It has been well observed that history varies widely from period to period in the breadth and quality of its flow. Some phases are like the broad flooding of a great river, others are phases of recession or stagnation.
In the first half of the twentieth century there was a quickening in the historical tempo : human events moved forward with a new and bewildering haste and today the middle-aged have lived through as many world stirring events as would have filled a century in a quieter era. We are told that in the Iast few decades we have experienced the birth pangs of a new era—one of new knowledge and vast power. But what frustrations and disappointments were in store ! The applications of outworn social and political theories and the maintenance of old enmities in a new and powerful world have not only denied mankind the ease and happiness they had reached out to grasp, but have brought them to the very edge of disaster.
During these critical years the position of the Jewish people has been revolutionised. In the main the years preceding the Great War of 1914 marked a period of increasing liberty for the Jews, and, though people without a land, they enjoyed a period of tranquility in which their lives could be lived with dignity and their natural talents freely cultivated. Throughout this period the Jewish contribution to the knowledge and culture of mankind was considerable—in mathematics, chemistry, medicine and physics, as well as in the arts, law and literature, there have been Jewish leaders far beyond their numerical proportion, as in other fields of intellectual progress and human welfare.
These considerable achievements given freely to the world left unsatisfied the social and spiritual needs of this ancient and persecuted race. For the Jews had always dreamed of a national Iife in the Land of Promise and at the end of the previous century Jewish thinkers had suggested that the only way out of their difficulties was the organisation of a people into a nation having their own country and their own government. The cardinal principle of Zionism was that only by self-government could the dignity of the Jew be restored, and only in Palestine could this be achieved.
Can These Bones Live ?
The question asked of the prophet Ezekiel (37.3) was indeed a pertinent one, and, before the Great War of 1914-1918, nationhood for the Jewish people seemed a remote prospect. How profoundly the political and social life of the nations was convulsed by this conflict we are well aware, and on the fortunes of the Jews it had a dramatic and far-reaching effect. The war itself was waged over territory thickly populated with Jews and they found themselves tragically divided between hostile forces. Both as civilians and in the fighting forces they suffered severely and their losses were particularly heavy in Germany, Austria and Russia. There seemed little hope for the Jews of Europe, but what was happening in Palestine made them forget their miseries. To the faithful it seemed certain that God was at last looking with favour upon His people and upon the land of His choice. The liberation of Palestine from Turkish rule in 1917 was the first step in the realisation of their national hopes, but the Balfour declaration, viewing with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, gave meaning and justification to their struggle for national revival. Restoration to Zion was no longer a dream, but a practical and realisable objective.
“I Will Place You In Your Own Land”
Under Britain, as the mandatory power appointed by the League of Nations, the political rights of the Jewish people in Palestine were assured. Colonisation proceeded apace, capital flowed into the country and the population rose from 100,000 Jews in 1918 to nearly 500,000 in 1939. There were, however, frustrations and disappointments.
The Arab population of Palestine became restive. Whilst they themselves had grossly neglected the country, they resented the growing Jewish interest in the land and in time this hostility became a serious menace to Jewish development. There were outbreaks of violence and sabotage against the new colonists and there was a weakening in the attitude of Britain in an endeavour to satisfy the rights of all parties in Palestine. The restriction of immigration, so that Jews could form no more than one-third of the total population, was a bitter blow to those who saw in Palestine a national home for the Jews.
“I Will Gather Them On Every Side”
Pressures were developing, however, in Europe which would overthrow the carefully planned immigration schemes. The years 1933 to the end of the second world war in 1945 were for the Jews among the most terrible in their long history of persecution.
“The Nazi anti-semitic movement in Germany, starting with the exclusion of Jews from all forms of public life and from German citizenship, quickly turned into a ruthless programme to rob the Jews of their property and possessions, to make economic life impossible, and to relegate them to a physical ghetto. After the second world war broke out, it planned and carried through, with unparalleled brutality, the physical massacre of nearly the whole of the Jewish population which was left in Germany and all the countries that fell under German occupation. The Jews were treated as parasites, and the Nazis used against men, women and children the methods for getting rid of vermin. Before the end of the war six million Jews of Western, Central and Eastern Europe had been methodically murdered.” (“The Jews of our Times”, Norman Bentwich).
During the years of catastrophe for Jewry in Europe, Palestine was the only country of refuge, and the efforts of Britain to control immigration were futile. Unseaworthy vessels, the “death ships”, crowded with refugees from Hitler’s Europe sought, often successfully, to avoid the British blockade. In despair Britain turned to the United Nations for a solution to the riddle of the Mandate, but the decision of the Assembly that the country should be partitioned could not be peacefully implemented, and during the last months of the Mandate civil war raged.
The State Of Israel
On the day the British Mandate ended, 14th May, 1948, the Jewish National Council and the Zionist Council proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel in the territory allotted to them by partition. This tiny country had to be defended on the following day against the invasion of five Arab armies : of Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Israel remained where they were : in nine months their positions were established on all fronts and armistice agreements were concluded with those who sought—and still seek—to crush them.
“Ye Shall Be Tilled And Sown”
During the first ten years of the State the Jewish population of Israel was trebled, reaching nearly 2,000,000. The production of agriculture and industry vastly increased. Huge sums had come into the country as part of Western German restitution to victims of Nazism and this money was largely invested in building and business. The economy was booming and inflation had been kept within bounds. More important than this, there emerged an increasing sense of nationhood, welding together the diverse groups and producing an energetic and creative society. In his book, Norman Bentwich writes,
“The people believe that this is the hour of their nation’s destiny. The strong religious bonds of the past, the common pride in the present, and the common and inspiring faith in the future are powerful unifying forces.”
“The Spirit Of Grace”
What of the future ? The Jews have a faith in a messianic age, but, in general, less faith in a personal Messiah. Their sense of destiny is driving them forward—to what ? To a role of supreme importance in world affairs (Zech. 8. 23) ; but first of all to a point of desperate crisis and then, when all seems lost, to profound shock, to amazement and utter humiliation for “they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him, as one mourn for his only son.”
This deep national penitence will be a prelude, and a necessary one, to a spiritual rebirth, when Israel will no more struggle with their God like Jacob of old, but, receiving His grace and walking in truth, will lead to light and sanity a world in extremism that seeks, at last, the God to whom the Jews throughout the ages have borne eloquent witness.
The Borders of the Land of Israel