Trying to Understand the Israel Question
By Khen LimPART ONE
Image source: huffingtonpost.com
Introduction
The other day, I was talking to a fellow Theology student,
about Church History and invariably, from every angle of our discussion, talk
returned to Israel, no matter what. There is an agreement that whatever the
prophecies – Daniel or even Matthew – the Israel of today needs to be
understood.
Even when we try to understand what place the Second Temple Period
has with the shaping of the New Testament, the subjugation of the Jews at that
time merely helps to join the dots to today’s Israel. If we go back as far as
the destruction of Israel and the separation of its people, we talk about the
Diaspora, which then leads us to the formation of modern Israel.
Clearly there is no avoiding the importance of Israel today in
the proper understanding of its history and what it means. But it appears as if
modern Israel is very difficult or complex to come to grips with. An ever
increasing number of pastors in perhaps the more liberal churches are appearing
to be partial against Israel.
Their siding of Gaza and Palestine raises deep
concerns about how they see Israel and whether or not, their critical take is
justifiable. Politicians around the world are giving greater credence to the
Gazans and Palestinians as well. With Palestine on the doorstep of recognition
at the United Nations, the future of Israel needs to be revisited.
So how did all these happen? From the history of Israel, can
we try to piece together bits of information in our attempt to grasp a
Christian view of where we’re at and then ask the question whether or not in
our lifetime, we will see peace in Israel.
With this four-part series, we hope to be able to shed some light into how things are the way they are in the history of the development of modern Israel.
The early legacy
Israel’s history goes back further than most living countries
today. All the way to the early days of Abram, God had designs on where man
would go and in what fashion. Abram received instructions from God one day to
leave his home and head in the direction that He would reveal.
That direction
would inevitably lead to a new homeland for the people He had elected to call
His Chosen. And for them, His Chosen Land. A people anointed for a land
promised. It sounded simple but as history suggests, it was hardly.
Throughout Israel’s history, man’s greatest human trait was on
display – his disobedience. Given the free will to express himself, man chose
to be unrepentant, negligent and short in memory. All too often, man did things
that angered God, then bore His wrath, received due punishment, be in remorse
and return to godly ways. But then it was short-lived and man was back to his
worst. And the whole cycle of retribution would repeat itself over and over
again.
Disobedience shaped the destiny of God’s Chosen People and
sadly for much of their history, they had been forced out of their own homeland.
Even in the time of Joseph, Jacob and all his family were evicted from their
land due to a great famine, landing them in Egypt, which then led us to Moses,
the Exodus and the great Parting of the Red Sea.
Beyond that was the 40-year
walk in the wilderness that sharply defined the Israelites and as their
character developed, the disobedience became pronounced. Seeing them as
ungrateful, God had feelings of regret that could have paralleled how He felt about
their debauchery during the days of Noah. Even Moses was disobedient, handing
the honour to Joshua to lead His People across the Jordan River and into the
Promised Land. That was some 3,400 odd years ago.
The early days of living in the land of Canaan saw the
Israelites living under the rule of various judges including Samson and then
Samuel before God’s People brought forward a very serious complain. They
neglected to understand that God was their true King and were now crying out
for mortal flesh and bones.
And thus Saul made a brief entry before he was
bundled out of favour and in his place, David ruled before his son, Solomon,
took over. In both father and son’s reign, Israel basked in her golden era,
enjoying great prosperity, military might and conquest and an impressive
expansion of their territory.
Image source: history-of-israel.org
But David’s adulterous transgression meant that Israel’s
future would be blighted and so following the end of Solomon’s rule, the
once-mighty kingdom was split into Israel up north (called the Northern
Kingdom) and Judea down south (called the Southern Kingdom). In the north were
ten of the twelve tribes. The remaining two – Judah and Benjamin – were in the
south.
The cracks on the wall finally became very visible for every
Israelite in 722 BC when the Assyrians came conquering. The Jewry in the
Northern Kingdom was dispersed thus ushering the beginning of the Jewish
Diaspora and with it, the root of the great mystery called, the “Lost Tribes of
Israel.” 136 years later, in 586 BC, it was the turn of the Southern Kingdom to
be crushed and demoralised. Nebuchadnezzar came calling and dragged every
Israelite in Judah back to Babylon where they remained for seventy years.
