Israel was Israel when Jews were banned from Jerusalem by Hadrian in 131.

Israel was Israel when the main population moved north to the Galilee.

Israel was Israel when the Sanhedrin was established in Tiberias ~193-358.

Israel was Israel when upward of 13 synagogues and multiple yeshivas located in Tiberias produced the Mishnah (c. 200) and Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400).

Israel was Israel when Heraclius decimated the Jewish population in the Galilee in 629.

Israel was Israel when Umar ibn al-Khattab allowed 70 Jewish families from Tiberias to return to Jerusalem in 638.

Israel was Israel when the Masoretic community flourished (based primarily out of Tiberias and Jerusalem) well into the 10th century.

Israel was Israel when Omar Abd al-Aziz banned the Jews from worshipping on the Temple Mount in 720 (a policy which remained in place for the next 1000yrs).

Israel was Israel when Christian Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered Jews throughout Palestine (and Europe!), thus leading to the Jews often fighting alongside Muslims against the Crusaders.

Israel was Israel when Saladin issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem after the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

Israel was Israel when over 300 rabbis from France and England emigrated to the land of Israel in 1211.

Israel was Israel when the Jewish population dwindled for almost 300 years under the severe oppression of the Mamluks.

Israel was Israel when mass Jewish immigration began immediately after the Turks conquered the region in 1517.

Israel was Israel when Safed became the center of Jewish mysticism and saw the installation of the first Hebrew printing press in 1577.

Israel was Israel when ~1000 European Jews under the leadership of Judah HeHasid immigrated to the land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem in 1700.

Israel was Israel when tens of thousand Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe and Sephardi Jews from Turkey, Bulgaria, and North Africa immigrated to the land of Israel throughout the 1800s.

Israel was Israel when ~35,000 Jews (mostly from Russia and Yemen) immigrated to the land of Israel from 1904-14.

Israel was Israel when ~350,000 Jews immigrated to the land of Israel between WWI and WWII.

Israel was Israel when Jews declared independence from Gentile subjugation on 14 May 1948.

Israel was Israel when ~850,000 Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews fled or were expelled from Muslim countries in the years following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (most of which settled in Israel).

Israel was Israel when ~380,000 (in 1990–91 alone!) Jews immigrated after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Israel is Israel today. - John P. Harrigan