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From: Eddie Chumney
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Chapter 8: Israel: The Fig Tree Blossoms (Part 1 of 3)
CHAPTER 8
ISRAEL: THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMS
from the book by Eddie Chumney
"RESTORING THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHAPTER 8
ISRAEL: THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMS
(Part 1 of 3)
After over two thousand years of exile
in the nations of the world, the birth and blossoming of the modern day nation of
Israel
is a major end-time prophetic event given to us by the G-d of
Israel.
It is a sign to the Jewish people (house of Judah) and the
nations of
the world of the soon return of the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach)
Yeshua/Jesus to the earth as the Kingly Messiah (Mashiach) known
as
Messiah ben David to usher in the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). The
prophets (nevi'im) of Israel in the TeNaKh (Old Testament) wrote
how
the birth of the nation of Israel, the return of the house of
Israel
and the house of Judah from worldwide exile to the land of
Israel,
and the nations of the world gathering against the city of
Jerusalem
(Yerushalayim) would precede the coming of the Messiah
(Mashiach).
Israel is the fig tree of the G-d
of Israel. In Hosea (Hoshea) 9:10 it is written:
"I found Israel like grapes
in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the
fig tree."
When the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach)
Yeshua/Jesus was asked by His disciples (talmidim) the signs that His followers could
watch so
that they would understand when the present age (Olam Hazeh) was
concluding and the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) was at hand, He
prophetically made mention of the birth of the modern day state
of
Israel. In Matthew (Mattityahu) 24:3, 32-33 it is written:
"When he was sitting on the
Mount of Olives, the talmidim [disciples] came to him privately.
Tell us, they said, when will these things happen? And what will
be the sign that you are coming, and the `olam hazeh' [end
of the age] is ending? [Complete Jewish Bible version by
David Stern] . Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his
branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that
summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these
things, know that it is near even at the doors."
A HEART TO BE REDEEMED FROM EXILE
Redemption from exile has always been
the heart and desire of the
Jewish people (house of Judah). The redemption from their first
exile
in Egypt (Mitzrayim) and the receiving of the Torah of the G-d of
Israel at mount Sinai has been the central event that has helped
to
preserve the identity of the Jewish people (house of Judah)
through
later exiles to Babylon and eventually into all the nations of
the
world (Diaspora). While being in exile, the prayers of the Jewish
people (house of Judah) have always been to return to the land of
Israel, end the exile and live in the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo).
This dream of restoration, the end of the exile and the return to
the
land of Israel is expressed in Psalm (Tehillim) 137:1 as it is
written:
"By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."
THE DESIRE FOR A POLITICAL MESSIAH
In the first century, the Jewish people
(house of Judah) longed for a political Messiah (Mashiach) who would free
them from the
oppression of Rome. Because of this desire, various Jewish groups
rose up in opposition against Rome. Major wars were fought by the
Jewish people (house of Judah) against Rome in 70 CE (Common Era)
and
in 135 CE. In 135 CE, a Jewish military leader named Simon Bar
Kochba
led a revolt against Rome. At this time, one of the most
respected
rabbi's of the period, Rabbi Akiva, proclaimed Bar Kochba as the
political Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) who would free the Jewish
people
(house of Judah) from the oppression of Rome. During this time,
Rome
was successful in winning every war against the Jewish people
(house
of Judah). As a result, Rome began to sell the Jewish people
(house
of Judah) into slavery and initiated the exile of the Jewish
people
(house of Judah) into all the nations of the world.
PASSIVE RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSION
Because of the hardship brought to the
Jewish people (house of Judah) in fighting against Rome, losing the wars,
being sold into
slavery and being exiled into the nations of the world, the
Jewish
people (house of Judah) began to embrace the ideology of passive
resistance against their oppressors from that time forward. This
mindset continued to be prevalent in the late 1800s. In fact,
many
Orthodox Jews have long insisted that any return to the Holy Land
would be carried out by the Messiah and that to take matters into
one's own hands would be blasphemous. 1 However, anti-Jewish
sentiment in Europe in the late 1800s began to change this
mindset
among secular Jews. This change in mindset and the desire for
secular
Jews (house of Judah) to return to the land of Israel to escape
oppression and anti-Semitism without waiting for these matters to
be
carried out through the rise of a political Jewish Messiah
(Mashiach)
became known as the Zionist movement.
