The Answerer

Good insightful question thank you. You will be someone who keeps up with world affairs instead of simply swallowing the shallow ten second ’Grab’ that pretends to be news on the TV each night in Australia today.

Yes, Israel was a country then (split in two – Judah and Israel) when Jesus was here on the earth. (The Jews then, as now, can have very strong beliefs and feelings as how to follow God’s laws and instructions to them.) And since the time of Nebuchadnezzar the Jews have been scattered (disbursed) all around the world (it is called ‘The Diaspora’) for very bad behaviour and ignoring of God’s rules and ways. (See also Question 248 and the 400 silent years.)

One Babylonian King, Artaxerxes,  did allow some Jews to return to the ruined and desolate city of Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. It was only a temporary return. Some Jews had been permitted to remain in Jerusalem to keep farming it and the king thought them not to be a threat to his rule (see Nehemiah Ch 1 and 2). Many returned over 1500 years but most remained where they had dispursed to. In 600 AD Mohammed began the Islamic religion and believed himself to be God’s prophet. He wrote the Koran (Quran) and his followers had a civil war and moved into Jerusalem. Later Christian armies tried to expel the Muslims but could not. After Jesus came the third major force – Christianity, and it became part of Jerusalem. Itwas God’s way of doing things and it stayed that way until 1948.

The Bible has many references to Jerusalem as the ‘Holy city’ or the ‘City of David’.

Spot of History of a ‘Disputed Land’ and Jerusalem.

I am pleased to record that Australian soldiers in 1917, in World War One (WWI), at The Battle of Beersheba, drove the Germans and Turks out of Beersheba in Palestine, with its many water wells, and then marched on into Jerusalem to free it from Muslim occupation. See Wikipedia and the Australian Light Horsemen at The Battle of Beersheba.

Australian ANZAC horsemen showed bravery of a very rare order then. I have a book on that battle. For the very thirsty Aussies and their very thirsty horses, it would seem that the horses could smell the water at the wells of Beersheba from three miles away.

As the Aussies had almost no water, it was literally: ”Do or die” – the Aussies rode three miles across the desert straight into the face of the enemy artillery at full gallop and the enemy just could not believe it was happening. No time to lower the big guns. The Aussies horses were the famous ’Walers’ a very tough and capable horse bred in Australia.

Later, after World War Two (WWII) in 1948 the United Nations, led by Britain, re-established The State of Israel…for the first time in 2,400 years with Jerusalem as its capitol.

A war immediately started as three Muslim nations tried to wipe out the infant nation of Israel. They didn’t.

That land, I believe will forever be a ‘tinder box waiting to explode’ as Jew and Muslim peoples claim it as ‘Ours’.  Iran only last year claimed to want to ‘…wipe Israel off the face of the earth’. Do keep your eyes and ears open in the years to come.

Sorry that was so long but world peace, even ‘World War Three’ I believe, hinges on this part of the world and Jerusalem.