Conference: 2004 Pre-Trib Study Group
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Outof a resurgence of British interest in the Holy Land as reflected at this timein Benjamin Disraeli's novel Tancred and George Eliot's powerfully influential piece offiction entitled Daniel Deronda, The British established the Palestine Exploration Fundin 1865. In 1867 they sent Sir Charles Warren, a lieutenant in the RoyalEngineers "to make archaeological soundings at Jerusalem in an effort todetermine the exact location of the Temple and the Holy Sepulcher."1 Veryextensive surveys were made over the entire land (which were crucial forGeneral Allenby's campaign in 1917) and out of these Sir Charles wrote a bookin 1875 entitled The Land of Promise: or, Turkey's Guarantee. In this work he proposes thatGreat Britain charter a company to take over Palestine from the Turks and ascompensation assume a portion of Turkey's staggering foreign debt. He insisted:"Let this be done with the avowed intention of gradually introducing the Jew,pure and simple, who is eventually to occupy and govern this country."2 His basis for suchan expectation was simply that "It is written over and over again in the Wordof God that Israel is to return to their own land." He goes on to assert that"That which is yet to be looked for is the public recognition of the fact, togetherwith the restoration, in whole or in part, of Jewish national life, under theprotection of some one or more of the Great Powers."3 Iinvite you to join me in tracing the critical steps in the actualization ofthis vision - the establishment of the modern state of Israel, which BillyGraham in 1970 called "by far the greatest Biblical event that has taken placeduring the 20th century."
I.THEBACKDROP-THE SUSTAINING OF THE VISION AMONG JEWS AND CHRISTIANS ACROSS THECENTURIES
Wesense even among the ante-Nicene fathers that "there is the perception thatthere would be a literal fulfillment of the promises of the Kingdom to come"and that national Israel and the Church are to be distinguished.4 Notwithstandinghis move into amillennialism, Augustine saw in Scripture the basis forbelieving that the "elect Israelites" would be converted through the preachingof Elijah (Civit. Dei, XX.21, 29) in the final wrap-up of space-time history. Animpressive succession of advocates and conservators of the conviction that Godhas yet very special things for the Jews would have to include Orthodox Jews("Next year in Jerusalem!"), Joachim of Fiore and almost all of the Puritansand continental Pietists. John Owen, the eminent Puritan divine and ViceChancellor of Oxford wrote:
"The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth wherethey are now scattered, and be brought home to their homeland before the "endof all things" prophesied by St. Peter can occur."5
Inhis massive work of 1669, The Mystery of Israel's Salvation Explained andApplied, IncreaseMather, Boston pastor and president of Harvard stated:
"When once God begins this work of Israel's salvation, it shallbe carried on with speed and irresistible might--at their return they shalleven fly (Isaiah 11:14). Some have doubted whether they should ever possess theland of their Fathers, but the Scripture is very clear and full on this."6
Someof course have urged a replacement theory or the supersession of the Churchover Israel. The notion that God has banished his ancient covenant people tothe slag heap of history has of course been a seed-bed of anti-Semitism. JohnStott speaks of Christian Zionism as a cult. Othershave argued that something spiritual would happen to the Jews at the end of historybut not restoration to the land. George Ladd (who saw the 144,000 as thechurch), the amillennialist D.M. Lloyd-George and the postmillennialist CharlesHodge would be in this company. At least they see Romans 11 as speaking aboutthe Jews at the end of history and not of the church. Stillothers see the present gathering of Jews from the Diaspora as the fulfillmentof prophecy - this is it! A return of Jews in unbelief. 5,000,000 Jews inIsrael today. Others insist that the return of the Jews is in repentance andfaith (cf Deuteronomy 30:1ff) and hence will be at the end of the Tribulationwhen Christ comes back in power and glory "when every eye will see Him"(Revelation 1:7). My own premise fuses both of these-there is an inaugurationof the restoration in unbelief-a beginning-the vanguard of the 144,000converted at the midpoint of the Tribulation but the full restoration will notbe complete or conclusive until Christ has descended to rule from the throne ofDavid. Isnot the fig tree budding? How can there be a tribulation temple if Jews havenot returned in considerable numbers? How can the anti-Christ make a covenantand then break it if the Jews have not returned? How can the 144,000 have amission of evangelism unless they are converted? The dry bones must cometogether and be joined boneto his bone and then life will enter into the bones (Ezekiel 37). Thiskind of expectation of the Jewish restoration to the land has been a constantover much time and included Charles H. Spurgeon, William Carey, Henry Martyn,Andrew Fuller, Charles Simeon, Phoebe Palmer of our country (in her Israel'sSpeedy Restoration and Conversion Contemplated, or Signs of the Times, 1854), George N.H. Peters and agreat host. And our generation has lived to see the return and theestablishment of a Jewish state, the first since the days of the Maccabees.
