By Ted Belman
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God must love us or how else do you explain how we Jews overcame seemingly insurmountable odds, time and time again for the last 100 plus years, in establishing and growing a Jewish state.
Although the Jews repeated in their prayers for two thousand years after the Romans destroyed their Temple and sent them into exile, “Next year in Jerusalem”, there was no political movement to realize that prayer until Theodor Herzl was energized by the Dreyfus Affair, to publish, The Jewish State, in 1896. At that time, Judea and Samaria was part of a province of the Ottoman Empire which was called Palestine and had been since the time of the Romans. Try as he might, Herzl could not get the Ottoman Sultan to agree to allow the Jews to set up their “Jewish state” in Palestine. So he turned to the British who were sympathetic but could only offer Uganda which the Jews rightly rejected. The Jews continued to knock on the Ottoman door with little hope. As a result, Zionism languished, but not for long.
The First World War pitted Germany, Ottoman Empire and others against Britain, France and Russia. Although the great mass of Jews lived in the Pale of Settlement which was situate in eastern Poland, Ukraine, and western Russia, there was an established Jewish presence in Western Europe and in the United States. The Jews were divided into ideological camps, namely, the assimilationists, the Communists, the socialists, the orthodox and the Zionists. For the most part they were loyal to the country where they lived. So Jews fought Jews. How could they do otherwise. But the Zionists, consisting of the Jewish masses in the Pale and the elite in Great Britain, although not of one mind, began debating who was likely to win the war so that they might support that side and hopefully be rewarded with a state. If they chose wrong, the Jews in all countries would pay the price.
Fortunately they choose right. They offered to support Gr Britain by doing their best to get America to ally with her and doing their best to get Russia not to withdraw from the war as she was considering doing. They offered to fight on the side of Britain if she would form a Jewish Legion. All this they offered in exchange for a promise of a Jewish National Home as set out in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the right to have the Jewish Legion part of the British forces which would conquer Palestine. Germany and the Ottoman Empire were defeated in 1918. Then in 1919, when the WWI victors met in San Remo, they awarded the Jewish people the right to reconstitute their national home in Palestine. Things were looking up for the Zionists, but they went quickly downhill from there.
The British Military Administration in Palestine was anti-Zionist and did its utmost to frustrate the Declaration. They preferred to side with the Arabs and even incited them to violence. Many Jews were killed while the Administration turned a blind eye. Even Britain’s Home Office began regretting the declaration and attempted to whittle it down through interpretation contrary to its original promise. It kept delaying the ratification of the Mandate by the League of Nations, which was provided for in the San Remo resolution. Finally it decided to remove Transjordan (East Bank) from the Mandate and to give it to the Hashemites. It than forced the Zionists to accept this loss of 78% of the lands promised on pain of not getting the Mandate ratified by the League of Nations. The Zionists had no choice but to accept and the Mandate was signed in September 1922.
One of the issues which drove the opposition was that the Arabs in Palestine, numbering 700,000, outnumbered the Jews by a ratio of 10:1 and to some it didn’t seem right to give the land to the Jews. But this was seen as a very temporary imbalance as Jewish immigration would soon put them in the majority. With this opposition, in mind the Balfour Declaration favoured the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people as a whole. So the Zionists insisted that in any representative institutions to be established in Palestine, that the constituents must be the existing Arab community on the one hand and the Jewish people as a whole, numbering about 13 million, on the other hand.
Nevertheless the British policy remained to frustrate the Mandate by restricting immigration of Jews but not Arabs and by allowing Arabs to be armed but not Jews. The most egregious thing the British did was to prevent Jews from escaping the Holocaust by fleeing to Palestine. And this policy of barring entry by Jews continued after the end of the war as Jews were forced to remain in displaced persons camps rather than to be allowed to enter the promised land. Is it any wonder that the Jews in Palestine created an underground army to force Britain to leave. Against all odds, they were successful.
In 1947 Britain decided that she had had enough and introduced the Partition Plan to the General Assembly of the United Nations. This plan when passed in November 1947 was nothing more than a recommendation that the remaining 22% of Palestine should be divided between an Arab State and a Jewish State. Britain was to depart from the land six months later.
Ben Gurion, the then leader of the Jews in Palestine, knew that declaring the state of Israel on the departure of the British, meant that Israel would be immediately invaded by the surrounding Arab countries. As it was, the Jews were outnumbered 2:1 in Palestine. His arsenal at the time consisted of 200 Bren guns, 1500 rifles and 400 machine guns. He had six months to prepare for war and he had no money to finance the acquisition of arms. To make matters worse the US placed an embargo on arms going Palestine and the British military kept confiscating Jewish weapons and preventing Jewish immigration until they left. He sent Golda Meir to America to raise the money from the Jews and they responded generously.
