Independence Day, 1948.
By Paul Johnson
In May 1998, the eminent British historian Paul Johnson published an essay in Commentary to mark Israel’s 50th birthday; marking its 63rd, we re-publish the essay here.—The Editors
The state of Israel is the product of more than 4,000 years of Jewish history. “If you want to understand our country, read this!” said David Ben-Gurion on the first occasion I met him, in 1957. And he slapped the Bible. But the creation and survival of Israel are also very much a 20th-century phenomenon, one that could not have happened without the violence and cruelty, the agonies, confusions, and cross-currents of our tragic age. It could even be argued that Israel is the most characteristic single product, and its creation the quintessential event, of this century.
Certainly, you cannot study Israel without traveling the historical highroads and many of the byroads of the times, beginning with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. That great watershed between an age of peace and moderation and one of violence and extremism set the pattern for all that followed, and marked a turning point as well in the fortunes of Zionism.
CONTINUE
“…according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What G-D hath wrought!” * Numbers 23:23b
Right on Fistel! The hand of God is without a doubt at work in Israel and the world – as always.
At the risk of ruffling your narrative, I’d just say that this Christian – like most – sees Israel as a wonderful miracle. What the Tanakh said has come to pass:
o God carved out Israel for Himself and populated it with you! A specially instructed people.
o You strayed and were exiled to Babylon.
o God, demonstrating his faithfulness to you, brought you back.
o You strayed again…and were exiled this time to the islands of the earth.
o And, because you’re the apple of His eye, He brought you back one last time.
If you’re one to believe the Tanakh, trouble will precede Israel’s Messiah. But you will survive to enter a new age that words fail to describe – a people intact, in Israel, serving God.
Amen to that!
(Safiyya, if you’re there, what is your narrative of Israel?)
The phrase “Jew-hating Christian” is an oxymoron. Replacement Theology is a false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church (hereinafter “RCC”) and its cousin Eastern Orthodox. When you see the fish hat or mitred hat the RCC and Eastern Orthodox wear, that is a symbol that they worship the pagan god Dagon. There are plenty of scriptures in the left and right side of the Bible to instruct Christians to love Israel and pray for her lest ye be cut off (Rom 11:22). The centuries long persecution by the RCC of real Christians (Protestants) is laid out in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs which you can download or read online for free if you are interested. All real Christians support Israel and always have.
Only Jews and Protestant Christians read the real Bible which is the King James Bible. James is the English of the name Jacob. Ps 147:19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.Masonic occultists in the 1800’s produced new versions which omit as many at 60,000 verses for the purpose of deceiving Christians. The RCC “Bible” is based on corrupt manuscripts from Alexandria and completely omits the 2nd Commandment, and the book of Revelation which is essential for understanding the prophecies in the book of Daniel concerning the timing of the coming of the Messiah and the identity of the Antichrist. The Apostle Paul and early Christians knew who the Antichrist was but didn’t put it in the Bible because they were already being persecuted by the Antichrist (see Foxe’s Book of Martyrs).
Freemasonry was started by the RCC (click for photo) and then renounced publicly but privately approved. Almost all U.S. Presidents have been freemasons. Christian Americans were duped by FDR and others. Everyone has been lied to in order to divide and conquer and kill Jews and Christians. The “Jew-hating Muslims” at the highest level are also Masons, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. All Sunni leadership is Masonic and thus under the control of the Black Pope. Watch a black man expose black Muslims and who they really worship: Here.
The MOST popular definition of Freemasonry states that it is “A unique system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols”.
If you don’t know the symbols, you will not understand the deception.
Is Israel a theological miracle or just a coincidence?
1. The Jews were forced out of Israel over the course of 400 years. First by the Greco-Romans when they practiced outright paganism, and finally by the Greco-Romans when they had adopted the form of Jew-hating paganism which they called “The New Judaism” (christianity).