By
516 BC, they had their first chance to return to Jerusalem but by then, their
beloved Solomon’s Temple (also called the First Temple) was utterly destroyed
with all the treasures and chattels stolen. Yet those who returned resolved to
build its replacement, which we now call the Second Temple.
Although the Israelites enjoyed the privilege of “returning
home,” home was never the same anymore because it remained under occupation. In
the ensuing period, Alexander the Great carved for himself the biggest empire
the world had ever seen and his army soundly defeated the Persians who were
occupying the land. Control then ceded to the Greeks but Alexander died
prematurely and his empire was itself carved into parts. Governing the
Israelites was ceded to the insane Seleucids who ruled from Syria.
Of the rulers from the Seleucids Antiochus IV was noted to
have brought misery to the Israelites with his desecration of their holy
temple. The desecration was impossible for any of the Israelites not to be
angered and eventually brought on the Maccabean Revolt that offered a rare
glimpse of self-rule. Unfortunately it was all too short-lived. Around the
corner came the Romans who wrested Jerusalem in their expansionist campaign to
enlarge their empire.
The Second Temple Period amplified more frustration for the
Israelites who were finding the centuries of repression terribly difficult to have
to endure. In their clamour for the return of their God-given homeland, the
Israelites grew impatient in their understanding of the coming Messiah that was
prophesied. In the meantime, the Romans were tightening their grip on the
Jewish communities, to the point of deliberately rotating the choice of high
priests thus destroying the sacred Aaronic priesthood and ensuring no
collusion.
In 70 AD, Roman legions under Titus not only ripped Jerusalem
apart but again destroyed the Second Temple thus directly fulfilled Jesus’
prophecy that, “no stone would be left unturned” (Matt 24:2). From 132 to 136
AD, six Roman legions crushed the rebellion that we know as the Bar Kochba
Revolt and with this final uprising, the Jews were thoroughly scattered beyond
the boundaries of their beloved Chosen Land. Henceforth they were barred from
entering Jerusalem.
For the next 1,900 years, the Jewish Diaspora was sometimes
known as a wandering nation, completely estranged from their own cherished home
and knowing none else to call theirs.
Persecutions that led to the return
In the centuries that followed, no mention of Jews would be
complete without talk of grave persecution under the same breath. Anti-Semites
throughout the world blamed the Jews for everything and anything that went
wrong. They became the condemned race and the ideal target for all sorts of
unjustified accusations be it plagues, natural disasters or anything that was endemic
or catastrophic. In particular the Jews were stigmatised and branded as the
“killers of Christ” and wrongly accused for the killing of Christian babies for
their sought-after blood so treasured for Passover celebrations.
Then came the Crusades followed shortly by the Inquisition and
then the dreaded pogroms. All of these were known for their thirst for
massacres that put thousands of Jews to the sword. Miseries piled up, one after
another and there appeared nowhere for the Jews to run safely to. In all of
these dark times, every Jew kept the flame of hope burning; that he would, one
day, get to return home. As if to desperately cling on to a fraught dream,
every Jewish generation held out the traditional hope that, “Next year, we’ll
be in Jerusalem.”
The First Aliyah (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)
The dream of a homecoming carried over from one age to the following.
There was no letting up – every Jew would strive to take that step next. As the
late 1800s arrived, thousands of displaced Jews primarily coming from Eastern
Europe finally embarked on the long return journey to their Land, which was
then under the control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. There they would settle
down as farmers.
Called the First Aliyah, survival was very tough. The land and
the general environment proved highly hostile but the determination and the
resolve was always evident. They would, by rhyme or reason, make it through.
To help ease the plight of the returning Jews, early leaders
like Eliezer Ben Yehuda revived Hebrew as the language that would unify them as
a people. In the process, he masterminded the creation of a Hebrew dictionary thus
equipping every returning Jew from around the world with a much sought-after
lingua franca. Modern Israel could now reclaim Hebrew as her common language and
hence a means to unite her people.