When the British left, they turned over to the Arabs their command posts and much equipment. Talk about impossible odds.
In the lead up to the declaration, the State Department put enormous pressure on Ben-Gurion to postpone the declaration and warned him that the Arabs would attack and that the United States would not come to his aid. In fact the State Department, threatened to stoke anti-Semitism by publishing documents that would “do great harm to the Jews” as retribution for the establishment of an independent State of Israel, according to newly unearthed diplomatic cables.
Chaim Weizmann warned, “It’s now or never” and the Jewish people agreed. The state was declared and the war began.
One month later the parties agreed to a truce. The Arabs were not doing as well as they had expected and the Jews needed a rest and time for more arms and Jewish refugees to reach Israel. A month later the war commenced and Israel captured more land. When the Armistice Agreement of 1949 was being negotiated the State Department put enormous pressure on Ben Gurion to retreat but he steadfastly refused.
As a result of the influx of Jews following the Declaration of the State and the fleeing of Arabs as a result of the war, the Jews reached a majority of the population by the end of 1950 and Israel acquired more land. The United Nations quickly passed Res 194 calling for the return of the refugees to Israel and the creation of UNRWA. The US by supporting this resolution was attempting to reverse Israeli gains.
Thereafter, every time Israel fought a defensive war against the Arabs, the State Department pressured Israel to retreat and to this day, that pressure continues. At least that pressure is to the Armistice Lines of ’49 and not the Partition Lines of ’47; at least for now. Perhaps the State Department’s ultimate goal is to return to its original position of no Jewish State at all which is certainly the Arab position.
Despite all the wars, the efforts of all her enemies including the State Department and the United Nations, the deligitimating and demonizing campaigns began in earnest in Durban I, the flotillas and flytillas, the growing antisemitism, the European supported NGO’s in Israel seeking her destruction, the worldwide BDS movement, the terrorism of her citizens, the Iranian threat of annihilation, the Charters of Hamas and Fatah calling for her destruction and the threats and pressure by Pres Obama, Israel has grown and prospered.
Since Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948, her population has grown 10 fold, and her GDP, 100 fold, She enjoys the highest fertility rate in the western world and a stronger economy than either that of the US or any European country. Tourism is at record levels, unemployment at record lows and foreign currency held, at record highs..
As I say, against all odds.
@ Bill Vidor:
Yes Israel thrives, but you don’t ask the most Germain Question ie; Why?
Certainly not due to our superior leadership and dysfunctional systems, (political and economic).
Don’t know what you are talking about. if we have overcome our difficulties and even thrived it’s because we refused to accept and reconcile with those traps placed in our paths.
.
I don’t think you are speaking about Jews. Jews fight with each other as family members fight with each other because we care more and like in primary families disagreement are always the bitterest when they occur.
If you don’t know and understand the past then you will neither understand and relate properly to our present and certainly our future.
Don’t forget Motherhood and Apple-pie.
A load of crap and you show your own ignorance, lack of wisdom in making such a statement.
The Jewish people lived under both Monarchy and theocracy for almost 1500 years and compared to what exists today I don’t think you can make a good case for what we have over what we had. Theocracy served us pretty well and except for core values, was more liberal than what we call democracy today. If I am not mistaken Democracy comes from the Greeks and has no relationship to Jews or Judaism. We have our own laws and system. Try it you might grow to like it. 🙂
How about live and let live but it’s never the case here so the concept is idealistic and not practical.
Don’t know what you are talking about?
We seem to do both with waging war more successfully than making peace, though making peace is always a consequence of victory over enemies in war.
@ Bill Vidor: First rate! Nicely said.
@ John M Collins:
And I agree with BOTH of you.
In fact, I’d suggest, with no hyperbole intended, that the US has in fact benefitted more from the exchange than Israel
— perhaps SUBSTANTIALLY more. . . .
Israel thrives, in spite of it all
Israel exists, and thriving, it is in the forefront of scientific and technological innovations,
all because we the Israeli, Jewish people.
Instead of placing blame,
We chose to reconcile, and make the best of things yet to come.
Instead of bickering among ourselves,
We chose to support one another, and celebrate our differences.
Instead of dwelling on the past,
We chose to move on, and embrace progress over failure.
Instead of teaching hatred, and evil,
We chose love, respect, and compassion.
Instead of antiquated laws and ignorance,
We chose justice wisdom, and knowledge.
Instead of a theocracy, and religious intolerance,
We chose a Democracy.
