Why did the Jews choose Palestine?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Because they had nowhere else to go. Europe gave them a home in Palestine as a way of saying sorry but what the fault of the Palestinian people who are being forced to leave their homes. they were in no part involved in the killing of the Jews. Europe is trying to amend one of their sins by committing another. Why didn't they give them a home in Europe? They just wanted to show that they were sorry.

Answer 2

There are two operative parts to that question. There is the implicit question as to whether a Jewish State is something that should exist. There is the explicit question as to whether the geographical location chosen for this Jewish State is proper for its mission.

1) Why a Jewish State: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.

2) Why Palestine: Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).

Note on Answer 1

In contrast to Answer 1, Israel was not created in the Middle East as a way to hurt Palestinians and Zionism was not founded as a reaction to the Holocaust. (Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, and Rav Kook were all Zionists long before the Nazis even gained power in Germany, among others.) Additionally, Jews in the Middle East did suffer prior to the advent of Zionism. There were blood libels (which still circulate in the Arab World) about Jews killing Christian Monks or of Jews killing Muslim children to drink their blood. Both are patently false, but the riots they caused killed untold numbers. There was legal discrimination against Jews in nearly every Muslim-majority country in the first half of the twentieth century. (After the first half, most no longer had Jews.) Currently, all of the former Palestinian Jewish population is part of Israel and actively prevented from "returning" to Jordan or the Gaza Strip.

Answer 2

Historically, the Jewish people had been ill-treated and harassed out of almost every country they had ever lived in. In particular, in Europe, the Holocaust resulted in 6,000,000 Jewish civilian deaths and an untold number of European Jews being forced out of their homes. The people who returned found that the population that came back was now intolerant of them. In the Arab World, Jews had been second-class citizens who had to pay special taxes and had fewer rights at law. When the Europeans came in and colonized the Middle East, they granted the Jews facial equality, which angered many Muslim Arabs and drew the Jews close to the colonizers. As the European countries began to give the Arab World independence, Jews were treated horribly for their connection to the former colonial infrastructure.

Since most of world Jewry was in either Europe or the Arab World, those push factors drove a large percentage of Jews to find a new place to live. They wanted a country where being Jewish was no longer a detriment, so they went to the British Mandate of Palestine because that territory was established with the intent of creating just such a Jewish homeland.

Answer 3

Historically, the Jewish people had been ill-treated and harassed out of almost every country they had ever lived in. In particular, in Europe, the Holocaust resulted in 6,000,000 Jewish civilian deaths and an untold number of European Jews being forced out of their homes. The people who returned found that the population that came back was now intolerant of them. In the Arab World, Jews had been second-class citizens who had to pay special taxes and had fewer rights at law. When the Europeans came in and colonized the Middle East, they granted the Jews facial equality, which angered many Muslim Arabs and drew the Jews close to the colonizers. As the European countries began to give the Arab World independence, Jews were treated horribly for their connection to the former colonial infrastructure.

Since most of world Jewry was in either Europe or the Arab World, those push factors drove a large percentage of Jews to find a new place to live. They wanted a country where being Jewish was no longer a detriment, so they went to the British Mandate of Palestine because that territory was established with the intent of creating just such a Jewish homeland.

Answer 4

Jews wanted the territory referred to as Palestine for the Jewish homeland because it is our ancestral homeland. There has been an uninterrupted Jewish presence on that land for over 3000 years and it is the centre of our religion and culture.

Answer 5

We wanted (or needed) to return to our home in Israel because it had been in our possession starting more than 3,000 years ago, and was granted to us by God.See also the Related Links.

Link: Jewish history in Israel

Link: Given by God

Answer 6

God, not the Jews, chose Israel to be his Holy Land.
If you're referring to the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, you're about seventy years out of date. It's Israel, not Palestine.If, however, you're speaking about the Palestinian areas specifically, some of the land has in any case been ceded by the Israelis to the Palestinians, in whole or in part. In general, that is a matter for negotiation.

As to the principle itself, it may be noted that:

(click below to see links)

1. God promised the land to the Israelites many times.
   
2. Jews have had a continuous presence in Israelfor over 3300 years. Of that time, the Jews were a majority in the land for around 1900 years.
3. The Muslims' Qur'an clearly states that Israel belongs to the Jews.
4. Israel is more than willing to get along with the Palestinians and to come to some negotiated arrangement. However, it must be realistic since its citizens are under constant threat and attack. Areas which have been handed over to Palestinians, have been used to stage these attacks.
5. Israel is more concerned for the citizens of those who attack it, than are the attackers themselves. While far from perfect, its treatment of civilians is better than that of any other country in the region.

Answer 7

It was their historic homeland.