Why I Stand with Israel

As a Christian, I would be inclined to say that Israel was a tract of land that God gave to his chosen people, the Jews. I would say that they took ownership of this land, as a nation, after escaping the bondage of Egypt. I would say that they were lead there by Moses, and ultimately, led into it by Aaron. And, I would be inclined to point to the Bible as proof of this.

However, there are many who do not see the Bible as proof of anything. Even though everything in the Bible has been historically verified to one degree or another, there are those who demand proof of a more empirical nature, that is to say, proof from a document that was not written by a Jew to begin with.

The Jewish nation, that is to say, the people that received the Torah at Sinai and underwent the Exodus, was established well after Abraham. Yet, Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish nation, the first Jew. The Midrash, rabbinic literature from antiquity to the early mediaeval period, speaks of Abram, born in the year 1813 BCE during the reign of the mighty Nimrod, who ruled over almost all of civilisation. Abraham's father, Terach, was one of Nimrod's noblemen. Abram grew up in a society where everyone, including himself, worshipped idols.

We next meet Abram in the Bible after God commands him in Genesis 12: 1 – 3 to "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you." However, as mentioned before, this was from the Bible and was, therefore, not considered proof of Abram's existence. Most historians, as it turns out, view the patriarchal age, along with the Exodus and the period of the biblical judges, as a late literary construct that does not relate to any particular historical era; and after a century of exhaustive archaeological investigation, no evidence has been found for a historical Abraham. It is interesting to note that those who would seek to discredit Israel's claim to the land they inhabit would do so by trying to cast doubt on the character of Abraham, yet claim him as their original forebear as well.