II.THEMODERN REINVIGORATION OF THE VISION OF ISRAEL'S RESTORATION
TheJews in their worldwide dispersion (so literally foretold in Deuteronomy 28-29)were never off the screen. Expelled from England by Edward II in 1242, theywere welcomed back by Oliver Cromwell in the days of the Protectorate. Noneless than Napeoleon Bonaparte when on a political adventure in the Middle Eastcried out in 1799:
"Israelites, arise! Ye exiled, arise! Hasten!Now is the moment which may not return for thousands of years, to claim therestoration of civil rights among the population of the universe which haveshamefully been withheld from you for thousands of years, to claim your politicalexistence as a nation among nations, and the unlimited natural right to worshipJehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and probably forever."7
Napoleonwas thus the first head of state to propose the restoration of the Jewishstate. Although Germany always had a special interest in the land (rememberFrederick the Great's famous response to this chaplain's question as to thestrongest evidence for the truthfulness of Scripture-'THE JEW") and the GermanColony in Jerusalem, the British had the most persistent and informed aninvolvement. Many Brits visited the land including Lord Byron who was involvedin the re-opening of Petra in 1811 and the Bonar-McCheyne expedition of 1839(out of which came the fruitful Budapest mission to the Jews in which AlfredEdersheim, David Baron and Adolph Saphir and other worthies were converted).8 National aspirations and a race to build the SuezCanal brought Britain, France, Germany and Russia into serious conflict overPalestine. A key British figure was Anthony Ashley Cooper or Lord Shaftesbury(1800-1885) who was deeply influenced by his friend Bishop Edward Bickerstethin his study of Bible prophecy and his conviction that "Christ would come againsuddenly and soon." He studied Hebrew under MacCaul and in correspondence withthe British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, advocated British support for aJewish national homeland in Palestine. The Damascus Incident of 1840 when theJews were accused of the ritual murder of a Capuchin friar saw a chillingpogrom in which "riots, sacking, imprisonment and torture to exact confessions"ran amok.9 Shaftesbury (a true Zionist before the fact) according tohis biographer "never had a shadow of a doubt that the Jews were to return to their own land" orthat Lord Palmerston's intervention on behalf of the Jews made him the antitypeof the Persian Emperor Cyrus. Thebutchery in Damascus also aroused the protests of the American President,Martin Van Buren. Mark Twain wrote of the prophecies of the Jews returning totheir land and "the restoration of their "ancient power and grandeur."10 Theassassination of the Russian Csar Alexander II brought violent pogroms in which1 1/4 million Jews were slaughtered. Pivotal to American thinking were M.N.Noah, a Jewish lawyer and American consul in Tunis who became burdened for theJews and William E. Blackstone (1841-1935), a Chicago businessman who gathered413 names of prominent Americans and presented themto President Benjamin Harrison in a petition supporting "the political right ofJews to rebuild the nation of Israel."11 Blackstonewas a Methodist who was involved in the Civil War and knew Generals Grant andMead and President Lincoln. In 1862 Grant had expelled all Jews from hismilitary region but President Lincoln revoked this order.12 Blackstoneprospered in business and published his widely read book Jesus is Coming in 1878. Influenced by Dr. JamesBrookes of St. Louis and C.I. Scofield, Blackstone's views were very close tothose of the Irish preacher, John Nelson Darby. Grose observes: "Blackstone'sliteral interpretations of Scripture may have offended mainstream AmericanProtestantism, which had long since adopted a more flexible theology. But withhis friends, Dwight L. Moody and C.I. Scofield, Blackstone clung to the HolyText word for word, holding that the Jewish people remained to become once moreGod's elect, the chosen people."13 Blackstonespoke of the return of precursors in unbelief which would be just the beginningof the fulfillment of the promises which would embrace the virtual return ofall of world Jewry to the land. The permanent restoration will allow for Israelto be a center of blessing for all nations (Isaiah 49:18, 22-23, Micah 4:1-2,Zechariah 8:20-23, 14:16). He established the American Messianic Fellowship inChicago which is still a viable witness to the Jews. Blackstone had the visionof a Jewish state and the savy to realize some careful political pressurewould have to be part of itsultimate fulfillment. While President Harrison would not be such a "Cyrus," alater American president would see himself in such a role. The Jews would notforget.
III.THEWORLD ZIONIST MOVEMENT AND MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM WhileGentile interest and involvement in the establishment of a national home forthe Jews in the Holy Land gained momentum, such a Jewish concern was alsobubbling to a climax in the emergence of the World Zionist movement under theaegis of Theodore Herzl. Because of the stubborn obduracy of the Turkish Sultanand the Ottomans toward any Jewish incursion into Palestine, various Jewishphilanthropists sponsored agricultural settlements of displaced Jews as theRothschild colony in Rishon le Sion in the land. Baron Hirsh proposed settlingthe Jews in Argentina or Paraguay in South American. The British talked aboutEl Arish in Egypt and Joseph Chamberlain pled for Uganda. Much later BernardBaruch of the US projected Angola as the site. Even eastern Saudi Arabia wastrumpeted as the solution (before the oil deposits were discovered, to besure). Allof this was proto-Zionism. Indeed, as former Israeli President BenjaminNetanyahu acknowledges - the early rise of Christian Zionism "antedates themodern Zionist movement by at least half a century."14 The explosivebreakthrough was led by a pompous, brilliant but spiritually shallowassimilated Jew who was born in Budapest in 1860-Theodore Herzl. When he waseighteen he moved with his parents to Vienna, then home for 118,000 Jews. Hehad studied for the law but obviously writing was his gift. One of his bestfriends at the University of Vienna was Oswald Boxer who was sent by the Jewishcommunity to Brazil to explore the possibility of resettling eastern EuropeanJews there, but he came down with yellow fever and died at the age ofthirty-two. Herzl wrote a play at this time entitled The New Ghetto which disclosed a thinlyveneered Jewish self-hatred. Always hindered by a congenital heart defect,Herzl was assigned to cover the Dreyfus trial in Paris by his paper thepro-German Neue Freie Press. Dreyfus was a gentle assimilated Jew, the highestranking Jew in the French military. He was