I suppose it's fitting that someone with a forum name like mine would decide to follow an AAR on this sort of subject. Make the Maccabees (the real ones) proud! 
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Struggle for the Soul of Yisrael
Even as the Star of David was raised over Temple Mount (which was quickly pulled down by Rabbis in a theological furor), the city seethed with revolt. The Moslem neighborhoods were hotbeds of anger, the Jerusalem Legion had to keep a constant cordon around those areas, and occasionally launch raids to supress potential revolts. However a few thousand Moslems managed to break the cordon and pour into open revolt, they were unorganized however and upon meeting the massed muskets of the Israeli troops were dispersed, and on the rocky slopes of the Mount of Olives Jewish snipers cut down fleeing Moslem rebels. Israeli artillery continued to lob shells into the Moslem quarter for several more hours however.
At the same time, the political situation in the country was being assessed. There was a considerable amount of political diversity, with the Labor party being favored for victory, the Conservatives a distant second, followed by the Socialists, and by various Anarchistic, Communist, or Reactionary parties. But this diverse political field reflected the diverse nature of the Jewish diaspora. Also it reflected the effort of the Greek Church and the Moslems to force together at least one seat for themselves in the Knesset.
As the elections drew closer, and it became clear that the Israelis intended to completely annex the holy city, the nation was thrown deeper into revolt. Moslem insurgents gathered nearly 8,000 strong the entire community of Dhar El Balah had revolted. In Jerusalem nearly 4,000 Christians took to the streets with arms and marched upon the Temple Mount.
This not only provoked the furious response of the Jerusalem Legion, but the Jewish citizens who lived near the Temple joined in the fighting. The Christian march was butchered with nearly 3,000 of those involved being killed. The Jerusalem Legion however had another urgent mission, to crush the revolt in Ghazzah. The Legion marched out of Jerusalem quickly making its way to Ghazzah, where the insurgent Moslem force was besieging a belt of Jewish towns near the coast. Set upon from the rear the Moslem force dispersed, but with thousands of them being cut down by the swift moving Israeli skirmishers. But almost at once another revolt broke out in Jaffa, with 2,300 Christian farmers rising in revolt, urging their fellow Christians to rise in arms and said a Christian underground newspaper "As the Crusaders of old had done, we shall take Jerusalem!"
The Israelis scoffed at such bombast and sent 22,000 troops pouring into the region, the Orthodox revolt was crushed with extreme force. The farms were set ablaze, and the rural Christian communities were put under enormous pressure.
With the establishment of the Jewish state had also brought with it a surprising level of non-Jewish immigration. Catholics and Protestants of Europe began immigrating to the holy land in small numbers now that the ban that had been in place under the Ottomans was lifted. The Israelis watched them carefully having a long memory for their time in Europe, but as of the moment they appeared to be docile.
Another revolt broke out in Jerusalem with riots gripping parts of the city as enraged Moslems stormed several police checkpoints and seizing arms opened into open revolt. The Jerusalem Legion again marched swiftly over the Judean hills and crushed the revolt inside the city with extreme force. After each revolt, as a warning it had become policy so shell the offending neighborhoods for a period of time. This left whole quarters of the city in a state of perpetual disrepair.
However as soon as the revolt was crushed, another more massive rebellion broke out. Jaffa and Ghazza were engulfed in violence, Moslem communities in Jaffa had gathered arms and fought in open revolt. Nearly 9,000 farmers had left their fields to march towards the city. But the Jerusalem Legion again beat a quick march to the plains of Jaffa and intercepted the Moslem force. However this was no pushover, for several hours muskets blazed before finally with superior firepower the Moslem force was not only crushed it was annihilated with nearly 8,000 killed.
Ghazza had been declared a free Moslem zone and the insurgents called upon their fellow Moslems for Jihad. The major urban areas were untouched by them as they were predominantly Jewish and held by the militia, but the countryside and a few towns were theres. The Moslem force under the command of Abu Khalel launched an insane and audicious attack against the Israeli army at Jaffa.
The Israeli army had heard of the oncoming force of Khalel and had simply formed up a line with their artillery pointed south. As Khalels force came into range, they let loose furious salvos of musket fire and concentrated artillery salvos. The Moslem force of nearly 10,000 was rapidly destroyed with nearly 9,000 of them killed or captured.