THE RISE OF ZIONISM IN EUROPE
"Zionism" comes from the
biblical word "Zion." It is often used as a synonym for Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) and the Land of
Israel
(Eretz Yisrael). Zionism is an ideology that expresses the
yearning
of Jews all over the world for their historical homeland of Zion,
the
Land of Israel. The foundation of Zionism is rooted in the belief
that the Land of Israel is the historical birthplace of the
Jewish
people (house of Judah) and that Jewish life anywhere else in the
world is a life of exile.
The emergence of Zionism in Europe in
the late 1800s was a crucial turning point in Jewish history. Through this
movement,
ancient hopes and dreams of the Jewish people (house of Judah) to
end
the exile and return to the land of Israel was resurrected.
Zionism
rejects the idea that assimilation of the Jewish people (house of
Judah) into the nations of the world is the best way to ensure
Jewish
survival.
In the late 1800s, a grass-roots youth
movement contributed to this Jewish awakening in Eastern Europe. 2 At this time in
history,
a large number of Jews lived in the Polish and Russian pales.
Czarist
policy aimed at restricting the Jews prompted "thousands of
idealistic young Russian Jews" to organize themselves
"into a
political and cultural group called the "lovers of
Zion." 3 These
youngsters held their first convention in Constantinople in 1882,
boldly issuing a manifesto declaring their need for a Jewish
homeland
and their God-given right to Zion. 4
THEODOR HERZL: THE FATHER OF MODERN ZIONISM
Theodor Herzl is the man credited with
being the founder of
modern Zionism. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1860. His
parents, though Jewish, had no religious sentiment and young
Herzl
was educated in the spirit of the German-Jewish
"Enlightenment" of
the time. Theodor Herzl studied law at the University of Vienna.
After graduating in 1884 with a doctorate in law, he left law and
became the Paris correspondent for the Vienna Free Press, a
liberal
newspaper. During this time, Herzl became sensitive toward the
Jewish
problem of anti-Semitism.
In 1892, the famous Dreyfus trial began
in Paris, France. Here,
an assimilated Jew named Alfred Dreyfus on the French General
Staff
was wrongly accused and imprisoned. Herzl witnessed the riotous
behavior of French mobs and the public humiliation of the Jewish
officer, Dreyfus, when they taunted the French Jewish army
captain
with shouts of "death to the Jews." These events
impacted Herzl so
strongly that he became consumed with the desire for all Jews to
have
a national homeland to free them from social injustice and
anti-Semitism. For Herzl, this meant a sovereign Jewish State.
For
the first time in his life, Herzl began attending Jewish
religious
services. 5
In 1896, Herzl began to communicate his
dream by publishing Der
Judenstaat (The Jewish State). More than any other single factor,
Herzl's book was most responsible for galvanizing the support of
world Jewry for political Zionism. His solution called for
individual Jews to immigrate to Palestine, buy land from the Turks, cultivate it into productivity, build
a Jewish majority in the land, and thus reestablish the Jewish
homeland. 6
In 1897, Theodor Herzl called the first
Zionist Congress at
Basle, Switzerland. It opened on August 29th, 1897 and was
attended
by some 204 participants from seventeen countries. At this time,
the
World Zionist Organization was established and Herzl became its
first
president. Here he officially launched the Zionist movement with
a
specific statement of purpose: "The object of Zionism is to
establish
for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in
Palestine." 7
Initially, when Herzl began to expound
his ideas of having a central world organization so that Jews worldwide
could move in mass to some yet unknown territory, he was met with stiff opposition from eastern European Jews who
dismissed the idea and thought that Herzl was crazy. Both Orthodox
and Reform rabbis branded Herzl and his ideas as visionary and
impractical. Nevertheless, Herzl continued to pursue his dream and
spread his ideas.
Herzl's greatest desire was for the
Jewish people (house of Judah) to have a national homeland to shelter them from the
anti-Semitism that they have historically experienced in the
nations
of the world where they have lived over the centuries. Therefore,
it
did not matter to Herzl which country or territory was given to
the
Jewish people. Herzl's energies seemed boundless as he assumed
the
role of roving ambassador for the Jews in the highest echelons of
government. No confrontation fazed him. He fearlessly challenged
opulent financiers; held audiences with the kaiser, the Turkish
sultan, the king of Italy, and the pope; and approached leading
officials of Russia and Great Britain. With his unique, polished
demeanor he became a diplomat par excellence for the Zionist
cause. 8
Herzl worked hard to find a territory
for the Jews. At first,
Sinai and Cyprus were two territories under consideration. In
1903,
the British offered Herzl the area called Uganda. Because pogroms
and
oppression in Russia was increasing for the Jews during this
period,
Herzl felt that a homeland in Uganda was a credible proposal.