Instead of calling for the annihilation of other nations,
We advocate coexistence.
Instead of becoming victims,
We chose to steadfastly, and defended our lives and honor.
Instead of waging war,
We choose to call for peace.
Bill Vidor, Oakland CA © 4/20/2007 E-mail: billvidor@yahoo.com
Behold, HE that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
@ yamit82:
“the land upon which the eyes of G-d your Lord, gaze from the beginning of the year till year’s end”? (Deuteronomy 11:12).
Against all odds – The miracle of the storks
Yom Kippur War Miracle
AMEN
@ Thinker:
Against All Odds Youtube
Against All Odds E9 Miracle of Survival, Pt 2 – People of the Book Come Home
@ Richard
That’ll do nicely, thank you…!
I hope this not hyperbole on your part – do you really mean it?
There is an old Yiddish saying ‘Fun dein mohl in Gottn’s oiren'(Out of your mouth into God’s ears)
@ Rubin Katz (Stefanek):
DREAM SEQUENCE…
PRESIDENT ROMNEY SENT USAF TO ASSIST IAF IN DISARMING IRAN, HAMAS, HIZBULLAH, MB, ETC.,
AND RETAKE SINAI, GAZA, ETC.,
AND TRANSFER”palis” TO JORDAN…
AFTER PARDONING POLLARD
Brother Ted
Very well said!
It is true that some were opposed to giving a 10% minority of Jews sovereignty over Palestine because it would be antidemocratic. One of these was Woodrow Wilson,President of the US at the time. In a memo of September 19, 1917, about two months before publication of British Policy as the Balfour Declaration, the British Foreign Office issued a memorandum addressing this contention It was written by Arnold Toynebee and Lewis Namier. They agreed with the antidemocratic argument in concept, but said, that as it was to be applied, the problem was “imaginary”. That is because they predicted that the exclusive political rights were to be given to the Jews in trust, with England or the US as trustee. The legal rights of sovereignty would not vest until the Jews had attained a population majority and whatever other attributes it needed to become a model of a modern European state. Their prediction was correct. Jan Smuts drafted what became Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant as a trust or guardianship; see its first two paragraphs. England volunteered to become trustee and guardian. World Jewry was the beneficiary of the trust and the ward of the guardian. It was the Arab Higher Executive that by ordering Arabs to leave Palestine, in conjunction with the Arabs in other countries making life miserable for the Sephardic Jews so them emigrated to Palestine, that gave Israel the population majority it needed for sovereignty, but not until after England had abandoned its trusteeship.
Uplifting and sound in every respect. Good work Ted.
A few lines about Mr. Mansfield’s comments.
The US has soundly invested every penny allocated to Israel of which 80 cents on the dollar remains in the US as indirect grants to US industrial facilities. I know precisely that as I had the honor of being a Senior Fellow Engineer US DoD Military Avionics. High dollar value items are in that category. I personally developed for the US Patents worth several billion dollars at that time. Mine being just one of many such ROI benefits gained by the US. Others made even larger contributions benefiting the US.
I do not intend to pick and choose Mr. Mansfield but I would suggest to to you to thread carefully or accounting will be made to your chagrin. Without Israeli solid know how many of the US front line hi tech products would not be there, from portable phones to VLSI electronics used on CAT, MRI, industrial and space applications, HUD’s. IR imaging, from pharmaceuticals to space electronics, etc.
Every single military and civilian aircraft serving the US and free world include a multitude of avionics advances developed by Israeli scientists and Engineers.
And those are but a few examples. Other contributions will be kept secret for years.
About the economic disaster facing the US. The US walked itself into the disasters now confronting it by the arts of its own people. Also on this I prefer to leave it at that but I am sure you understand.
Intermarriage in particular involving Jewish women is not always negative. The gene pool is always benefited that way. Both ways. The children of a Jewish woman, regardless of the father’s ancestry, are Jewish.
While I agree that Jews are a remarkable religion/people/culture/civilization/whatever, we should not be too quick to credit the ‘success’ of Israel to a supernatural power.
Rather, let us celebrate and venerate the brave, long suffering Israelis who settled, developed, fought and died for that “success”.
Israel needs our constant support: moral, financial, physical and political.
