Miracle of the Ages, Israel

                                      

 The Fertile Crescent is a region of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East which is much of modern day Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel.  

  This is the land that Abraham traversed;  from Ur on the Euphrates River to  Canaan and Phoenicia.  The fertile crescent borders desert land on the south and mountainous land on the north. 

The First agricultural Revolution-8000 BCE, also known as the Neolithic Revolution, marked the beginning of agriculture and animal domestication for those living hunter-gatherer lifestyles in the Fertile Crescent.  These new lifestyle changes allowed for a more stable food supply, the specialization of labor, the creation of civilizations, and an increase in population. 

It is often referred to as the "cradle of civilization" because it was in these fertile floodplains that the first agricultural communities and later civilizations began to appear.  In the thousands of years since then, however, the region has been ruined by overuse by mankind, according to Marsh, an enviromentalist.  What was once a fecund floodplain is now mostly an arid desert. 

  Here we see Israel's 10,000 square. miles of land including Judea and Samaria that they rightfully won back from the 1967 War having won the battle, which would be 8,000 without.   The Bible has the land reaching the Euphrates River where Abraham had lived in Ur, close to the Gulf.  Abraham was finished  putting up with the idol manufacturing that his father, Terah, did, and they and Sarah was ready for the trek to Canaan.  He believed in one G-d, an unseen one, and this would not be allowed in Ur.  Abraham, born in the 2nd millennium BCE of about (1948 BCE)  would become the Father of Judaism.  

 2,580 years later, the new religion, Islam, would also make him a prophet, with Mohammad as the creator of their religion.  The old and the new, both centering on the same characters in our epic of life and how we should live it, have been taking completely different roads to get there.  

Jews would not convert to the new ideas, thus angering the leaders of Islam. They were updating their own religion as it was to fit the period they were living in as it was without changing a letter of their Laws.   That's why the Israelites had been chosen, it was foreseen that they would stick to the Mosaic Laws.  To have lasted since its inception throughout all the attacks, wars, and Holocaust is a miracle in itself.  

All other religions of ancient days have fallen by the wayside, finished. Judaism was flexible in its understanding as its people have increased their knowledge.   Judaism has finally reached its zenith once again by waiting for almost 2,000 years (1,952 to be exact)  after Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE to regain its land, and was re-born on May 14, 1948, a most viable religion with some of its original land which includes Jerusalem.   Being that G-d had told them where they were to live made it all the more important task to remain there, which many did, and the place where they are to return.               

The Assyrians with Sargon leading,  had attacked Israel in 721 BCE and had taken 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media, and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners of theirs that they had taken along with them.  This exchange of people seemed to be like getting the upgrades for new washing machines, as they would have been used as slaves.  This changed the population of Israel, as who they had taken away were the elites of the country, the ones most fit and healthy and of the right age to make it back to wherever they would be placed.                        

The Babylonians, of the land of Shinar or Kasdim (Chaldees) in the Bible, the cradle of humanity,  and scene of man's 1st revolt against G-d (Tower of Babel), Flood,  upcoming replacements of the Assyrians, took over the lands and attacked Judea in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE and this time Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's Temple!  They also took away captured prisoners who would soon join the other 10 tribes taken before.  After living in Babylonia for 70 some years, Cyrus urged them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, which they did, many returning in 538 BCE.  Not all returned, however.  Some had no recollection of another time, and remained.  

                                                     

Today when we go to look up Mesopotamia, it says to See Iraq.  It's pre-Moslem history was Babylonia.  The Arabs conquered it in 637 after Mohammad had died in 632.  

At the time, Jews living there were being persecuted by the Sasanids, who were the heirs of the ancient Achaemanean Empire.  The Sasanids controlled both sides of the Caspian Sea, the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent, and the whole territory between the Tigris and Indus Rivers.  Their religion was Zoroastrianism (a fire-worshipping religion), and their language was called Pahlavi, or middle Persian (Iran).  They were very autocratic and used religion as a tool of the state.  They were very proud of their heritage and were constantly at war with the Byzantine empire, equally as powerful.  Jews were caught in the middle.  

Today it was announced that Israel's population is 9,506,000.  

Israel was created again on May 14, 1948, much to the relief of  Jews who had just recently survived the Holocaust and Jews of the USA, Canada, etc who had not suffered from the Holocaust.  Jews had actually been without their native land ever since 70 CE.  for 1,878 years, living in others' lands, dependent on the whims and feelings of them as to how they felt towards Jews, as if they were people of another planet, and this, of course, had the result of the Holocaust.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Textbook:  Middle East Past I& Present by Yahya Armajani, Thomas M. Ricks of Birzeit U, "Palestine" West Bank", north of Ramallah used at Portland State U.

https://www.varsitytutors.com/ap_human_geography-help/ap-human-geography?page=10#:~:text=The%20Fertile%20Crescent-,Explanation%3A,%2C%20Syria%2C%20and%20Jordan).