Izrael należy do tych państw, których położenie ma „wartość polityczną”.
Znaczenie przypisywane obszarowi, który zajmuje, związane jest przede wszystkim z genezą i historią narodu żydowskiego oraz jego religią, w depozyt której Erec Israel
została wpisana na trwałe i na zasadzie centralnego miejsca. Swoją „wartość geopolityczną” obszar ten zmienił
wraz z pojawieniem się ludności arabsko-muzułmańskiej. Jej osiedle nie się stanowiło zwrot kulturowy w historii regionu.
W artykule dokonano: 1) próby określenia relacji zachodzących między judaizmem a przestrzenią życia jego wyznawców,
2)
przedstawienia geograficzno-politycznych i religijnych uwarunkowań życia Żydów w diasporze
w kontekście odbudowy ich siedziby narodowej,
3) analizy przyczyn, przebiegu i konsekwencji zmian
usytuowania geopolitycznego Izraela w powiązaniu z przeobrażeniami jego struktury terytorialno-religijno-narodowej,
4) określenia wpływu tych przeobrażeń na zachowanie uczestników stosunków międzynarodowych.
Israel belongs to the countries whose location has
„
political value”.
Though sma
ll in
term
s of area and population,
it
is an important subject in the global political system.
However, it does not owe this position to its activities in the international arena,
measured by its participation in regional or local international structures.
At the core of
this situation is the geographical factor. Today it belongs to a group of factors de
-
termining the processes of international interactions (but not executing these processes),
i.e. impacting them indirectly and creating reasons, not organis
ing and initiating
processes. Even though this factor is characterised by the relativity of its influence on
international position and conduct of countries, stemming from the variability of its
functions, it is also one of the most persistent factors. Wit
h regard to Israel, it consists
mainly
of
location (geopolitical location) and, paradoxically, given the aforementioned
size of the country, its territory (borders) and the spatial, ethnic and religious diversity
related to it.
Due to its geographical loca
tion between Europe, Africa and Central and Eastern
Asia, the lands belonging to the modern Israel are well
-
placed to play a function of
a natural bridge between cultures, nations, religions, languages. Despite this purpose,
this area divides the Middle E
astern countries instead of uniting them. Focusing the
spatial and political behaviours of the countries in this region, it engages actors from outside the region into Middle
-
Eastern politics, including universal powers (able to act
globally in all fields
of international relations, e.g. the United States), sectoral powers
(active in selected areas, e.g. Saudi Arabia) and regional powers (e.g. Egypt).
The importance attributed to the said area, however, is associated primarily with the
origins and history o
f the Jewish nation (and state), as well as its religion, which gave
this land to Israel for good and as a central location. The area, located at the intersection
of important routes, elevated its
„
geopolitical value” with the influx of Arab and Muslim
pop
ulation, whose settlement in the absence of exiled Jews was a real cultural turning
point in the history of the region. The intersection of the most important religions,
including Christianity, made this land a goal in expansion of European powers,
determi
ned to liberate it from the
„
infidels” since the Middle Ages. This important
stronghold was a place of interest for all regional powers, both in ancient and modern
times.
The well
-
established, over 1300
-
year presence of Arabs in the region was shaken by
th
e immigration of Jews, well theoretically and politically grounded in Zionism, which
lead to another fundamental change in the spatial, religious and ethnic structure of the
area. A thickening network of Jewish settlements, the Holocaust, the compensation
to
surviving Jews, and finally the attempts by various powers to subjugate this politically
„
unformed” territory resulted in the determination of part of the international community
to normalise the issue of Jewish statehood. The success of establishing a
national seat for
Jews was accompanied by the defeat of the lack of the same decision for Palestinian
Arabs. The division of Palestine, assuming the creation of the Jewish state, was rejected
not only by its Arab inhabitants, but also by the neighbouring c
ountries, becoming
a hotbed of armed conflict between Jews and Arabs, which took on global repercussions.
The failure to set the State of Palestine and unformed autonomy in the areas which
are to be national seat for Palestinian Arabs result in the fact t
hat the formation of Israel
territory and its religious
–
national structure has not finished yet.
The article has attempted to: 1) define the relations between Judaism and the life
space of its believers, 2) present geopolitical and religious conditioning
of life of Jews in
diaspora in the context of the restoration of their national seat, 3) analyse the causes, the
course and the consequences of changes in geopolitical placement of Israel in connection
with the transformations of its territorial
-
religious
-
national structure, 4) define the
impact of these transformations on the behaviour of the international relations participants.
