Page 36 - Why Israel?
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WHY ISRAEL
1917 BALFOUR DECLARATION
Since the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, Jews had been dominated by foreign rulers and treated as second-class citizens for nearly 2000 years. Then in 1917, as World War I changed the balance of power in the Middle East, the Jewish people received a miracle.
The Balfour Declaration was Israel’s first modern miracle on the path to independence and rebirth.
As Britain fought to win control of the Holy Land away from the oppressive Ottoman Empire, Jewish leaders asked Britain to support the re-estab- lishment of a national Jewish homeland. Christian Zionists within the government, includ- ing the Prime Minister and his Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, helped rally support for the Zionist cause. Finally, in 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour sent a letter to Jewish leaders pledging Britain’s commitment to establishing the Jewish state.
Balfour Declaration.
1947 UN PARTITION PLAN
By 1921, the British had partitioned the land set aside for a Jewish national home by the Mandate for Palestine into two prospective states. The partition gave 77% of the land to an Arab
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