THE WHOLE of this study is intended to

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1 History Zionism* 4. Rebuilding shattered hopes Ray Walker As believers in the divine purpose, we should always be alert to the ways in which God may be working, whether on the small scale in the lives of individual believers, or on a much larger scale such as in the events which led to the regathering of His chosen people to the Land of their forefathers. In any circumstance, human failure is no barrier to the will of the Almighty being accomplished. THE WHOLE of this study is intended to show how God s hand has always been behind the regathering of Israel into their Land. Sometimes, when reading the exciting tale of how Zionism achieved its aims, through the courage and foresight and patience and tenacity of some of its leaders, this truth may be forgotten. Yet we must always realise that God works through human beings; and particular men with particular qualities can be raised up by God and prepared for a particular work through His providential guidance in moving them into particular situations. Such can then sometimes be removed from the scene when their will runs contrary to that mapped out beforehand by God s declared intentions. We saw in the previous article how that vigorous and able man, Herzl, was raised up in this way to organise the Zionist movement into a coherent force, and how he was removed when he tried to push Zionism in the wrong direction. We come now to the raising up of another man, ready to take Herzl s place as the leader of world Zionism, a man more in tune with the true aims of Zionism: Chaim Weizmann. God s work and man s work One of the principles on which God deals with men is that He builds His salvation out of man s failure. This is a basic principle which we know all about when it comes to thinking about large issues such as God s way of salvation through the sacrifice of Christ; but we often ignore it when living our day-to-day lives, as if it did not apply in the smaller sphere. 272 How often do we expect our efforts to be crowned with success, when we try to serve God, say, by preaching, or by working for Him in other ways? And how often are we grievously distressed and disappointed when our efforts meet with failure, while in some backward way God s Word bears fruit almost in spite of ourselves? Yet surely this is what we should expect, for it is a principle that man s failure is the very ground, that fertile, pliable ground of our rotting hopes, in which the seed of God s success may take root as Joseph had to learn that his diligent work for his master brought only a prison in which he seemed to be left, forgotten, to rot, before God deemed him fit to be raised up as His master over Egypt; and as a dozen and one other Scripture examples teach us. This does not mean we should follow the attractive Evangelical path and refuse to make any effort ourselves, expecting God to work for us; for without effort without, as it were, men s dashed hopes and confessed inadequacies there would be no ground in which the seed of God s purpose could work. The proper course is to work to the utmost of our abilities, and to offer the prayer that God will see fit to use our work in some way to bring increase, not to our glory, but to His. The principle of salvation by God s work through man s failure applies as much in the broader historical context as it does in the salvation of the individual. We are dealing here with the salvation of the nation of Israel; and the story of Zionism shows how God works after the same pattern with which He brings salvation to individuals. Weizmann comes to England We left the Zionist movement at a time of grievous failure, with the work of Herzl, and of the * First published in the Bible Student, Vol. 1 No. 4, Sept.- Oct The Testimony, July 2012

2 innumerable earlier Zionists, having apparently proved abortive. Although the 1906 Congress had reasserted its hope of a home in Palestine for Jews, the movement had split into several disputing factions, and many Zionists has become disillusioned, believing the whole cause to be hopeless at least in their lifetime. We hope to show how that very disarray, that knowledge of failure and hopelessness among Zionists, was the ground in which unexpected progress and new hope arose. We believe we can best show this by looking at the life of Chaim Weizmann during the period following Herzl s death. Up to this time Weizmann had been one of the leading young Zionists, and had, as the years went by, spent an increasing amount of his time and energy in the movement, to the detriment of his other love, science. Now, in despair of ever seeing the aims of Zionism established, he determined to drop his interest in the movement and concentrate on science. It was a backward movement, one would have thought, in the purpose of God, but it proved eventually to be the very basis of a new start for Zionism. He made the sudden and remarkable decision to come to England. Why he made this decision is not clear, though he gives a few excuses for his choice in his autobiography Trial and Error. But even there he says that his reasons were intuitive rather than logical. For he had no connections in England, and no post in view. He chose Manchester, maybe because there was a large Jewish community there, and because scientific work in which he was interested was being done there. But he had no offer of work or facilities, and eventually had to pay rent for an inferior laboratory at the university out of his depleting funds. Yet this decision proved to be a momentous one for Zionism, for Weizmann s stay in Manchester became the mainspring of new life for the whole movement. Our view is that it was the hand of God which brought Weizmann to Manchester, to prepare him, the British Government and British Jews for a certain role which was to be played in years to come with regard to the land of Palestine. Weizmann in Manchester Weizmann had not been long in Manchester before he found himself defending Zionism to Jews who had hardly heard of the movement. In the years before the First World War he influenced several prominent Jews in the movement, including two young businessmen in textiles, Israel Sieff and Simon Marks. In this period he Sir Simon Marks with David ben-gurion, Israel s first prime minister. met Arthur Balfour for the first time, and other officials connected with the British Government, and had an equally important influence on some of these. And the success of his scientific studies at this time also played a part in Zionism, for in a short while he had gained a post at the university and his talents began to make his name in the scientific world. This man s extraordinary influence may be illustrated by his contacts with the two industrialists we have mentioned, Simon Marks and Israel Sieff. Some years previously, Michael Marks, a Lithuanian Jew, had come to Manchester and in time set up a successful textile and haberdashery business in conjunction with an Englishman named Spencer. Marks son Simon attended Manchester Grammar School, being in the same class as another Jew of the same age, Israel Sieff, with whom he made a lifelong friendship (eventually each married the other s sister). On the death of Michael Marks the young Simon ran into boardroom difficulties with the other directors of his father s firm (Marks and Spencer), and called his friend Israel Sieff in to help. The firm of Marks and Spencer as we know it today stems from this time (1926). The Testimony, July

