Chapter 6: The promised land

Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord Jehovah to these bones: Behold, I will cause my Spirit to enter into you, and you shall live! And you will know that I am the Lord^.58

The prophets had foretold that when the Jews returned to form a nation, their despair would be immense. But I will look to the Lord, I will put my hope in the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, for if I have fallen, I will rise again; if I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. I will bear the LORD’s wrath, because I have sinned against him, until he defends my cause and makes me right. He will lead me to the light, and I will behold his justice. My enemy will see it and be covered with shame, she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will rejoice at the sight of him^.59

The term Jewish National Home in Palestine is on every Displaced Persons’ lips, but above all it’s embedded in every heart. It’s the Promised Land, Eretz Israel, the dream of every Jew. It’s the Paschal prayer that comes true: Next year in Jerusalem.

All Zionist movements are doing everything in their political and military power to bring their co-religionists to the Land of Israel.

Allied camps

The British took a dim view of the invasion of Palestine, and were indisposed by Arab reactions. The Americans dithered over the number of Displaced Persons to welcome on their immense territory; 15,000 was the maximum. The French realize that many Jews are coming to settle in their country. They had to act. They set up internment camps with barbed wire and wooden huts in Marseille, identical to the German camps, for Jews returning to France.

When a ship carrying illegal immigrants is boarded by the British, it is escorted to the island of Cyprus. Huge internment camps were also built there. One of them housed 65,000 Jews. The Jewish authorities were outraged, and put pressure on the Allied authorities to find a humanitarian and dignified solution.

But the political procrastination of international bodies outraged people on the ground. Jewish fighting movements feared new massacres and began to fight actively for the salvation of their people. These fighting groups are called Stern, Haganah, Irgun and Palmah.

Often at night, boats docked near the camps, loaded some of the refugees and disappeared into the night. The British are reluctant to react, as they know where their detainees are coming from.

The Arab opposition

1946 In the Middle East, tempers flared. The Arabs demand an end to Jewish immigration. They do not have the means to intervene to stop the flow of European Jews. They demand a firmer stance from the British. To intimidate Great Britain and put pressure on the Allies, they banded together.

The Arab League is made up of seven nations from the Near and Middle East, whose aim is to defend Arab interests and oppose Jewish immigration.

As soon as Germany was crushed, the Nazi Muslim troops returned to Transjordan and Iraq.

Nazi papers reveal that the Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler’s friend and ear in the Middle East. He was also the leader of the Arab troops in Transjordan. In 1943, he had asked Hitler, after the cleansing of Europe, not to forget the Jews of Palestine.

Attack of July 22, 1946. The bomb attack on the King David Hotel was carried out by the Jewish extremist organization Irgun and killed 91 people. It was aimed at the British authorities, whose offices were located in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Their aim was to get the Mandatory Power of Palestine to stop opposing Jewish immigration.

The Palestinian state

Arrested for complicity with the Nazis, Mufti Amin Al Husseini managed to escape to Egypt, where he requested political asylum. It was from Cairo that, on October 6, 1946, he called for a state for Palestine, with a democratically elected government of which he would be the first president. It was the first time in world history that the notion of a Palestinian people was mentioned. The political father of the Palestinians was a friend of Hitler, an unconditional admirer of Nazism and a loyal collaborator of the Wehrmacht!

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood found the ideal objective and joined the fight unconditionally. The aim is to destroy the Jews, Western influences and Christian civilization. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1924, the Muslim Brotherhood’s aim is to create an international caliphate with global reach.

On December 7, the illegal immigration ship Rafah with 785 passengers, survivors of the Holocaust, ran aground on the Greek island of Syrna. As soon as the distress signal was received, a British warship left the port of Haifa to rescue the unfortunate passengers. Eight people lost their lives, and the survivors were taken ashore on Cyprus, where there were numerous internment camps. International indignation. Why, after so much suffering, not allow them to immigrate to Erets Israel?

Nazi advisors

1947 | In Europe, the Allies track down Nazi leaders. The latter flee to other horizons where they should not be bothered for their criminal actions. Many of them head for South America, always incognito and with false papers. The Jewish agencies hunting down Gestapo leaders were disappointed to note that the Catholic Church was sending a large number of high dignitaries to Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

The rallying point for the many senior Nazi and Catholic officers was in Italy, at the very seat of the Roman Church. Austria’s Bishop Alois Hudal himself organizes the escape of his brother war criminals.

Some of the SS enjoyed their task of eradicating the Jews too much. They chose to travel to Arab countries. Sheikhs and sultans offered protection, salaries and even wives to these experienced military advisors. SS officers such as Obersturmführer Aloïs Brunner, with papers in the name of Georg Fischer, Franz Stangel, in charge of Aktion T4 (code for the gassing of disabled people) and Walter Rauff, who designed the buses used to gas the Jews. They all make a new life for themselves in Damascus. They become spies and advisors to the Assad government. SS Obersturmführer Aloïs Brunner remained there until his death in 1997-1998.

