Modern States The delegitimizers of Israel write off the state as a late-coming creation of the colonial powers into a long established Arab/Muslim neighbourhood. The page International Law

Modern States

The delegitimizers of Israel write off the state as a late-coming creation of the colonial powers into a long established Arab/Muslim neighbourhood. The page International Law shows that Iraq, Lebanon and Syria were all products of the same process that created present day Israel.
Counter this argument by looking at the establishment of all the Middle East states.

Nation / State	Year Established
Israel (ancient)	2410 BCE Joshua leads Israel from Exodus into promised land. 1020 BCE King Saul - King David 1005-965 BCE
Israel (modern)	1948 from British Mandate and League of nations and United Nations resolution.
Jordan	1950 as Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 1946 as Independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan 1922 as Emirate of Jordan
Syria	1946 (French Mandate)
Lebanon (ancient)	5000 BCE (?)
Lebanon (modern)	1943 (French Mandate)
Egypt (Ancient)	3150 BCE
Egypt (modern)	1952 Declaration of Republic 1922 Independence from British Empire
Iraq	2010 America pulls out and leaves new government in charge 1958 Republic established 1920 created by Great Britain (British Mandate for Mesopotamia)
Turkey (modern)	1923
Yemen	1967
Kuwait	1705
U.A.E.	1971
Saudi Arabia	1932
Qatar	1878
Bahrein	1971
Oman	Late 18th century - Sultanate established
Pakistan	1956 as Islamic republic 1947 from Britain
Bangladesh	1971
Palestine	Palestine is not (yet) a nation or a state, even though it has a flag, national anthem, embassies of many nations* in Ramallah and what is effectively Palestine's embassy in Washington among other trappings of a state. Palestine is an aspiration of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (Terrorists) that is creeping towards becoming a nation.

Consult the maps at the back of your Bible to see what these nations were in Bible times.
But just remember that Palestine did not exist in Bible times!

But what of the Middle East Nations created since WWII ?

In a process of profound importance, five Arab states in the Middle East have effectively ceased to exist over the last decade. The five states in question are Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya. It is possible that more will follow.
The causes of their disappearance are not all the same. In two cases (Iraq, Libya) it was western military intervention which began the process of collapse. In another case (Lebanon) it is intervention from a Middle Eastern state (Iran) which is at the root of the definitive hollowing out of the state.
But in all these cases, the result has been remarkably similar — it is the ceding of power from strong central authorities to a variety of political-military organizations, usually but not always organized around a shared sectarian or ethnic origin. The Middle East today is overshadowed by this process. We are living in the time of the militias.
Five Arab states, effectively no longer in existence. In all, militia power has replaced ordered government.
What does all this mean for the region? It means that a huge chunk of the long misgoverned Middle East has exchanged an age of despotic torpor for an age of chaos. The Iranians, because of their matchless IRGC, are best equipped to make gains from this.
Complete article here
See Land for a map of the mandates from which the Middle East was carved up.

Updated 06/04/15
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* Among the countries that have “ambassadors” and “representative offices” in the city are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Korea, South Africa, Norway, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, China, Poland, Portugal, The Netherlands, Russia, Jordan, Brazil, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, India, Japan, the Czech Republic, Canada and Mexico.

This is true but, as the maps show, Israel never was never given all of Mandated Palestine. (See below) British Mandated Palestine included Israel and Jordan. The British mandate also included land that became Iraq and the Gulf States.
The British Mandate of Palestine This is the area that Britain was responsible for after as the League of Nations had to apportion it after the destruction of the (Turkish - Muslim) Ottoman Empire in World War 1. The Mandate was placed upon Britain by the League of Nations. It is easy to see that present day Israel (even including Gaza, Judea and Samaria is only a part of mandated Palestine.
The Balfour Declaration Britain reneged on the Balfour Declaration in the "White Paper" calling for an Arab state in the British mandate territory of  Palestine. Although there were twice as many Jews as Arabs,      The Arabs were to get 77%  and the Jews 23% . This 77% was given to the Arab, Hashemite dynasty and becameTransjordan ( since named Jordan).