The return of the Jews to their homeland was not a trifle
matter. Not only were the logistics complex, dangerous and difficult; major
funding had to be successfully sought and guaranteed not only to secure safe
passage but also to be made available so that land could be purchased for
settlement. To that end, no one did more to help the Jews than the affluent
Rothschild family – principally Walter and Edmund Rothschild – who ensured its reality,
by pumping millions (by today’s standards) in the crafting of a modern Israel.
Herzl and the Jewish State
Wind slightly forward to 1896. In that year, a journalist by
the name of Theodor Herzl (1860 – 1904) wrote a book entitled, “The Jewish
State” that ended up inspiring a sea of change for his fellow Jews. However two
years earlier, an incident occurred that was responsible in turning the tide.
That incident involved a Jewish officer in the French Army by
the name of Alfred Dreyfus who was unjustly accused of treason. Amidst a
worrying anti-Semitic atmosphere of mobs chanting, “Death to the Jews,” this
was becoming an increasingly dangerous time to be a Jew. In what is now called
the “Dreyfus Affair,” the Jewish captain was incorrectly accused of passing military
secrets to Germany.
While there was evidence to prove he was innocent, they
were all suppressed. In its place, fabrications were levelled against him in a
hope of conviction. Herzl was witness to this case and more importantly, that
anti-Semitism was on the rise and he knew that the only recourse was mass
immigration. In only real choice left was for the Jews to go to a land they
could call their own.
Image source: biography.com
A journalist working in Paris, Herzl understood the
improbability in overturning or reversing anti-Semitism. As far as he was
concerned, it was immutable in human society and it was something that was fast
becoming part of the everyday landscape. And so he resolved to use this case as
a springboard to germinate an idea called “Zionism,” the birth of which,
defined Jewish sovereignty. Not surprisingly, various Jewish leaders ridiculed
him but nothing would stop him from publishing ‘The Jewish State’ (Der Judenstaat) in 1896.
Herzl’s proposition – and in fact, the very crux of Zionism
itself – was that the Jewish problem was essentially national and not
individual. What he’s saying is that assimilation in a pre-established society
predominant with anti-Semites was not the answer because Jews would always
continue to stand out.
Only the establishment of a recognisable Jewish State
could offer the best chance at a powerful and positive national identity; one
where Jews would not have to turn into national anomalies wherever they chose
to live. However Herzl foresaw yet another need – the necessity to turn the
Jewish problem into a wider concern by drumming up appeal through international
attention.
He then resorted to the formation of the Zionist Organisation
owned by stockholders all working diligently towards the national goal of
collecting funds from the Jewish Diaspora that were needed to make their way home.
In his 1902 Zionist novel, “Altneuland”
(tr. Old New Land), he laid down his vision of a new Israel, idealising a model
social state with an European flavour, one that would be modern, enlightened,
politically neutral, peace-loving and secular all at the same time.
He foresaw his
fellow Jews to be leading the world in science and technology, to intelligently
develop the Land but to also be a global inspiration – in many ways, therefore,
a “light unto the nations.” It is little wonder that the book became an important
guide for Jews of that period, for they embraced Herzl’s idea with great
enthusiasm even if the Jewish leaders had continued to mock his ideas.
As Herzl’s vision spread widely, it found huge appeal with the
Jewish communities from Eastern Europe. Yet he was unsuccessful in seeking out wealthy
Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild to join his organisation. It was
then that he made the decision to reach out widely to the people in the form of
the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, which in every way
was the first of its type to bring together Jews from the Diaspora.
From the outcome
of the Congress, Jewish delegates agreed to declare the main thrust of the
Zionism movement in establishing a home in Palestine that would be secure under
public law for the Jewish people. At the same time, the World Zionist
Organisation was also formed to represent the political voice of the Jewish
people. Herzl was its first president.
From 1897 to 1902, there were a further six Zionist Congresses
of which the Jewish National Fund (Otzar
Hityashvut Hayehudim) and the movement’s newspaper called Die Welt (The
World) were both begun. By 1936, the epicentre of the Zionist movement had
moved from Basel to Jerusalem. Yet for all the activities, Herzl felt that
things weren’t really moving forward fast enough.
And so he decided to travel
abroad to not just bring attention to the Jewish cause but to rally for support.
His initial efforts were discouraging – in his meeting with Germany’s Kaiser
Wilhelm II, the monarch mocked his gesture and laced his caustic sarcasms with
anti-Semitism. It’s not unreasonable to say that it ended miserably for Herzl
but still, he was undaunted.
