How long do you have? Here’s the very brief summary, and full disclaimer, I don’t have dog in this race.
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Jerusalem is an important place for both Jews and Muslims.
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They’ve been fighting over this space for two millenia. The Roman’s had it for a long time (Christian), the Ottomans had it for a long time (Islamic).
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After WW1 and the Ottomans were defeated, it passed onto the Turkish (Islamic).
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After WW2 the Turkish were defeated and they lost it. In the same war the surviving Jews were displaced worldwide and had no country to live, so the League of Nations (U.S, Britain, Canada, France mainly) decided to give Jews a new home and call this new place the State of Israel. They put Israel right in the middle of the British controlled Palestine, which no Islamic nation could object to because they were all defeated in war.
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Since then, Jews call Israel their home country. Surrounding Islamic countries don’t recognise Israel and want the Jews to leave.
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Islamic nations including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Syria have all gone to war with Israel to kick the Jews out. They’ve all lost because Israel is militarily back by world powers. Israel is now a military powerhouse and have full control of the region.
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Israel allow Muslim Palestinians small areas to live in the area, namely Gaza and the West Bank, but they’re not particularity nice to the Muslims living there. This is the Palestinian/Israeli war that’s been going on for almost a century.
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This space is now two main religions crammed into a very small space. Both claim that it’s their ancestral land. Islamic nations don’t recognise Israel as a country. Most of the rest of the world does.
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Israel has become a defensive fortress with nukes, and is surrounded by five countries that hate it. No Islamic national is strong enough to beat Israel. Skirmishes and shit fighting continues. Sometimes is gets serious. This week it got really serious.
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This fight will probably go on forever because of the religious significance of Jerusalem which neither the Israelis or Palestinians will ever give up claim to.
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So who’s right and who’s wrong? Probably neither. Probably both. Probably humans are just shit.
MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
The only thing I’d add is “not particularity nice to the Muslims living there” is putting it mildly.
Because there’s always tension, Israel takes its security very seriously. Unlike most countries, who put a token effort into security most of the time, Israel really is an armed fortress. That makes it very easy for someone with an itchy trigger finger to shoot someone who didnt deserve shooting. Even with the best will in the world, it would happen from time to time.
That, of course, makes the Palestinians very angry. An angry population poses more of a threat, and is more likely to do something genuinely aggressive. The Israeli security is thus tightened further, and their soldiers get even itchier trigger fingers and around and around we go.
It doesn’t take long before everyone involved has a personal grudge for one reason or another, and things can get really vicious.