The fall of Israel

[lees1975]

139. The reality here is the religion that has affected the course of history.

I can't think of anywhere else in the world where a people group, exiled from their homeland by conquest in ancient times, have ever been restored to that homeland on top of the population that was there at the time, whose presence is also a fact of history.

The exiled Jewish population following the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 A.D. was exposed to the conditions experienced by conquered, enslaved people under Roman rule for about 300 years, until Constantine issued the Edict of Milan. Then, all during the period of time from that point until the Eastern Roman Empire fell to the Muslims, they endured the persecution at the hands of both the Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches, which pushed many of them north, into Russia and Eastern Europe, most notably Poland and Ukraine. In the west, more persecution came along after the Protestant reformation, and in Eastern Europe, the complete separation of the Hassidic dynasties from the native population kept Jewish culture and religion alive.

Ironically, the influence of the Protestant Christian church, which had been among the most harsh and cruel persecutors of Jews, turned out to be the key to the support necessary for Palestine to be opened wide to Jewish immigration following the Holocaust. So, the influence of Christian theology that had developed in Victorian England and in the United States, regarding literalist interpretations of the book of Revelation, requiring a Jewish ruled state in Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy led the world powers to press the UN into opening the territory for Jewish immigration, and the bulk of the world's Jewish population headed there, except those in places where they felt secure, such as the United States and Great Britain. This combination of Protestant Christian influence of the western poltical powers is why Israel exists today. And it's why not much forethought was given as to what might happen if this occurred at a more rapid pace than it had since Suleiman began letting them back in in the 1600's.

So the western powers established the legitimacy of the state of Israel, which, as a result, has a right to exist, and they've intervened at various levels, and backed off at other times, as the violence moves to claim politicians in the western democracies.