Understanding the History Behind the Iran-Israel Conflict (Part Two)
For Journalists and Communication Specialists
I shared some of the history of Iran in the first part of this series. Israel is next.
As I mentioned in Part One, the purpose of this series is to explain the link between the past and the present. My hope is that knowing the ancient and modern histories of these conflicts in the Middle East will help journalists cover the complexities of this important story.
The ancient Israelites and Persians have a common ancestry. They both come from Noah’s son Shem.
“The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.” Genesis 10:22
Iran came from Elam and the ancient Elamites. It was also known as Persia for a time beginning about 550 BC. You can read more about that in Part One of this series.
Israel came from Elam’s brother Arphaxad. Abram (Abraham), Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and his twelve sons were part of Arphaxad’s lineage. Those twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel.
Israelites and War
Abram was born and raised in Ur of the Chaldeans — now part of southern Iraq. Even though Abram had been raised as a pagan worshipper of idols, God called Abram to travel hundreds of miles to the land of Canaan. Much of that land is now part of both ancient and modern Israel. God later changed Abram’s name to Abraham.
One of the first wars that Abraham fought was with the king of Elam. Abraham and his servants defeated King Chedorlaomer in addition to kings from other warring nations. That war began a lengthy history of warring between Israel and other countries in the region of the Middle East.
Israel fought with many of its neighbors for centuries. Sometimes it won, sometimes it lost, but it continued to endure as a people. Israel became a strong warring nation under King David and his son Solomon. However, Israel split into two kingdoms after Solomon’s death. That split eventually led to the nation of Assyria to conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. The nation of Babylonia conquered the southern kingdom of Israel (Judah) about a century later. After spending decades as captives, King Cyrus of Persia freed the Jews to return back to Judah. A small percentage did return to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple that had been destroyed. However, the majority of Israelites chose to live outside of Israel.
It’s interesting that the Old Testament prophets often referred to the part the ancient Elamites (now Iran) would play in Israel’s future. Those prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
As a former atheist, I thought biblical history was a joke. However, after months of investigating history and archaeology I discovered that the Bible is a credible and reliable source for the history of Israel and surrounding nations. I have continued to study the Bible as history for the last 54 years (along with recent archaeological findings) and learned that comparing what I learned fit well with the historical records of other nations. Reading all of the available materials helped explain why the nations in the Middle East were often at war.
Wars and Rumors of Wars
Jesus of Nazareth lived in Israel during the first century AD. The country was under Roman rule at that time. Some of Jesus’ closest followers asked Him when He would establish His earthly kingdom and also about the ‘end of the age.’ Jesus replied —
“Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:4-8
That was two-thousand years ago. There have been many wars and rumors of wars since then. Rome destroyed much of Israel, including Jerusalem, by 70 AD. Though Israel was not a player on the world stage for many centuries, it came alive as a nation state on May 14, 1948. Once Israel became a nation state other countries in the region immediately began attacking it. The Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, but Israel resisted.
This action was followed by the invasion of the former Palestinian mandate by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under the Egyptian command ... Egypt and Jordan retained control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively. These armistice lines held until 1967. U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian
If you study the history of Israel at war, you will find that it has fought many battles with surrounding nations since that time. One of the best known was the Israel-Egypt War of 1967 — also known as the Six-Day War. It was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel won. You can read more about the battles at the U.S. Department of State Archive.
War With Iran
Tensions between Israel and Iran tightened after the Iranian Revolution (1978-79). Britannica has a pretty good summary of the Revolution here.
Iran has used ‘proxies’ to attack Israel for many years. Those include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and militias in Syria and Iraq. Iran also began shooting missiles directly at Israel within the past year.
One of the biggest concerns of Israel and other nations was that they believed Iran was enriching uranium to build a nuclear weapon. Iran had made clear for years it wanted to destroy Israel and the United States. That threat led several U.S. Presidents to attempt to negotiate and even appease Iran into not developing a nuclear weapon. However, many military and political experts believe that gave Iran more time and money to finish building a nuclear weapon to use against Israel and the U.S.
Israel began attacking Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructures directly on June 13th of this year. Iran responded with missile attacks on Israel’s civilian population. Those actions led U.S. President Trump to send B-2 Bombers to destroy Iran’s primary nuclear development facilities. Trump warned Iran for months to get them to the negotiation table, but he finally decided to get into the fight.
Conclusion
Journalists and communication specialists have little control over the decisions of national leaders, here or abroad. Our job is to uncover facts, confirm facts, and report facts. It’s up to the citizens of our country to determine what they will do with those facts. That’s why the work of journalism is so important. If journalists are honest and objective, the people will know the truth and make decisions based on the the truth — rather than opinions about the truth. Knowing the history of every story we cover helps us give our audience context to understand what happened, why it happened, and what might happen next.
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