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Did Napoleon Bonaparte ever try capturing what is today considered modern day Israel? Did he ever visit the land independently of capturing it?

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    Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time. While the Ottoman Empire did participate in the Napoleonic Wars, there is no indication that Napoleon ever visited it (other than Egypt in 1799). And there definitely wasn't any war on Ottoman territory.
    – Wladimir Palant
    Oct 26, 2011 at 6:10
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    so why put it as a comment and not an answer?
    – Napoleonothecake
    Oct 26, 2011 at 6:14
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    Because answers shouldn't be guesses and I don't have time to properly research that question right now.
    – Wladimir Palant
    Oct 26, 2011 at 7:34
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    meta.history.stackexchange.com/questions/88/…
    – Napoleonothecake
    Oct 26, 2011 at 21:56

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In 1799, Napoleon went from Egypt, where his bases were, through modern Israel to Acre (Acco). In Acre he attempted a siege, lost it, and returned to Egypt. Acre was the northernmost point he reached in Israel.

Napoleon was not in Israel before or after 1799. Other places he passed through in Israel were: Gaza, Jaffa, Haifa, Mount Tabor and Jordan River.

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Modern Israel, Egypt, Palestine and Syria were all part of the Ottoman Empire during the time of Napoleon. Under him, the French led an expedition from Malta to Egypt, which later travelled through modern Israel, capturing several port cities on the way.

The answer is then yes, Napoleon tried and succeeded in taking a couple of cities in what is modern Israel, though they were only briefly held and his real objective was to take Egypt.

He did not ever return to the Middle East.

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    Napoleon did not reach Damascus. The Northernmost point he reached was Acre, 1799. Failing to take Acre, Napoleon returned to Egypt.
    – Andrei
    Dec 23, 2011 at 14:20
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It should be noted that there are several places today in Israel today in which one might find Napoleon's legacy, such as the cannons on Mount Carmel in Haifa pointing towards Acre.

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Modern Israel (1949–) did not exist during the life of Napoleon (1769–1821).

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    I believe that the Napoleonothecake was, by asking about Israel, asking about the region that Israel currently occupies today.
    – Russell
    Nov 28, 2012 at 10:37
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    I'm not a fan of anachronism, particularly in relation to political discourses that attempt heavily to intervene in historiography through a contest of legitimacy over naming. Given the uncomplicated acceptance of such anachronism in other answers, I felt that this answer provided specific and missing detail.
    – Samuel Russell
    Nov 29, 2012 at 7:30
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Yes. Napoleon did take several coastal cities in what is today considered modern day Israel. You can read about it here.

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    Welcome to the site. Could you please fix your link? Also, we tend to prefer more complete answers rather than just sending folks off somewhere else to find it. You can paraphrase from the wiki, but we'd like to see a little more substance.
    – Steven Drennon
    Nov 26, 2012 at 19:58
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    I'm going to remove the Daniel 11:40 section as it doesn't really have much to do with Napoleon. You can always change it back if you want, however, if you do, please specify why it is relevant.
    – Russell
    Nov 28, 2012 at 10:33

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