No people have ever been as plagued, pursued, pressured, and persecuted throughout history than the Jewish people. Many attempts at annihilation have been made, dating all the way back to Pharaoh in Egypt, but none have succeeded. That is because God has made an eternal promise which can never be broken. The Jewish people will always exist. The nation of Israel is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. No scheme of man or human decree can undo what God has promised. The miraculous rebirth of the Jewish state is the greatest miracle of the modern age.

On May 14, 1948, the day on which the British Mandate expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation declaring establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, to be known as the State of Israel. In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arabs stated publicly that various Arab Governments were “compelled to intervene for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in Palestine.”

That same day, Arab regular army forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq joined smaller units from Saudi Arabia and Yemen to fight against the Jewish forces. They were in many cases trained and equipped by the British. Very few countries would have anything to do with support of Israel. One of the few that sold military equipment to the fledgling state was Czechoslovakia. Though they were fighting with antiquated equipment and often against superior numerical opponents, the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces were fighting for more than their lives…they were fighting for their homeland and their people.

The rebirth of Israel was far more than just an unprecedented political event. It was also a long-prophesied spiritual event. More than 2,000 years before Israel was reborn, God came and spoke to the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel found himself standing before a valley filled with dry bones…human bones…As the prophet gazed upon the scene, God asked him if these bones could live…to which Ezekiel wisely replied, “O Lord God, YOU know!” What happened then must have been quite a sight to behold.

God told Ezekiel this vision was the future of the House of Israel. Just as these dry, dead bones had been restored to life, so Israel would be restored. God would bring the children of Israel from among the nations in which they had been scattered. He would gather them from the four corners of the earth and restore them into their own land. He did exactly as He promised. Though century after century passed and the cause seemed hopeless, the dream refused to die—both in the hearts of Jewish people and in Bible-believers who understood the prophetic Scriptures.

And when the time was right in May of 1948, the nation of Israel was “born in a day” just as God’s Word had foretold. This month we celebrate Israel’s 78^th birthday and renew our commitment to stand with and for the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  We are currently in the Jewish year 5786, now more than 78 years since the greatest miracle in modern times, the rebirth of the Jewish state.  The “dry bones” came back to life, just as God had told the prophet Ezekiel they would thousands of years before.  Here is a look back at how this great miracle took place and the cost of seeing Israel become reality.

No people have ever been as plagued, pursued, pressured, and persecuted throughout history as the Jewish people. Many attempts at annihilation have been made, dating all the way back to Pharaoh in Egypt, but none have succeeded. That is because God has made an eternal promise which can never be broken. The Jewish people will always exist. The nation of Israel is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. No scheme of man or human decree can undo what God has promised.

The Jewish people were conquered and scattered again and again—by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans, who took Israel captive. Following the destruction of the Temple and one final revolt, the Romans dispersed the Jewish people throughout their empire and forbade them from living in the land of their ancestors. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people roamed the earth with no place to call home. They were discriminated against, persecuted, faced the Inquisition and the pogroms. But all those pale compared to the horror of the Holocaust.

During World War II, Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler, declared the Jews were not the Chosen People, that the Aryan race was. He determined to resolve what he called the “Jewish problem,” and disseminated the belief that the Jewish people were responsible for anarchy, dishonesty, and the ruin of civilization, government, and finance. History reveals that Adolf Hitler and his “Final Solution” were responsible for the deaths of six million Jewish men, women, and children while the world turned a blind eye to his determination to destroy. This “hide your head in the sand” attitude allowed Hitler room to carry out his plan for mass murder. When the war ended, the tragedy they had suffered made it clear to the world that the Jewish people needed a homeland—a place where they could live and defend themselves. And so the process of establishing a new state of Israel began.

The Rebirth of Israel

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, Great Britain took control of the ancient land of Israel and most of the surrounding countries. Under what was known as Mandatory Palestine, the British governed the land.  Despite the earlier declaration by Lord Balfour that the British government supported the creation of a Jewish state, no serious steps were taken to bring that to pass.  Despite that failure, Jewish people from around the world began moving to Israel.

By 1931, seventeen percent of the population of Mandatory Palestine was Jewish, an increase of six percent since 1922.  Immigration would soon peak after the Nazis rose to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population in British Palestine to double.

