|
The predominance of the Jewish people only became
effective with the formation of the State of Israel in
1948, although history has recorded the presence of Jews
in that region (Palestine) since 100,000 years ago. This
presence was assumed in the 13th century a. C., becoming
Israel a flourishing State in century X a. Under the
reigns of David and Solomon. However, the death of this
last sovereign caused the division of the State, with
the North being called Israel and the South by
Judea. This separation allowed the Assyrians, first, and
the Babylonians, later, to destroy the kingdoms of
Israel and Judea (625 BC - 587 BC), while forcing the
Jews to leave Palestine. However, the Persian leader
Cyrus II allowed the Jews to return to those regions,
which again gained independence in 141 a. Ç., when they
were under the control of the Seleucids. But this
statute lasted a short time, since in 65 a. C., and
following a civil war, the Romans invaded and conquered
Palestine. To the Roman domain, ended in 135 d. A., The
Muslim dominion that followed, besides the Christian
Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries, saw its control
being threatened by the Ottoman Empire, which controlled
Palestine from 1517 to 1799 and from 1840 until the
First World War, from which the territory passed to the
British administration. However, at the end of the 19th
century, Zionism emerged in Eastern and Central Europe,
a Jewish nationalist trend fed by Jewish intellectuals
based in Germany, Austria and France. This current found
a great receptivity with the existing Jewish
communities, not only in those countries, but in
Russia, where the Jewish reception of these ideals was
enormous. However, the repression by Tsar Alexander II
(1855-81) caused the community to break up, forcing Jews
to emigrate to Western Europe and the United States,
where they began a process of westernization that
seconded Zionism. But from this exodus came the first
Jewish settlers in Palestine, creating the basis for the
consequent Jewish colonization in that territory, which
grew due to the migrations caused, not only by the
persecutions made in Russia after the 1905 Revolution,
but also by the growing anti-Semitic spirit registered
in the pre-World War I period in the Ottoman Empire as
well as in Germany and Austria. At the same time, the
Zionist movement has undergone some changes caused by
the division that the2in the highlands of
Uganda provoked. This initiative was accepted by some
Zionists (who created the Jewish Territorial
Organization in that region), against the will of the
majority, who insisted on the colonization of
Palestine. With the death of Zionist leader Theodor
Herzl in 1904, the division within the movement was even
greater, thereby losing weight with the Jewish
community. At the same time, other currents were gaining
strength, such as the one that argued that the Jews were
already part of the societies where they were
established, or the one that was based on the conviction
that the return of the Jews would take place with divine
help, or, finally, the one that affirmed that Jews could
exist as distinct national groups in the Diaspora (state
of dispersion). After the Second World War, the
Zionist movement gained support from the United States,
which proved to be fundamental to the political defeat
of the Arab world (represented by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan (at the time called Transjordan), Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and Yemen) and for the establishment of the State
of Israel, declared on May 14, 1948 (with immediate
recognition from the United States and the Soviet
Union), despite armed opposition by neighboring
countries.
David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Jewish Agency and
Israeli Prime Minister in the Provisional Government,
saw his Labor Party (Mapai) win the 1949 parliamentary
elections (Knesset), becoming the dominant party in the
subsequently formed parliamentary coalition . Mapai
(which became the Israeli Labor Party after the union in
1968 with the Ahdut Avodah - almost left-wing - and Rafi
- created by ex-Mapai members in 1965) remained in power
until 1977, being led, consecutively, by David
Ben-Gurion (1949-53 and 1955-63), Moshe Sharett
(1953-55), Levi Eshkol (1963-69), Golda Meir (1969-74)
and Yitzhak Rabin (1974 -77). From 1977 onwards, the
right-wing Likud party was in power, either through a
coalition government with the Labor Party (1984-87), or
in isolation (1977-84 and 1987-92).
Israel was able to survive as a state with great
difficulty, mainly due to the action of neighboring Arab
countries, with which it has lived in a climate of
tension, or even of war, almost permanent. In 1956 he
participated alongside France and England in the attack
on Egypt, taking control of Sinai and Gaza until 1957,
when, under pressure from the international community,
he gave those regions back to Egypt. Ten years later, as
a result of several Egyptian and Syrian provocations,
Israel started the briefest and most effective war in
memory, the so-called Six Day War: on June 5, Israeli
aviation completely destroyed Egyptian aviation, which
was caught in the ground; in the following days, the
Egyptian army was crushed, at the same time as Israel
conquered the Golan Heights from Syria; lastly, and
because Jordan had decided to support Egypt.
The defeat of the Arabs caused, on the other hand,
the growth of PLO terrorist demonstrations, claiming the
right to independence. In response, Israel decided to
militarily attack Jordan's headquarters, headquartered
in Jordan, causing King Hussein to send the Jordanian
army to expel the Palestinians, who have taken root in
southern Lebanon.
Egypt and Syria again became involved in a war with
Israel, through a coordinated military policy and guided
by a surprise strategy. The fighting began on the
Egyptian-Israeli and Syrian-Israeli borders on October
6, 1973, and, despite the initial disadvantage caused by
the surprise factor, the Israeli army quickly
reorganized, achieving a victory even greater than that
achieved in 1967. But, already in 1977, due to the
pressure exerted by the United States, talks began
between Egypt and Israel, which culminated in the
signing of the Camp David Peace Accords.
