The squeeze play plight of Gaza's people is a chronic, sad tale.
Nobody likes Hamas except the people of Gaza who elect and re-elect them as their political leaders.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood wants Gaza under its power and control. The Muslin Brotherhood was removed from power in Egypt by a military coup in July 2013, so Egypt has closed its borders to Gaza, except for a rare humanitarian aid shipment. Egypt wants to squeeze the Gazian people until the people submit to Egyptian influence and rule by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Brief History of Jews and Israel
My thanks to CBC News, Wikipedia, and many other Internet sources, as summarized here:
~1312 BC Israelites leave Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and the protection of God, headed for the Promised Land (Middle East), which was promised to them forever by God. God blessed the Israelites because of His covenant with Abraham, as well as the sins and evil done by those who were then occupying the Promised Land. As the Israelites grow in population and skill, they slowly displace all previous occupants with God's never ending help.~1003 BC King David captures from the Jebusites what will become the City of David and Jerusalem. David buys the threshing floor as the alter site for worshiping God.
- c. 740 BC–c. 722 BC The Northern Kingdom falls into sin and away from God. God finally resorts to punishing them when Israel falls to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and its former inhabitants disappeared from history as "The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel". The Southern Kingdom of Judah, including Jerusalem, continued under Hebrew rule.
- In 721 BC, Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians
- 586 BC Kingdom of Judah falls into more and more sin, and away from God. God finally punishes the Jews by the invasion of Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar, Solomon's Temple is destroyed, and thousands of Jews are placed into slavery captivity in Babylon for 70 years, including the Prophet Daniel.
332 BC Alexander The Great invades everywhere, including Israel and Jerusalem, all as foretold by Biblical prophecy by Prophet Daniel. Impressed by the prophesy, Jerusalem is spared from destruction, but is placed under Alexander's control. After the Greeks were finished, next came the Ptolemies of Egypt, then the Seleucids of Syria to hold the Jews captive.
- 167–161 BC The Jewish Maccabees lead a successful revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, recapture Jerusalem, and commemorate their victory with Hanukkah holiday; still celebrated today by all Jews.
- 63 BCE Roman General Pompey the Great lay siege to and entered Jerusalem and the Temple. All of Judea became a client kingdom of Rome.
- 66–70 AD The First Jewish–Roman War ended with destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem. 1,100,000 people are killed by the Romans during the siege, and 97,000 captured and enslaved.
115–117 AD Kitos War (Revolt against Trajan) – a second Jewish-Roman War initiated in large Jewish communities of Cyprus, Cyrene (modern Libya), Aegipta (modern Egypt) and Mesopotamia (modern Syria and Iraq). It led to mutual killing of hundreds of thousands Jews, Greeks and Romans, ending with a total defeat of Jewish rebels and complete extermination of Jews in Cyprus and Cyrene by the newly installed Emperor Hadrian.
131–136 AD The Roman emperor Hadrian, among other provocations, renames Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" and prohibits circumcision. Simon bar Kokhba (Bar Kosiba) leads a large Jewish revolt against Rome in response to Hadrian's actions. In the aftermath, most Jewish population is annihilated (about 580,000 killed) and Hadrian renames the province of Judea to Syria Palaestina, so as to help root out Judaism.
138 AD With Emperor Hadrian's death, the persecution of Jews within the Roman Empire is eased and Jews are allowed to visit Jerusalem on Tisha B'av (Ninth of Av, a day of mourning for destruction of Jerusalem & Temple on this day). In the following centuries the Jewish center moves to Galilee.
361–363 AD The last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian, allows the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Second Temple. Shortly after, the Emperor is assassinated, and the plan is dissolved.
438 AD The Empress Eudocia removes the ban on Jews' praying at the Jerusalem Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issue a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come"!
610–628 AD Jews of Galilee led by Benjamin of Tiberias gain autonomy in Jerusalem after revolting against Heraclius as a joint military campaign with ally Sassanid Empire under Khosrau II and Jewish militias from Persia, but are subsequently massacred.
1095–1291 AD Christian Crusades begin, sparking warfare with Islam in Palestine. Crusaders temporarily capture Jerusalem in 1099. Tens of thousands of Jews are killed by European crusaders throughout Europe and in the Middle East.
1141 AD Yehuda Halevi issues a call to the Jews to emigrate to Palestine. He is buried in Jerusalem.
1187 AD Upon the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin summons the Jews and permits them to resettle in the city. In particular, the residents of Ashkelon, a large Jewish settlement, respond to his request.
