Article Compares Israel's Founding to Greek Independence

Both countries were created following conflicts with the Ottoman Empire.

At that time it had a population of about 750,000, with most ethnic Greeks living outside its borders in places such as Constantinople, Smyrna, and around the Black Sea. During the formation of Greece, many Muslims, primarily Turks and Albanian Muslims, were killed, expelled, or fled from territories that became the new Greek state.

By the early 1830s their presence in the core areas had largely ended.

Israel was established in 1948 following the UN partition vote of November 29, 1947. At independence the new state had roughly 800,000 residents, including about 650,000 Jews and 150,000 Arabs who remained within its borders after the 1948-49 war. Approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs left or were expelled from the territory that became Israel, while nearly one million Jews left or were expelled from Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa in the same period and following years, most resettling in Israel.

The article states that Greek and Jewish communities existed in locations such as Odessa before the arrival of Slavs, in Constantinople before the Turks, and in Alexandria before the Arabs. It notes that centuries of displacement left both groups as minorities in much of the region.

Athens had around 5,000 residents at the start of the Greek Revolution, similar to the Jewish population of Jerusalem at the time.

Cultural life for Greeks centered in Constantinople and Smyrna, while for Jews it was largely outside the eventual territory of Israel. In both cases an Ottoman mosque existed in a symbolically important site.

One stood within the Parthenon ruins in Athens and was later demolished. A mosque and shrine stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 1948. Jewish residents were expelled from the Old City of Jerusalem and dozens of synagogues were destroyed.

The piece notes that both national movements were supported by diaspora organizations. The Greek revolutionary society Filiki Eteria was founded in Odessa in 1814. Hovevei Zion was founded in Odessa in 1881 and helped organize early Jewish settlement in Palestine.

Both drew on ancient historical identities and were advanced by atrocities that galvanized public support in Europe and beyond. Greece received direct military support from Britain, France, and Russia, whose fleets destroyed Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces at the Battle of Navarino in 1827.

Israel fought the 1948-49 war under an international arms embargo and used improvised weapons procurement.

The article reports that Greece absorbed Greek refugees while Turkey absorbed displaced Muslims. Israel absorbed Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Arab states largely kept Palestinian refugees in separate camps, often denying them citizenship.

The opinion piece states that these historical patterns help explain differing international views of the legitimacy of the two states.