I’m back from a much-needed month-long hiatus to write about something near and dear to my heart: Zionists and the hatred thereof.

This is the first of a three-post series about Zionism, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and America’s involvement.

To begin, let’s take a short trip down history’s lane to refresh our memories:

Now, I’m definitely paraphrasing, so if you want a completely unbiased history, pick up a book, or for God’s sake, at least Wikipedia. Since I know most are unwilling/incapable, I will try my best.

Zionism is a movement to return Jews to their “homeland” which happens to basically be Palestine. Now, this isn’t the problem – Jews returning to their homeland. The problem is, really, how their homeland was created out of Palestinian land. Though many do not understand this, Israel has not been a nation that dates back to Jesus’ time. It was important to Jews, yes, and some considered it the “Promised Land,” but it was not the Jews’ property until the State of Israel was created in 1948.

While Zionism had been a movement since the late 1800’s, things really didn’t heat up until after World War II and the Holocaust sent some thousands of displaced Jews out to find new homes. Palestine had been under British rule since 1922, so Britain decided to send the unwanted (because seriously, that’s what they were by Western Europe, mostly) Jews to Palestine. This, in turn, angered the Palestinians and a conflict between the Jews and the Arabs arose. Britain decided they could not reach an agreement between the two groups and decided to withdraw their control over Palestine, though they left the Jews in the land. The UN stepped in to create two countries, Palestine and Israel, and while the Jewish group gladly accepted the deal, the Arabs did not. Regardless, Israel was declared a nation one day before the British rule over Palestine was to expire in 1948, and the Arab nation of Palestine was never made official. This left the areas formerly known as Palestine that were not yet annexed as Israel up for grabs. Thus creating the Arab-Israeli Conflict that exists to this day.

Five Arab nations – Egypt, Syria, Jordan Lebanon and Iraq – then declared war with Israel in 1948 immediately after Israel’s declaration of independence. Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip. However, in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel seized control of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This created even more anger and frustration, and so goes the story.

(End Part 1)