He then switched to Great Britain where he requested audience
with the British colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain who then suggested that
they use Uganda as the Jewish autonomous region. When tabled at the Sixth
Zionist Congress in 1903, the proposal drew as much flak as outrage. So
disastrous was the proposal that those who attended had feared that the entire
Zionist movement could be spiralling out of control and into oblivion. Needless
to say, Uganda was a non-starter and the idea was totally canned two years
later at the Seventh Zionist Congress.
Up until the day he died in 1904 at the young age of 44,
Theodor Herzl had tirelessly sacrificed much of his life to the cause of
Zionism. His will, determination and dedication were never forgotten by the
Israelis who were grateful for everything he tried so hard to achieve.
Forty-five years later, in 1949, following the end of the Second World War, his
remains were reinterred in Jerusalem at a place named after him, Mount Herzl.
In fact, respect for him was so deep and widespread in Israel that towns,
streets, schools, gymnasiums and forests all bored his name. Till today, his
name continues to be revered by all Israelis.
Herzl’s legacy was, unfortunately, a tragic one. His eldest
daughter, Pauline, died a drug addict in a French hospital and on hearing her
death, his son, Hans, shot himself. Trude, his youngest daughter, died in the
Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Nazi reign but only after her own
son, Stephen Theodore Norman (originally Stephen Neumann) was hurriedly ferried
to safety in England. Most tragically, when the young 27-year-old Stephen heard
of his parents’ deaths, he leapt to his death from the Massachusetts Avenue
bridge in Washington, D.C.
Most undoubtedly no one idealised the Jews’ longing for home
more eloquently than Herzl. He stood out as the one who raised Jewish hope, who
inspired many to dream and then founded a cause that gave God’s People a clear direction
and a fiery ambition. Just as Herzl coined the phrase, “If you will, it is no
fairytale,” the people he inspired used it to mobilise and fan the flames of
his Zionist movement.
It is noteworthy to consider the significance of Herzl’s
accidental prophecy – in his first international conference in 1897, he said
the following:
“At Basel, I founded the Jewish state. If I were to say this
today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and
certainly in 50, everyone will see it.”
On May 14 1948, modern Israel was declared independent. Fifty
years before that was 1898. Herzl made the above speech in 1897.
Not bad for a
prediction by a journalist, wouldn’t you say?
The Balfour Declaration and the Arab compromise
Seen attending the 1925 opening of the Hebrew University were (L-R) Lord Allenby (Commander of British forces in Palestine 1917), Lord Arthur Balfour and Sir Herbert Samuel, first High Commissioner of the British Mandate (Image source: israelnationalnews.com)
Although it is unfortunate that Herzl died before he could
witness the realisation of the modern Jewish State, his influence had moved a
letter to be written by Lord Arthur Balfour, British Foreign Secretary to Baron
Walter Rothschild with the express aim that it must reach the Zionist
Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. It was this letter that manifested
itself as the 1917 Balfour Declaration. The letter expressed Britain’s
agreement to support the creation of a Jewish homeland.
Part of the letter revealed the following:
“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment
in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and
religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights
and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
Sadly the timing was not the best. Along with the unfolding of
the First World War, Britain became stuck with the task of overcoming her
adversaries, which ensured that the importance of the Balfour Declaration was
relegated. But then came the good news that British forces had captured
Jerusalem from the Turks in which they and the French government saw as a
preamble to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
In anticipation of victory at the
end, discussion soon turned to how they would divide the spoils. This ended up
being the purpose of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which was to split the former Turk-held
lands into a variety of zones of administration for both countries. In the
agreement, Britain would assume control over the Holy Land.
Unsurprisingly, none of this went down well in the Middle
East. Britain and France were roundly criticised for being presumptuous and the
political maelstrom turned into a firestorm of protests throughout. Between the
Arabs and the Jews, conflicting promises were made by European diplomats and
military representatives.
And when the Balfour Declaration finally broke cover,
the ugly truth was revealed – that the European power brokers had sold out on
those who were enslaved by the Turks so that they themselves would take full
control and occupation. Out with one empire but it seems, another would come in
and do the same.