Also, as my Bubbie always said “don’t worry when things are bad – they’re already bad; worry when things are too good [k’nina horah]”
L Mansfield Said:
Sorry, I cannot be the ingrate as I did not receive one penny. You need to do some reading to find out the purpose of that 120 billion. Everytime Israel has fought a war since 1956, at the moment she is winning, the US steps in and prevents her from keeping the conquests and benefiting therefrom. Most of Israels aid goes back to America. There are reasons why the US desires to be banker and policeman to the world. America is broke because both parties shipped its capital and jobs to Asia over the last 20 years. L Mansfield Said:
It was the sub human European civilization which let the Jews down and slaughtered them without mercy, remember free will? It was God who delivered them miraculously to the promised land bringing an end to European slaughter for those who made aliyah. Yet today there are Israelis and Jews who still look to Europe with reverence seeking approval. For 2000 years the exiled Jews were slaughtered in that hell hole and yet still wanted to remain. They put their faith and trust in rabid animals. Who would endure 1000’s of years of slaughter and believe that it was over in their time just before the greatest slaughter? Fool Jews are still doing the same.
@ Rubin Katz (Stefanek):
Your right on. G-d did not cause the Holocaust, it was by man as you so stated and those that stood idly by are as guilty as those who committed the crimes against the Jews.
Anti-Semitism a deadly cancer needs to be eradicated.
@ L. Mansfield
As a survivor from Poland, I think I’m rather well-qualified to apportion blame in this instance. The Holocaust was not a gift from the Almighty. It is man’s propensity for evil that caused the Holocaust. It wasn’t God who commanded the SS and the Einsatzgruppen killing squads! Your’s is a rather smug and arrogant remark to make. The most you can say is that Good stood by, as did the Vatican, the Christian world and your own wartime president…
It was deep-rooted anti-Semitism and the demonization of Jews as um-mentschen (sub-humans) that led to the Holocaust. Something like this is starting to repeat itself today. Only this time it is the Islamo-fascists, allied with the far-left, who are behind it. There is just one difference though; today we have a flag, a State with a powerful army and air force…
Never Again!
FM Balfour sent Weizmann on a Stateside speaking tour for that purpose.
Don’t forget his heavy artillery: the “Napoleonchiks” — four (4) creaky, 65 mm. French howitzers left over from the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.
Fortunately, when the crews of the first Syrian tanks crossing the perimeter of the northern kibbutz, Degania, got a look at the two Napoleonchiks just reassembled on orders of the local commander (Moshe Dayan) and parked at the kibbutz — and one of which antiques had just scored a hit on the lead tank — the Syrian tank commanders assumed there were plenty more of the same nearby: and promptly withdrew their armor without returning.
Had they only known. . . .
@ Ted Belman:
Ted, I thought you said you took out the trash?
Correction: I agree with Ted
I agree with dweller – whatever the US has “given” Israel over the years has been abundantly repaid by Israel’s services and loyalty – contrast the perhaps greater sums wasted on Egypt!
As for the Holocaust, Mr Mansfield’s attitude appears to be the childish approach that the Almightly is like an ATM – put in the right message and you’ll get your reward – or even like those sweetie machines where you pay the right sum and the sweets are delivered to you. God does not work like that.
We must indeed be able to rely on ourselves alone but it makes no sense in the World as it is to neglect making friends and allies while they are willing. Just be careful to have a fall back / escape facility position. In their times the destructions of the Temples with populations and the Chmielnitsky massacres were as serious blows as the Holocaust but we have rebuilt ourselves, have done so again and come the Rosh Hashanah when Israel has six million Jews this year or next then we should celebrate that the Phoenix has risen from the ashes and look forward to the new plumage.
What will be most interesting in the, “You’ve seeen nothing yet…” Hollywoodism will not just be the secular knowledge pouring out of Israel in physics and chemistry, medicine and computers, but the Jewish developments. We have seen four big developments which are about to crop in the rising generation. The Steinsalz pointed Talmud, the Mossad HaRav Herzog Talmudic Encyclopaedia, the Daniel Retter index to the Talmud “Ha Mafteach” and the end of the Talmud bocher “perpetual student” exceptionalism to being in the IDF and the normal economy. Against the background of the revival of Hebrew as a spoken living language the population at large will now seize the religion and culture from the backward blinkered blackcoat rabbinate and make them run for a living as access to the knowledge leads to exponential rise in the numbers and complexity of the questioning besides the range of the bracket of questions to apply Judaism to modern living beyond kashrut and the siddur.
To borrow a Roman and British example: The Senate thanked the consuls for not despairing of the Republic, and Good hunting… Hatzlechah!
CHAZAK V’EMATZ
Excellent article, we should all keep in mind the current American Government’s attitude against Israel. Though the Obama Administration is against Israel, the American People are solidly behind the Jewish Nation. If pressure is aptly applied for the Administration to favor Israel there will be a leaning toward doing the right and proper thing – supporting Israel.