accused of selling military secretsto the Germans. The trial was a farce and Dreyfus exclaimed: "I am beingpersecuted because I am a Jew."15 He was found guilty in 1894 and sent to Devil's Island offSouth America where he was effectively destroyed. He was later exonerated andreturned to France but it was too late. Anti-Jewishriots tore the fabric of France even though many of the literati supportedDreyfus. Emile Zola had to flee France. It was clear that deep rivers ofanti-Semitism flowed through refined and enlightened France. "Paris changedHerzl. French anti-Semitism undermined the ironic complacency of the Jewishwould-be non-Jew."16 Herzl was profoundly shaken and wrote an 86page tractate entitled Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). Herzl argued that the onlyanswer was a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine. He envisioned the robes ofthe high priests in the Jewish state and the Cavalry with yellow trousers andwhite tunics and the officers with silver breastplates. Called "the firstJewish statesman since the destruction of Jerusalem," Herzl rallied WorldZionism in behalf of the restoration of the Jews to the land in face of greatopposition of many prosperous Jews in the west (like the Rothschilds), theliberal religious establishment and most western governments. The state ofIsrael was founded in 1948, in forty-six years rather than the fifty yearswhich Herzl had predicted. A British subject and a clergyman, William Hechler,chaplain at the British embassy in Vienna was an avid student of prophecy. Hewas a quintessential Christian Zionist who believed that "the prophesied momenthas come" (1896). He traveled withHerzl and was one of three non-Jews who attended the first World Zionistmeeting in Basel, August 29-31, 1897. He helped keep Herzl on the line ofPalestine as the location of the Jewish state even in the face of greatdiscouragement from the Turks. Hechler assisted Herzl in gaining entre to theGrand Duke of Baden, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Prince of Wales in Britain. Itis not difficult to see why the Jews in the face of mounting anti-Semitism inour own time, still see that anti-Semitism has not faded in the west (60% inEurope see Israel as the #1 threat to world peace) and that non-Europeananti-Semitism is at a frenzied peak, fueled still by The Protocols of theElders of Zionand the official Saudi line that Zionists are responsible for the 9/11terrorist attack on New York City. In fact it is clear as one thoughtful Jewishanalyst has recently written in the Jerusalem Post: "A direct thread runs fromDreyfus to Auschwitz...it was liberal, fin de siecle France that condemnedDreyfus, and it was totalitarian Nazi Germany that carried out the deathsentence for his kith and kin. Today there is a Dreyfus mentality in Europe,and there is a foul, Nazi-like mood in the neighboring Middle East. Is Europethe 1930s again? No. Not yet at least."17 (60% of the Palestiniansadvocate armed conflict even after the establishment of a Palestinian State). Onlytoday it is a collective Dreyfus. No matter how hard earned is theirintegration. "Anyone supporting Israel will stand trial as well....theinnocence of Dreyfus ultimately proved irrelevant to Europe and its hatred forthe Jews."18 Butmounting pressure from Jewish and Christian Zionists needed a breakthrough. Andit is coming in a most unexpected way. Again and again we see in this narrativethat the truth is stranger than fiction. Our God makes even the wrath of men topraise Him. It has always been so and will be so.
IV.WORLDWAR ONE AND THE BALFOUR DECLARATION Aseries of bloody pogroms in Europe, such as the infamous Kishinev pogrom of1903, in which scores of Russian Jews were murdered, kindled the Zionist flameeven further. Tiny concessions by the Sultan of Turkey such as a 25 yearpermission to Lawrence Oliphant to function as the Palestine DevelopmentCompany, gave small ingress to some oppressed Jews from Rumania and SouthernRussia. Sir Moses Montefiore had visited Palestine seven times and plantedorange groves for immigrants, the old windmill outside the wall of the Old Cityof Jerusalem remaining as a vestige of his interest and vision. H.H. Kitchener(1850-1916), one of Britain's great generals and Secretary of State for War inthe early years of World War I was a devout Christian who gave himself to thedismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. He had much in common with General CharlesGordon ("Chinese" Gordon) the notable student of Scripture who had exploredmuch of Palestine (after whom Gordon's Calvary is named in recognition of hisidentification). Gordon was killed by the Mahdi at Khartoum and Kitchener wassent by Gladstone on a mission of conquest. Kitchener's vision is further seenin the secret and very controversial Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 in whichBritain and France agreed that after the war Turkey would be divested of itsArab provinces and these would be divided between the big "two" who would beguaranted permanent spheres of influence. Othercritical born-again personalities playing significant roles in this unfoldingdrama and true "lovers of Zion" must include the British war-time PrimeMinister, David Lloyd-George, Arthur James Balfour, General Sir Edmund Allenby,T.E. Lawrence and Orde Wingate. God always has his person in the right place atthe right time. Several of these were very eccentric but God used them for Hisglory. Themountainous obstacle was the Ottoman Empire stretched out for 500 years andextended at its peak under Suleiman I to almost all of North Africa and theBalkans. Butnow Turkey was "the sickman of Europe." She had fought an inconclusive war withRussia in the previous century and a war with Italy early in the twentiethcentury. Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece had slipped away from her. A revolt by theYoung Turks in 1908 made little change. The barbaric massacres of the Armeniansgreatly weakened the fabric of her national life and her integrity.19Germany long cultivated the Ottoman Turks and the Turks signed a secret defensetreaty with the Central Powers.20 Although scoring early successagainst the British at Gallipoli, the Turks were mauled hopelessly in the war.Prime Minister Asquith of Great Britain at the beginning of the war opined that"the death-knell of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia" had now been sounded.21 Even H.G. Wellsraised the issue - "And now what is to prevent the Jews from having Palestineand restoring a real Judaea?"22 World War I removed Turkey as anobstacle to the formation of the Jewish state and set Great Britain as a key player in the openingof the land. Butequally significant was the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which expressed herMajesty's government in support of the