Therefore, Herzl submitted the Uganda plan to the sixth Zionist
Congress. However, this proposal met strong opposition and was
rejected. The eastern European Jews regarded it as a betrayal of
the
dream of settling in the land of Israel. So strong and hostile
was
the opposition to the Uganda plan that Herzl wrote a written
commitment to abandon it.
In 1904, Herzl died of a heart attack at
the age of forty-four.
For his efforts, Theordor Herzl became a living legend and
became
known as the father of modern Zionism. 9
CHAIM WEIZMANN
AND THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
After Herzl's death, the new leader of
Zionism became Chaim
Weizmann. Born in Motol, Russia in 1874, Weizmann attended
college at
German and Swiss universities. In 1904, he began teaching at
Manchester, England. Unlike Herzl, Weizmann believed that a
homeland
in the ancient land of Israel was the only practical solution for
the
Jewish people. His reasons were not religious but were derived
from
his perceived political realities.
Just as Herzl's journalism caused
him to be in the right place
at the divinely appointed time, Weizmann's chemistry talents
caused
the same thing to happen to him. Because of World War I, Britain
had
a need that Weizmann was able to meet. When the allies' supply of
acetone to produce munitions began to run out (previously
imported
from Germany), the British staff called on Weizmann to find some
substitute. Following a two-year project, his team developed a
superior synthetic that made a considerable contribution to the
Allied war effort. 10
Weizmann's contacts with the
Manchester society and his
supervision of mass production of synthetic acetone for the
Allies
war effort gave him visibility and opened doors for him to make
contact with high ranking British government officials. These
contacts included Prime Minister Lloyd George, First Lord of the
Admiralty Winston Churchill, and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.
Weizmann made personal appeals to these individuals to help him
find
a homeland in the ancient land of Israel for the Jewish people to
further the cause of Zionism. 11
Weizmann's success in developing
synthetic acetone for the Allied
war effort so elated the British cabinet that Lord Balfour
exclaimed
to Weizmann, "You know that after the war you may get your
Jerusalem." 12
The major result of Weizmann's diplomacy
was the Balfour
Declaration. It granted the Jewish people (house of Judah)
an
international right to a homeland in Palestine with the help of
Great
Britain. The substance of the Declaration was given in a letter
to
Lord Rothschild by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour
on
November 2, 1917. The declarations reads:
His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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 the existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews
in any other country.
WWI AND
THE FALL OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
One of the significant events that
contributed to the possibility
of the Jewish people returning to their ancient homeland was the
defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. Because of this, control of
the
Middle East came under the rule of Great Britain.
During World War I, Turkey was on the
side of Germany. The
British through the leadership of Sir Edward Allenby defeated the
Turks and ended four hundred years of Turkish rule over Palestine
and
six hundred years of Muslim dominance in the area. The Palestine
armistice was signed on October 31, 1918. This was eleven days
before
the World War I armistice was signed. 13 This coincidence
prompted
Lord Balfour later to declare that "the founding of the
Jewish
National Home was the most significant outcome of the First World War." 14
Oscar Janowsky has summarized this
relationship between Zionism and World War I as follows: 15
The First World War proved
decisive in the history of Zionism. On November 2, 1917, the British
government issued the Balfour Declaration, pledging to
facilitate "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people." Soon thereafter the British conquered
the country and, when the war was over, Palestine was
administered as a Mandate under the League of Nations, with the United
Kingdom as Mandatory or trustee. The Balfour pledge was
incorporated in the terms of the Mandate, which recognized
"the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine"
and the right to reconstitute "their national home in that
country." Britain was to encourage the immigration and close
settlement of the Jews on the land; Hebrew (as well as English and
Arabic) was to be an official language; and a "Jewish
Agency" was to assist and cooperate with the British in the building of the
Jewish National Home.
The British Mandate was given
international approval by the
Council of the League of Nations on June 28, 1919. The following
map
shows the land area in the Middle East governed by the British
Mandate.
However, before its final sanction on
September 29, 1922, the
homeland projected for the Jews had been reduced to exclude
Transjordan when Great Britain created the state of Transjordan
under
the kingship of Abdullah ibn Hussein. 16 The following map shows
how
the land of the Middle East looked after Great Britain gave the
land
that was originally projected to be a national homeland for the
Jewish people to Transjordan. In order to satisfy the Arabs,
"land
was given for peace."
