How much influence if any did Ben Gurion have on the founding of the state of Israel?
491503
I would not PRAISE him... really... but at the same timem, I thought he did as well as anyone could have and for that, I must give him high marks for his accomplishments.
608133
The history of the Jewish people begins with Abraham, and the story of Abraham begins when G-d tells him to leave his homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan. \n\nTHIS IS THE LAND NOW KNOWN AS ISREAL NAMED AFTER ABRAHAM's GRANDSON, whose descendants are the Jewish people. \n\nThe land is often referred to as the Promised Land because of G-d's repeated promise to give the land to the descendants of Abraham. \n\nThe land is described repeatedly in the Torah.(In its broadest sense, Torah is the entire body of Jewish teachings.) \n\nTODAY,approximately five million Jews, more than a third of the world's Jewish population, live in the land of Israel. Jews make up more than 80% of the population of the land, and Jews are in political control of the land. \n\nThere are approximately 13-14 million Jews in the world. For details and links to population resources, see the Jewish Population page
911450
Afraid of him? I'll admit, sometimes his views of history in the middle east are outside of the mainstream, but the man really does his research.  His insights into Moshe Dayan are quite insightful. IMHO.
850407
No. The philistines were descended from a sea-faring people.  They had no relationship to Abraham, while the palestinians are believed to be descendents of Abraham, some though Ismael, and others through Esau.\nThe philistines are actually mentioned in Herodotus' history, by the way.
441310
You can try this:\n\nhttp://www.timelines.info/history/continents_and_countries/middle_east_and_asia/middle_east/israel/ancient_israel/
432551
Historically or Biblically? This area has been occupied more the a Greyhound bus terminal toilet. If you mean during the last 100 years, Isreal was created by land taken from Arab farmers. When Palestine was still a British protectorate, Jewish terrorists organized groups to blow up train tracks, power stations and government installations(sound familiar) When the state of Isreal was declared, paniced Arab farmers fled the region and Jewish settlers took over their lands. These farmers settled in Syrian, Lebanese and Jordanian refugee camps which became known as the Palistinian problem. More land was taken over after a series of almost comical wars(where the US military supplied and backed the state of Isreal defeated all Arab states) occupied those lands run over during the wars and did not attempt to give them back until recently. What caused this? Collective world guilt over the Holocaust, the common belief at the time that the general Arab population of that area were just ignorant and itinerant farmers that had no real right to the land, a Zionistic , and sometimes hysterical approach of Jewish settlers in the 60's and 70's along with the generally unsupportable stance of many successive US governemnts has led to the intolerable situation that we see today. The Gov. of Isreal, the US Gov. The UN, the British as well as the intransigient position of the Arab world where Isreal is concerned has led to this mess. The world should back off and let those in the area determine their future.
128474
yes he did. he shared it with shimon perez and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.
576866
No, world domination has never been and is not a Jewish legacy nor destiny. You will note Jews never waged aggressive war on any enemy outside their borders once Israel was established initially and have not taken land that was not part of the original kingdom since, although Egypt argues the Sinai was an encroachment.
127402
It's not really a geographic entity, you understand?  -  more a series of refugee camps and semi-desert strips and patches divided by Israeli-occupied areas.  \n\nYour question is very pertinent.  Maybe the Israeli govt information office can add more details.
878903
The former was their name before the State of Israel was established. The latter is their name now that Israel exists as a State, rather than a nation.
43615
This is a thorny question one that no one has found an acceptable compromise to. The begining or Israeli and Palestinian strife came around the end of World War 2. Before then the state of Israel was not even in existance but through lobbying by prominent jews in America and due to a British promise to set up a homeland for displaced European Jews, the state of Israel was founded in Palestine in the British Mandate. Isreal has based this on the pretext that Isreal is the promised land that Moses led the Jewish tribes to after the Exodus and during the time of Babylon and Rome the people were once again exiled by the new conqurers and this the Jews have been a displaced people within Europe ever since. One argument that Israel was founded illegally on land that has already been inhabited by Arabs and thus they are the occupying force and displacing the Arabs. Israelis content that it is their right to have a homeland in the promised land and thus justified for occupation. The animosity intensified after Israel declared independance and thus 6 adjacent Arab states declared war to prevent the formalization of a Zionist state in the Midst of an Arab sea. Isreal prevaled and even captured larger tracts of territory which included the Sinai Peninsular from Egypt, Golan Heights from Syria and small tracts from lebanon. The Yom Kippur War later was proven to be a Israeli victory. Finally Egypt sign a peace treaty through the Camp David Accord whereby Sinai was returned to Egypt and formal recognization of Isreal was acknowledge. At present Palestine consists of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, Jerusalem is still a contested site whereby both states claim it as their capital. Years of infighting from the Hezbollah led by Yasser Arrafat which uses guerilla tactics and suicide bombers targetting US and Israeli sites have seen retaliation by Israel through forced demolition and targeted killing of 'terrorists/freedom fighters'. Also zealots and ultra orthodox jews erecting squatters within clearly marked territories belonging to the Palestine has caused frictions. To date both sides are still at war and peace accords don't last as seen by the last roadmap to peace initiative. It would seem only a miracle would unite these two foes together in peace.