Jewish aspiration for a homeland inPalestine. The focus here is first on Fritz Haber, a German Jew, who developeda poison gas used by the Germans early in the war greatly demoralizing the Allies.Britain turned to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a Russian refugee, working as a chemistat the University of Manchester. Weizmann, president of Britain's Zionists,devised a commercial process for the production of acetone, a prime ingredientin the manufacture of explosives. The British owed something to Weizmann. Withthe accession of the Lloyd-George/Balfour government, we have two leaders bothfavorable to Zionist goals. Lloyd-George was raised in a non-conformist home inWales. He knew his Old Testament and loved the Jews. Balfour had what onedescribed as "an elegantly detached appearance." He was raised in a devoutconservative home where he was taught to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." Heoften spoke of his mother's fervent belief in the second advent. He wassomething of a philosopher and his Gifford Lectures in 1922, Theism andHumanism, arestill worth reading. He detested anti-Semitism. He was deeply perturbed by theatomized state of world Jewry. Weizmann helped him see how he could help theJews. At this point his life-long study of the Bible and his Scottishupbringing commandeered his whole being. Even Barbara Tuchman concedes that"the motive was biblical not imperial."23 Balfour spoke of what hecalled "the new decree of Cyrus." Balfour's letter was directed to Lord Rothschild and in partsimply states British support for a Palestinian national home for the Jewishpeople. It was dated as of November 2, 1917. Fiercely debated in the cabinetand opposed by the one Jew in the Cabinet, Edwin Montague, the letterprevailed. Winston Churchill was always a fervent Zionist. Most significantly,the Balfour Declaration, hated and maligned by the enemies of Israel, wasincorporated into the permanent record of the Supreme Council of the PeaceConference at San Remo in April of 1920. Americansupport for the 67 word Balfour Declaration came promptly and vigorously fromPresident Woodrow Wilson. Wilson felt "God sent me to do something."24 Theubiquitous Jews, eleven million strong, were on his heart. "To think that I, ason of the manse, should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people."25His Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, knew nothing about the move andthe State Department as always was opposed to anything not pro-Arab. Thekey figure was Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who had been raised apartfrom Jewish contacts or tradition, and who became an ardent Zionist in the yearof Wilson's first election. Even some Arabs were euphoric at the prospect ofsome capital being pumped into their lifeless economy, but that soon changed.Wilson was surprised at the opposition expressed at Versailles but he stoodfirmly. Also helping at this time was General Allenby's "Christmas gift to theBritish people" who were so spent and weary of war. Lloyd-George had asked forthe gift and Allenby marched into Jerusalem on December 11, 1917 followedimmediately by T.E. Lawrence who had raised rebellion against the Turks throughthe Muslim world. The shift into Christian control after 730 years sent shockwaves through the Christian world. In London, Dr. F.B. Meyer, the Baptistleader and many others rallied in great meetings. A manifesto was issuedindicating that God's promise to restore the Jews to Palestine was beginning tobe fulfilled. Thousands gathered in London for the exposition of propheticthemes. So it was around the world. Atbottom line, the British historian Paul Johnson is probably correct in sayingthat "Weizmann pulled the Zionists through a brief window of opportunity, fatednever to open again. Thanks to Tancred (Disraeli's novel) and Daniel Deronda (George Eliot's novel), hesuccessfully appealed to the instincts of the British ruling class and thusreceived the last ex gratia gift of a great power, which went clean against thearithmetic spirit of the age."26 Do we not see the hand of God working out His glorious plan andpurpose which calls for the restoration of Israel to Zion?
V.WORLDWAR II AND THE HOLOCAUST Zionismset itself to work within the League of Nations' mandate to Great Britain, butof course anti-Semitism continued to raise its ugly head around the world.Poland's large Jewish population suffered acutely. Allen Dulles, nephew ofWilson's Secretary of State Lansing fumed at Zionists. The Vatican wasdismayed. Mainline and liberal Christendom consistently railed at thedevelopments. Charles Lindberg the aviator and Henry Ford werearch-anti-Semites, the latter speaking of "the Jewish subversion of Christiansociety." Hirohito's Japan offered to resettle the Jews in Manchuria in 1939.President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke out of both sides on the issues andit is unquestionably true that there never would have been an Israel had hebeen president at the end of the war.27 Zionism's true friends inEurope and in America were Bible-believing conservative Christians. Then andnow. Theysaw that Islam's anti-Zionism is also essentially anti-Christianity.28 ConservativeChristians never rejected the Jewish Scriptures but saw their real fulfillmentin the return of Jews to eretz Israel. The liberal establishment in Christendom wasembarrassed by predictive prophecy. They did not accept the idea of Messianicprophecy. Cardinal Spellman pled with President Truman not to recognize thestate of Israel. The vicious Roman Catholic anti-Semite from Detroit, FatherCoughlin had access to the American airwaves for too long. But fundamentalChristians have argued for the major role of a restored Israel in anapocalyptic setting faithfully and consistently over many centuries.29 GreatBritain under immense Arab pressure retreated from the Balfour Declaration andfinally abandoned the Mandate. The British White Paper of 1939 betrayed theBalfour Declaration and I believe Britain has paid a heavy price for herperfidy (cf Genesis 12:1-3). As early as 1922 Britain partitioned Palestine andgave a huge chunk of the mandated land (4/5), the whole East Bank, toconstitute the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in an effort to placate the oil-richArab states. The first fracture of the land. WhileBritain tried to manage the sizzling tensions between the Jews and thePalestinians in the land and while Adolph Hitler was on his way to the ominousbase of power from which he murdered 6,000,000 Jews and almost destroyedEurope, conservative Christians were clashing with modernists inever-increasing intensity. A.C. Gaebelein (1861-1945) wrote a key article in TheFundamentals onprophecy and dealt with the return of the Jews to Palestine and the BalfourDeclaration (11.60-61). He gave as his