Almost 40 years ago, I wrote my first book. It was called Israel: America’s Key to Survival. It was true then, and it is true now. Israel is vital to America’s future. While this is true in the physical world, it is even more true in the spiritual world. God’s blessings and curses on nations, pronounced thousands of years ago and recorded in Genesis 12:3, are still in full effect. And it is crucial to our future that we continue to stand with and for Israel and the Jewish people.
The link between America and Israel began long before the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948. Indeed, even before there was an independent nation of America, our forefathers were strong supporters of the Jewish people. To understand the importance of our support for Israel, and the ways in which God has blessed America for that support, we must understand our true history.
In the early 1900s, Palestine was a desert wasteland in the hands of the unfriendly Turks. America held much greater promise for the displaced Jews of the world. Many came to view the U.S. as their Promised Land; they were comfortable in the U.S. and felt no need to seek peace elsewhere. This sentiment was not without repercussions, however. As many of the indigent Jews of Europe flooded to the U.S., it not so much answered what some deemed to be “the Jewish problem” but brought it to America. U.S. leaders determined the influx was too great and another answer would have to be sought.
About a century before Israel’s rebirth, the groundwork had been laid within the American conscience for its support of and relationship with the descendants of Isaac. The call had begun for America to become an international ambassador to help the Jews re-establish a land and state. Over the next century, almost every American president would be faced with the issue of being part of or ignoring prophecy stating that the people of Isaac would again have their own homeland. And events came to a head in 1948 under one of our most unlikely “accidental” presidents, Harry S Truman.
At 6:11 PM, White House Press Secretary Charlie Ross read the following statement dated May 14, 1948, approved and signed by President Harry Truman: “This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the [provisional] government thereof. The United States recognized the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new [State of Israel].”
Truman recorded his thoughts in his diary, writing: “One of the proudest days of my life occurred at [6:11] p.m. on Friday, May 14, when I was able to announce recognition of the new State of Israel by the government of the United States. In view of the long friendship of the American people for the Zionist ideal, it was particularly appropriate that our government should be the first to recognize the new state.”