784701
After WW2, the UN proposed a seperate state for the Jews in Palestine. The Allied powers effectively drawed up various Arab states that were previously ruled by western colonial powers. Israel was meant for the Jews, and yes there was a seperate Palestinian state proposed. The Arabs had mixed feelings about a Jewish state, but most of the local Arabs in Palestine welcomed it. But what happened was that some of the Jewish militias started to sieze the already drawn up Palestinian lands and worst of all terrorizing and killing the local Arabs. Those militias had some powerful backup from abroad, especially in the US. Many of those backup organizations are non government organizations and many well known businesses. The militias fought for more land and resources and of course killing people, inlcuding children. Israel's first prime minister Ben Gurion once said   “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” That's what the Israelis did and still do so more efficiently. There are many powerful organizations in the US that observe every inch of content as to what is presented in the US media to the American public, so no one knows exactly what really goes on in the occupied territories in Palestine. So, my friend, it is Israel that occupies Palestine with full fledged US support and not the other way around. That is the truth and the whole truth. Peace be upon you.
875560
The Nation magazine did a piece on this a few months ago.  They reasoned that since many of the media moguls are Jewish, they control the news that goes out, sympathising more with Isreal than with Palestine.
289698
Don't get me started on this subject. I believe and some historians agree that the only true originals of that area of the world is the Palestinians every Jew is not genetically connect to the original people only religously.\nNotice most of the Jews that came back to "take back their land" came there from European countries. I have no problems with Jews at all but the facts are most Jews of wealth and knowledge were taken away by the Romans in the \ndays of Roman rule  inter-bred wth  the local people and convert some to Judaism.This is over 2000 years!\n The ones that stayed were invaded by others and eventually became Islamic and called themselves Palestinian.\nThe only reason the major countries of the world support Israel is because the Jews control the banking industry of the world.They got the money! I told you not to get me started.
273037
Yes, There is absolutely no doubt about it, the veil has been removed; Israel is a Jewish Extremist Terrorist State that behaves like a democracy but is in reality an Apartheid entity. \n\nIt occupies Palestinian lands in the name of "Birth Right" for Orthodox Jews believe they are Yahweh’s (God's) "Chosen People" and were therefore "Promised" the land of Palestine approximately 4000 Years ago.\n\nAlthough this might have been true then, the Same God of Moses, Sent Jesus. Jesus tried to make the Jews return to the path of God, which had been altered by some bad Jews from the Jewish People. Many of the Jews accepted Jesus, but the arrogant ones refused, and collaborated with the Roman Empire soldiers to get him, but they failed. The Mighty Lord, Capable of EVERYTHING Took him away and made the Jews think that he was "Put on the Cross", hence the crucifixion. \n\n600 Years later, The Lord sent His Angel Gabriel, The Lord's Mercy be upon Him, to his Singled out Prophet in the Desert City of Mecca in Al Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula. Many Christians and some Jews accepted Prophet Mohammed's message, Peace of the Lord be upon him and all God's Prophets. Christians, Jews and Pagans accepted God's final messenger to Mankind and those are the people who are Muslim today, More than 1.4 Billion Muslims world-wide and rising.\n\nThe land of Palestine, in the mean time, was inhabited by normal tribes and peoples from all over the region and the world. Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together side by side on the land even throughout the Ottoman Empire rule up until things began to get nasty up in the heads of certain Jewish Extremists who call themselves, the Zionists. \n\nThe Zionists started more than a century ago to seriously pursue establishing a homeland for their own and they started to buy politicians and fool others into subscribing to their false "Jewish Supremacy over Palestine" ideology.\n\nThe Muslims, although great achievers for the past 13 decades, were in the late 1800's and early 1900's suffering from a general Malaise caused by corruption and ignorance and the lack of advancements. \n\nThe last Sultans of the last Islamic Empire, the Ottoman Empire, were too busy with internal politics and holding their weakening Empire together, to the extent that they could no longer function at a sufficient capacity to ensure the protection of all lands.\n\n The Zionist came in as the Muslims were weak, and became stronger when the British and French took over the Islamic Federal State of the Levant (Which today is divided into Syria, Lebanon Palestine and Jordan). \n\nBalfour, The infamous British Criminal Foreign Minister, promised the Zionists a "Jewish Homeland" in the land of Palestine. He wasn't at right to promise that which he doesn't own, of course, because It wasn't the British's land for them to give it away.\n\nSo, the Zionists actually believed themselves, and they believed that they now have a State of Israel. They tricked thousands of Jews into coming from their countries to this foreign country of Palestine. \n\nThey succeeded. And the unsuspecting Muslim and Christian Palestinians were overwhelmed with this sudden ferocious attack against them. The Zionists were capable of using their European connections (where most of them came from) to bring in large supplies of Machine guns, APC's (Armored Personnel Carriers) and even airplanes. They bombed Palestinian towns (back then, Palestinians at the most, had those old WWI single round shotguns).\n\nThe Palestinians were a people living under Ottoman Rule, as part of the Ottoman country, just like Iowans, Californians, are living under US federal law. The Jews claim that there was no Palestinian State. that's what they like to say to themselves and to others, to justify their crime of course. But they're absolutely lying and clearly out of line with true
446260
God gave Israel to the Jews and it was inhabited when he gave it.  He then gave instructions how to conquor it.
304625
The Kingdom of Scotland's 1320 Declaration of Arbroath was undoubtedly also an influence as the first known formal declaration of independence.\n\nIt would be hard to know the background of each of the 56 signatories without looking each one of them up and doing a complete historical biography.  Some have estimated about half had at least 1/2 Scottish blood.