If I can remember all of them: 1. Canaanites. 2. Jebusites. Actually, they are sort of Canaanites, so that may not count. 3. Israelites. 4. Philistines. Which is where they got the name Palestine. 4a. Israelites, again. 4b. Babylon, which not only took the country, but took most of the Jews back home with them. 4c. Persians under Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to what became a self ruled colony of Persia. 5. Greeks, under Alexander the Grape. 6. Seleucid Empire. 7. Israelites, under the Maccabees. 8. Idumaeans. Another one that may not count. The Idumaeans ruled as kings. Basically, the various Herods were Idumaeans who had been converted to Judaism and married into the Maccabees. 9. Rome. 10. The Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines were sort of Romans, but didn't include Rome or Italy in their Empire. 11. The Pre-Islamic Persians. 12. The Arab Empire under The Prophet's descendants. 13. The Turks. 14. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Most of these folks were French and Normans, but the Germans had their turn in the barrel. 15. The Ayyubid Empire starting with Saladin, whose daddy was named, surprise, Ayyub <G>. 16. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, again. 17. The Kwarazim Horde. 18. The Ayyubids again. 18 The Mameluke Empire. 19. The Ottoman Empire. 20. Briefly, the French under General Bonaparte. 21. The Ottomans again. 22. The English after WWI. 23. The Nazis held a bit for a while. 24. English again. 25. The state of Israel created by the U.N.
So, as we can see, this place has had one ruling nationality its entire existence. <G> When we look at a map, the state of Israel is a staging ground between Asia and and Africa for conquests. You sure didn't want to march into Egypt or, going the other way, into Syria without pacifying whoever was living in Palestine.
BTW, there doesn't appear to be much relationship between Palestinians and Philistines. The Palestinians are mostly Arab while the Phlistines were more closely related to the Phonecians. Locals referred to these two groups are "the sea people." Arabs were not sea people back in those days. |