What Theodor Herzl invigorated in the
Jewish people for a
national homeland with the writing of his book, Der Judenstaat
(The
Jewish State), Chaim Weizmann continued with the Balfour
Declaration.
With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI and British control
over
the land of Palestine, the fire of Zionism became a blaze in the
hearts of the Jewish people. Jews in the Diaspora became
encouraged
that they would once again be able to live in the land of their
forefathers.
DAVID BEN-GURION AND THE "YISHUV"
While Weizmann furthered the cause of
Zion through his diplomatic
contacts in the West, David Ben-Gurion became a pioneer for
Zionism
among the people in the land of Palestine (Yishuv). David
Ben-Gurion
was born in Poland in 1886. He migrated to the land of Israel in
1906. In the land, he became the most active Zionist during this
time. He became involved in the creation of the first
agricultural
workers' commune (which evolved into the Kvutzah and finally the
Kibbutz). He also helped establish the Jewish self-defense group,
"Hashomer" (The Watchman).
In the land, Ben-Gurion was a founder of
the trade unions, and in
particular, the national federation, the Histadrut, which
he
dominated from the early 1920s. He also served as the Histadrut's
representative in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish
Agency
and was elected chairman of both organizations in 1935. He led
the
Jewish Legion against the Turks in World War I. After leading the
struggle to establish the State of Israel in May 1948, Ben-Gurion
became Prime Minister and Defense Minister when Israel became a
nation.
BEN YEHUDA AND THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
With the rise of Zionism and the return
of the Jewish people to
their ancient homeland, Hebrew became the common language that
all
immigrants were required to learn. With the dispersion of the
Jewish
people into the nations of the world, Hebrew had practically
become a
"dead" language.
It was the dream of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
that when the Jewish
people returned to their ancient homeland that they would speak
their
ancient tongue of Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda was most responsible for
this
becoming a reality. Therefore, he is remembered as being the
creator
of the modern Hebrew language.
Ben-Yehuda, was born Eliezer Yitzhak
Perelman, in the Lithuanian
village of Luzhky on January 7, 1858. He learned Hebrew at a
young
age as a part of his religious upbringing. Though migrating from
Russia with tuberculosis in 1881, he devoted his life to
rejuvenating
the language for modern use, even producing a Hebrew dictionary.
In
spite of much ridicule, he and his wife "took a vow that no
words
would ever again pass their lips except in Hebrew, a vow that
proved
to be one of the turning points in the history of
Palestine." 17
ARAB RESPONSE TO JEWISH IMMIGRATION
In the decade following the
international approval of the Balfour
Declaration, many Jews made aliyah and returned to the land of
Palestine. During these years, they came mostly from Russia and
Eastern Europe. In the eight years since the Balfour Declaration,
the
Jewish population had doubled from 55,000 to 103,000. Zionism had
finally caught the imagination of the Jewish people, and as
oppression increased in Europe, thousands of Jews fled to
Palestine
and the sanctuary of a Jewish national homeland during the decade
of
the 1920's. 18
However, all of this was greeted with
stiff Arab rejection of Jewish immigration (house of Judah) to the land of
Israel. The main
source of agitation was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin
al-Husseini. The British had sought to control the country
through
two leading families of Palestine with large land holdings, the
Husseinis and the Nashashibis. 19 Haj Amin was appointed
president of
the Supreme Muslim Counsel in 1922, giving him immense political,
economic, and religious clout. 20 During World War II, he
defected to
the Nazis, moving to Rome and Berlin. In the twenties and
thirties,
he missed no opportunity to stir antagonism and wage war against
the
Jewish families settling in Palestine.
Despite Arab opposition, a flood of
150,000 Jewish immigrants
entered Palestine from 1931 to 1935. 21 While the Jewish
community
was trying to persuade the British to allow increased Jewish
immigration, the Arabs were threatening to cut off access to
Middle
Eastern oil supplies if immigration was increased. 22 However,
when
European Jews needed the refuge of immigration the most, it was
cut
off from them. The ominous year was 1939.
On May 17, 1939, the British government
of Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain issued a paper known as the "MacDonald White
Paper"
(after Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, which cut the
immigration of Jews to Palestine almost to nothing. 23
The 1939 White Paper specified three
guidelines for Palestine:
(1)
Jewish immigration would be slowed, then halted;
(2)
Jews would only be allowed to buy land in areas where they
were already the majority population;
(3)
Britain would support an independent Palestinian state,
controlled by the Arabs, after the war.