In the mid-1930s, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived from Syria and established the Black Hand, an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant organization.  He recruited and arranged military training for peasants.  By 1935, al-Qassam had enlisted several hundred men.  The cells were equipped with bombs and firearms used to kill Jewish settlers in the area, as well as engaging in a campaign of vandalism aimed at Jewish settler plantations.  By 1936, escalating tensions led to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

In response to Arab pressure, British authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Those restrictions remained until the end of the Mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and attempts by Jewish refugees to escape Hitler’s Europe.  As a consequence, the majority of Jewish entrants to Palestine were considered to be illegal, further increasing tension.

Though the Allies succeeded in defeating Germany in World War II, the long years of fighting took a heavy toll on the British government.  The famed empire on which “the sun never sets” was strained to the breaking point.  The last thing England wanted was another round of fighting in the Middle East.  Having determined that appeasing the Arab governments was more important than anything else, they actively worked to prevent further Jewish immigration to Israel.

In March of 1947, the Exodus set sail for Israel.  Aboard was a Christian Zionist Methodist minister, John Stanley Grauel.  He was closely connected with the Haganah but was there on the ship ostensibly as an undercover correspondent for the Churchman, an Episcopal journal. With that designation, he secured a visa from the British Consulate in Paris, enabling him to legally enter Palestine.  His assignment was to make certain the world knew of the events surrounding the ship.

Once he had arrived in Europe, Grauel’s job was to arrange for the transfer of refugees from displaced persons camps to the Exodus.  His tasks were many and varied—cook, distributor of supplies,  administrator, and contact person between the refugees and the crew.  The ship steamed toward Palestine with more than 4,550 refugees packed aboard. Just as she neared Haifa on the Mediterranean coast, the ship was rammed by the British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax, in a convoy with five destroyers, and was boarded by sailors.

This was not an easy task, as the SS Exodus had been fortified with barriers and barbed wire to discourage such actions.  The British reportedly bombarded the ship with tear gas grenades in order to subdue the passengers.  Captain Ike Aronowicz and his crew challenged the boarding party.  One crew member, First Mate William Bernstein, a sailor from California, and two passengers were bludgeoned to death.

The ship that had brought such hope to so many had been attacked by the British navy a mere 17 miles offshore, in international waters. It was a wanton act of piracy, for which the Royal Navy commanders were never charged. Grauel later reported that as the Exodus staggered into the port at Haifa, those still able to stand gathered on the deck of the ship and sang “Hatikvah,” the hymn of hope.

Grauel, the only passenger onboard with a valid visa, was arrested but soon escaped with help from none other than the future mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek (who would become a very dear friend of mine years later) and the Haganah.  He was approached by a reporter, who was a member of the Jewish organization.

The unnamed reporter shepherded Grauel to the men’s room, from which he was whisked out a back door into a waiting car displaying American press credentials.  The Jews on board the Exodus were then forced to disembark in Haifa and were eventually unwillingly returned to British-controlled camps in Germany.

Grauel was summoned to Kadimah House in Jerusalem to give a first-hand account of his experiences during the voyage with the refugees to the United Nations Committee on Palestine.  As he stood before that group, he leveled his heartfelt accusations regarding the treatment of the Jewish passengers on the Exodus.  He later said of his testimony: “There was great gratification for me in knowing that my eyewitness report was now a matter of record.  Inherent in the nature of the relationship between Christians and Jews was the fact that because I was a Christian, in this situation my testimony would be given greater credence than that of a Jewish crew member.”

Grauel’s witness proved to be an effective means of gaining compassion and support for the Jewish cause.  His eloquent speech to the UNSCOP later earned him the moniker of “the man who helped make Israel possible.” Prime Minister Golda Meir believed it was Grauel’s recounting of the events surrounding the Exodus that persuaded the UN to support the creation of a Jewish state.

After five weeks of study in Palestine, the UNSCOP group returned to the General Assembly in September 1947 with a report containing both a majority and a minority plan.  The majority proposed a Plan of Partition with Economic Union; the minority proposed an Independent State of Palestine.  With only slight modifications, the Plan of Economic Union was recommended and came up for a vote on November 29, 1947.

The vote was contentious, and the outcome was far from certain.  Supporters of a new Jewish state, including U.S. President Harry Truman, used every diplomatic tool available to encourage nations that were on the fence to vote for the resolution and to encourage those that would not vote for the plan to abstain from voting.  When the vote was held, the Resolution carried by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions and the groundwork for the rebirth of Israel was laid.

