Borders of Israel (Bechoros 27)

So, uh, if you look at the ancient period, which of course some of this is, is quite rough based on, on very limited geographic data, uh, we can see where the 12 tribes laid themself out, basically in the central region of what is political Israel today, not extending terribly deep into the Negev, uh, and not including, for example, what would be today the Gaza Strip, but extending over to the other side of the Jordan River.

Moving through history, of course we have the, the divided kingdom, a northern and southern Israel, and, or so I should say really northern Israel and southern Judah as shown here.

Israel disappears from the, uh, world scene as a political entity after the destruction in the year 70.

But if you move forward to the 20th century, when amazingly after 2,000 years of not having a political existence, uh, the United Nations votes after a history that's far too much to talk about in this short essay, this short video, uh, they vote to divide the land of Israel into seven pieces.

As you can see in this map here, three which would go to the Arabs, three which would go to the Jews, and Jerusalem would remain an international zone.

As I'm sure you're all familiar with the history, uh, in 1948, the, uh, Yishuv, the Jewish settlement, accepted this plan, uh, despite the fact that it looks rather unworkable.

Uh, but the Arab countries surrounding Israel did not, and of course that resulted in the first major Arab-Israeli war of 1948-49, the War of Independence.

Amazingly, the, uh, Israelis held their own, and with the, uh, tragic loss of Jerusalem, they were not able to take over the, uh, Jewish quarter of Jerusalem.

Nevertheless, uh, they actually consolidated a fair amount of territory in that desperate battle.