Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (10418)	3/22/2006 4:15:38 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22250

Re: Considering that Germany was by then the hands-down winner and, in fact, England was ready to make a peace treaty, they unquestionably placed their bet on the loser. Actually, they backed both horses --clue: By now the proliferation of both theological and philosophical works proposing the return of land to the Jews was so widespread that politics was effected. In 1838 at the urging of a Christian Zionist, Lord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem, the first diplomatic appointment in the land of Israel. This was followed by the appointment of Michael Solomon Alexander as Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the first Jewish bishop of Jerusalem since 135 C.E. In 1853 the Crimean War erupted between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The British and the French both sided with the Turks, assisting them in the defeat of the Russians. The Paris Treaty of 1858, concluding the war, granted Jews and Christians the right to settle in Palestine, forced upon the Ottoman Turks by the British for their assistance in the war effort. This decision opened the doors for Jewish immigration to Palestine. A pivotal event occurred in 1868 with the election of Benjamin Disraeli as British Prime Minister. Disraeli, a Jewish Christian who strongly regarded his Jewish heritage, wrote in an 1877 article entitled, "The Jewish Question is the Oriental Quest," that within 50 years a nation of one million Jews would reside in Palestine under the guidance of the British. Around the same time George Eliot, the great British novelist wrote her book, Daniel Deronda, about the struggle of a Jewish person to retain his identity. She propounded the idea that Israel become a nation of vision for the Jewish people. The book was translated and read by a Russian Jew named Yehuda Perlman who became convinced that a modern state of Israel was the ultimate answer for the Jewish people. He later changed his name to Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew and an early Zionist. Up to this point the idea of a resurrected Israel resided only in the hearts of most Jews. But things radically changed with the appearance of Theodore Herzl, who in his pamphlet The Jewish State began to turn the far-fetched idea of a Jewish land in Palestine to a believable reality for many Jews. What is little known about Herzl's work was the critical role played by another British Christian Zionist, William Hechler. In 1897 following an ultimately disappointing meeting with the Sultan of Turkey, Herzl became distraught about the future of Zionism. Somehow Hechler found a copy of Herzl's Jewish State and became so excited that he searched Herzl down around the world. Herzl found Hechler to be a religious zealot but became interested when Hechler could provide Herzl entrée to the German Kaiser and later the British Prime Minister. In an extremely humorous story as related by Herzl, he tells of the meeting with the Kaiser. Herzl had been preparing for weeks for the meeting, intending to show the Kaiser the political advantages to Germany to declare Palestine a future homeland for the Jews. When the meeting day arrived, Hechler accompanied Herzl into the meeting because he knew the Kaiser personally. Before Herzl could say a word, Hechler whipped open his Bible and began discussing Biblical prophecy with the Kaiser. Herzl was appalled, seeing this as another lost opportunity. But to his amazement the Kaiser is convinced by the Scriptures to support the concept. Later Hechler also provided open doors for Herzl to meet with the British leadership, the relationship that bore ultimate fruit, although at the beginning the Zionist story took a bizarre twist. Britain did not want to upset the delicate balance of relationshhips in the Middle East, so as a short-term solution, the British offered Herzl and the Jews the land of Uganda as a respite. Herzl reluctantly accepted the offer, but at the next Zionist Congress the offer was resoundingly rejected. The following year Herzl died. A new Zionist leader emerged - Chaim Weitzman. The British government continued to apply pressure on the Zionists to accept Uganda as a temporary shelter, but things changed in a pivotal meeting between Weitzman and another Christian Zionist, Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary. Balfour asked Weitzman why was Uganda rejected and why were the Jews hung up on Palestine. Weitzman responded by suggesting the tables be turned and he offer to Balfour, Paris instead of London. Balfour replied that the British currently had London but the Jews do not have Jerusalem. Weitzman said, "We had Jerusalem when London was a swamp." That was enough to persuade Balfour to begin to argue for Palestine for the Jews. [...] leaderu.com