As expected, the Arab states, which constituted the Arab League, that had voted against the resolution refused to accept it.  It was clear to everyone that war would follow.  At the time, Arab and Jewish Palestinians fought openly to control strategic positions in the region.  In the weeks prior to the end of the Mandate, the Haganah (the clandestine military wing of the Jewish leadership that became the basis for the Israeli Defense Force) launched a number of offensives to gain control over all the territory allocated to the Jewish state by the UN, capturing the towns of Tiberias, Haifa, Safad, Beisan and, in effect, Jaffa.

Early in 1948, the United Kingdom announced it would terminate the Mandate in Palestine ahead of schedule—on May 14.  In response, President Harry S Truman proposed UN trusteeship rather than partition, stating that “unfortunately, it has become clear that the partition plan cannot be carried out at this time by peaceful means.”  Further, he commented that “…unless emergency action is taken, there will be no public authority in Palestine on that date capable of preserving law and order.  Violence and bloodshed will descend upon the Holy Land.  Large-scale fighting among the people of that country will be the inevitable result.”

On May 14, 1948, the day on which the British Mandate expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation declaring the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, to be known as the State of Israel.  In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arabs stated publicly that various Arab governments were “compelled to intervene for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in Palestine.”

That same day, Arab regular army forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq joined smaller units from Saudi Arabia and Yemen to fight against the Jewish forces.  They were in many cases, trained and equipped by the British.  Very few countries would have anything to do with support of Israel.  One of the few that sold military equipment to the fledgling state was Czechoslovakia.  Though they were fighting with antiquated equipment and often against superior numerical opponents, the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces were fighting for more than their lives; they were fighting for their homeland and their people.

In addition, the fledgling Israeli army was strengthened by thousands of volunteers from around the world, many of them Christians who joined the fight, often against the wishes of their own governments. These men, known in Israel as the Machal (Volunteers from Outside the Land of Israel) risked and, in many cases, gave their lives so that the Jewish state could live.  Most of these volunteers were veterans of the Second World War, and their assistance and experience were invaluable to the Jewish forces.

When the war broke out, many intelligence experts, including the CIA and the British Foreign Ministry, expected that the Arabs would eventually win.  But such evaluations did not take into account either the spirit of the IDF or the divine blessing that strengthened their hands for war.  That initial campaign lasted nearly a year with Israel emerging victorious, but at a very high price.

By December 1948, Israel controlled most of that portion of the Mandate including Palestine west of the Jordan River.  The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that today is called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip, now controlled by the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organization, Hamas. Prior to and during this conflict, 713,000 Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees due, in part, to a promise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when the war had been won.  The war came to an end with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbors.

The rebirth of Israel was far more than just an unprecedented political event.  It was also a long-prophesied spiritual event.  More than 2,000 years before Israel was reborn, God came and spoke to the prophet Ezekiel.  Ezekiel found himself standing before a valley filled with dry bones…human bones.  As the prophet  gazed upon the scene, God asked him if these bones could live, to which Ezekiel wisely replied, “O Lord God, YOU know!” (Ezekiel 37:3).  What happened then must have been quite a sight to behold.

God told Ezekiel to speak to the bones and command them to live.  The prophet wrote: “So I prophesied as I was commanded.  And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.  I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them…Then He said to me, ‘…These are the people of Israel…My people.  I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel’” (Ezekiel 37:7-12).

God told Ezekiel this vision was the future of the House of Israel.  Just as these dry, dead bones had been restored to life, so Israel would be restored.  God would bring the children of Israel from among the nations in which they had been scattered.  He would gather them from the four corners of the earth and restore them to their own land.  He did exactly as He promised.  Though century after century passed and the cause seemed hopeless, the dream refused to die, both in the hearts of Jewish people and in Bible-believers who understood the prophetic Scriptures. 

And when the time was right—in May of 1948—the nation of Israel was “born in a day,” just as God’s Word had foretold. 

The greatest uprising since the Iranian Revolution of January 1979 is happening right now. It looks like a scene from the movie Braveheart, when Scotland cried “Freedom” during the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward of England, led by Sir William Wallace.

Evangelical Bible believers see it as a battle between principalities and powers. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

They see a similar battle that happened in Persia during Daniel’s day in the Bible, against a demon spirit called the Prince of Persia, described in the Book of Daniel, chapter 10, a demonic spiritual force opposing God’s purpose. It was a cosmic battle of spiritual warfare in which the angel Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, battled demonic forces.

Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran, held my book, Jimmy Carter, the Liberal Left, and World Chaos, in her hands in her home in Georgetown twenty-six years ago. The book documented president Jimmy Carter’s plan to overthrow the Shah of Iran.

