vilemerchant said:
the jews got kicked out of Judea what, 2000 years ago? It's arab culture that has dominated the middle-east for 2000 years, not jewish. Israel is a hoax of a nation that was only able to come into existance due to a momentary lapse in concentration by the international community brought about by the shame felt over the holocaust.
I mean seriously, how stupid would it be if half a million British anglo-saxons showed up in Germany next week and announced that since Saxons were in Germany 2000 years ago they have the right to create a new country there?
Wow. You display a stunning lack of historical knowledge here.
The "arabs" didn't really begin their rapid expansion until around 1000 AD. In addition, the Islamic faith and culture was most rapidly spread not by the Arabs but instead by the Seljuk Turks, who founded the Ottoman Sultanate which was eventually to conquer Constantinople. However... that didn't occur until 1453. It was barely a backwoods "state" in 1400.
The Hebrew nation was a moderately influential, militarily successful state for several hundred years BC. It was conquered by the Romans but not fully assimiliated and was a hotbed of revolt and unrest for the vast majority of the era. In fact, both the Jewish festival of Chanuka and the Christian faith are descendants of various resistance by Hebrews against the Romans.
Following the Maccabean Revolt, which took nearly 50 years to put down, the Romans, being extremely effecient at destroying revolts, forcibly removed the Hebrews from Judea and Canaan and spread them in small clusters around the Empire, hoping that by spreading them far and wide they would end Hebrew culture altogether.
Following the Diaspora, the area was mainly settled by Romans, Phoenicians, and some small few Arabs. By 600 AD, Upper Judea (modern Lebanon) was a Christian land, and the lower area was mainly dominated by pagans. Following the foundation of Islam in the mid 800s, the Muslim faith also spread west, however the "Arabs" were not a very expansionist civilization, instead their religion spread itself across several tribes, including Turks, Mongols, Seljuks, etc.
The area was finally conquered and included in the Ottoman Empire during the Oriental Crisis of the mid 1800s. Prior to that it was owned by the Mameluk (and before that Fatmid) Dynasty of Egypt for the previous 500 years.
Modern Israel's roots begin in the mid 1800s with the foundation of the Zionist movement, which believed in resettling the "traditional" Hebrew lands.
Since I'm not sure of board policy of discussion beyond this, I'll leave the "even more modern" part off.
Suffice to say, the Hebrews and Turks deserve to be included in the game MUCH more than the Arabs. And the Egyptians should really have another leader besides the Pharoahs, one for medieval egypt, such as a Fatimid or Mameluke ruler.