The Middle East: In the Shadow of the Gunmen

by Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media
April 4, 2015

Post "Arab Spring," the Middle East is in chaos. And ready to be devoured by the mullahs of Iran.
In a process of profound importance, five Arab states in the Middle East have effectively ceased to exist over the last decade. The five states in question are Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya. It is possible that more will follow.
The causes of their disappearance are not all the same. In two cases (Iraq, Libya) it was western military intervention which began the process of collapse. In another case (Lebanon) it is intervention from a Middle Eastern state (Iran) which is at the root of the definitive hollowing out of the state.
But in all these cases, the result has been remarkably similar — it is the ceding of power from strong central authorities to a variety of political-military organizations, usually but not always organized around a shared sectarian or ethnic origin. The Middle East today is overshadowed by this process. We are living in the time of the militias.

Five Arab states in the Middle East have effectively ceased to exist over the last decade.

Observe: in Syria, the clearest-cut case, the country is now effectively separated into separated ethnic and sectarian enclaves — an area dominated by Bashar Assad in the south and west, an area dominated by the Sunni jihadi Islamic State group in the east, three non-contiguous Kurdish enclaves across the north, an area under the domination of al-Qaeda and its allies in the northwest and a small area in the southwest held jointly by al-Qaeda and a variety of other Sunni Arab militias supported by the west.
The important point to note here is that the area controlled by Assad (around 40% of the total area of Syria) does not essentially differ in its militia-nature from the other areas.
On the contrary, Assad has been able to survive because he is aligned with the force best designed to successfully exploit the fragmentation of Arab states and the emergence of militias seeking to impose their authority on the ruins of the state.
This force is Iran, and more specifically the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and its Qods Force.
This force is a unique body. It exists for the precise purpose of building proxy paramilitary organizations to serve the Iranian regional interest. At a time like the present, the possession of such a force is an enormous advantage.
Assad's large, mainly Sunni Arab conventional army became largely useless to him in 2011/12. The IRGC stepped in and created for him one of its own preferred force types. Today, this militia (the National Defense Forces) along with other Iranian-created or -sponsored militia forces from neighboring Iraq and Lebanon are largely responsible for Assad's survival. But he survives as a warlord and militia chief, not as a "president" or the head of a state.
In Iraq, the country is today separated into three areas, a Kurdish north, an area in the center controlled by Sunni jihadis and a Shia area in the south. Again, the Shia south, which is still seen in the west as the "legitimate" government of Iraq, is in fact an area in which Shia militias are the key element, operating freely and acting according to their own will. Often, this will is the product of the desires of the Qods Force, and its commander General Qassem Suleimani.
In Lebanon, in a notably different process, an Iran-created militia, Hizballah, acquired the dominant role in the area once ruled by the state, because the state was a hollow construct long competed over by rival sectarian militias, and because Iranian and Syrian support enabled Hizballah to acquire a level of strength which no other homegrown political-military force could match. It may well be that this is now changing, as al-Qaeda associated Sunni militias enter the arena.
In Yemen, where the state and central government was also weak, the Iranian supported militia Ansar Allah (the "Houthis") seized the capital in January. Sunni elements in the south, including one of the strongest franchises of al-Qaeda, are fighting against them. A mobilization of Arab air and sea power is underway to prevent Iran's proxies from seizing the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. Control of this vital waterway, between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, would tilt the regional balance yet further in Iran's favor.

The Iranians, because of their matchless IRGC, are best equipped to make gains from this chaos.

Finally, in Libya, the western destruction of the Gadaffi regime has led to the splitting of the country between two rival governments — one supported by the Egyptians in Tobruk, another backed by Islamist militias in Tripoli.
Five Arab states, effectively no longer in existence. In all, militia power has replaced ordered government.
What does all this mean for the region? It means that a huge chunk of the long misgoverned Middle East has exchanged an age of despotic torpor for an age of chaos. The Iranians, because of their matchless IRGC, are best equipped to make gains from this.
But nowhere (with the partial exception of tiny Lebanon) have the Iranians yet succeeded in keeping a country united under the control of their local proxy. This is not a story of an unstoppable Iranian advance, like a juggernaut, across the region. Their successes are notable, but partial in each area of operation. Sunni and Kurdish forces prevent their complete victory and are likely to continue to do so.
Where will all this end — what will the landscape look like when the storm passes? Impossible to say.
But it may be said with certainty that the shadow of the gunmen is today hanging over the Middle East, all the way from the Iraq–Iran border to the Mediterranean coast and from the Gulf of Aden to Libya.

Jonathan Spyer is Director of the Rubin Center for Research in International Affairs and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is the author of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict (Continuum, 2011)
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