She said, “It is absolutely true what you’ve written. He came to Tehran on New Year’s 1977 and told the King, ‘You will release political prisoners, give freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and you will allow Khomeini to come back. If you don’t, you will not get replacement parts for your helicopters and planes. I have the authority to do this under a human rights provision.’”

“When he left, my husband said, ‘If I agree, the Russians will invade Afghanistan, Iraq will attack Iran, an Islamic Revolution will be born in Iran, and who knows what horror will come upon the earth.’” She said, “Carter believed that Khomeini would be great for human rights because he was a cleric and could become a Gandhi-like figure.”

The day before my meeting with Farah Pahlavi, I met in the home of General Robert Huyser, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of European Command and Jimmy Carter’s special emissary to Iran. He told me he was sent to Tehran to foment a military coup. Huyser’s job was to inform the generals that Carter was in favor of democracy in Iran and to persuade the military leaders to remain in Iran and work with the United States, assuring them that the US would protect them.

Huyser, with tears running down his face, told me in his home, “They all died because of me. They could have saved the country from the revolution, but Carter would not let them. They died believing in us.” Of the eighty top generals, more than seventy were tortured and executed, along with hundreds of lower-ranking officers. Almost seventy-five percent of the senior officers were killed.

‘Carter had abandoned an ally’

I flew to France and met with President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. He told me something similar. “President Carter called for a meeting on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean with the leaders of Britain, France, and West Germany. The United States had decided not to support the regime of the Shah and was working to overthrow him.” He said “Carter had abandoned an ally.”

Khomeini became the VIP darling of the Western media. France had become a command center for the launch of the Islamic Revolution. Khomeini gave over one hundred media interviews during his four-month stay in Neauphle-le-Château, France, and hosted over one thousand Iranian visitors a day. Two of Khomeini’s visitors were Farouk Kaddoumi, PLO department head, and a Libyan representative of Muammar al-Qaddafi.

His compound was surrounded by representatives of covert agencies from the major powers: the CIA, British MI6, Russian KGB, and the French intelligence organization SDECE. I later found out that funds were also being sent to Khomeini from the United States while he was in France to help him overthrow the Shah.

On September 23, 1980, I was in the home of Isser Harel, founder of Israeli intelligence Mossad, in Tel Aviv. I asked him three questions. First: “Do you think Jimmy Carter will win the election against Ronald Reagan?” Carter was ahead in the polls. Harel said, “The Iranians will have something to say about that. When Ronald Reagan puts his hand on the Bible, the hostages will be released.”

I then asked him what would happen to Sadat. He said, “We have saved his life several times, but at an opportune time, the Muslim Brotherhood will kill him.”

My third question was whether terrorism would ever come to America. He said, “The terrorists have the power but not the will. You have the will but not the power. All of that can change in time. You kill a fly and rejoice. We kill one, and a hundred come to the funeral. Your first terrorist attack will be in New York City, your tallest building.”

The deadlock between the United States and Iran seemed insurmountable until January 15, 1981. Just days before Carter was to leave office, Iran agreed to the terms. US bank officials worked marathon sessions. New documents were drawn up, and the Bank of England was approved as the repository of the escrow funds. Shortly after 4:00 a.m. on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, the Carter administration relinquished $7.977 billion to the Iranians. The transfer required fourteen banks and the participation of five nations acting concurrently.

As I watched Ronald Reagan place his hand on the Bible to be sworn in, a news flash announced that the hostages were being released. My phone rang. It was the senior advisor to Prime Minister Begin, Dr. Reuben Hecht, who had been in the meeting with me and Isser Harel. He said, “Harel is a prophet. It’s happening exactly as he said.”

Mike Evans is a New York Times #1 bestselling author of 119 published books and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is the founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center and recently led an initiative that brought 1,000 evangelical pastors to Israel to combat antisemitism.

She was just an ordinary girl.  Esther had no famous or well-connected relatives.  In fact, she and her people were living as a minority in a foreign land where they had been taken by a conquering enemy army; yet, today her name is synonymous with faith and courage.  The short book that bears her name tells a story of divine deliverance—a message that is very much relevant to our day when once again a plot has been hatched in Persia to destroy the Jewish people.

Esther became queen of the Persian Empire without the king or anyone in authority knowing that she was Jewish.  This was on the wise advice of her guardian Mordecai, who instructed her to hide her ancestry for the sake of her future.  Not long after Esther became queen, an evil man in a high government position named Haman, motivated by his hatred of Mordecai (who refused to bow before Haman because he would only bow before God), devised a scheme to destroy the Jewish people.

