isaiah40 wrote:The Romans invaded Israel long before 70AD. They were in control of the area as early as 330 BCE, it was during the Great Jewish Revolt from 66 AD to 70AD that lead to the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. But that is aside from the time frame and theme of this map. As was suggested earlier, it would be a good idea to have the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza not part of Israel, but make them as decaying neutrals - from fighting. Make sure that you have West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem to denote the Israeli-Arab division.
Yes, Romans came into Jewish lands long before, I never said they didn't come before 70AD. I only stated they destroyed Jerusalem and banished Jews in 70 AD, and that Palestinians have never in the history of the region had control of even an acre of land. It was in response to the historically incorrect assumption that pitrules88 had made. Plus I wasn't writing it in a negative or aggressive manor, or in any way of demeaning pitrules88, I was just stating fact.
I think that this region is a tough one to map out. But when anyone things of the land of Israel, they think of Jews.
Jews first came into the region in 1300 BCE after their Exodus from Egypt. Jews have had continuous presence in the land of Israel for the past 3,300 years. The rule of Israelites in the land of Israel starts with the conquests of Joshua (ca. 1250 BCE). The period from 1000-587 BCE is known as the "Period of the Kings". The most noteworthy kings were King David (1010-970 BCE), who made Jerusalem the Capital of Israel, and his son Solomon ( 970-931 BCE), who built the first Temple in Jerusalem.
What I think might be cool, and a good way to look at this map when drawing it up is the difficulties and challenges Israel deals with on a daily basis. Israel's struggle for "defensible borders" is unique in international diplomacy. It emanates from both the special legal and strategic circumstances that Israel faced in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Israel Defense Forces captured the West Bank and other territories in a war of self-defense. The previous armistice line of 1949 that separated the Israeli and Jordanian armies was only a military boundary and not a permanent political border, according to the armistice agreement itself. The Jordanian occupation of the West Bank occurred in conjunction with its illegal invasion of the State of Israel in 1948. In fact, Jordanian sovereignty in the West Bank was not recognized by a single Arab state. This provided the background for UN Security Council Resolution 242 of November 1967 which concluded that Israel would need "secure and recognized boundaries" that would necessarily be different from the 1967 lines. The previous status quo was not to be restored.
Terrorism is a huge factor in which all these check points and security barriers were built. This could be an aspect as in how to look at certain territories. Since construction of the fence began, the number of attacks has declined by more than 90%. The number of Israelis murdered and wounded has decreased by more than 70% and 85%, respectively, after erection of the fence. So ares with a fence or wall should be harder to get at, and easier to defend.
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