2. Jews were left living in exile, without their Holy Temple, in a state of degradation and at the mercy of the evil gentiles (christians and muslims) (as the Torah had told us would happen).
3. Jews persevered for 1500 years. The european Jews refused to convert to christianity, and were forced by the catholics to leave western europe and seek refuge in eastern Europe (where christianity had not yet taken a firm hold).
4. So when at last did the Jews finally return to Zion? It took 1500 years, but they did so AT THE VERY FIRST OPPORTUNITY available to them in 1500 years.
5. For 1500 years, Israel was occupied alternately by Jew-hating christians and Jew-hating muslims, who refused to let the Jews return.
6. Then, in World War One, the muslim (Turkish) hold on Israel was broken by the christian British. The British Empire was in terminal decline, and decided to seek Jewish help (Chaim Weizmann). For a brief moment, a christian zionist was in charge of England (Lord Balfour), and he promised the Jews a Jewish State in Israel (the British immediately regretted it, and have been trying ever since to destroy Jewish Israel).
7. The christian Americans, under Roosevelt, were only too happy to keep quiet while the christian europeans exterminated the european Jews, and did everything possible to keep the european Jews from leaving europe and escaping the european christians.
8. After World War Two, the small State of Jewish Israel needed approval from the first United Nations. Clearly, Roosevelt would have vetoed it. But he had died in office, of a stroke caused by uncontrolled high blood pressure (while in the arms of his mistress). He was replaced by the “accidental vice-president”, Harry S. Truman, who was something of a christian zionist. (After Truman America returned to Jew-hating christian presidents, starting with Eisenhower.)
9. Truman (with Clark Clifford) voted yes in the UN for Israeli Independence. The Jew-hater Stalin ordered the communist bloc to vote yes (supposedly to hasten the end of the British Empire). The British abstained, and the Jewish State of Israel came back to life after more than 1500 years (the UN regretted its decision and has been trying ever since to destroy Jewish Israel).
10. The Jew-hating christian British had assumed that the Jew-hating arab muslims would be able to destroy Jewish Israel immediately. The Jews lost 6,000 men (1% of its population) fighting off the primitive, savage, Jew-hating muslims, but won in the end.
So, here is the string of events we have to explain: Turkey, Britain, Balfour, Weizmann, Roosevelt, Truman, and Stalin, leading to the Rebirth of the Jewish State of Israel after 1500 years. Was it just an unlikely series of coincidences, or the Hand of God guiding human history? (And if you are truly Jewish, and consider it to be the Hashgakha of HaShem, then what are you doing about it?)
Johnson said,
As stated, Johnson leads the reader astray. Yes, Herzl was willing to COMPROMISE with others in order to establish a Jewish state anywhere; but anyone who has read Der Judenstaat knows that a Jewish state in Palestine was his vision.
I count Herzl as one of the most remarkable men of history. Most nations have “founding fathers”. In the United States, we count men such as William Brewster and George Washington as “founders”; but Washington merely led something that had already been established; and Brewster, who actually established English settlement in the spiritual center of the new country, did so rather by accident and necessity: He did not want to found “America”; he just wanted to find a place, anywhere, where he and his fellow believers could worship in peace and freedom.
Herzl, as I have said, was not just looking for “any place”, as Brewster was. In his mind, he conceived of the Jewish people leaving Europe and going to Palestine. Then he presented this conception in his fabulous book. His words were not etherial idealism; they were concrete, plausible situations of (1) European Jews seriously debating the matter, (2) bold settlers moving to the Land, and (3) a modern country coming into being within a generation.
Herzl was remarkable, in that he saw the modern State of Israel, very much as it is today, and described not only the country but the process of building it in minute detail; then he presented this vision to a scattered and confused people; then those people did almost exactly as he had envisioned, a generation after his death. If that weren’t remarkable enough, he conceived and convened the very Zionist Congresses that were the starting point of the implementation of this vision.