Having fixed the issue with Egypt, Israel elected
Lebanon as an enemy, with the aim of destroying the PLO
headquarters. Thus, on June 6, 1982, Israel, with the
support of Lebanese Phalangists, invaded Lebanon which,
despite Syrian support, saw its army defeated, as did
the Palestinian forces. In 1983, Israel and Lebanon,
with the support of the United States, signed an
agreement for the withdrawal of Israeli troops, an
agreement which, despite opposition from Syria and many
of the Lebanese who forced the Libyan government to back
down in the decisions taken, is respected by Israel. A
few years later, more precisely on December 8, 1987, a
popular uprising was born in the Gaza Strip, which was
called Intifada, a movement based on the realization of
different types of boycotts of Israel, popular
demonstrations, attacks on Israeli residents and a stone
war waged by the youngest against Israeli soldiers. This
Palestinian movement provoked a policy of military
repression on the part of Israel, even causing Jordan to
abdicate its claims on East Jerusalem and the Western
Strip. However, in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and
this invasion led the international community, led by
the United States, to intervene militarily in January
1991, in order to liberate Kuwait. Before, during and
after the Gulf War, Israel stayed away from any direct
intervention in the conflict under pressure from the
United States, which ensured that country's defense
against Iraqi attacks. At the end of that year, a period
of talks began between Israel and the PLO, which would
eventually lead to the signing of the Declaration of
Principles, where, not only did the Israelis and
Palestinians recognize each other, but it also predicted
Israel's departure from the occupied territories of the
Gaza Strip and Jericho. However, transposing the peace
agreements signed on September 14, 1993 into the field
proved to be more difficult than previously thought,
there were so many incidents caused by the most
extremist groups, both Palestinians and Israelis.
In 1994, Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan signed a
peace agreement between the two countries. The following
year, Rabin and Arafat signed the Taba agreement, which
included the transfer of control from the Western Strip
to the Palestinians. In November of the same year, Rabin
was murdered by a radical Jewish student in his position
against peace accords. This tragic event came to
undermine Middle East peace relations, with divided
opinions about the handing over of territories to the
Palestinians. Rabin was replaced by Shimon Peres. New
conflicts have arisen, calling into question any peace
agreement. One of Shimon Peres' actions was to close the
borders between Israel and the Gaza Strip and East
Jerusalem. He also pressured Arafat to punish
Palestinian bomb organizers.
In the elections for the new Israeli prime minister
in May 1996, Netanyahu was elected. He rejected any
negotiations regarding Jerusalem and the creation of an
independent Palestinian state.
In January 1997, after months of negotiations,
Palestinians and Israelis reached an agreement (already
outlined in the Oslo agreement): the withdrawal of
Israeli forces from Hebron, in the Western Strip. A
series of bomb attacks preceded the agreement and, in
the middle of the same year, the Israeli Government
decided to stop the territorial negotiations agreed in
1993, alleging the Palestinian failure to control
Islamic militias. In December of the same year, a new
attempt at territorial agreements related to the Gaza
Strip began. In 1998 peace talks took place in the
USA. The Palestinians agreed with the American proposal
to keep 13% more of the territory, against the proposal
of 10.5 to 12% of the Israelis, but Netanyahu remained
uncompromising. In May of the same year, new talks took
place in London, between Netanyahu, Arafat and Madeleine
Albright (American Secretary of State), and again
without resolution. After American pressure, the
so-called Wye Agreement was signed in October 1998,
which included the withdrawal of more Israeli forces
from the Western Strip and the opening of a Palestinian
airport in the Gaza Strait.
In 1999 new early elections were held in Israel and
Netanyahu was defeated and replaced by Ehud Barak, who
pledged to respect the previous agreement after it was
revised.
The visit of Pope John Paul II, in 2000, was essential
to calm the differences, both political and religious,
by asking for forgiveness in the name of Christianity
for the anti-Semitic actions committed in the past. In
the same year, new attempts at peace negotiations took
place at Camp David (USA), between Arafat and Barak, but
inconclusive. The negotiations were aimed at the
Palestinian state's declaration of independence on
September 13, a date considered by Barak as a limit for
peace negotiations. For Israelis Jerusalem is
indivisible and for Palestinians East Jerusalem would be
the Palestinian capital. To date, no agreement has been
reached and Arafat has decided to postpone the
declaration of independence. The conflicts that ensued
later led Barak to step down. Elections in February 2001
gave Ariel Sharon the victory. The new prime minister
stated that his priority would be Israel's
security. Arafat expressed a willingness to continue the
peace negotiations. Armed conflicts continued, some of
them extremely violent. The assassination of Israeli
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in a hotel in East
Jerusalem has sparked a series of clashes, thereby
aggravating any attempt at a peace deal. The terrorist
attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, also
worsened the rupture in peace agreements in the Middle
East. it provoked a series of confrontations, thus
aggravating any attempt at a peace agreement. The
terrorist attack on the United States on September 11,
2001, also worsened the rupture in peace agreements in
the Middle East. it provoked a series of confrontations,
thus aggravating any attempt at a peace agreement. The
terrorist attack on the United States on September 11,
2001, also worsened the rupture in peace agreements in
the Middle East.
In 2002 Netanyahu challenged Sharon in the elections
for party chief Likud, but lost. Sharon was re-elected
in the general elections in 2003. A new peace agreement
was presented by the USA, Russia, the European Union and
the United Nations for the creation of a Palestinian
state and the restoration of peace until 2005. In that
same year, a major decision in this regard was made in
Council of Ministers by Ariel Sharon, the withdrawal of
Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip. This attitude
led to the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu, the
finance minister of the Sharon government and his great
opponent within the party, for believing that this
decision only contributes to the increase in Islamic
terrorism.
Ariel Sharon's term ended in 2006 due to serious
health problems. A stroke caused him to fall into a coma
in January. In April, he was declared unfit for office
and officially replaced by his successor Ehud Olmert. |
