LIFE MATTERS
The Miracle Of Israel
Someone once said that if you need to find the evidence of God, all you need to do is to study Israel.
On Friday, May 14, 1948, just before the Sabbath, the State of Israel was re-born. The circumstances of Israel's re-birth after 2,000 years - was nothing short of miraculous. It all began when David Ben Gurion declared the country's independence from a small building in Tel Aviv. Just a few hours later, the United States, under President Harry Truman, became the first country to recognise this nascent nation. In the history of the world, never before has a nation been destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two thousand years later, re-gathered to their homeland and re-established as a nation, so it is correct to say that it is a miracle.
David Ben Gurion
But that is a dramatic understatement because the rebirth of Israel up to today in 2014 is a whole series of miracles.
The day after statehood was declared, Israel faced certain annihilation when the armies of seven Arab nations attacked Israel from all sides. Trained by the British and much better armed than the Israelis, the Arabs vowed to push the Jews into the sea, a reality that transformed many of the new Jewish refugees into instant soldiers Many of them got off the docks, had weapons thrust into their hands and were told, 'Welcome to Israel. You are now fighting for her survival. And by the way, yours is kind of on the line, too. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse explanation of Israel’s victory, "It was a miracle!"
Miracles In The 1948 War
A Syrian column of 200 armoured vehicles - including 45 tanks - attacked Degania, the oldest kibbutz in Israel. What a psychological blow this defeat would be! Without artillery, Jewish forces were helpless to block the Syrian advance. Until then the only heavy weapons available in all Israel were four howitzers of the type used by the French army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Two of these ancient field pieces were promptly dismantled and rushed to Degania.
Rag tag army of Israeli soldiers
The local commander, Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Dayan, had them re-assembled at the very moment the first Syrian tanks rumbled through the kibbutz perimeter, and they scored a hit on the advance tank. Had the Syrians known that these two obsolete weapons represented half the arsenal of field guns in all Israel, they would have pressed the attack. Instead, the armoured vehicles swung around in their tracks and clattered back up the mountain road.
At Safed, near the Sea of Galilee a small unit of Israeli defenders were holding off thousand Arabs. A sudden tropical storm broke loose. The Israelis in desperation took their remaining gasoline, poured it over 50 empty drums, set them afire and rolled them down the hill. The flaming barrels flying down the slopes, the rumble of hollow barrels striking rocks—together with the tropical storm—created such an illusion that the bewildered Arabs imagining some sort of secret weapon took to their heel and fled.
The Egyptians were harassing Israeli settlements in the Negev while advanced columns were moving north. Yadin used the Bible for strategy. It mentioned an ancient road forgotten for centuries, which ran almost directly to Mushrafa, the Egyptians’ central garrison. Heavy boulders were pushed aside with bulldozers. Soldiers in armoured vehicles, jeeps and supply trucks sped under cover of darkness along the ancient road and surprised the Egyptians.
Israeli soldiers launching assault on the Egyptians
Taking this garrison destroyed the Egyptian defense system and ended the war 14 days later. To liberate the airport at Lydda the tactics of Gideon were employed. Seven thousand Arab troops were ready to attack. Sixteen Israelis dressed as Arabs infiltrated into the city of Lydda. Like Gideon’s band of 300 they made such a commotion during the night that the Arabs, totally confused, fired upon each other. Finally the majority fled back across the border.
The Syrian Army had regrouped east of the Galilee. A Jewish column of 24 homemade armoured trucks and cars, on the way to relieve a besieged Kibbutz, took the wrong road and crossed the border into Lebanon. Before they discovered their mistake, they ran head-on into a column of supplies for the Syrian Army in Galilee—dozens of trucks of ammunition, a string of light artillery and 20 new armoured cars. The Israelis fired point blank at the first truck—a tanker loaded with gasoline. It exploded and set on fire the following truckload of hand grenades. Rapid repeating explosions were heard for miles around. Terrified, the Syrians abandoned their cargo. The Israelis scarcely had enough men to drive the captured supply train back into Galilee. Finally they reached the beleaguered Kibbutz, only to learn that the Arab besiegers heard rumours that the Jewish army had invaded Lebanon, therefore, the Arabs fled Israel.
The victory of the 1948 War was a big miracle composed of a series of little miracles. Why? Over 2500 years ago the prophet Isaiah made a remarkable prophecy concerning Israel regathered back in her land. "They that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought…for I will help thee." (41:12,13).
Since 1948, Yahweh God continues to divinely protect Israel through miraculous, against-all-odds, military and other victories in spectacular fashion.
Victorious Jews some still in their concentration camp
outfits
The Miracle of Immigration
Jews from the four points of the compass heard the call to come home (Isa. 43:5,6). Israel’s Declaration of Independence stated that Israel "will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion."Even as war still raged and the little State faced possible destruction or bankruptcy, the newcomers poured in. During the first three years of statehood, the average reached 18,000 a month and in some months the figure exceeded 30,000.
Falashas air-lifted to Israel
Between May 15, 1948, and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the country doubled. By the end of 1956, Israel’s population had nearly tripled, reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the economic shock of absorption!
Jews kept pouring into Israel over the decades. In 1984 - 1985 and again in 1991 harrowing airlifts brought Ethiopian Jews from utter despair to a Land of hope. Finally, the long-expected prophetic fulfilment of Jews from Russia began in 1991. By 1998 over 800,000 have returned from the former Soviet Republics (CIS) and they are still coming. Over a million are expected. Israel’s population increased from 650,000 in 1948 to nearly 6,000,000 in 1998. The miracle of absorption continues.
More miracles of Israel:
Rescue of Israeli hostages from Uganda
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