Other SS Sturmführer are engaged in Lebanon, in Beirut. In Jordan, SS men and a British officer, the notorious Lieutenant-Colonel John Glubb Pasha, collaborated to form a large army against Israel. The sad sire took charge of the Transjordanian Arab Legion. John Glubb Pasha developed the unit into a modern, disciplined armed force, considered by the end of the Second World War to be the best Arab army in the Middle East.

Incursions by mercenaries or Nazis

The situation became tense when atrocities were committed against Jews near Beersheba. According to a report by Teddy Eytan, a French officer in Palestine, over 200 Jews were killed. Swastikas were painted in blood on several bodies. Several of the dying were emasculated alive, their severed organs stuffed into their mouths.

When the Zionist self-defense troops from the Negev arrived on the scene, some of the men were still dying. The sight of this horror drives these Jewish soldiers mad, and they go after the perpetrators of this barbarity. … They discover them at the end of the night, some drunk, others asleep. The Zionists decide to execute them all. Before being shot, many of them pleaded for mercy in German, while others referred to the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.⁶⁰

The Jews now know that the Arabs are being advised by Nazis, the same ones who failed to eliminate them in the Shoah camps! These criminals are now on the side of the Arabs. This is unforgivable and galvanizes Israelis from north to south and east to west. Better to die fighting than to fall alive into their hands. That’s the motto. All the hatred and suffering of the past has resurfaced. But with the difference that now they have weapons and are determined to use them, men, women, young and old.

Immigration

The aim of immigration was to bring as many Jews as possible to the Promised Land as quickly as possible. The war-weary Allies wanted to avoid new conflicts. They were sensitive to the demands of the Arab League to prohibit the arrival of new immigrants. The Arabs propose a place for Jews in Africa. Namibia and Uganda are two proposed destinations. All international Jewish organizations are seeing red! If a country welcoming Jews is to be realized, it is exclusively in the Near East, the Promised Land, Eretz Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital.

With illegal immigration on the increase, the ships were hastily fitted out to accommodate 700 to 1,000 people. No meals, just two liters of water per person per day. Not a single Jew was reluctant to come on board. Better that than to rot in a camp or in Africa.

The British navy fires on boats full of immigrants, intercepting them just outside the gates of the Promised Land. More than 2,000 men, women and children, almost all concentration camp survivors, drown within sight of Eretz Israel. An international scandal! Under pressure from Western countries, the new UN international society had to act.

Jerusalem became a large city with 110,000 inhabitants: 70,000 Jews, 12,000 Christians and 28,000 Arabs, according to British army figures. Tensions were palpable. But the inhabitants of the Jewish National Home worked day and night to welcome, feed and house the new arrivals.

Exodus

A liner is to load 4,500 camp survivors. The British will prevent the Exodus passengers from disembarking in Haifa. The standoff lasted over a hundred days. Finally, the passengers are forcibly disembarked in Hamburg, Germany, and sent back to the camps. The world was shocked by the actions of the British Labour government. This showdown would prove fatal to Her Majesty’s policy. Thanks to the media effort, the whole world knows, and is not prepared to leave the Jews to their fate. Exodus, the book and the film are explicit about the situation^.61

After the destruction and violence of the fighting in Europe, we need to find a realistic solution for the survivors of the Shoah, giving them a sign not just of hope, but of life. They must be able to receive food, rebuild their lives and embark on plans for the future.

No nation will ever do more to welcome its own sick and wounded than the Jews themselves. They demonstrate this daily in Haifa, Tel Aviv, when boats full of unfortunate survivors of the Shoah dock.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

A rumor is spreading in Jerusalem’s Old City. Ancient manuscripts from desert caves are for sale in the souks. Jewish scholars and intellectuals are looking to buy them before they are shipped abroad.

It’s a young Arab shepherd who, while searching for a lost sheep in a cave, discovers jars with manuscripts near Qumran, between Jericho and the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea Scrolls were to become the most important treasure of the nation of Israel. Another prophecy was fulfilled: I will give you hidden treasures, buried riches, so that you may know that I am the Eternal One, who calls you by your name, the God of Israel^.62 These ancient texts, copies of the Old Testament dating from around two to three centuries BC, attracted scholars from all over the world. A huge part of the Museum of Israel is devoted to them.

The discovery of the book of Isaiah in one piece, from the^1st to the ^66th chapter, is the most important document. It puts an end to the controversy surrounding chapter 53. Critics of biblical authority had claimed that the text had been introduced into the Book of Isaiah after Christ’s crucifixion. The Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate that God watches over his Word. By anticipation, 2000 years in advance, the Eternal knew the arguments of the detractors of the Holy Scriptures and put in place the necessary evidence to destroy their theoretical and atheistic speculations. Extraordinary coincidence or divine planning, this discovery took place during the rebirth of the Jewish State, the State of Israel: …so that it may be known from the rising sun to the setting sun that apart from me there is no God: I am the Eternal, and there is no other… Who foretold these things from the beginning, and long ago announced them? Am I not the Lord? There is no other God but me. I am the only just and saving God.⁶³

Sharing Palestine

What does the future hold for this population of Arab Muslims, Jews and Christian pilgrims? For the politicians, it’s up to the nations to find a just solution. In opposition to the Jewish authorities accepting to receive the Displaced Persons in Canaan, the fierce protest of the Arab League leaders offends the UN diplomats in charge of the dossier.

