylonia, Assyria, Rome, etc.). The restoration of Isreal was prophesied in the Bible and was realized in 1947.

Second, the land that is Isreal now is not the entire portion of land promised to Abraham by God. Genesis 15:18-21 "On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." So grab a map and take a look at the land that is between the Nile (believed to be the "river of Eygpt") and the Euphrates and that is the "Promised Land."

Third, what does being a Catholic have to do with Isreal?

Answer 4

The Bible or any other religious text cannot justify Israel's existence. Palestine has a culture, a people, a sense of belonging and the Jews took their land away. Sure, they might have taken the land thousands of years ago but we're meant to be more civilised now. The fact of the matter is that almost all the Israeli population is made up of immigrants from Europe and other areas, not natives of the Middle East. The only diplomatic solution is to give Palestine some of the land back and give international recognition to the State of Palestine.
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People are blindly giving thumbs down to anyone who questions Israel. The first paragraph, apart from the last sentence, is undisputable fact.
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Israel exists because of the outpouring of sympathy after the Holocaust, the influential Jewish figures in American politics (especially around the time of it's formation) and their uncompromising nature.

Answer 5

I was in a Greek Orthodox Church and when I was talking afterwards a member of the congregation started saying to me that one day Please God they would get Constantinople back! The Greeks used to own it you know.

And before them the dinosaurs was my response.

People are very funny about the ownership of land. The Native Americans apparently had no such concept of ownership as all the land belonged to the Great White Spirit. Perhaps we could go back to this concept of Stewardship.

Abraham incidentally the father of both the Jewish and Muslim religions gave Lot the choice of land and thought it wasn't worth quarreling over.

Still my opinion on the matter is likely to have as little effect on the situation as yours.

Answer 6

No, they didn't make a country out of nothing. Jews have lived in that land for over 3000 years. Sephardic Jews also lived -- in relative security and tolerance no less -- throughout the Ottoman Empire until it fell at the end of WWII. That security ended then. Where were the Ottoman Jews supposed to live?

1/16th of the Mandate of Palestine was given to the state of Israel in 1948. 7/8ths had been the Arab state of Transjordan since 1921. There was even supposed to be a second Arab state from that region, in 1948; it was rejected outright by the Arab League of Nations because they refused to accept a Jewish state alongside it.

If Jews who have been in the Mid East since 1492 can't live safely in other states, then we absolutely need a Jewish homeland in the Mid East. Why is this so difficult to understand?

Answer 7

Yes why does it. It has caused more problems in the middle east and is one of the main reasons for Arab resentment against the west.The vast majority of original Jewish people were from America.where the Jews are the major holders of wealth and power and largely control the political scene.The American government does what their Jewish backers tell them.,Israel should have been established as an independent state within the area of North America The Palestinians should never have been dispossessed of their land.The Arabs are convinced that Israel must be destroyed, But will America Allow that.It looks like the prelude to WW3 with the USA and Israel com batting the Muslim countries.I hope the UK and Europe keep out of this one.

Answer 8

Why does Belgium exist? Why does Turkey exist? Why does Norway exist? Why does Indonesia exist?
The Arabs have 22 countries, the Italians have Italy, the French have France, and the Jews have Israel, which G-d promised them as it is specified in the Bible.
A nation has to have a country. This is just the way it is.

Answer 9

Guilt was probably the main reason. Hitler talked about the 'final solution'. Yes, he wanted to rid Germany of the Jewish people, but he petitioned England, France and the USA to accept German Jews. They refused - thus the final solution. Israel wasn't created from nothing! It was created from land taken from the Palestinians by the USA and the UK.
Israel is not even the biblical Promised Land, the Promised Land didn't have access to the Med.

So why didn't the USA give the Jewish people part of Arizona?

Don't quite understand the Catholic 'investment.'

Answer 10

Israel exists to provide a homeland for the Jewish people, which they have not had since biblical times.

Answer 11

Why do you exist? Israel exists for the same reason that the rest of humanity exists. Israel is mentioned throughout the Tanak, the Bible, Quran,etc.