[Chauncey Gardiner]

And despite centuries of such persecution, Israel still thrives. A true miracle.

[Cronos]

True, it is a miracle, but you must also remember other communities/nations that survived such tragedies. Listing them in order of lengths of dispossession:

1. Assyrians - since the collapse of Assyria in circa 700 B.C., the Assyrian people have been under Babylonian, Medean, Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Ummayad, Fatimid, Timurid, etc. rule and they had survived -- that is, until the aftermath of the 2003 gulf war
   
2. Armenians - persecution under the Timurids, Turks, Soviets etc
3. Zoroastrians - chased out of Persia by the Arab Moslems
4. Mangalorean Catholics - near-genocide by the Moslem Tipu sultan
5. Poles - 123 years without a nation
6. Kurds