The Arab-Israeli Conflict :: History Arabic Israel Essays

The Arab-Israeli Conflict The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most prolonged and bloody conflicts in not only modern history, but in the ancient world as well. The roots of the conflict, as well as the arguments on both sides, are as diversified and complicated as the conflict itself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Israelites started to conquer and settle the â€Å"land of Canaan,† which is present day Israel, in 1250 B.C.. King Solomon ruled the Israelites and the land of Israel from 961-922 B.C.. Following his reign, Israel was split up into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom, Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians, who drove its people, the Jews, into exile and destroyed Solomon’s temple in 586 B.C.. After seventy years or so, the Jews began to return to Israel and the temple of Solomon was gradually rebuilt. By 333 B.C., Alexander the Great and his army brought the area under Greek control. By 165 B.C., a revolt in Judea established the last ancient Jewish state. Then, in 63 B.C., Judea was incorporated into the Roman province of Palestine. By 70 A.D., A revolt against Roman rule was put down by the Emperor Titus. Shortly after, the Temple of Solomon was once again destroyed. This marks the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. From 118-138 A.D., during th e Emperor Hadrian’s reign, Jews were allowed to return to Israel. However, after another Jewish revolt in 133 A.D., Jerusalem was completely destroyed and its occupants, the Jews, banished and/or sold into slavery. Then, in 638 A.D., the Arabs came onto the scene in a major way with their conquest of the area. By early in the 8th century, the second Caliph of Islam, Omar, had built the Al-Asqa Mosque on the site in Jerusalem, or Al-Qods as the Arabs called the city, where they believe the prophet Mohammad ascended into Heaven. Except for the period of the Crusades, the area remained under Muslim rule under the Ottoman Empire until the United Nation’s mandate which gave the land over to the Jews to establish Israel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zionism is the international movement to establish a Jewish state in the land where Israel once stood. The first Zionist Congress met in Basle, Switzerland, in 1897 to discuss Theodore Herzl’s 1886 book, The Jewish State, in which he discussed establishing a Jewish state, primarily in response to European anti-semitism. The Congress issued the Basle program to establish â€Å"a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law.