3 Before this time, however, while the two young men were in Manchester before the war, they met Weizmann. He kindled in both an enthusiasm for Zionism which never waned. Marks and Sieff, with the aid of money earned by the new Marks and Spencer, played a prominent part in the development of Palestine as a Jewish state. Weizmann s scientific influence on the two young men proved equally fruitful, and maybe contributed considerably to the success of the firm and its ability to support Jewish aims, for it was he who convinced the two of the future importance of man-made fibres. Weizmann and Arthur Balfour It was during this period that Weizmann met, through the introduction of influential Jews and with the help of the editor of the Manchester Guardian, C. P. Scott, a number of important members of the British Government. Herzl had once deliberately tried to influence members of the British Government to favour Zionism, and, except for the unfortunate Uganda offer, had failed. Now Weizmann, through his stay in Manchester which had apparently been due to the failure of his Zionist hopes found himself welcomed by many important people and able to exert his dynamic influence on them. He first met Arthur Balfour two years after his arrival in England. The introduction was 274 Arthur Balfour. effected by a Manchester Zionist who was also a Ugandist and who hoped that Balfour would convince Weizmann of his error in insisting only on Palestine. Balfour agreed to the interview mainly as a relief from a strenuous election campaign, and gave Weizmann a quarter of an hour. Weizmann stayed with him for an hour, earnestly putting his case for Palestine rather than Uganda. Eventually he said, Mr Balfour, supposing I were to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it? Mr Balfour sat up and looked at him. But, Dr Weizmann, we have London. That is true, replied Weizmann, but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh. There seems little doubt that Balfour at this time was interested by Weizmann s ideals, and was weaned away from the Uganda idea. It can be no accident that the man in the Foreign Office as the First World War drew to its close was this same Arthur Balfour The years from 1907 to 1918 were not without progress in other directions. Many dissidents had left the Zionist movement, but those who remained continued to work in small ways in the old ways of building small things but building them in the Land itself. The Jewish population increased from 80,000 to 100,000, the agricultural workers from 500 to 2,000. Perhaps the most important development was this growth in the number of agricultural workers. These young pioneers, by their ardent work in reclaiming unpromising land, purchased in small parcels from Arabs or Turks, brought a new spirit into the Land, and inspired young Jews from all parts of the world to join them. Jews who had never handled a spade before found themselves transformed into land-loving farmers. Another important development was the revival of the Hebrew language. This, again part of the work of eastern Zionism, proved to be a real unifying force in the Land, and became the natural medium of conversation for all Palestinian Jews. The revival was mainly the work of Eliezer ben Yehuda. The last development in the Land we think worth mentioning is that due to the wealthy Baron Rothschild. This man had already bestowed much money and work in helping Jews in Palestine. Previously he had not been a Zionist; and, indeed, most of his family were anti-zionist. Not long before the war he became converted to Zionism, The Testimony, July 2012

4 The Balfour Declaration. and began to work within the Zionist framework. With his help, Weizmann and others made plans to build a Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on Mount Scopus. These plans were halted by the outbreak of the First World War. As the nations of Europe became locked in a bloody struggle for supremacy, a new stirring of hope arose in the east. Turkey had aligned herself with Germany, but the tottering Ottoman Empire was loosing its grip on its vast territories, and everyone knew she could not hold these for long. And, if Turkey disappeared from the Middle East, who would fill the vacuum in Palestine? Weizmann, who knew Europe well, placed his trust in an Allied victory, when many Zionists believed Germany would win. He saw clearly his own role for the future. He must convince British statesmen that the void left in Palestine when Turkey collapsed should be filled by a Jewish state. By now he was a scientist of international repute. When a shortage of acetone (an ingredient of cordite) arose during the war, the government sent for him and asked if he could synthesise large quantities of this product. He set to work and succeeded, and his work played a considerable part in the war effort. It also opened more doors in high places to him, and Weizmann was a persuasive expositor for Zionist hopes wherever he went. At length, in 1917, the government began to work out a statement of their intentions to support the Jewish claim for Palestine. The Balfour Declaration On 2 November, while British soldiers were still pushing the Turks further and further north, the Cabinet sat to consider a letter issued by Lord Balfour, by now Foreign Secretary. This letter afterwards became known as the Balfour Declaration. Outside the room in which the Cabinet were meeting Weizmann waited anxiously. At length Sir Mark Sykes emerged from the room holding the historic document. Dr Weizmann, he exclaimed, it s a boy! The statement read, His Majesty s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. In this way the paper promise by a world power, so diligently sought by Herzl, and which had so consistently eluded him, fell into Weizmann s lap. The Testimony, July