Winston Churchill called it a
"gross breach of faith." 24 It was
the virtual surrender to the demands of Arab terrorists. Yet the
Grand Mufti even rejected this paper, demanding "the
immediate
setting up of an independent Arab state in Palestine and no
further
Jewish immigration." 25
What happened to the Balfour agreement?
It fell victim to the
Chamberlain government's policies of
"appeasement." Just as
Czechoslavakia was offered to appease the führer in Europe, so
the
Balfour guarantee was sacrificed to stroke the Mufti in
Palestine.
This restrictive British policy appears
to have received an
immediate frown from heaven. Four months after issuing this White
Paper (May 1939), Britain was reluctantly drawn into World War II
(September 1, 1939).
One year later Chamberlain was forced to
resign when Germany
invaded Norway and threatened the British Isles. Nevertheless,
the
Chamberlain policy on immigration continued throughout the war.
Although thousands did escape Hitler's clutches, they were halted
as
they approached Palestine. Many were turned back at gunpoint when
coming ashore; many more died at sea. 26
ADOLF HITLER AND WORD WAR II
As the Second World War erupted, Jewish
emigration to Palestine came to a virtual halt. Visas from Europe were cut
off by Adolf
Hitler and entrance into Palestine was shut off by the British.
27
Adolf Hitler had a demonic desire to
destroy and eliminate the
Jewish people from existence. His desire could be seen in five
progressive stages. 28
1)
The first stage began immediately when he took office and
purposed to destroy all Jewish businesses in Germany.
2)
The second stage came in 1935 when the Nuremburg laws were
passed, depriving all Jews of citizenship.
3)
The third stage began with a mass arrest of Jews in
September 1939 at the outbreak of war. Jews were put in
concentration camps and required to wear the "Badge of
Shame" (Yellow Star of David) to distinguish them from
non-Jews. For those still allowed to migrate, the ransom
price was surrender of all possessions. By 1939, only
200,000 of the 500,000 Jews living in Germany six years
earlier still remained.
4)
The fourth stage came in 1940 when all Jews were
incarcerated in concentration camps. This roundup was later
extended to all parts of German-occupied Europe. Nazis
hauled Jews in from Austria, Czechoslavakia, Hungary,
Poland, Rumania, France, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium,
Northern Italy, Yugoslavia, Denmark, and Norway, with only several outstanding exceptions.
5)
The fifth and final stage of this madness was called the
"final solution" and was initiated by Nazi leadership
in
1942. The purpose of the concentration camps changed from
detention to extermination, and murder became a full-time
German occupation. 29
The main death camps were located in
Germany, Poland, Austria,
and Czechoslovakia. The memorial at Yad Vashem has listed
twenty-two
of the largest camps, names known in infamy: Auschwitz,
Buchenwald,
Dachau, Mauthausen, and Treblinka. The largest was Auschwitz in
Poland where over three million were murdered. 30
So, important was this carnage to Nazi
leaders that it was given
an even higher priority than that of the war effort itself. 31
Although the Nazi cause was clearly lost in early 1945, the gas
chambers and furnaces were kept running full blast. As
Finkelstein
remarks, "The actual annihilation of the Jewish population
was one of
the main ideological and military objectives of the German
Nazified
war machine. And this objective was to a large extent
achieved." 32
The following figures on Jewish
casualties during the Holocaust
have been taken and are compiled by Judaica Encyclopedia.
DISTRIBUTION OF JEWISH VICTIMS
OF THE HOLOCAUST
Austria 65,000
Hungary 402,000
Belgium 24,000
Italy 7,500
Czechoslavakia 277,000
Luxembourg 700
France 83,000
Norway 760
Germany 125,000
Poland-Soviet 4,565,000
Greece 65,000
Rumania 40,000
Holland 106,000
Yugoslavia 60,000
------------
Total Jewish Victims 5,820,000
WORLD OUTRAGE DEMANDS A ZIONIST STATE
When international teams of
investigators confirmed the horrors
of the Holocaust, most of the Western world agreed that immediate
measures should be taken to open the door to Palestine. Even the
British Labour Party agreed. 33 With "regard to the
unspeakable
horrors that have been perpetrated upon the Jews in Germany and
other
occupied countries in Europe," it said, "it is morally
wrong and
politically indefensible to impose obstacles to the entry into
Palestine now of Jews who desire to go there." 34 It
furthermore
proposed that the Americans, Soviet, and British governments
should
"see whether we cannot get that common support for a policy
which
will give us a happy, free, and a prosperous State in
Palestine." 35
(End Part 1 of 3)
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