Haman presented the king with a distorted picture of God’s Chosen People.  He falsely accused them of disobeying the laws of the Persian Empire and suggested that destroying them would promote order and stability throughout the realm.  To further sweeten the deal, Haman offered to pay a large sum of money to the royal treasury to cover the expenses of exterminating the Jewish people.  The king went along with the plan, setting a date for the destruction of the Jewish exiles living in the 127 provinces that made up his kingdom.

When Mordecai received this news, he began fasting in sackcloth and ashes, along with Jewish people throughout the Persian realm.  There seemed to be no hope for them, but God was at work behind the scenes.  Mordecai sent word to Esther that the time to reveal her heritage had come and that she should use her position as queen to plead for the Jewish people to be spared.

When she pointed out that entering the king’s presence without an invitation was a capital offense, Mordecai made his famous declaration that God had put Esther where she was “for such a time as this.”  Esther courageously went before the king, and God granted her favor in his eyes, and he spared her life.

Esther asked the king and Haman to come to a private meeting.  Then she asked them to return a second time, and finally revealed to the king the evil that he had unknowingly agreed to support.  The king’s wrath was kindled against Haman, and he ordered the evil plotter to be hung on the very gallows that Haman had constructed to have Mordecai executed on—and provided the Jewish people the opportunity for self defense.  The Jewish people were spared from destruction.  Even to this day, this wonderful miracle of deliverance is celebrated as the Feast of Purim.  Esther remains a wonderful example of what we can do when we fully rely on God.

As I read this story again recently, I was struck by something that doesn’t often receive a great deal of attention.  Esther did not face her moment of crisis alone.  Here was her response:  Spiritual battles are not meant to be fought alone.  Before Esther entered the king’s presence, risking her life to plead for her people, there was a massive campaign of prayer and fasting on her behalf.  The deliverance of Israel depended on the power of God, and the people of God sought His face and His help together.  That is a perfect description of the work of the Jerusalem Prayer Team. 

In 1844, Willem ten Boom started holding a prayer meeting for the Jewish people at his home in Haarlem in the Netherlands.  His family home was also his place of business, a watch shop.  The tradition of making and repairing clocks and watches was passed on to his son Caspar.  So was the tradition of praying for God’s Chosen People.  Long before World War II began, the ten Boom family were noted for their love and generosity to the Jewish people.

When the Nazis began deporting Jews to the death camps, the ten Boom family opened their home, risking their lives to provide the famous Hiding Place.  Today that home and watch shop in the Netherlands is owned and operated as a museum by our ministry.  We are doing everything that we can to keep this vital story from being forgotten.

In 1944, the ten Boom prayer meeting came to an end when the Gestapo raided the home, arresting Caspar ten Boom, his daughters Betsie and Corrie, and his son Willem.  Because Caspar was 84 years of age, they offered to let him go if he would promise to stop helping and hiding Jewish people.  He refused, saying, “It would be the greatest honor of my life to die for God’s Chosen People.”  Two weeks later he passed away and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Betsie also died in a prison camp, but Corrie ten Boom survived Ravensbrück—released through a “clerical error” not long before all the prisoners in the camp were killed.  She traveled around the world telling the story of her family.  I had the privilege of meeting her in Texarkana many years ago.  I did not know who she was, but saw her carrying her luggage into a hotel and went across the street to help.  We shared a meal together, and I was able to tell her my family story and listen to her firsthand account of all that she endured.

Today we are carrying on in the spirit of love for the Jewish people that motivated the ten Boom family to risk and sacrifice so much.  We are continuing that 100-year prayer meeting.  The Jerusalem Prayer Team has united millions of Believers together to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the protection of Israel.  The largest prayer army in the history of the world has its headquarters at your Friends of Zion Center located just 600 meters from the Temple Mount in the Holy City.

From this place we are not just praying, but like the ten Booms did we are putting feet to our prayers.  We are delivering food to thousands of poor Holocaust survivors each week.  We are welcoming those who have suffered injury and loss in terrorist attacks to help them heal.  We are hosting elderly Holocaust survivors as they come to the Holy City, showing them Christian love in a way most of them have never experienced.  We are bringing all the members of the IDF—the Israel Defense Forces—to the Friends of Zion Museum as part of their training.

The list goes on and on.  But it is all made possible by the generous support of friends like you…Friends of Zion who are truly making a difference.  Thank you so much for being part of this vital ministry, and for all you are doing for the sake of God’s Chosen People.

”Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.” – Corrie Ten Boom