And with that, the British fulfilled their Mandate and seized
control of Jerusalem. While all of this was planned ahead, it still did not
bode well with the Arabs. So to placate matters, the British took pains to
clarify what these plans meant under the Declaration, revealing a
hastily-concocted decision to limit Jewish immigration and then to cede a large
area of the Mandate region to the Arabs.
As if that weren’t enough, there were numerous other documents
that were produced to mainly appease the Arabs. In principle, there was the damaging
1930 White Paper, which completely turned things around against the Jews
through even stricter immigration constrictions to the Chosen Land and
secondly, the threat of shutting down all immigration in the event that the
Jewish economy adversely impact the Arabs.
The later 1939 White Paper was equally important, with the
British laying out their rejection of Arab or Jewish statehood in view of
Palestine. Instead they were considering creating an independent state. Yet
again were more proposals to further limit the Jews. This time, it was land
acquisition. It is not difficult to see how the Arabs were working in the
background to destroy any thoughts of Jewish homeland.
By now, Herzl’s dream was beginning to look like it was
tearing at the seams. Could it be possible that it was so near but yet so far?
The vision he proffered more than forty years ago seemed to be further and
further away just as disillusionment was setting in.
To put that into
perspective, it had been 4,000 years since God promised Abram land for His
Chosen People but the Jews were only privileged to live out 1,400 of those
years. For the other 2,600 years, they were treated as outcasts or worse,
evicted from their land through subjugation and repressive occupation at the
hands of pagan tyrannies.
Like wanderers, the Jews were completely scattered around the
world; some as far away from their homeland as one could imagine then. Long
void of a land to call home, inching one bit at a time towards an elusive dream
even seemed a luxury to the Jews. They were willing to bear with the Arabs
hindering their efforts so long as there was hope. Right now, it didn’t look
hopeful because the entire world was teetering on yet another horrifying war,
one that would plunge everyone into unthinkable catastrophe.
Rising from ashes a new Israel
The ethnic cleansing that the Jews experienced horrifically
was actually the result of years prior to the Nazis coming into power. In
Germany, doctors had been systematically euthanising the sick including unwanted
babies in the thousands with impunity. For years, this had gone unnoticed as
the medical profession “perfected” their techniques in which the Nazis then
took to more murderous heights. The anti-Semitism that reared its ugly head
during the Dreyfus Affair had actually receded but now with the Germans, it was
back with a vengeance.
In the early to mid-Thirties, world economics had also appeared
to be slowly grinding to a halt. And when that happens all too often, some
people would look for easy excuses to wage war as a way to plunder another’s
wealth. At the same time, the European continent was groaning under the weight
of severe financial strain. The Great Depression had also arrived like a
hurricane looking for destruction.
Germany was tottering on a collapse. Its currency was
weakening at an alarming rate. And of course someone had to take the blame for
all of such bad news. Someone then decided to challenge the Deutsche Bundesregierung (federal
government) by taking the reins of a workers’ party and feeding desperate
people with a fantasy that was too good to be true but they lapped it all up.
In 1933, he took the nation’s reins of power and embarked on one of history’s
most terrifying journeys into darkness, one that ended democracy for the German
republic. His name was of course Adolf Hitler.
Prior to taking power, Hitler was arrested as a conspirator of
the Munich Putsch, a failed coup attempt orchestrated by his party – the
N.S.D.A.P. (Nationalsozialistiche
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers’ Party). While
in jail, he wrote his one and only book called Mein Kampf (tr. My Struggle) but despite the title, it was not an
autobiography but a fantastical but unachievable vision of an ‘ideal’ Germany.
His writing revealed deep personal frustration of being bogged down by Jewish
economic dominance, which he viewed as a problem that had to be dealt with and
with a forceful hand. From that point on, he became the architect behind the
decision to cleanse and purify the country of “the Jewish peril.”
It has been said that Hitler took inspiration for ridding
Germany of the Jewish problem from a fake book published in 1903 in Russia.
Called, ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ it cast a critical and sinister eye
at Jewish design on world power but in fact, it was merely a thinly disguised
and completely fraudulent account of a secret meeting that never took place
between Jewish men who had supposedly cast their eyes on global domination. It
could have become a reference marker for Hitler but we know that almost
overnight, Hitler had worked Jew hatred up to a froth and turned it into a
deadly force of anti-Semitism throughout Europe.
