Who ruled Israel prior to it becoming a Jewish state?
Britain ruled it since WWI when they won it from Turkey, which was then the Ottoman Empire (i.e. Lawrence of Arabia). Actually Israel never existed in modern times prior to 1947. The area the British held under an imperial system was loosely called Trans-Jordan or Palestine and included present day Israel, Jordan and Iraq. The Ottoman Turks dominated it from the locals and Egyptians and Arabs who fought over it with the Crusaders. The Crusaders fought various Islamic powers out of Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad for control. The Islamic powers took it from the Byzantine Empire who inherited from the Roman Empire. Prior to that there was finally the most recent Jewish state called Israel.
