As World War II still raged, thoughtful men and women were thinking about the radically realigned postwar world soon to come. There was special focus on the world’s Jews and a possible homeland for them.
In April of 1943, a relatively obscure US Senator from Missouri drew a direct link between that problem and the United States. “Today — not tomorrow — we must do all that is humanly possible to provide a haven and place of safety for all those who can be grasped from the hands of the Nazi butchers.” He added, “This is not a Jewish problem. It is an American problem — and we must and we will face it squarely and honorably.”
Two years later, that Senator — Harry S. Truman — would take over as President of the United States. His presidency was marked by major events and major decisions. Those included the end of World War II, history’s only use of atomic weapons in war, the formation of the United Nations, and the beginning of the Cold War. But from a biblical perspective, the biggest had to do with his old commitment “to provide a haven and place of safety” for the Jewish people.
Isaiah 66:8 speaks of a nation being born in a day. In retrospect, we can see that as a direct reference to the birth of modern Israel on May 14, 1948. Life Magazine described it. “In the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ended nearly 2,000 years of Jewish longing for a homeland with a great blow of his fist upon the speakers’ table. ‘The name of our state shall be Israel,’ he intoned, and a new nation was born.”
Just eleven minutes after the nation’s rebirth, President Harry Truman became the first world leader to officially recognize it. Truman later said, “I had faith in Israel even before it was established. I knew it was based on the love of freedom, which has been the guiding star of the Jewish people since the days of Moses.”
This began an extraordinary relationship between the United States and Israel. Not coincidentally, the US then entered an era of prosperity unprecedented in world history. When God first told Abraham about the land, He also said in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
But today, Republicans and Democrats are openly questioning the special relationship between Israel and the United States. Some question US aid to Israel, not understanding that Israel is a strategic outpost of democracy in the Middle East. Help for Israel is help for us. For instance, in 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. In 1991, US forces would face Iraq on the battlefield. Because of Israel’s intervention ten years before, the US did not face a nuclear Iraq.
Deuteronomy 11:12 calls Israel “a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it.”
Zechariah 2:8 says that whoever touches Israel, touches the apple of God’s eye. It is crucial that Americans continue to stand with Israel.