A fragile peace seemed to have come to rest over the land of Israel, the revolts had been devistating to the Orthodox and Moslem communities. Before what was to become known has The 1st Great Revolt, the Moslem community had comprised 400,000 of the nations 3,000,000 people. At its conclusion it comprised a little over 330,000 tens of thousands had been killed in revolts. The Orthodox community had comprised of a little more than 100,000 people, after the revolts it had dropped to less than 70,000. While the Jewish communities and Catholic communities had only grown. But the seeds had been placed for future religous and ethnic conflict.
Israel is becoming quite a diverse place, both politically and culturally. Hopefully you'll have more peace soon enough.
Israel is a pretty rough place right now. Let's hope that it's diverse peoples can learn to live together. Or that the Israelis can convince them of the futility of rebellion at least.
Wow, some pretty brutal responses to those revolts. But, sign of the times they lived in. Very good setup for future strife in this now war torn nation.j
Keep up the good work.
Keep up the good work.
Very awesome so far.
Keep up the good work(btw there werent any communists in 1839 just sayin)
Keep up the good work(btw there werent any communists in 1839 just sayin)
Judas: I was actually waiting for you to make a comment in here! Your namesake may actually get a spot in my AAR. And yes it is rather divisive, the issue is that I insist on always taking stances that only the majority will like, this is to slacken the flow of Catholic and Protestent immigrants and also to force out my internal religions. This may seem harsh, but with such a small resevoir of Jews to draw from in the immigration pool its important, to keep Israels Jewish character.
Haardrade: Well I'm more than confident that I can handle any revolt that comes my way, the issue is that it occasionally interrupts Israels industrial and economic progress, though as we'll see Israel is doing well in that department.
Grayghost: Its actually on purpose, the point is to thoroughly reduce the non-Jewish communities in Israel and keep Judaism perpetually above the 80% mark. My goal is to have it 90% Jewish, which means fomenting minority revolts at times. Also since I made Jerusalem my capitol and the revolt risk is running from 12-18% in some areas, i get large revolts which means great bloodshed. It also quite frankly can make a great story backdrop, I mean Jewish soldiers and artillery destroying the revolt of a Roman Catholic colony in Jerusalem? Though that hasnt happened yet...
CCA: The Communists are simply listed as such in the Population profile, I cant change that. We can pretend they are radical leftists, but its where that % of my populations views fall. But thanks for the comments
Haardrade: Well I'm more than confident that I can handle any revolt that comes my way, the issue is that it occasionally interrupts Israels industrial and economic progress, though as we'll see Israel is doing well in that department.
Grayghost: Its actually on purpose, the point is to thoroughly reduce the non-Jewish communities in Israel and keep Judaism perpetually above the 80% mark. My goal is to have it 90% Jewish, which means fomenting minority revolts at times. Also since I made Jerusalem my capitol and the revolt risk is running from 12-18% in some areas, i get large revolts which means great bloodshed. It also quite frankly can make a great story backdrop, I mean Jewish soldiers and artillery destroying the revolt of a Roman Catholic colony in Jerusalem? Though that hasnt happened yet...
CCA: The Communists are simply listed as such in the Population profile, I cant change that. We can pretend they are radical leftists, but its where that % of my populations views fall. But thanks for the comments
superskippy said:Judas: I was actually waiting for you to make a comment in here! Your namesake may actually get a spot in my AAR. And yes it is rather divisive, the issue is that I insist on always taking stances that only the majority will like, this is to slacken the flow of Catholic and Protestent immigrants and also to force out my internal religions. This may seem harsh, but with such a small resevoir of Jews to draw from in the immigration pool its important, to keep Israels Jewish character.
Haardrade: Well I'm more than confident that I can handle any revolt that comes my way, the issue is that it occasionally interrupts Israels industrial and economic progress, though as we'll see Israel is doing well in that department.
Grayghost: Its actually on purpose, the point is to thoroughly reduce the non-Jewish communities in Israel and keep Judaism perpetually above the 80% mark. My goal is to have it 90% Jewish, which means fomenting minority revolts at times. Also since I made Jerusalem my capitol and the revolt risk is running from 12-18% in some areas, i get large revolts which means great bloodshed. It also quite frankly can make a great story backdrop, I mean Jewish soldiers and artillery destroying the revolt of a Roman Catholic colony in Jerusalem? Though that hasnt happened yet...