1267 AD Nahmanides (Ramban) settles in Jerusalem and builds the Ramban Synagogue.
1488 AD Obadiah ben Abraham, commentator on the Mishnah, arrives in Jerusalem and marks a new epoch for the Jewish community.- 1700 AD Rabbi Judah HeHasid makes aliyah (emigration to Jerusalem & Land of Israel, and Palestine) accompanied by hundreds of his followers.
1740 AD Ottoman authorities invite Rabbi Haim Abulafia (1660–1744), renowned Kabbalist and Rabbi of Izmir, to come to the Holy Land. Rabbi Abulafia is to rebuild the city of Tiberias, which has lain desolate for some 70 years. The city's revival is seen by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah.
1740–1750 AD Thousands of Jews immigrate to Palestine under the influence of Messianic predictions. The large immigration greatly increases the size and strength of the Jewish Settlement in Palestine.
1799 AD While French troops were in Palestine besieging the city of Acre, Napoleon prepared a Proclamation requesting Asian and African Jews to help him conquer Jerusalem, but his unsuccessful attempt to capture Acre prevented it from being issued.
1808–1840 AD Large-scale aliyah in hope of Hastening Redemption in anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah in 1840.
1834–1835 AD Muslims and Druze attack Jews in Safed, Hebron & in Jerusalem.
1860–1875 AD Moshe Montefiori builds Jewish neighbourhoods outside the Old City of Jerusalem starting with Mishkenot Sha'ananim.
1870–1890 AD Russian Zionist group Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) and Bilu (est. 1882) set up a series of Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, financially aided by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild. In Rishon LeZion Eliezer ben Yehuda revives Hebrew as spoken modern language.
1881–1884, 1903–1906, 1918–1920 AD Three major waves of pogroms (persecutions) kill tens of thousands of Jews in Russia and Ukraine. More than two million Russian Jews emigrate in the period 1881–1920; 75% heading to USA, balance to Europe and elsewhere.
1881 AD On December 30–31, the First Congress of all Zionist Unions for the colonization of Palestine was held at Focşani, Romania.
1882–1903 AD Based on the 1881 Congress, the First Aliyah, a major wave of Jewish immigrants occurs to build a homeland in Palestine.
1890 AD The term "Zionism" is coined by an Austrian Jewish publicist Nathan Birnbaum in his journal Self Emancipation and was defined as the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.
1897 AD In response to the Dreyfus affair, Theodore Herzl writes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), advocating the creation of a free and independent Jewish state in Israel.
1897 AD The First Zionist Congress was held at Basel, Switzerland which brought the World Zionist Organization (WZO) into being.- 1916, May 16 British and French negotiate a secret treaty on how the Middle East and Ottoman Empire will be divided up amongst European powers after the end of First World War.
1917
The British defeat the Turks and gain control of Palestine. At this time, there were approximately 50,000 Jews; 50,000 Christians; and more than 700,000 Arab Muslims in the areas comprising Israel and Palestine of today. In the USA, there were 20 million Americans who had German ancestry, and 3.5 million Jews. Over the course of next few decades, however, the demographics were changed by shipping hundreds of thousands of East European Jews to Palestine.The British issue the Balfour Declaration (Nov. 2, 1917) which gives official British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people ... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". Many Jews interpret this to mean that all of Palestine was to become a Jewish state.- 1935 There were now 300,000 Jews in Palestine. Tel Aviv, founded in 1909, had 100,000 people.
Jordon declared the West Bank to be officially separated and independent from Jordon in 1988, forming the State of Palestine.
After the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, Israel considered PLO to have renounced terrorism. In 1993, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat recognized the State of Israel in an official letter to Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. In response to Arafat's letter, Israel decided to revise its stance toward the PLO and to recognize the organization as the representative of the Palestinian people. This led to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, where the Palestinian Authority, lead by Arafat, was created for self-government of the West Bank and Gaza. However, the PLO has employed violence in the years since 1993, particularly during the 2000-2005 Second Intifada.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad ("PIJ") is an extremely violent and hard lined terrorist organization in Gaza, that has sought the destruction and removal of Israel. PIJ is in direct competition against Hamas. PIJ says they don't hate Jews, but they strongly hate the State of Israel. PIJ used to be much more powerful in Gaza, resents their loss of power to Hamas, so makes trouble for Hamas, and tries to upstage them (eg. by antagonizing and attacking Israel and Jews, blaming it on Hamas if it fails, and claiming responsibility if it succeeds).
Palestinian National Authority ("PNA") controls the West Bank area, and was kicked out of Gaza by Hamas in June 2007. PNA is controlled by Fatah (a.k.a. Palestinian Liberation Organization, "PLO"), a political group started in 1959 by Yasser Arafat and others, and has used and/or sponsored terrorism to achieve their political goals throughout their existence.
CBC Radio Documentary: Fifty Years After The Six Days War
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