Israel is created to be attacked by all sides. Well, the definition of 'sides' has changed to 'tangents and enough of them to create a circle that is worldwide. The attacks are certainly global in nature. Long before an Internet and we see their efforts here.
Each time it was through our determined drive to survive that has maintained us. We continued through the The Assyrian Empire's attempt to exterminate us, and its expulsion of ten (of our twelve) tribes in an attempt to separate us from our Law, books and traditions. They took multitudes of our best people as slaves to Mesopotamia which is where Iraq and Iran are now. They are gone... We remain...
We continue that we followed our laws in our book and remembered where we had come from and where we were to return. The Babylonians conquered we recreated those Israeli cities three times to end with the final destruction of Israel and our temple of Jerusalem.
We continue that we kept The Law, as we were chosen to, or we would all be Egyptian/Babylonian pagans. They are gone...
We continue that we did not surrender our belief to the incoming Greeks after we had rebuilt Israel and its great Second Temple. We are a slow breeding people. There has never been more than twenty million Jewry worldwide. We are estimated this year to be thirteen million souls but I digress. Alexander was not a man to estimate lightly. Research this man if you want to see his warring abilities. Ah, we were with him for a bit. We translated our book and gave it to them in the name of the "Septuagint". All was well until the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes decided he was a G-d (hence the term epiphany – remember its birth and use it wisely) and moved to destroy the Jews belief. Research him to see his methods. He didn't destroy the Second Temple, but he did desecrate it with his likenesses, etc. etc. and he came to pass a law requiring the devoutly Monotheistic Jews to come in four times a year on their Sabbath day of prayer to bow to him as senior G-d. Simply put, We revolted and it was this Maccebean revolt where we gained our independence.
Finally we have Israel recreated, and are back in our land, which G-d gave us, and which our book says we must hold for the end of times, and which all three books state is coming and will come from (Israel). Life was good for about a hundred years but we were close to this failing Empires end.
We continue that we understood the wants of the Roman Empire who came and picked up the Empiric pieces. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey, for short) has us in his grasp, but the Romans are happy just to financially gain and Pompey is a hedonist which is easily determined by the statuary the old goat left behind him.
We continue in that we did move through and about the birth of and death of Jesus Christ with his concurrent new belief extension.
We continue that we did not surrender to a Roman edict proscribing circumcision (our major covenant with G-d) to be self-mutilation and thus against Roman law, and fought to the death rather than accede to this mundane commandment regarding our very covenant with our G-d.
Thus were we scattered to the known worlds winds, still with our language, traditions and the plethora in dissertations of our book and traditions and which we have carried through all our trials.
We continue through the many pogroms and attempts to end us and our belief because we had learned. Our G-d has trained us well. There will always be a kernel of Judaism to create another if destroyed Israel, but I believe the time of renewal is over and we now will never let go. Some think the term, "Never Again" stands for the holocaust, but it stands for losing Israel and NEVER AGAIN! IT will be a high price to pay if Iran is willing to fight to the last Arabian as long as it "hastens" the coming of their twelfth Imam. One can not hasten the will of G-d, so if it happens, it was meant to happen.
We were stewed in the repetition of forsaking our G-d and paying a heavy price.
No more! Yes, there are those among us who decry Israel and have their own interpretations.
They have been so at every nexus point in time where the Jews, as a people had to decide if it was worth it to continue on with the book, belief, traditions, etc. Keep in mind it is no simple easy thing to be a devoutly practicing Jew. The true devout do not see tradition, they are past that mundane thinking. They decry the Jewish fanatics. The Israeli people hold their government accountable, but the fear of dissolution is palpable and now, having their country again, they will not let it go unless it is the end of times and that time is not yet come.
That's why I said I understand when Mike said Israel had to take the first hit for any American return response. I understand this thinking. Israel has been destroyed many times and rebuilt. There are those Jews who also believe that not only is this going to happen, but that it should happen in that way. Iran attempts to 'hasten' this ending for the ending is co-existent with their return of the "twelfth Imam."
No other belief thinks they can hasten G-d's time. Iranian Shia leadership believe that they can.
Their creation of a nuclear pile is not for protection I put forward. They say that they are not even creating one, that it is against their belief.
There is a reason why such a small population of slow breeding people should outlive all the Empires. Still we have those who want to ensure we as Jews are all gone, and if not gone, then Israel gone so that our book's ending is incomplete.
To fulfill the prophesy we must have Israel. Jerusalem? Negotiable. We do not need Jerusalem to fulfill the prophesy. That's why we accepted the partition without Jerusalem in the first place.
We will...
Indeed, our book tells us that this will be so, and with faith, we continue...
Your book is a Lie the Rich tell.
So says you?
Speaking only for myself, I think my obsession with Israel and Jews...
Obsession is an illness George