CCA: The Communists are simply listed as such in the Population profile, I cant change that. We can pretend they are radical leftists, but its where that % of my populations views fall. But thanks for the comments
Wow, after reading your responses, quite a dramatic stance to take for this gov't. Extermination or reduction through gov't incited revolts is pretty ruthless for any gov't. But your right, it certainly makes a riveting storyline.
Yeah, my reasoning is that the creation of Israel in this storyline was not matched by riveting debate in the UN with the whole world upon it, nor was there any great body of international law. There were states thats it. Also in this scenario the Jews gain independence in the midst of the deepest levels of anti-semetism in Europe, it is not as horrendous as the Holocaust, but it permiated all Europeon society with anti-Jewish laws and some Ghettos not being broken open until years later. So I have a political diverse Jewish population because of the Europeon national backgrounds, but a very, very, militant one.
Oh and it certaintly does make for a great storyline, I may or may not put up another update tonight with that in mind but we'll see.
Oh and it certaintly does make for a great storyline, I may or may not put up another update tonight with that in mind but we'll see.
Well the population growth rate is naturally high because of the mod. I'm not sure what factors contribute to it, part of it may have to do with the Orthodox Jewish birthrate, but I doubt it. The creator of the mod may have been compensating for the lack of Jewish immigrants by giving a moderate growth rate.
superskippy said:
This may have been answered elsewhere, but were any immigration events created in the mod. If they were not, I think it would have certainly added to the storyline, something along the lines of "Exodus".
As of right now there have been no immigration events, I believe I have attracted at least a few thousand Jewish immigrants. But until the pogroms happen in Europe, I dont get major immigration events.
superskippy said:
Ah, but there are things that do trigger immigration events. That is what I want to see. It will be interesting to see the events in action once things begin to trigger them.
The Legacy of David
The tension filled quiet that had settled over Israel was swiftly broken. In Jaffa in an act of almost absurd rebellion was displayed by several hundred Orthodox Christian factory workers. They rioted in the streets for several hours only to meet the massed muskets of the Lion of Judah Brigade. The zealots chased down the fleeing factory workers and slew many. The streets of Jaffa were quiet that night.
General Bar-Torah was a handsome man of middling age, he was a Sabra a native of the land of Israel. He had a great admiration in Israel with some whispering that he was perhaps Joshua returned to earth again, and with his succesive victories his popularity grew. But if he was not Joshua he was an excellent tactician and upon hearing that nearly 9,000 Christian farmers had seized an armory and were besieging a Jewish neighborhood near the Mount of Olives, he quickly decamped and marched on Jerusalem.
His army had to move swiftly, the Jewish citizenry were armed but only to the degree required to defend their neighborhoods. The Lion of Judah Brigade unhindered by artillery sped ahead and came into contact with the Christian rebels upon the Mount of Olives. The Brigade was careful not to do too much damage to the gravesite. They swept up the hill against the ill organized Christian rebels and after a few hours of combat utterly routed the rebel force.
But then within the city the Moslem quarter rose in revolt with nearly 4,000 rebels marching on the mayoral center of the city in the Jewish quarter. But as the Lion of Judah Brigade was on the hill, the Maccabi Brigade had just arrived in the city. And awaiting the rebelling Moslems were 10 batteries of artillery and 12,000 soldiers. The Moslems were quickly destroyed or dispersed, grapeshot from the artillery cut deep and bloody swathes into the retreating rebel mass.
The incessent rebellion had not prevented the political process from moving forward and finally some 5 years after the nation had been established, the infancy of the provisional government passed away and elections were held. The elections were relatively close but the Labor Party campaigning in its strongholds of Jaffa, Nabulus, and Sidon carried the election with 55 seats out of the 120 seat Knesset (the expansion into Jerusalem had warrented another 20 seats). The Likud party campaigning on rightwing, religous platform carried its stronghold in Jerusalem and recieved minority votes in Jaffa, Nabulus, and Sidon, and took 42 seats. The Socialist vote was spread out but had its strength in the Orthodox community, it took 18 seats. The Arab list only managed to take 3 seats in the Knesset. While an extremely conservative Torah Party based in Jerusalem took 2 seats in the Knesset.
