American civic advocacy institution

Stand with Israel. Fight antisemitism. Check the record.

OZJF is an American Jewish advocacy group that defends Israel, confronts antisemitism, and gives readers the sources behind its arguments.

Read the Research Help without giving

Journalists on deadlineFast background with real sourcesQuotes, statements, press kit, and the research pages most useful when the story breaks now.Students and campus leadersAnswer hard questions. Report hate. Organize.Campus talking points, incident reporting, and action guides built for pressure-packed campus life.Partners and serious readersSee how we work before you rely on usGovernance, editorial standards, and how we describe allied work like Lox & Loaded on the record.Skeptical readersCheck our work. That is the point.Open the sources, read the methodology, and tell us when a citation or conclusion does not hold up.

OZJF is for people who want to stand up for Israel and fight antisemitism. You should not have to choose between a clear position and a careful look at the facts. We state our case, show our sources, and invite you to read both.

Our starting points are clear. The Jewish people have a right to self-determination. A strong bond between the United States and Israel helps both nations. Hamas is a terrorist group. The Palestinian Authority’s martyrs fund rewards violence. Antisemitism in American life calls for a serious response.

None of that makes Palestinian lives worth less. It does not excuse every choice made by an Israeli government. On our research and issue pages, we separate the public record from our own reading of it. We also link to the evidence we use.

New to OZJF? Begin with the research library, or choose the issue that matters most to you. OZJF does not accept outside donations. You can still help. Share useful work, report an error, or ask how your school or community can use these materials. We also support Lox & Loaded, a separate Jewish-owned program for firearms education and preparedness.

This week at OZJF

What we work on

Five issues. Start with the one you need.

Pick the issue you care about most. Each page lays out the argument in plain English, with sources you can check.

Jewish self-determination

The Jewish people have a right to a state. We make that case clearly, in plain language, with real history.

Palestinian governance

Hamas runs Gaza. The PA pays a martyrs fund. Peace needs leaders who stop rewarding violence.

Rising antisemitism

Anti-Jewish hate is climbing in American life. We track it, name it, and push back on the slogans that fuel it.

War and civilian protection

Palestinian civilians are civilians. Hamas made war the center of its rule. Both can be true. Both matter.

Honest criticism of Israeli policy

Israel has a right to exist. That does not mean every policy is right. We say so, with sources.

History of Gaza

A timeline of who ruled Gaza, and when

The fastest way to understand today's argument is to stop flattening Gaza into one story. This timeline tracks who governed the area across major eras, then links each chapter to a fuller explanation with sources.

Five chapters

Follow Gaza's governing history in a readable sequence.

Select a chapter to see who governed, what changed, and which sources document the period.

Start with the chapters

On phones, the most useful view is a readable sequence. Tap an era to update the detail below, or open the chapter for sources.

Chapter 1 of 5, c. 3000 BCE - 332 BCE

Ancient foundations

Open chapter

Gaza began as a Canaanite city on a trade route between Africa and Asia, then passed through Egyptian, Philistine, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian rule.

This chapter is about long-duration place history, not modern nationalism. Gaza mattered because it sat on a coastal corridor. Local city leaders and regional empires competed for that route, so the governing record changes repeatedly.

Who governed, in order3000 BCE to 332 BCE

3000 BCE to 1550 BCECanaanite city
1550 BCE to 1175 BCEEgyptian New Kingdom
1175 BCE to 734 BCEPhilistine city-state
734 BCE to 609 BCENeo-Assyrian Empire
609 BCE to 539 BCENeo-Babylonian Empire
539 BCE to 332 BCEAchaemenid Persian Empire

Who ruled

Canaanite city rulers
Egyptian New Kingdom
Philistine city leadership
Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian control

Teaching note

Useful for teaching the difference between a geographic place, a people, and a later national movement.

Sources for this chapter

Britannica, History of Palestine Britannica, Philistine people

This is a governance timeline. It traces political control over Gaza. It does not deny Palestinian identity, and it does not treat the history of the people of the land as reducible to one modern slogan.

Explore the full timeline Read the governance record Teacher and professor materials

Optional comparisonCompare ruling periods by duration

Proportional ruler

Use the readable view to compare major chapters. Use true scale to compare elapsed time precisely.

Some periods overlap because authority changed gradually or multiple powers claimed the region at once.

Why it matters now

Why the modern chapter matters most

The current war sits on top of a modern record that includes the British Mandate, Egyptian administration, Israeli control after 1967, limited Palestinian self-rule, the 2005 disengagement, Hamas's 2006 election win, and its 2007 armed takeover of Gaza. That is why OZJF treats Gaza as a governance question, not just a slogan.

Featured research

Start with the pieces that explain our argument best.

Explainer

Land for Peace: what worked, what did not

Egypt held. Jordan held. Oslo did not. We break down each deal and what it actually delivered.

Open Research brief

Middle East lobbying: read the filings first

A filing-first guide to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, and the limits of the public influence record.

Open Comparative brief

Globalize the Intifada: what the slogan means

To Jewish Americans, this phrase reads like a threat. We compare it to calls that no civic leader would tolerate.

Open

How we publish

Check our sources, standards, and corrections.

Source links

Open the record

Research pages link to public records you can open and read yourself.

Editorial standards

Plain-English review

Read our editorial rules and use the public corrections route when something needs attention.

American in scope

Built for U.S. readers

OZJF is an American advocacy group. We care about the U.S.-Israel relationship and what it means at home.

How to plug in

Pick the door that fits your time.

Choose a practical next step

Report an incident, volunteer your skills, or send a useful page to someone who needs it.

Give relief directly, not through OZJF

OZJF does not accept outside donations. If you want to fund civilian relief, use the relief organization's own giving flow.

Use the search bar up top

Nine languages. Real-time search. Type a topic, a name, or a document type and start reading.

Why trust us

The basics, in plain English.

Research and issue pages link to their source records. If a citation fails, you can flag it.
We run an English source edition. Translated pages carry an AI-assist disclosure.
We agree Palestinian civilians are civilians. We also cite polls showing Hamas still has strong support.
We back partners like Lox & Loaded and say so clearly. No hidden relationships.

Who we back

We say so on the record.

Lox & LoadedWe publicly back Lox & Loaded, a Jewish-owned firearms education and preparedness group. We say so on the record and keep the relationship clearly scoped.

Stand with us

Use the record. Share it. Challenge it.

OZJF does not accept outside donations. You can still help by sending useful pages to people who need them, reporting errors, volunteering, or connecting the work with a classroom or newsroom.

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