opinion that "The OT is practically asealed book to every person who does not believe in a literal restoration ofIsrael to their land." While he argued that only the return of Christ couldusher in the real restoration of the nation of Israel, the partial restorationin unbelief must be seen as significant.30 Thatso many of the Jewish Zionists were not practicing Jews and were indeed quiteleft-wing was troubling to many fundamentalists, but God does use Cyrus andmany a crooked stick. David Rausch argues persuasively that Zionism was part ofthe fabric of fundamentalism (as does Ernest R. Sandeen).31 OurHope magazineedited by A.C. Gaebelein consistently documented rising anti-Semitism in thethirties and spoke of MONSTER HITLER. Theunspeakable tragedy and devastation of World War II need not be documented hereother than to reference the unimaginable atrocity of the Holocaust which mustbe seen as the supreme pogrom. The fact is that the Holocaust was planned,supervised and executed by university men and women trained before Hitler cameto power. We can see an endemic anti-Semitism in Central Europe going back toLuther's tirade of 1543 entitled The Jews and Their Lies. The world basically turned itsback on the suffering of the Jews including President Franklin Roosevelt. Evenhis close cohort, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter refused to believethe reports.32 Whydid so few in Germany protest? Where were the churches? Paul Johnson put itwell : "The First World War made the Zionist state possible. The Second WorldWar made the Zionist state essential."33 The earlier war opened theland to the Jews and the later war opened the Jewish people to the land. God isat work!
VI.THEEND OF THE BRITISH MANDATE AND THE UNITED NATIONS Afterthe peace treaty with Turkey in 1923, the British assumed the mandatedtrusteeship of Palestine. The first military governor (1920-25) described thepeople in Jerusalem as waiting for the new High Commissioner "almost faint withhappiness and moving as if in the glory and freshness of a dream come true."34The bloom was soon off the roses. Jolting clashes between Palestiniansand Jewish settlers became the order of the day. Chosen as head of the ArabCouncil was Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who turned outto be staunch admirer of Hitler and his guest. Leon Uris's Exodus describes how British destroyersfired on the ship and finally its refugees from the death camps were interredagain in Cyprus. 769 refugees drowned at sea when the Struma was denied entrance toPalestine. Read John Bierman's Odyssey, the last escape from Germany and how 500 Jewssailed down the Danube and suffered shipwreck, starvation and internment. ThatJews should again be behind barbed wire but this time held by the Allies was avery bitter pill for many to swallow. Generallythe Jewish Agency handled matters of immigration but underground groups whochallenged the British bias in favor of the Arabs came into being, such as theIrgun with Menachem Begin and the Stern Gang which included another futurePrime Minister, Itzhak Shamir. The regular Jewish Defense league was Haganah.The PassoverRiots of 1920 saw six Jews killed and 200 injured with much destruction ofproperty. A wave of Arab attacks in 1921 killed 95 and seriously wounded 219.Of course the Jews were not perfect and were drivingly acquisitive in theirdesire to establish kibbutzim (communal agricultural colonies) and theirmoshavim (cooperative agricultural settlements). Stemming from disagreements onJewish procedures at the Western Wall, there was great violence in 1929 (withhundreds of Jews killed including 67 massacred in the town of Hebron) in what must be termed the revolt of 1936. Somelike Vladimir Jabotinsky fought the Arabs. Some Jewish leaders advocated theestablishment of a bi-national state. A Royal Commission headed by Lord Peelwas established to study the situation and then recommended partition of theland and reduction of immigration (1936). The Arabs refused to sit down with theJews. The Commission concluded that the purpose of the Mandate was to "promotethe establishment of the Jewish National Home." Streams of immigration nowcould not be staunched. Are these not the dry bones coming together? Into thisferment comes the neurotic but very devout believer, Captain Ord CharlesWingate, loved in Israel to this day because he taught the Jews of the yishuvhow to defendthemselves and thus laid the foundations for the Israel Defense Force.35 InFebruary of 1947 after an Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry, the Britishadmitting total failure asked the fledgling United Nations to take over themandate and find a permanent solution. ASpecial Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) was formed consisting of eleven membernations (no major power was included). Judge Sandstrom of Sweden headed thecommission and Dr. Ralph Bunche represented the UN. The Arabs blundered byboycotting the entire process. Great Britain was angry and offish. The UnitedStates was passive seeking a consensus. The Soviet Union was favorable to aJewish state in order to humiliate Britain. The Commission was not affordedcustomary courtesy by the British in a stopover at Malta enroute to Palestine.By a remarkable coincidence they saw with their own eyes the British handlingof the Exodus; theimmigrant ship with 4500 Jews on board. They watched British soldiers "usingrifle butts, rubber hoses and tear gas on survivors of the death camps." Inthis connection the British condemned five Jews to death. Most inopportune. GreatBritain never thought the UN would vote 2/3 for a Jewish state. The Labor Partynow in power under Clement Attlee thought they would get Palestine back onreferral from the UN and at better terms. Dr. Chaim Weizmann and DavidBen-Gurion made eloquent appeals to the Commission. Weizmann said "It is ourlast chance."36 The black American diplomat working for the UN hadthe Commission see Begin and to doubting members said "I am also a member of apersecuted minority."37 A British diplomat asked Bunche if all ofhis experience had not made him an anti-Semite to which Bunche replied-"Never,a wise Negro can never be an anti-Semite." The commission which had only threesympathetic to a Jewish state at the beginning of the three-month processnevertheless voted unanimously to end the British mandate and partition theland. The change of these votes was a miracle! Thevote in the United Nations was two more than necessary to accept thecommission's recommendation, being 33 in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions.When the vote was announced the Jews were jubilant-there would be a Jewishstate for the first time since the days of the Maccabees. The Arabs rioted. OnMay 14, 1948, the Jewish state of Israel was declared. The Star of Davidfluttered over Jerusalem.