A grand coalition was formed between the Labor Party and the Likud Party so as to create one united government in the vital early years of the state. Both parties while differing on economics shared deep zionist and Jewish beliefs, and held that Israel was to be an unequivical Jewish state. The Knesset elected the mayor of Jerusalem Barak Ben-Av to the role of Prime Minister. They also established a Supreme Court in Jerusalem restablishing in name at least the Sanhedrin. The Knesset and the new Prime Minister were all sworn in before the Temple Mount.
But a new revolt broke out, this one was not so much religous as it was political. The Socialist party had been left out of all levels of government not a single cabinet post was awarded to them, nor was a single committee opened to them. The Moslem voting base in Ghazzah was enraged, and seizing their arms took to revolt. But with less than 1,200 rebels taking to arms, General Bar-Torah almost effortlessly crushed the revolt. Nearly 800 of the Rebels were killed the rest were captured. Only 30 Jewish soldiers had been slain in the action.
General Bar-Torah had his soldiers encamp upon the great farming estates in Ghazzah which were plowed by Moslem farmers. His goal was a calculating and cold one, but also very pragmatic. He reasoned it would be best to bloody the farmers before they desired to revolt so soon. As expected several thousand farmers grabbed their shotguns, rifles, and pitchforks and attacked the army. A few hours of musket and artillery volleys reduced the force to a heap of torn flesh and cowering men.
General Bar-Torah reported to Prime Minister Barak that the main centers of rebellion were in Ghazzah, Jaffa, and Jerusalem and he would be shifting his patrols between these areas accordingly. He also reported an upswing in Catholic immigration to Jerusalem, something he reccomended by watched.
Before the Jerusalem Legion could depart from Ghazzah, another revolt gripped the state. Sheik Ahmed Azzam ruled several local towns, and had decided that the affront posed by the Jewish army was too much. He saught not only to rally his people but to launch an overall campaign gaining support from local towns and cities to drive the army back. General Bar-Torah reacted seriously to the revolt, and as the reports of Azzams soldiers razing synogogues and the massacre of at least one Jewish village reached them, he was filled with a murderous mood. Sheik Ahmed Azzam and 10,000 Moslem militia met on the fields of the Ghazza plain and set their standerd hoping that the local towns would answer. It was a terrible mistake, almost at once the Jerusalem Legion fell upon them with ferocity that terrified them.
The attack over the plains by the full strength of the Jerusalem Legion was an overwhelming success. But the attack was not some mere headon assault, regiments had been moved to the rear of Azzams army to cut off his retreat towards Arish. As his militia levy's died or fled, they were caught in a circle of lead, and no quarter was given. By late afternoon 9,000 if his men were killed upon the field, another 1,000 were captured. Azzam himself was captured, but mysteriously died on the way to a prison in Jaffa. Doctors would identify the cause of death by the many sabre wounds he had suffered.
General Bar-Torah finally decided to leave Ghazzah having crushed 3 succesive revolts killing nearly 20,000 people in the course of it. The nascent state's capitol in Jerusalem was extremely vulnerable to attack, Prime Minister Barak had called upon him to return to the city. Intelligence by the young states secret service merely known as the Councelors had reported that there appeared to plans for a great revolt amongst the Moslem and Orthodox Christian communities who hoped to attract the support of the Ottomans or the Egyptians. Jerusalem of all places could not be allowed to fall. So Bar-Torah swiftly moved on Jerusalem, but he came upon the city only to find it gripped with battle. He sent his troops marching upon the city, but his artillery remained on the Judean hills outside, trained on the city.
Siege of Jerusalem
Some 23,000 Moslem and Christian rebels had organized into a single fighting bloc under the Patriarch Cyril and Sheik Nassir. The Jewish militia had managed and government police had managed to hold onto key Jewish neighborhoods, and the government centers. But the Christian and Moslem quarters were lost, the neighborhoods north of the city had fallen, and the Armenian quarter was a battleground and Jewish militia held up the Moslem-Christian advance by making the Church of St. James a strongpoint. Nearly 1,200 militia fought furiously to keep back the advance of Patriarch Cyril who had taken 6,000 fighters to liberate their brothers in the Armenian quarter. The fighting was savage, cannons were wheeled up to blast apart strongpoints while snipers picked off the crews. The Church of St. James quickly became a wreckage, until finally the militia was forced to withdraw deeper into the Armenian quarter.
