The first attempt was during their 400 years sojourn as strangers in the land of ancient Egypt:
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land." Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve. was with rigour. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live (Exodus 1:7-16).It is of great interest to notice that the nation which ordered to cast every Hebrew male child into the river had its own army thrown into the Red Sea when Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, "Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive" (Exodus 1:21,22).
The second attempt is recorded in the book of Esther during the reign of King Ahasuerus. Haman decided to do away with them but instead he was hanged on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai the Jew (see Esther 7:10).
More recently, during the second World War, Hitler attempted to annihilate the Jews and he declared to the world that he would resolve what he called the "Jewish problem." He murdered six million Jews in concentration camps. He ended the war with total defeat to his nation. Germany was divided and he committed suicide. On the other hand, and almost at the same time, Israel was reborn, and God's people were preserved.
Almost twenty years later in 1967, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egypt's president, along with the Syrians and Jordanians, mustered a strong Arab army for the sole purpose of throwing Israel into the sea. The outcome once again was humiliating defeat for the Arabs and a return of all of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.
The preservation of Israel - through all of its sufferings, wars, and afflictions over the centuries - is further evidence that Israel is God's miracle nation.