When I began this endeavor, the plan was to do a brief history of Palestine from Biblical times to the establishment of the nation of Israel and the expulsion of the Palestinians. I planned to do this in four 1,000 – 1,200-word segments. Segments #1 and #2 got us up to the Roman conquest and the advent of the Roman Jewish War. The 3rd Segment was to go from the end of Segment #2 up to the end WWI. Segment #4 would then close out with the end of the First Arab Israeli War in 1948 when the state of Israel was established.
Well, once I got into it, I realized there was no way that I would be able to cover the relevant information between 130 AD and WWI in a single essay. It ended up taking a total of 8. So these appear as the #3 followed by Roman numerals I-VIII.
We are now on the 4th Segment which covers WWI and the aftermath. I have completed segments 4-I and 4-II at this point. I expect it will require two or at most three more essays to finish this out.
Initially, I had not planned to give an opinion on the situation – just lay out the facts. But in going through this process, I have found that my take on “what’s the right thing to do” has changed and changed significantly. So I will share that and explain my reasoning in the final segments.
One other point I want to make has to do with opinions and slants. My primary source is “The Middle East – A History” by Dr. Sydney Nettleton Fisher, which was published in 1969. It was one of the textbooks assigned to me as a history major at the United States Naval Academy. Where relevant, I will identify Dr. Fisher’s opinions on various topics. Overall, he was of the opinion that Americans would have much greater respect and appreciation for people in the Middle East, especially Muslims, if they better understood their history, religion, and culture. I agree and that is why I have done my best to accurately capture the history of this portion of the Middle East. Even so, my take on “where do we go from here” on the land of “Palestine” has recently changed from the perspective I have held for nearly half century.
I hope you find my writings to be helpful in your understanding of what’s what in Palestine.