VII.THEEXTRAORDINARY EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL
OnMay 14, 1948 the British left Jerusalem for good, and the key to Zion Gate washanded over by a contrary British officer to Rabbi Mordecai Weingarten. Theinterval of time between the UN vote and the declaration of the Jewish Statewas chaotic. Many Jews were killed and the Jews took reprisals including theDeir Yassin massacre in April of 1948 by the Irgun. Six neighboring Arab statesprepared for war. At this point, 500,000 Palestinian Arabs fled their homesupon instruction from their leaders in the expectation that the Israelis wouldquickly be defeated and they would be able to come back to their homes and alsoto take a share in what the Jews would leave behind in their flight. The Arabshad walked out of the UN declaring that "The partition line shall be nothingbut a line of fire and blood."38 Theright of return is still a live issue in Middle Eastern negotiations sincethese persons are still refugees in camps for the most part, never having beenwelcomed into any Arab nation (although some do live in Jordan). The 900,000Jews forced out of Arab lands with only what they could carry and the shirtsupon their backs are seldom discussed. That the Palestinians are not victims ofthe establishment of the Jewish State is quite clear.39 The critical issue was now whether or notPresident Harry S. Truman would recognize the new state of Israel. The StateDepartment wanted to delay recognition in hope that a better solution might befound, viz. giving Israel the Negev or UN trusteeship or some such. President Truman was anominal Baptist and had a tilt to Zionism because of his upbringing. Hisadvisors almost unanimously urged him to take no action and these includedGeneral George Marshall, Dean Rusk, Edward Stettinius, George Kennnan, JamesForrestal (very anti-Zionistic) and Warren Austin the US representative at theUN. Eleanor Roosevelt also on the US team at the UN was in favor of recognitionbut she did not cut much with the President. He had become somewhat negative toZionist interests because they pestered him all the time. He did not want tosee Dr. Chaim Weizmann or anyone. Theinfluential B'nai B'rith Executive Vice President Maurice Bisgyer called hisfriend in Kansas City, A.J. Granoff and asked him if there was some Jewishperson in Kansas City with the name Jacobs, Jacobstein, Jacoby. He replied:"You are talking about Eddie Jacobson. I am his lawyer." Jacobson and Trumanhad been in the haberdashery business together and had fought in the wartogether. Truman had great confidence in Jacobson and through his good officesTruman was the first to recognize the state of Israel going contrary to all ofhis advisors. He doubtless went too far on an occasion when he was introduced as"the man who helped create the state of Israel." Grose observed that Truman"let his love of ancient history go to his head.... 'What do you mean helpedcreate? I am Cyrus, I am Cyrus."40 Fascinatinglyenough the Soviet Union followed immediately and encouraged their vasselsatellite Czechoslovakia to supply arms to Israel. Ben-Gurion sent Mrs. GoldaMeir, later prime minister of Israel (who was raised in Milwaukee) to the US toraise funds for the imminentwar. She had $5 in her pocket when she left but returned with $50 million. Thisone trip, humanly speaking, ensured the survival of the new born state. SouthAfrica soon joined in the parade of nations to recognize Israel, her leaderbeing General Jan Christian Smuts, last surviving member of the British WarCabinet which had approved the Balfour Declaration three decades earlier.41 Ofcourse many were outraged at the establishment of the state of Israel, many ofthem liberal thinkers like the historian Arnold Toynbee. Among the Jews,Menachem Begin and other strict constructionists lamented that Israel did nothave Bethlehem and Hebron and the whole of the land. Of course the ultimatereturn will see greater Israel as described in Scripture and as emblazed on theouter face of the Knesset Building in Jerusalem. For the present somecompromise had to be made as Begin himself learned when he made peace withEgypt. Only 4% of the American Jews polled indicated they intended to makealiya. But this too will change before the final shape of things to come. Thevengeful Palestinian Arabs (1,100,000 people) made all further discussion ofrefining the UN vote extraneous and launched with their allies (such as theArab Legion) an all-out onslaught against poorly armed Jews who numbered650,000. Israel's War of Independence lasted 5 1/2 months and cost her 1% ofher population. Approximately 6,000 Israelis were killed, which would be like2,500,000 being killed in a war in our country (our deaths in Viet Nam wereabout 35,000). Jerusalem was isolated and in grave danger as the Arab Legionunder Glubb Pasha advanced. Syria and Lebanon came from the North, Iraq andJordan from the east and Egypt from the south. Many times Israelis werefighting tanks with Molotov cocktails. Still Israel prevailed. TheSinai Campaign of 1956 (in collusion with Britain and France) was a brilliant"work of art" in terms of military strategy and marked the introduction of theUnited Nations peacekeeping force in the region. The Six-day War of 1967 sawIsrael launch a dramatic pre-emptive strike and reap the prize of the GolanHeights, the West Bank, all of Jerusalem (where the Palestinians had desecratedJewish cemetaries and holy sites and forbidden Jews to pray at the Wall), Gazaand the Sinai Peninsula, a fourfold increase in land assets. The P.L.O. was inplace after 1964 led by Yassir Arafat who