This is going to seem a bit extreme but here is a list of Jewish expulsions from various countries along with significant times when conditions for Jews were improved.  In many ways, you could say this is irrelevant to a territorial and ethnic dispute today, but it informs the Jewish identity and psyche—why the military power of Israel today provides little sense of existential security to Jews.  In today’s media, history of more than 2 years or so seems forgotten so the present is often shorn of important context.  Continue to see the table…

The first column gives dates for expulsions or conflicts.  The second column indicates emancipation or improvements in conditions.

722 BCE Assyrians defeat and exile Jews
7th century Relief by Persians and right to return to Judea
588 BCE Babylon defeats and exiles Jews
63 BCE Rome makes Judea vassal state
70 CE (AD) Rome defeats Judea
115 Rome defeats Jewish rebellion; massacres in Cyrenaica, Mesopotamia, Alexandria
135 expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem by Hadrian
315-337 persecution in Rome under Constantine I
613 Expulsion from Jerusalem by Byzantines
7th century Conversion or expulsion of Jews in Arabia by Muslims
700-1200 Improvement for Jews under Muslim rule, especially Umayyads in Spain
1100-1300 Persecution of Jews (and Byzantines and Muslims) by Crusaders
1187 Liberation of Jerusalem by Saladin as part of sweeping defeat of Crusaders; invites Jews to return to Jerusalem (from Ashkelon)
1290 Expulsion of Jews from England by Edward I
1308 Expulsion of Jews from France
1492 Expulsion of Jews from Spain during Inquisition
1496 Expulsion of Jews from Portugal
1496 Expulsion of Jews from German cities by Martin Luther
15th, 16th centuries Relief to Jews in Amsterdam, Poland, Turkey (Ottoman Empire)
1553 Suleiman the Magnificent ends persecution of Jews in Ottoman empire
1648-1655 massacres of Polish Jews by Ukrainian Cossasks
1655 Jews re-admitted to England by Oliver Cromwell
1740 England allows Jews to be citizens in American colonies
1740 Ottomans invite Jews to return to Jerusalem
1772-1795 Poland splits into Russia, Prussia, Austria—most of world’s Jews live here
1776 grant of religious freedom in new United States
1789 French Revoluion—limited religious freedom for Jews
1791 Jews moved to “Pale of Settlement” in Russia (part of present day Ukraine, Belarus)
1837 Moses Montefiori knighted by Queen Victoria
1851 Jews allowed to enter Norway (and Sweden)
1858 full religious rights for Jews in England
1862 full rights in Poland
1867 full rights in Hungary
1870 full rights in Italy
1871 full rights in Germany
1880-1890
(and 1903-06, 1918-20)		 pogroms in Russia; many Jews leave for America; some leave for Palestine
1917 British support “home” for Jewish people in Palestine
1917 Jewish “Pale of Settlement” abolished in Russia;  full rights under brief Kerensky regime—until establishment of Communism
1921 Jewish settlement east of Jordan River prohibited by British
1923 British give Golan Heights to France; prohibit Jewish settlement
1930 Persecution of Jews (and many others!) by Stalin
1930 Approximate world Jewish population 15M (in 2009 it is approximately 12M):
USA                        4.0M
Poland                    3.5M (most will die in Holocaust)
Soviet Union           2.7M
Romania                 1.0M (most will die in Holocaust)
Germany                   .9M (most will die in Holocaust)
Palestine                   .175M
1938-1944 Nazi destruction of Jewish population of Europe
1939 British limit Jewish immigration to Palestine to 10,000/year
1948 Israel War of Independence (worth a long discussion of its own); Some Israelis lost homes in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem; Some Arabs lost homes in Israel
1950 Jordan annexed the West Bank—only recognized by Great Britain;  Perhaps worse for Palestinians than Israelis
1956 Egypt crosses Suez Canal in attempt to control it;  Israel encouraged to respond by Britain and France;  Egypt is defeated
1967 Invasion of Israel by Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan—defeated by Israel who occupied the territories of Sinai, West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights
1973 Invasion of Israel by Egypt and Syria
1979 Peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and return of Sinai to Egypt
1994 Jordan and Israel sign peace treaty (Earlier in 1988 Jordan ceded all interest in the West Bank to the PLO)