Inventing "Palestine" sic isn't the only bad move by various foreigners, outsiders, which has caused major instability in the Middle East. The resulting violence has been causing mayhem and death all over the world already.
With the exception of the State of Israel, every other country and their borders were drawn by outsiders who not only had no idea what residents wanted, their culture or history, but even more dangerous, these new countries were fictitiously based. Various Arab "nationalisms" were romantic fantasies and not native, home-grown drives and ideologies. Again, only the Jewish Zionist Movement was native to the Jewish People based on the Bible, History and the Jewish Religion. There had always been Jews in the Middle East Land of Israel, even at the height of Exile. From the the Biblical Time of the Exodus from Egypt, there had always been Jews from south of Gaza to north of the Dan, from the Mediterranean Sea to east of the Jordan River. Yes, even after the Davidic Kingdom was conquered, not only didn't the Jewish People fully desert the Land, but it prayed for and planned its return. Finally, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the Zionist Movement began, the necessary tool for the rebirth of a modern Jewish State.
None of the other countries that exist in the Middle East today have such a history, people and culture, and that is why there is so much violence. Look at these maps and the anarchy caused by the helter skelter drawing of borders and inventing countries and peoples.
Historic Political Borders
 |
1600
The two primary rulers in the region were the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. The Ottoman Empire began in the 1300s in what is now Turkey. Between 1516 and 1517, the Ottomans conquered the Arab provinces. The Safavid Empire, based in what is today Iran, lasted from 1501-1722.
|
|
 |
1880
In the 1700s and 1800s, the once-powerful Ottoman Empire started to lose power. Great Britain, France, and Russia were on the hunt for new territories to conquer and began to interfere in the affairs and territories of the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. |
 |
1920
In 1919, the British and French implemented the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and divided the Arab world into nation-states. The League of Nations recognized these borders and allotted "mandates" to the French and British to govern these states until it was determined that they were ready for independence. |
 |
2002
These are the current internationally recognized boundaries in the Middle East. Disputed boundaries are indicated with a dotted line. |
6 comments:
"Emet Ve'yatziv Ve'nachon!" Well written and well-done Batya!
NG, thanks so much.
Those clerks and diplomats and outside "leaders" tried playing god and the world is suffering from the results.
I don't think the 18809 map is right. The Ottoman Empire doesn't have very much territory in Europe in that map. Aren't they the borders of 1914?
You also miss that:
Syria claims that some of what Turkey grabbed in the northwest (Alexandretta or Iskenderun) is part of Syria.
* It was treated by Syria like the Golan Heights, with people from there going to college in Damascus.
The map also does not show the division of Cyprus (since 1974)
You also show the borders of Jordan the same in 1920 and 2002.
In 1925, when what to become Saudi Arabia (named in 1932) conquered a founding member of the League of Nations, the state of Hejaz, Transjordan (whose king was the son of the ruler of Hehaz) rescued and incorporated a tiny part of the kingdom of Hejaz - I thionk that's Aqaba. Not to mention heir semi-official annexation of the West Bank from 1950through 1974, when King Hussein abandoned his claims. Saudi Arabia also had many undefined boundaries into the 1960s.
Sammy, the maps aren't holy nor perfect, just examples. And one of the reasons for inaccuracies of the earlier ones is that there weren't very exact borders anyplace.
All these above borders are man made. The only relevant borders for Yisrael are from the Torah!
Post a Comment