However the most frightening news was word that the Temple Mount and the newly established synagogue there were being besieged. The Jerusalem Legion moved with furious speed, artillery lobbed a continious volume of shells into the Arab and Christian quarters. A few regiments from the Lion of Judah Brigade were sent north to seize the Mount of Olives, while everyone else was sent headlong into the city. Nearly 4,000 soldiers made it their objective to relieve the Temple Mount. The combat force moved through the Zion Gate and some simply scaled the walls. As they approached the temple it became apparent that the situation was dire. The Temple Mount was in enemy hands. This could not stand, they charged forward into the plaza before the Western Wall and began firing up at the militia parading above atop their prize.
The mixed Moslem militia was caught off guard, but nearly 3,000 of them were entrenched upon the Temple Mount and they fought bitterly to keep the Jewish soldiers back from the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The 4,000 Israeli soldiers were soon reinforced with another 2,000 soldiers from the Lion of Judah regiments on the Mount of Olives. Thus attacking from both sides a foothold was gained upon the mount, the Moslems had rallied around the Mosques and delivered whithering volleys which forced back two Israeli attacks. But finally 10 cannon were whelled onto the Mount, a fateful decision was reached by the commanders on the ground. The artillery opened fire and after a few salvos the Mosques caught fire, driving out the several thousand fighters that had entrenched around and inside of it. The Jewish soldiers blocked the exits from the Temple Mount and so through firepower or by fire some 5,000 Moslems were killed atop the mount and the holy Mosques were destroyed.
The fall of the Mount of Olives, and the Temple Mount signaled the defeat of the uprising. Sheik Nassir had lost nearly 9,000 of the 15,000 men in his ranks on the Mount of Olives, in the Jewish Quarter, and on the Temple Mount. He attempted to take what militia he had left and flee to Egytpian territory. But he was quickly sealed inside the Moslem quarter as artillery from the Mount of Olives pounded his positions making movement impossible. While Patriarch Cyril had been stymied in bloody fighting in the Armenian quarter, he had finally driven the Jewish militia out only to find 6,000 Jewish soldiers advancing into his bloodied rag tag militia. With no escape from the city possible the only chose was to hide, fight, or surrender. Both the Sheik and the Patriarch gathered those who would fight to the death, and did so. The Sheik was driven to the Pool of Bethesda where he was killed along with the rest of his followers in a surprise attack by troops sweeping around from the Christian quarter, though scattered fighting continued in the Moslem quarter for hours. The Patriarch was driven through the Armenian quarter until he was trapped in a small salient around the ruins of St. James Church. After a few hours of murderous attacks the Church was stormed and the Patriach was killed along with a few hundred surviving Christian rebels. The city was at last pacified and it was believed that the environ neighborhoods would fall by nightfall, but Jerusalem had been ravaged.
The battle had claimed the lives of 4,200 soldiers in the Jerusalem Legion or nearly 20% casualties another 5,000 Jewish militia had been killed along 2,000 civilians. But nearly 48,000 Moslems and Christians had been killed the battle including the rebels. The 3rd holiest site in Islam had been destroyed, and the Temple Mounts surface was charred. Both the Sheik of Jerusalem and the head of the Orthodox Church in Israel were dead. The battle had cost more than just lives.
Almost as soon as the battle ended, the Legion began gathering replacments, they were not hard to find. The outrage of the destruction of both the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock was deep. Relations had become terrible overnight with the Ottomans and the Egyptians, while the entire Moslem population in Israel was in an uproar. This was shown when 40,000 Moslems rebelled in Jaffa, Ghazza, and even in Nabulus.
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Wow , truly this strife has taken a tremendous toll in lives and spirit . What a terrible situation . Very well portrayed but very saddening simultaneously .
Geez!
These revolts are rediculous. And the mosques are beautiful, pity they had to be destroyed.
These revolts are rediculous. And the mosques are beautiful, pity they had to be destroyed.
Good on you that this is the 1840's. The same brutality 110 years later would have brought considerably more trouble to the fledgling nation
Brutally, yes. But brutallity was more common then. And please folks, don't go down the road I fear we will go soon if we are not careful. Remember the forum rules and don't bring down this fine AAR. It would be a pity if it was closed down due to shortsighted remarks.
It would be a pity if it was closed down due to shortsighted remarks.