Historical events during the downfall of the Ottoman Empire and the Second Aliyah (the immigration of predominantly Russian Jews), the formation of the Kibbutz movement, the expulsion of the Russian Jews by the Ottomans at the start of WWI; the formation and military education of the Jews who eventually would fight for Israel independence, and the development of the unique culture of Israelis who were embattled by Arab violence instigated by their imams. 

In  March 1915 the Zion Mule Corps became the first regular Jewish fighting force – with a distinctively Jewish emblem and flag - to takeactive part in a war since the defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt 2000 years ago. Some of its men later formed the core of what was to become the modern Israeli army. General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-French Expeditionary Force in theDardenelles, later wrote in his diary, ‘I have here, fighting under my orders, a purely Jewish unit - the Zion Mule Corps. As far as I know, this is the first time in the Christian era such a thing has happened. They have shown great courage taking supplies up to the line under heavy fire’ and proved ‘invaluable to us’ [ii].

The commander of the Zion Mule Corps, Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, DSO, [iii] an elegant Boer War veteran of southern Irish Protestant origin, had been born in Dublin in 1867. He arrived in Egypt precisely when the British Commander in the area, General Sir JohnMaxwell, was looking for a suitable officer to raise and command a Jewish military unit to fight against the Turks in the Middle East [iv] .  Patterson was knowledgeable about Jewish history and sympathetic to the Zionist cause, and as a young man had read all he could of Jewish military and religious history.