Summary of Control of the Land of Israel (Canaan) from Antiquity to Today

1. Post‑Flood Lineages

• c. 3000–2000 BC (traditional chronology) The region known as Canaan is associated with the descendants of Ham, specifically Canaan, according to ancient Near Eastern genealogical traditions

2. Early Bronze & Middle Bronze Age Peoples

• c. 3000–1550 BC Controlled by various Canaanite city‑states, Amorites, and other Semitic peoples.

3. Egyptian Rule

• c. 1550–1200 BC New Kingdom Egypt dominates Canaan, administering it through vassal city‑states.

4. Iron Age Kingdoms

• c. 1200–1000 BC Region populated by Israelites, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and remaining Canaanites.
• c. 1000–930 BC United Monarchy (Saul, David, Solomon) — a local Israelite kingdom.
• c. 930–722 BC Divided Kingdoms: Israel (north) and Judah (south).

5. Assyrian Empire

• 722 BC Neo‑Assyrian Empire conquers the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

6. Babylonian Empire

• 587/586 BC Neo‑Babylonian Empire conquers Judah and destroys Jerusalem.

7. Persian Empire

• 539–332 BC Achaemenid Persian Empire controls the region and names it the province of Yehud.

8. Greek / Hellenistic Rule

• 332 BC Conquered by Alexander the Great.
• 323–198 BC Ptolemaic Egypt controls the region.
• 198–63 BC Seleucid Empire controls it.

9. Hasmonean Kingdom (Local Rule)

• 140–63 BC A period of independent local rule under the Hasmonean dynasty.

10. Roman Rule

• 63 BCE–324 AD Roman Republic → Roman Empire controls the land.
• 70 AD Romans destroy the Second Temple.
• 135 AD After the Bar Kokhba revolt, Rome renames the province Syria Palaestina.

11. Byzantine Empire

• 324–638 AD Eastern Roman (Byzantine) rule.

12. Early Islamic Caliphates

• 638 AD Conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate.
• 661–750 AD Umayyad Caliphate (They built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount).
• 750–969 AD Abbasid Caliphate.

13. Fatimid, Seljuk, Crusader, and Ayyubid Periods

• 969–1099 AD Fatimid Caliphate (Egypt).
• 1099–1187 AD Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• 1187–1250 AD Ayyubid Sultanate (Saladin).

14. Mamluk Sultanate

• 1250–1517 AD Controlled by the Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt).

15. Ottoman Empire

• 1517–1917 AD Ottoman Empire rules the region for 400 years.

16. British Mandate

• 1917–1948 AD United Kingdom administers the land under the League of Nations Mandate.
• 1921 AD British gave the land east of the Jordan River (77% of total) to the Hashemites, a Muslim ruling family. Became completely independent in 1946, this is the country of Jordan today.
• 1937 AD Another Palestinian state was offered. (80% of the remaining 23%) The Palestinians said no and repeated that same answer five more times over the years. (1937, 1947, 1967, 1993, 2000, and 2008.)
• 1947 AD The British got tired of taking care of the land and turned it over to the UN.

17. Modern Period

• Nov. 29, 1947 AD The UN voted, 33-13, to partition the remaining 23% again and gave 56% to the Jews and to recognize the State of Israel.
• May 14, 1948 AD The Jews declared their independence and created the State of Israel. The next day armies from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq invaded. Israel won the war.
• May 11, 1949 AD The UN voted, 37-12, to accept Israel as it’s 59th member state.
• 1967 AD Six-Day War. Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized against Israel and lost. Israel captured Gaza, the Sinai, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, Judea, and Samaria (the West Bank). Israel maintains security/military control in Judea and Samaria because of their refusal to agree to peace and the threat of their close proximity to Jewish residents. The Oslo Accords in 1993 created partial Palestinian self-rule.
• 1973 AD Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia invaded Israel on Yom Kippur. Israel won capturing the Golan Heights.
• 2005 AD Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. They removed any Jews living there, including cemeteries. Israelis were forbidden to enter Gaza. However, Israel maintains control of airspace, maritime access, and most border crossings for security reasons.

An important thought from George Deek,
Christian ambassador from Israel:

What went wrong [in our society]? The answer to that question is decisive for the future of every society who has to answer it. There are two ways to answer that question. One way is to create a culture of blame and victimhood meaning to blame your problems on someone else and to believe that only by going against that someone and hating that someone or fighting or killing someone and that is the way of overcoming your failure and that is a very easy way because it asks you for no agency. It asks you only to point a finger and say it’s all the fault of someone else. That is how antisemitism is born. The other way is a way of responsibility and agency. Instead of asking who did this to me. Asking where did I go wrong and what can I do now that wasn’t possible before. This is a much harder choice to make because it asks you to be not a destroyer but a builder, not someone who is looking for someone to blame but is actually looking for how to create the future.  And that answer to [this] question will decide whether you become an agent of decay or an agent of renewal in a time of crisis. Now I want to say that in the middle east, we have seen that answer to that question a hundred years ago.

It’s obvious that the hate that begins [against] Jews never ends with Jews. It is the largest and the strongest minority in the region and is able to fight back against those who want to eradicate it. That’s why it serves a very important goal in making sure that we keep the diversity and the pluralism in the region alive. And we see how other minorities, whether it is the druse in Syria or the Jews in Lebanon, want to attach themselves to Israel as a way of protection. And second of all it is a place where minorities like Christians and others are able to live, prosper and grow inside Israel which gives another model for the region.

Now I’m not a western, I don’t come from the west but I’m a friend of the west. My security as an Israeli and a Christian depends on the west. I hope the west will choose a culture of responsibility over victimhood. I see today there are three strands inside the west that are pushing it to a culture of blame. The first one is the forces of Islamism. . . that are promoting political Islam. Then you have the woke left which is pushing an agenda which is the west is to blame, the west is corrupt, and our goal is to tear it down. The strand which we see more and more, they call it America Blind or the Blind Right in America which is basically saying nothing is wrong with us Christians. It’s all the fault of someone else who betrayed the west and manipulated us into a position of weakness.

They don’t agree, these three about anything, . . . but they do agree on one thing. Islam is saying our world was manipulated and Israel is the head. The woke left is saying the west is corrupt from its core and Israel is its worst expression, and the Blind Right is saying the west was betrayed and the Jews are behind it. This is the only thing the three can agree on. This is the culture of blame.