Middle East in Prophecy - Church of God - NEO

Despite a deep-seated desire on
the part of many Arabs to unite
these separate, newly independent
Arab states into a greater unionthe
long-dreamed-of "giant Arab
Nation"-no significant progress
was made. True to their history,
the Arabs again began to go their
own way, and fell to bickering
among themselves.
The Jews a Nation Again!
Meanwhile, tensions in Palestine
continued to build.
Britain found herself caught in
the grip of rapidly escalating violence.
Unable to find a satisfactory
solution, the British government
turned the troublesome
dilemma over to the United Nations
early in 1947. After 25 hopeless
years of trying to keep peace,
the British gave up.
Later that year, a UN special
committee recommended the partitioning
of Palestine into two independent
states, one Jewish and
one Arab, with Jerusalem under
international control.
On November 29,1947, the UN
General Assembly voted to approve
the partition recommendation.
Both the United States and
the Soviet Union supported the
resolution. The plan was accepted
by the Jews, rejected by Arab leaders.
The Arabs demanded a single
state wholly under Arab rule-and
vowed a war of extermination
should any Jewish state be established.
Britain withdrew its last forces
from Palestine six months later,
on May 14, 1948. As the last
British soldiers pulled out, David
Ben-Gurion-leader of the Jewish
struggle against British powerrose
at a special session of the
Jewish National Council in the
Museum of Modern Art in Tel
Aviv and declared the independence
of the state of Israel "on
this Sabbath eve, the fifth day of
Iyar in the year 5708."
The Zionist dream of a national
home for the Jews had suddenly
come true! The Jews were once
again a nation of their own in
Palestine. Some observers called it
a "20th-century miracle."
A few hours later, however, the
fledgling Jewish state was invaded
Seeds of Strife
by neighboring Arab armies, fearful
of what they saw as "expansionist
Zionism." The Jewish population
fought back successfully.
This first Arab-Israeli war continued
into early 1949, when ceasefires
were finally concluded. The
new Jewish state's borders were
enlarged by nearly 50 percent beyond
the territory the UN had
originally allocated it.
The fledgling Jewish state had
survived. The Zionist dream of a
national home for Jews in
Palestine was at last realized.
After nearly 19 centuries of being
dispersed throughout the
world, a part of the house of Judah
had successfully forged, with
Soviet and Western help, a new
Jewish nation in Palestine.
But Jerusalem had become a divided
city. The Israelis controlled
modem west Jerusalem. The kingdom
of Jordan controlled the predominantly
Arab eastern portion
of the city-the walled "Old City"
of Jerusalem-as well as the West
Bank of the Jordan River. Israelis
were denied access to their holiest
religious site, the Western Wall
(Ha 'kotel Ha'ma'aravi) of the
Temple Mount, commonly called
the "Wailing Wall."
A second round of Arab-Israeli
war erupted in 1956, when
Britain, France and Israel allied
themselves against Egypt in an ef-
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's
first prime minister
(above, left); Jewish immigrants
from Italy come
ashore at Haifa on May
15, 1948, the first group
to reach the newly proclaimed
Jewish state
(right); Prime Minister
Ben-Gurion signs document
in Tel Aviv on May
14, 1948, proclaiming
the creation of the state
of Israel (left).
Photos: AP / Wide World
fort to regain control of the strategic
Suez Canal, which Egypt's
President Nasser had seized.
While Israeli forces overran the
Sinai, Anglo-French troops landed
at Suez. Following assurances that
the Canal would be open to Israeli
shipping, Israel withdrew its
forces to the 1949 armistice lines.
In the end, Nasser retained control
of the Canal-a major political
victory.
In 1967, a third war broke out
between Arabs and Israelis. Dur-
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