Rather than provide a dry, century-by-century survey filled with statistics that are readily obtained elsewhere,[135] it is best to answer this question concisely: With rare exception, there has been a continuous presence of Jews in the land of Israel for the last two thousand years. And when we speak of the nation as a whole, dating back to the time of Moses, there has been a virtually unbroken Jewish-Israelite presence in the land for almost 3,400 years, and this despite much suffering and forced dispersion through the centuries.[136] As noted in Mitchell Bard’s excellent compendium Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Israeli-Arab Conflict,[137] now available online as well (see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc.html):
A common misperception is that all the Jews were forced into the Diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. and then, 1,800 years later, suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. . . .
Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in the Land of Israel continued and often flourished. Large communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the 9th century. In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea.
The Crusaders massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but the community rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years. By the early 19th century—years before the birth of the modern Zionist movement—more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is today Israel. The 78 years of nation-building, beginning in 1870, culminated in the reestablishment of the Jewish State.[138]
Of course, during the last fifteen hundred years, Arabs and Turks and others have lived in Israel, which was dubbed Palestine by the Romans in the second century a.d. (see #34). But at no time was Palestine considered an independent Arab nation (see again #34), and throughout the millennia, only one group claimed this land as its ancestral homeland: the Jews! That is why Jews face Jerusalem when they pray, wherever they are in the world—in contrast with Muslims, who face Mecca, meaning that those living in parts of the Middle East pray with their backs to Jerusalem—and that is why the Jewish Passover Seder every year includes the words “Next year in Jerusalem!” That has been the hope and passion of religious Jews through the ages, and for that reason, there has been a virtually continuous presence of Jewish people in Israel despite the collapse of a national state for almost 1,900 years. Living in the post-Holocaust era, a national Jewish slogan has been “Never again!”—meaning, there can never be and will never be another Holocaust for our people—and it is understood that a national homeland is the only way to ensure this.