His plans to rebuild Germany weren’t purely economic. His outreach
covered programmes that systematically separate those he believed were anathema
to the nation’s recovery and rise to power. To those disaffected, he isolated
them, stripping them of the right to work or conduct businesses or own
properties. By far and large, these were purely Jews.
In 1935, all German Jews were stripped of their citizenship.
Three years later came Kristallnacht
(tr. Night of the Broken Glass) when terrifying violence was publicly unleashed
against the Jewish communities. Beyond much doubt, it was this event that
sparked the inexorable march to the Holocaust that took the lives of at least 6
million Jews displaced in concentration camps across Germany and elsewhere
around Europe.
Called the ‘Final Solution,’ Hitler’s vision unfolded straight
from his dreams to reality. It was the purification of the German population, the
rise of the Aryan German and correspondingly, the disposal of the Jewish
problem once and for all. The finality of his solution clearly underlined the
evil cravings of a demonic leader.
Thankfully, the fortunes of war had begun to
turn. Allied forces were making headway and pushing the Germans back. In many
areas, they were defeated soundly as well. By the time the writing was on the
wall, defeat was staring at all Germans in the eye. Hitler and his young wife
Eva, retreated to their secret underground bunker.
There they spent their last
hours together before they suicided together on cyanide pills. Their bodies were
never found but all the same, the war had finally come to an end. Nazi hopes
had gone up in smoke and the deep anguish of the Jews had, for now, finished.
Post-war Europe was in ruination. Virtually every country was
war-torn and deep in the throes of oncoming severe economic hardship.
Rebuilding the country was an unavoidable necessity but it was also an uphill
task. Money was hard to come by and there was also the challenge of
accommodating endless streams of refugees that were looking to either find
their old home or have staked out elsewhere to live. While America was
experiencing an exodus from Europe, Europeans at home were finding out how
disastrous their homecomings were.
For the Jews, the lesson learned was gut-wrenching, tragic and
horrendous. Six million had died senselessly. Emotionally burdened and
traumatised, now came the decision to find their own home. The horrific
revelation of the Holocaust merely made this more urgent than ever before. Even
so, it was, again, not without strong opposition.
Despite the inhumane
sufferings endured by those who went through the Holocaust and somehow
survived, anti-Semitic sentiments had not fully gone away in silence. It seemed
there were still unsympathetic people. Amongst them were the Arabs who ceaselessly
continued to pile pressure on the British not to appease the Jews.
With their hands forced, the British once again decided to
compromise matters. Invariably this led to the introduction of immigration
restrictions for those migrating to Israel with an added note of caution –
those caught flaunting the rule would be bundled to internment camps in the
island of Cyprus. In the years that these camps operated from 1946 to 1949,
those who miraculously survived the horrors of the Holocaust actually ended up
not surviving in these camps. The sheer meaninglessness of the whole endeavour
revealed much of Arab callousness but nothing was stopping them.
Meanwhile British naval forces had also completely messed up
in the mishandling of the refugee ship Exodus
that was illegally carrying 4,500 Jews onboard en route to Israel. Before they forced the ship to turn around and
return to Europe, they opened fire, killing two passengers and one crew member
in a momentous botch-up.
Girl from the Haganah resistance group in hand grenade training for the Independence War of 1948 (Image source: gadcollection.com)
No doubt there was now a significant impasse between the
British and the Jews. The Arabs were having the upper hand in preventing the
Jews from heading to Israel. Disgruntled and painted to the corner, Israelis
decided to retaliate through resistance groups such as the Haganah, Irgun, Lehi
and Palmah. Besieged by deadly sporadic attacks coming from these groups, the
British capitulated and handed the whole matter to the United Nations to decide
what to do.
Four months later, in November 1947, the United Nations
convened to vote on U.N. Resolution 181, which called for a partition of a
territory called Mandate Palestine. The plan was to create two self-determined
states, one for the Jews and the other for the Arabs. With a vote of 33 to 13,
the proposal was carried through where the Jewish would receive 56 percent of
the total land area but on the other hand, they would cede Jerusalem to the
U.N. to administer as a separate autonomous area. Not unusual, the Arabs
rejected this even though the Jews agreed despite losing Jerusalem. It was
obvious that while one was seeking peace at all costs, the other rejected it,
also at all costs.