was born in Egypt. What followed wasthe atrophying" war of attrition" and the almost disastrous Yom Kipper War of1973. Twenty two Arab states werepitted against Israel and the "Peace for Galilee" War in Lebanon was clearly adebacle for Israel, in terms in galvanizing world opinion against her, dividingherself internally, precipitating the fall of Begin and failing to resolve theissue of the P.L.O.42 Still little Israel continues to thrive as anintellectual, economic and military power. She is the only democracy in theMiddle East, electing her government. Israel is the premier "immigrant" societyin the world, drawing Jews from 105 different countries. Remarkable stories ofhow the Kurds helped the Iraqi Jews to escape (a community which once numbered130,000), the flight of Jews from Yemen, the rescue of the Jews from Egypt inthe Six-Day War (with the help of the Spanish ambassador), liberation for thebulk of Romanian Jews, the exodus of the black Jews (the Falashas) fromEthiopia, and more recently the mass movement of Soviet Jews. Presently theemigration of Jews from Argentina and now France continues to build thepopulation of Israel, which is now 6,780,000 people, of which 5,180,000 areJews and 19% Arab.43 Thefact is that "Jews are the most universally hated and persecuted ethnic groupin history."44 The Arabs refuse to have the name of Israel on anymap, refuse to acknowledge that the temple ever stood on what they call "Haram al-Shariff."Sheik Hassan Naasrallah, general secretary of Hezbollah said awhile back: "IfJews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after themworldwide."45 TheIsraeli left under Barak really offered Arafat all, but he refused. The Arabs do notwant a settlement, they want to destroy the Jews. The present uptick ofworldwide anti-Semitism is incontestably taking place before our eyes.46 ThePalestinians do not want Israeli settlements in their proposed state butnumerous Arab cities and towns dot Israel's landscape. Why no mention of this?Christian Arabs are being driven out of Palestine by radical Islam (500Christian Arabs have left Bethlehem in the last six months).47 Palestinianchildren are brainwashed to die as suicide bombers. The World Court has ruledagainst Israel's wall of protection. "Europe herself becomes more and more aprovince of Islam, a colony of Islam" concludes Oriana Fallaci, the Italianwriter, given the hollowing out of European Christianity and the anemically lowbirthright. We can only foresee the increasing isolation of Israel withultimately even the US forsaking her when "all nations" gather against in theend-time scenario (Joel 3, Zechariah 12). Whatwe have seen developing over the last century would certainly seem to be theinauguration of the fulfillment of great OT promises like Isaiah 11, Jeremiah16 and Zechariah 12. In a most remarkable series of what appear to beprovidential steps, the modern Jewish state of Israel has been established andsustained. We see great tensions within and immense pressure from without toreturn land to the Palestinians which would make Israel indefensible. How openwould we be to return California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexicobecause we took them by force? I believe that the French writer, JacquesMaritain is absolutely correct when he says: "It is a strange paradox to seethat the Israelis are being denied their right to the one and only territory towhich, considering the entire history of humanity as a whole, it is an absolutecertainty that one people has an incontestable claim: for the people of Israelare the one and only people in the world to which one land, the land of Canaan,has been given by the true God, the unique and transcendental God, the centerof the universe and of the human species. And what God has given once, he hasgiven for all eternity."48
ENDNOTES 1.Charles Warren, quoted in Ronald Sanders, The High Walls ofJerusalem: A History of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the BritishMandate for Palestine (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983) 11 2.ibid. 12 3.ibid. 12 4.Larry Crutchfield, quoted in David L. Larsen, The Company ofHope: A History of Bible Prophecy in the Church (Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse,2004) 299 5.John Owen, quoted in David L. Larsen, Jews, Gentiles and theChurch (Grand Rapids, Discovery House, 1995) 126 6.Increase Mather, quoted in ibid. 126 7.Napoleon as quoted in Barbara W. Tuchman, Bible and Sword:England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: Ballantine,1956) 163.Napoleon took an army of 38,000 men into the Middle East as far as Acre. 8.Andrew Bonar and R.M. McCheyene, Mission of Discovery: TheBeginnings of Modern Jewish Evangelism (Fearn, Roos-shire: Christian Focus, 1996). Rich study. 9.Barbara W. Tuchman, op. cit. 195. The same issues but from aJewish perspective, cf Franz Kobler, The Vision Was There: A History of theBritish Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine (London: Lincoln-Praeger, 1956). 10.Peter Grose, Israel in the Mind of America (New York: Shocken Books, 1983)27. Written by The New York Times bureau chief in the Soviet Union and Israel. 11.David L. Larsen, The Company of Hope, op. cit. 292 12.Peter Grose, op. cit. 27 13.ibid. 35-36 14.Benjamin Netanyahu, A Place Among the Nations: Israel and theWorld (New York: Bantam, 1993) 16. Former Prime Minister of Israel. 15.Ernst Pawel, The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodore Herzl (New York: Farrar, Straus andGiroux, 1989) 126. Still the bestbiography of Herzl. 