Weren’t the Arabs and Muslim Brotherhood on the side of the Nazis throughout the Second World War? Why are their demands being taken into consideration? The UN decides to divide the territory of Palestine. The proposal was accepted by the Jews, rejected by the Arabs.

Israel recognized internationally

On November 29, 1947, the majority of countries forming the UN passed Resolution 181, declaring that the Jewish people deserved a national and sovereign home in their ancient land, and had every right to determine their own destiny. To resolve the question of territory, the partition of Palestine was decided, with 33 in favor, 13 opposed and 10 abstentions. Israel exists, the Jews have a nation, immigration is authorized!

For many Jews and Christians that day, the prophecy of Isaiah 66.8 was fulfilled: Who has ever heard such a thing? Who has ever seen anything like it? Can a country be born in a day? Can a nation be born all at once? Let’s not forget the 90-year pregnancy since the first aliyah (ascent to Jerusalem) in 1857, the disappointments, the spirit of sacrifice and the courage of the first pioneers. The country came into being thanks to the conviction that the God of Israel was at work, thanks to prayer, thanks to political commitment and military action. Each and every Jew concretely enlisted for the realization of the country. Rejoice with Jerusalem, make her the subject of your gladness, all you who love her. Express your joy with her, all you who mourned over her^.64

For them and many Christians, Ezekiel’s biblical prophecy is being fulfilled: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he carried me by his Spirit, and set me down in the midst, in a valley filled with bones. He led me past them, and behold, they were completely dry. … He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause my Spirit to enter into you, and ye shall live. And you will know that I am the Lord. … He said to me: Son of man, these bones are the house of Israel. Behold, they say our bones are dry, our hope is destroyed, we are lost! Prophesy therefore and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves, O my people, and bring you back to the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you out of your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you and you will live; I will restore you to your land, and you will know that I the Lord have spoken and acted, says the Lord. ⁶⁵

Never in history have mass graves been as large as those of the Holocaust, with up to 18,000 bodies per excavation. As for the survivors, they were adults so starved that some weighed no more than 27 kilos. These bones came back to life and returned to the Promised Land. Who does such things, foretold 2800 years before, if not the great God of Israel?

The prophecy is incredibly precise: the Eternal One will bring back the Jews from all nations: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone, and will gather them from all sides and bring them back to their own land, to the mountains of Israel, which have long been desolate^.66 To rebuild on the ruins means that the land had been abandoned for years, even centuries. Yet is there a single people, among the many civilizations the earth has known, who have returned after centuries of wandering to the land of their ancestors? Only one: the Jews of Israel.

This had never happened before. Jews from over 60 countries around the world are leaving their homeland to form the nation of Israel, on the land of Canaan, Eretz Israel. This is unique in the history of our planet.

Defending

The borders of the new Jewish nation are indefensible. The Arab League delegation has announced that it will not accept the verdict of the nations. War is therefore inevitable. A matter of days, possibly months. With the guns of the time, the country could be split into three by the Arab nations. 78% of the country’s surface was within range of enemy artillery fire. Jewish officers who had fought on the European fronts wanted a defensible country, in which the civilian population felt safe.

1948 | Faced with numerous incursions by Arab activists, the British army reacted very weakly. The British wanted to save their skins and, above all, their face in the face of the new coalition of Muslim countries, the Arab League. Relying on the support of His Majesty’s forces was absurd for the Jews, who had to arm themselves to defend themselves. However, the British forbade any arms transport. Tensions were running high.

New immigrants arrive and everyone has to be fed. The effort put in by the kibbutzes and Israelites of Canaan is immeasurable. The population doubled, food became scarce and everyone gave their all. The thousands of new arrivals often need care and rest. They need shelter, a house to stay in. Builders were hard at work.

Day and night, Jews had to stand guard and sometimes defend themselves. Attacks by hostile armed groups are frequent. Terrorist acts punctuate life, and violence takes over. Massacres take place on both sides. The Arabs want to eliminate the Jews, and the latter are determined to resist. What’s more, they want land to make the country viable and protectable. It’s all about gaining ground up to defensible natural borders.

Displaced Person

Between 1945 and 1948, Eretz Israel’s 650,000 Jews welcomed 360,000 Holocaust survivors or DPs. Displaced Person Jews:

As well as DPs from many other countries …

Never before in human history have so many people been displaced. But all the Jews of Israel want to offer their brothers and sisters from the hell of the camps a home, food and the security of a state governed by the rule of law.

And you will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you out of your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you and you will live; I will restore you to your land, and you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and acted, says the LORD^.65