In May 1948, one year from the proposal being implemented, the
British pulled out their military forces from the British Mandate thus
effectively throwing a spanner in the works. Yet they refused to surrender
control of Jerusalem to the Jews or anyone else. Their actions left the region
in a potentially explosive situation. Left unguarded by the departed British
forces, a possible war with the Arabs was tensely in the air and with a young
and inexperienced Israeli government on hand, the ramifications were horrendous
to imagine. Israel, at that time, had only a miniscule, untrained and
inadequately equipped army.
A peace rally at Detroit's Central High School in 1948 celebrating the Independence of Israel (Image source: thejewishnews.com)
David Ben-Gurion knew he was severely outnumbered and at
complete odds. He had no choice but to seek assistance from whomsoever he could
find. He turned to supporters in America and a few other countries to desperately
raise sufficient funds to purchase ordnances and various other military
supplies in order to prop up a viable defence. Yet they had to connive ways to
smuggle them out and into their country to avoid getting caught and then having
the hardware confiscated.
Deeply concerned over the distinct possibility of war, a
modern-day Israel became independent on May 14, 1948. Before the imposing portrait
of the Father of Zionism, the late Theodor Herzl, Ben-Gurion spelled out the
Declaration of Independence that was approved by the Moetzet HaAm (tr. People’s Council).
Herewith is the Declaration of Independence as translated by
the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
“The Land of Israel
was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and
political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created
cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world
the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly
exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their
Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the
restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this
historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation
to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they
returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma’pilim [(Hebrew) – immigrants coming to
Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made
deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and
created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving
peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to
all the country’s inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657
(1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodor
Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the
Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was
recognised in the Balfour Declaration of the second of November, 1917, and
re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave
international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and
Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
An Israeli official holds up the signed document of the Declaration of Independence of Israel proclaiming the official Establishment of the Jewish State of Israel alongside David Ben-Gurion on the left (Image source: findingdulcinea.com)
The catastrophe which
recently befell the Jewish people – the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe –
was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its
homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would
open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish
people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi
Holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued
to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and
dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom
and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World
War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the
struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi
wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the
right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the twenty-ninth
of November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General
Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were
necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This
recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to
establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the
natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all
other nations, in their own sovereign State.
Accordingly we,
members of the People’s Council, representatives of the Jewish community of Eretz-Israel
and of the Zionist movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination
of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and
historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General
Assembly, hereby declare the
establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of
Israel.
WE DECLARE that, with
effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve
of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the
elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution
which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the first
of October 1948, the People’s Council shall act as a Provisional Council of
State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the
Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called “Israel.”
Herewith is the Declaration of Independence as translated by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Celebrations throughout Israel during the day of Independence of Israel (Image source: tamidnyc.org)
THE STATE OF ISRAEL
will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it
will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its
inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the
prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will
guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it
will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the
principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL
is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United
Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the twenty-ninth
of November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the
whole of Eretz-Israel.
WE APPEAL to the
United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and
to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
WE APPEAL – in the
very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab
inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up-building
of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation
in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to
all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good
neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and
mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State
of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of
the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the
Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel
in the tasks of immigration and up-building and to stand by them in the great
struggle for the realisation of the age-old dream – the redemption of Israel.
Placing our trust in
the “Rock of Israel,” we affix our signatures to this Proclamation at this
session of the Provisional Council of State, on the soil of the homeland, in
the city of Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth day of Iyar, 5708
(fourteenth of May, 1948).”
May 14 1948; first published in the
Official Gazette, Nr. 1 of the fifth, Iyar, 5708 and was broadcast live on the
Voice of Israel radio
"Zionists Proclaim New State of Israel: Truman Recognises It and Hopes for Peace; Tel Aviv is Bombed, Egypt Orders Invasion" (Image source: israelcampusroundtable.org)
On the same night of the Declaration, the United States of
America gave Israel due official recognition. Three days later, the former
U.S.S.R. followed suit.
(continued Part 2)
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