16.ibid. 206 17.Emanuele Ottolenghi, "The second Dreyfus trial," in JerusalemPost, June 25,2004, 14 18.ibid. 19.G.S.Graber, Caravans to Oblivion: The Armenian Genocide 1915 (New York: John Wiley, 1996). German Chief of Staff Von Moltke: "MilitarilyTurkey amounts to nothing" 121. 20.Ronald Sanders, op. cit. 42 21.ibid. 59 22.ibid. 60 23.Barbara W. Tuchman, op. cit. 179 24.Peter Grose, op. cit. 66 25.ibid. 67 26.Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York: Harper, 1987) 430ff 27.Peter Grose, op. cit.113 28.ibid. 121 29.Paul Charles Merkley, Christian Attitudes Toward the State ofIsrael (Montreal:McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001) 154 30.Michael D. Stallard, The Early Twentieth CenturyDispensationalism of A.C. Gaebelein (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002) 78 31.David Rausch, Zionism Within Early American Fundamentalism1878-1918 (NewYork: Edwin Mellen Press, 1979) 84. Ernest R. Sandeen documents the same thesisin his The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism1800-1930 (GrandRapids: Baker, 1970, 1978). 32.A general survey of the Holocaust, its roots and tragedy, cfDavid L. Larsen, Jews, Gentiles and the Church, op. cit. 97-111. A gem ofinsight: David A. Rausch, A Legacy of Hatred: Why Christians Must Not Forget the Holocaust (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984,1990). 33.Paul Johnson, op. cit. 107 34.Barbara W. Tuchman, op. cit. 340 35.Leonard Mosley, Gideon Goes to War: The Story of Major-GeneralOrde Wingate (NewYork: Scribners, 1955); Christopher Sykes, Orde Wingate (London: Collins, 1959). Hisfather's cousin, Sr. Reginald Wingate (also a very committed Christian) wasBritish High Commissioner in Egypt starting in 1916, cf Gabriel Warburg, TheSudan Under Wingate (London:Frank Cass, 1971). 36.Peter Grose, op. cit. 232 37.ibid. 237 38.Abba Eban, An Autobiography (New York: Random House, 1977) 999 39.Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial: The Origin of theArab-Jewish Conflict in Palestine (New York: Harper, 1984); another fine study of therefugee issue is Samuel Katz, Battleground: Facts and Fantasy in Palestine (New York: Bantam, 1973). 40.Peter Grose, op. cit. 293 41.ibid. 299 42.Still the best classic analysis is Chaim Herzog, TheArab-Israeli Wars: From the War of Independence through Lebanon (New York: Random House, 1982) 43."Israel, Go Figure" in The Jerusalem Post, May 7, 2004,4f 44.David Horowitz, Why Israel is the Victim in the Middle East (Los Angeles: Center for theStudy of Popular Culture, 2002). Arabs argue that the Germans were victimizedby the Jews. Holocaust deniers continue to thrive. 45.Quoted in Elena Lappin's review of Richard Ben Cramer's HowIsrael Lost in New York Times Book Review, May 23, 2004, 15 46.Gabriel Schonfeld, The Return of Anti-Semitism (New York: Encounter, 2004) 47.For key insights on the Christian Arabs and what they face, cfRaphael Israeli Green Crescent Over Nazareth: The Displacement of Christians byMuslims in the Holy Land (London: Frank Cass, 2002). For a searching study of seriousinternal tensions in Israel, cf Noah J. Efron, Real Jews: Secular vsUltra-Orthodox and the Struggle for Jewish Identity in Israel (New York: Basic Books, 2003).Sobering. 48.Quoted in Paul Charles Merkley, op. cit. 144. Merkley has anothersterling book entitled The Politics of Christian Zionism (London: Frank Cass, 1998). Asto how liberals have opposed Israel, cf Herschel Fishman, AmericanProtestantism and the Jewish State (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973). TheChristian Century has been consistently hostile to the restoration of the Jews, 28.Their position is: "Old Israel has ceased to exist - the New Israel is theChurch." Sadly, Christianity Today has been increasingly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeliin tone. It should be noted thatnearly half of world Jewry now lives in eretz Israel. Not unexpected is TimothyWeber's new diatribal assault on dispensational Zionists, built on the supersessionisticpremise that "the church is the New Israel and that Jews have already had theirday," On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's BestFriend (GrandRapids: Baker, 2004) 113. Weber virtually ignores the long history of aChristian belief in the future destiny of geo-political Israel. My much fullercritique of Weber will be in an upcoming issue of The Discerner: AnInterdenominational Quarterly Exposing Unbiblical Teaching and Movements. Curiously, in the July 27, 2004issue of the Christian Century, tribute is paid to the well-known Jewish scholar,Michael Wyschograd who forcibly argues that the "divine election of Israel isunconditional, based solely on God's love" (22). He roundly castigates theerror of supersessionism (26). Further, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, Roy E.Shoeman in his best-selling book, Salvation is from the Jews (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2003),holds that supersession is wrong because the Jews must persist since they aresuch a critical part of the events in relation to the parousia of Christ (251).He quotes Cardinal Lustiger of Paris who argues for the irrevocable calling ofIsrael and that the existence of Israel is one of the guarantees of theparousia. On the other hand is the lamentable selective choice by the UnitedPresbyterian Church USA of certain companies doing business with Israel fordivestment and their condemnation of Christian Zionism. David Brickner,Executive Director of Jews for Jesus is right on when he terms this "arrogancetoward the branches" (Romans 11:18) in JEWS FOR JESUS (November, 2004. 1ff). |