5 War and Zionism We devote the rest of this article to considering the part played in the Zionist movement of two world wars. It must be clear that the Zionist movement had retrenched itself to some degree by the time of the outbreak of the First World War, but that the war itself played a very considerable part in the furtherance of the aims of Zionism. First, it removed Turkey from the Land itself. Secondly, it imposed a British presence there, a necessary safeguard for the years following the war. Thirdly, it brought Weizmann s talents and abilities to the notice of the government, and predisposed them to be sympathetic towards him. Fourthly, it put the government in debt to the many Jews who had fought for the Allied cause during the war. (Besides the many individual Jews who fought, there was a Jewish corps which fought with the Allies in the Middle East.) Thinking forward to the Second World War for a moment, we know from history that this war played an equally important part. Both wars changed the face of Europe very little, except for the growing Russian influence in Eastern Europe; but both wars changed the Middle East dramatically in favour of Zionism. And so we leave our narrative of the progress of Zionism for a short while to look at some of the prophecies about the regathering of Israel, and to show how parts of these have been fulfilled in our days. Winds and destroying nations There are several places in the prophetic scriptures where violent winds are used as a symbol for destroying nations. Jeremiah 4:11-13 is a good example of this use, where the nation which God intended to bring against Jerusalem was likened to a dry wind of the high places in the wilderness. In this case the destroying nation was to be brought against Jerusalem as a judgement of God. The wind was therefore a symbol of judgement by God; but in practice the wind proved to be the armies of destroying Babylonians marching against Jerusalem. In other scriptures the symbol is used in the same way (see 18:17; 51:1; Ezek. 13:11). When therefore in Daniel 7:2 we are introduced to a picture of winds striving over the great sea a reasonable interpretation would be that the nations of the earth by God s direction became locked in a struggle for power. Eventually different powers emerged in the earth, symbolised by four wild beasts. We are not interested here with 276 this particularly prophecy, except as regards the symbology of the four winds. We suggest that this interpretation is reasonable in this case: in view of the earlier scriptural use of the wind symbol in view of the fact that great nations invariably become great through just such battles. We turn now to the vision of dry bones in Ezekiel, one of the main prophecies concerning the return of the Jews to their Land. In chapter 37 Ezekiel is shown a valley full of dry bones. He is told by God to prophesy to them that breath would enter them sinews, flesh and skin would be laid on them breath would enter them and they would live. It is clear here that there are two distinct breathings by God on the bones of Israel. The first breathing produced a noise, a shaking, a gathering of bones, and sinews, flesh and skin being put on the bones. Then Ezekiel had to prophesy for a second time to the four winds, in order that the slain bodies should live. And when he prophesied they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army (v. 10). We suggest that, in line with other uses of the four-wind symbol, the winds which brought about the regathering and the living of Israel were the struggles of great nations in the four quarters of the earth. We must emphasise here that we take this prophecy to be a prophecy of the progress of the nation of Israel and not the progress of individual Jews towards God. That is, the dead bodies represent groups of Jews lying dead, that is, nationally dead, within their grave-ghettos in Gentile nations. The first breathing produced a regathering of Jews together, so that they formed a unit, and consciously single nation, but a dead nation because they had not true national existence. This appears to us to be what was achieved before and during the First World War, which ended with a declaration that Jews (now recognised as a single body of people, though without national identity) should be able to aim at having a home of their own in Palestine. The second breathing, brought about by winds blowing from the four quarters, produced national life in the regathered people. This we see as the result of the worldwide struggle of nations in the Second World War, which produced eventually the setting up of the State of Israel. Notice how the living state is described as an exceeding great army an apt description of the State of Israel on its birthday. The Testimony, July 2012

6 Thus the winds of the Gentile nations of the four quarters, struggling with each other in accordance with God s will, and fulfilling His purpose in more ways than one, threw up the State of Israel almost as a by-product. Perhaps by-product is the wrong word, however, for there seems no doubt that the struggles of the Gentile (To be continued) nations on these two historic occasions was part of the judgement of God on the Gentile world and the other side of the coin of Gentile judgement is the return of God in mercy on Israel. Jerusalem was trodden down until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled; and, as Gentile times draw to their close, Jewish times begin a new cycle. The Testimony, July