Against All Odds Israel Survives. Is a series of DVD’s on Israel Survival stories thst are miracles. Will keep you on the edge of your seat. Filmed in Israel. Can be purchased on Christianbooks.com.
@ L Mansfield:
If you have a quarrel with Hashem
— then perhaps you should take it up with HIM, personally.
L Mansfield Said:
Apparently, not enough Jewish girls are having sex.
Good luck trying to convince Jews to let their teenage daughters attend unchaperoned coed slumber parties.
@ L Mansfield:
That money is the best investment the US has made.
https://www.israpundit.org/archives/23831
Do your homework before showing your bias.
@ L Mansfield:Bernard Ross
WE cannot be the bankers of the world. You pitiful ingrate. America is broke and Israel is rolling in dough- it is payback time.
Yes Hashem let Jews down during the period of the holocaust and that fact cannot rationalized away.
“Israel Against All Odds” is an excellent booster for our morale, especially in these dismal days with the threat of another Obama term in the WH, supported by a majority Jewish vote.
With discord, between internal and external elements of our people, existential threats from Iran, the PA, etc. the disparaging speech by Olmert at the recent Jerusalem Post Conference,
Ted’s article, gives us hope, that as we have in the past, so will we overcome the adversities of the future.
And my prayer to the Almighty is that as he preserved the Jewish people throughout millennia, may he look down on Jonathan Pollard’s bondage of 27 years, and release him AGAINST ALL ODDS! BIMHERU BEYAMAINU, AMEIN.
L Mansfield Said:
And your point is? Are you saying the US didnt get what they were paying for? Are you saying it was charity? If so, your bookeeping and your strategic analysis is naive. By the way who is we, are you Israeli? Soon that 130 billion will be worth nothing and if Obama returns the Jews will be the scapegoat for massive oil price increases due to a worthless dollar. The red herring will be Iran. US Jews will soon need a place to run to.
L Mansfield Said:
Are you a holocaust survivor? Are you an Israeli? The “tangible” gift, for a bookeeper like you, is the land of Israel and the deliverance from the bloodthirsty depths of evil called Europe. Look at Yamits links and note the pogroms on the Jews immediately following the holocaust by the poles and others. Ca plus change! Then note developments in Europe today; it will not be long before the evil monster of Europe comes back out of their closet in full jew slaughtering blood fests. There will be a lot less Jews that will die now in Europe. Re-check your books or get a new accountant.
Good idea- why don’t we begin by reimbursing the U.S. the $120 bil which Israel so thankfully accepted during the last 30 years. I checked the books and discovered that the only tangible gift received from the Almighty was the holocaust.
@ NormanF:
If present trends continue and 50 percent of our youth intermarries the number of Jews in the world will continue to decline, relative to the Arabs and others.
Norman your figure of 200 million Arabs is fictional.
This story is a good reminder. The other lesson that stays with me is that Israel must put no faith or reliance on “allies”. She must rely on herself and other Jews only. She must always prepare to fight and especially to survive alone, with God’s help only. All those currently raising issues of world reaction and desires regarding Israels future are not learning the lesson of history which has never deviated. They are not only mistaken they are blind and delusional. Their need for approval from the non-jew is so great they have left reality. When Israel repudiates the world and acts without their approval Israel will reach great heights and keep her conquests. Perhaps Israel is being prevented from peace until she is ready to accept and appreciate God’s gift.
Faith and destiny – the miracle of Israel Part 1
Faith and destiny – the miracle of Israel Part 2
If current trends continue, Israel could have 50 million Jews within a century confronting 200 million Arabs. A far more favorable ratio than has existed for centuries.
There will be as many Jews alive as Europe had at at dawn of the twentieth century and Europe would probably have 100 million in a century.
Every reason exists to believe the next century will be the Jewish Century. Christianity and Islam have had their time on the world stage. Now its the Jews’ turn.
When there were 600,000 Jews in Eretz Yisrael in 1947, G-d brought about the first miracle, the founding of the State of Israel. When there were 600,000 men from 20 and up in Eretz Yisrael in 1967, G-d wrought the second great miracle. Now the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael stands just above 5.9 million. And mark my words when there are 6 million Jews in Eretz Yisrael, we will witness miracles greater than the Splitting of the Sea, all in the merit of the 6 million Jews who perished between 67 and 72 1/2 years ago. Only our Father and our King can grant these miracles, and apparently only in the merit of the pain and the agony from so many years ago, will we witness the miracles of the Final Redemption. And enter from stage left at least 100,000 French Jews running away from a Socialist/ Muslim coalition…..
thank you ted, for posting this uplifting, inspiring, and “y’hyie b’seder” post.
🙂