Jews ruled Israel/Judah for about 1,000 years and have maintained a continuous presence in the land through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, for over 4,000 years.
Wherever they found themselves in exile, Jews prayed constantly for a return to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). They always viewed Jerusalem as their capital city. It has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. No Arab leader has ever paid an official visit to Jerusalem, a city mentioned over 700 times in the Bible and once in the Quran. Jews pray facing Jerusalem, Muslims face Mecca.
Immediately after the Balfour Declaration in 1918 Jews from around the world began returning to Jerusalem in large numbers, buying land and houses from Arabs (who signed legal deeds of transfer and accepted cash in return), joining other Jews who were already living in the so-called “Jewish Quarter” in Jerusalem.
In November 1947 the United Nations voted to partition western Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab States. Although the area allocated to the Jewish State was very much smaller than had been promised in terms of the Balfour Declaration the Jewish leadership accepted partition. But all the Arab states rejected it because they were fundamentally opposed to the idea of Jews living permanently in their midst, or anywhere else!
It is a little comprehended truth that Muslims see themselves as the rightful, God-anointed descendants of Abraham through his firstborn son, Ishmael. But Scripture makes it clear that it was the second son, Isaac, who inherited the promises of God. When Islam claims that their holy book was revealed by Allah through the angel Gabriel to their prophet, Mohammed, to correct mistakes in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, it is precisely this fact that is “corrected”—and Muslims will wage war against Jews and Israel by all means necessary until every last Jew is eradicated and Israel is wiped off the map, to prove their point.
When the State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948, it was seen by Jews and Christians alike as a miraculous fulfillment of biblical prophecy. To Muslims, it was “Nakba”— catastrophe!
The very next day the newborn state was attacked by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, declaring it a war of extermination. The invading Arab armies vastly outnumbered their enemy in terms of both men and equipment, fielding well-trained troops backed by artillery and air and naval power. Of Israel’s preparedness an observer wrote: “A few thousand rifles, a few hundred machine guns, an assortment of other firearms, but not a single cannon or tank. We had only one airworthy plane! There were about 45,000 men, women and teenagers, a few thousand members of two underground organizations and a few hundred recent arrivals who had been given some training with wooden rifles and dummy bullets.”
A year later, Israel emerged victorious. If you don’t believe in miracles, you will after reading some of the many excellent books that chronicle the extraordinary events. And they did not stop there. Including the last war in Lebanon and Gaza, Arabs have started six wars against Israel. They have lost them all. But if Israel loses once, it will be entirely obliterated. Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah constitutions all call for the complete destruction of Israel. Iran promises to "wipe Israel off the map."
The conflict will not end until Jesus returns. Arab refugees from Israel began calling themselves "Palestinians" in 1967, two decades after Israeli statehood, partly because they were deliberately prevented from assimilating into their host Muslim countries throughout the Middle East. They are the frontline of the ongoing war being waged by two billion Muslims in 57 countries, against 6 million Jews in Israel and another 10 million located mostly in the United States and several European countries.
Here is how rabbinic literature portrays Israel, hinting at its God-ordained future:
“As the navel is in the middle of a human being, the Land of Israel is the navel of the world, as it is written: "dwellers of the navel of the earth". Just as Eretz Israel is located in the center of the world so is Jerusalem in the center of Eretz Israel, the temple in the center of Jerusalem, the holy of holies in the center of the temple, the ark at the center of the holy of holies, and right in front is the Foundation Stone of the whole of the universe.”