Why is Israel Hated by so Many?

Despite being a Jewish state, more than twenty percent of Israel's residents are Arab and most Jews in Israel describe themselves as secular rather than religious. Israel is a Mecca (no pun intended), for software companies and in fact many of them focus on critical components such as firewalls and security scanning software, which is very interesting based on this nations history and where this software has ended up geographically.

Israel is also a ready representative for the evil of the United States via proxy, here is this tiny nation that has massive U.S. support and is very easy for Muslims to blame and attack because it is close to home.

Also the Palestinian question sticks in the worlds mind with the mention of Israel, but this specific conflict is a 20th century Israel Muslim battle that has roots that are far far older.

This 10,000 square mile area has fossil records dating back to Homo Erectus a species that lived between 2 Million to 400,000 years ago, and transitional species thru modern man. Wheat fossils have been found dating back 10,000 years ago in the area of Jericho making it one of the oldest settled areas in the world, when man moved from a hunter gather to a farmer and domestication of animals

The archaeological record indicates that the Jewish people evolved out of native Canaanite peoples and invading tribes. Some time between about B.C.E.1800 and B.C.E 1500, it is thought that a Semitic people called Hebrews (hapiru) left Mesopotamia and settled in Canaan.

The battles that were fought between tribes and city states were many and varied and included many back and fourths between them, volumes have been written and will be written describing these battles and the local politics of that time, there is a vast amount of religious influence during this time as well recorded verbally for centuries and became the Masoretic text and what is now accepted as the Old Testament.

Palestine was governed by the Roman Empire until the fourth century A.D. (300's) and then by the Byzantine Empire. In time, Christianity spread to most of Palestine. The population consisted of Jewish converts to Christianity and paganism, peoples imported by the Romans, and others who had probably inhabited Palestine continuously.

During the seventh century (A.D. 600's), Muslim Arab armies moved north from Arabia to conquer most of the Middle East, including Palestine. Jerusalem was conquered about 638 by the Caliph Umar this was the start of a conflict that goes on today. It goes even further back if you read the Old Testament account of Isac and Ishmael.

The Crusaders left Palestine for good when the Muslims captured Acre in A.D. 1291. During the post-crusade period, crusaders often raided the coast of Palestine. To deny the Crusaders gains from these raids, the Muslims pulled their people back from the coasts and destroyed coastal towns and farms. This depopulated and impoverished the coast of Palestine for hundreds of years.

During World War I the Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Austria-Hungary against the Allies. An Ottoman military government ruled Palestine and in 1917 the Balfour declaration which stated Britain's support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, without violating the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities.

This gave birth the modern version of a conflict that has gone on for over 1500 years.

Now this is a very high level history of this area but provides some background for the conflict but does not discuss the deeper issues between Israel and Muslims which is in a word, religion..

Jerusalem has been the Jewish Capital since B.C.E. 1500 when David captured it from the Jbusites. It was destroyed in A.D. 73 by the Romans who then expelled the Jews from the land. A little book was written about much of this conflict called the Book of The Antiquities by Titus Flavius Josephus, which has become an important historical document.

Jerusalem is significant to Muslims as it is where Mohamed was taken to heaven in a dream vision by an angel. Hence the building of the Dome of the Rock a site sacred to Muslims.

Their is the Wailing Wall the remains of the Second Temple built by Herod, a site sacred to Jews.

This long running conflict has also bred anti-semitism around the world. Historians have identified 6 major reason for this behavior.

1.) The Chosen of God, many believe that Jews arrogantly claim that they are the chosen of God even though many openly denied their special place in God's eyes in Hitlers Germany and they were still slaughtered.

2.) Economics, people chose to hate Jews because they possess too much wealth and power. I have a hard time with this one I would suggest that whoever bases their opinion on this bias to check out the wealthiest people in the world.

3.) Racial Theory, a mistaken concept that Jews are a race, anyone who chooses can become Jewish and has no specific genetic markers associated with it.

4.) Jews killed Jesus, history shows that this concept came after the written account of the execution of Jesus. Which by the way was not written about for some 70-80 years after it occurred.

5.) Outsider, Jews are different than anyone else and intentionally isolate themselves from others in a plural society. There are some sects that have a very strict lifestyle but that is a choice no different than many take in their spiritual life in any religion.

6.) Scapegoat, Jews were an easy target for any who wanted to sell fear and hatred of those who believed something different.

Now the reverse also applies to some extent to the Muslim world, many people hate them simply because they are Muslim. There are also a number of concepts that are clearly evident in this type of behavior.

1.) All Muslims are terrorists, actually no true Muslim is a terrorist, terrorism belongs to specific sects of the Muslim religion that interpret laws based on 7th century writings and do not subscribe to modern beliefs including two recent Fatwa denouncing the violence of sects such as al Qa'eda. Muslims.

2.) Muslims can't be trusted, actually history shows that Muslims can be some of the most trusted and honorable of people's. most notable is Saladin, who acted far more honorably and valorous than many of the Christian Knights during the Crusades.

3.) Muslims are savages and uneducated, another misconception many impressive scientific accomplishments can be found in Islamic history, including mathematics, medicine and chemistry.

The roots of the conflicts between Israel and the Muslim world can be shown and the results are clear to see, a conflict that will continue as long as these beliefs and ideas are absolute.

Unfortunately there is no easy solution, many in the U.S. including myself do not have the cultural attachment to the land on which they live. I suggested very strongly in a recent OP/ED piece that one of them move to a more pleasant location, because lets face it it's a harsh climate to live in.

There is no end in sight and many more will die because of these belief systems, its sad to see such violence and death continue in what we claim is a modern society. I have no beliefs in any Gods created by men and I wonder if such a being does exist what he would think of all the death that has occurred in his name.