YES!
Think of it like a relay race. With WW1 and WW2 being the "crossover" period. Where the failing runner hands the baton to the new guy.
The British Empire under Queen Victoria 1837 - 1901 is a world empire where the sun never sets because Britain controlled much of the globe.
During this period the USA was struggling with it's identity during the years leading up to and beyond the Civil War.
Enter the Israel spotlight. I think this will ALSO explain the downfall of the Great British Empire and the rise of the American era.
The later years of Queen Victoria's reign, Theodor Herzl living in Europe launches the Zionist movement calling all the Jews to finally go home and reclaim their homeland. 1896.
What is the area that used to be Israel like in 1896 or so? A desert bordered with mosquito ridden swamps that spread malaria. Under control of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
Mark Twain wrote a famous book in 1869 Innocents Abroad about his trip to the Holy Land in 1867. He described it this way (quotes are from the book, I got them off 2 different Israeli library sites.)
The countryside:
“ ...a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action....We never saw a human being on the whole route....There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”
Referring to Jerusalem
"“Perched on its eternal hills, white and domed and solid, massed together and hooped with high gray walls, the venerable city gleamed in the sun. So small! Why, it was no larger than an American village of four thousand inhabitants… Tears would have been out of place. The thoughts Jerusalem suggests are full of poetry, sublimity, and more than all, dignity. Such thoughts do not find their appropriate expression in the emotions of the nursery.”"
Mark Twain wrote this 41 YEARS BEFORE Herzl began to call the Jews to resettle Israel. The countryside is desolate. Even olive trees and cacti are hardly to be found. Jerusalem he compares as no larger than an American village of 4000 inhabitants.
I won't recap the early years of Israel settlement by the Jews, nor the hatred and murder from the Arab neighbours who didn't arrive until the land began to thrive under the hands of the early Jewish settlers- the rightful inhabitants.
Fast Forward to something called The Balfour Declaration and the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the last stages of WW1
Britain was deep in the trenches of WW1, and needed help. A Jewish scientist named Chaim Weizman invented a process that made explosives more powerful, useful in ending WW1. He was a Zionist, follower of Herzl and the reward was the Balfour Declaration.
The Balfour declaration gave the Jews their homeland back from the newly conquered Ottoman Empire. That break up of the Ottoman Empire meant that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq were reformed from the ashes of history.
I think you might remember Jesus talking about "the fig tree and all the trees". Well if trees are nations arising, then the fig tree arises at the same time frame- out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Look up Luke 21:29-31 as seen here
29 Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum speaks of the clashes of WW1 as fulfilling a certain passage just before that. Same chapter but v 10: 10 Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Fruchtenbaum explains this is a Hebrew idiom, that means WORLD WAR.
So out of the ashes of WW1 Britain granted the right to the Jews to the area that is JORDAN as well as all of what is modern ISRAEL. At the same time Israel's ancient enemies are reborn, also out of the ashes of WW1.
April 25 of 1920 further solidified that right. The San Remo conference. That gave the RIGHT to the Jews to have their home in what is now Israel, Gaza and the "west bank".
Sadly Britain starts to back out of their promise to the Jews
UP TILL NOW BRITAIN REMAINS A WORLD POWER
But then because of the influence of Lawrence of Arabia (yeah that guy) they were persuaded that the oil of Saudi Arabia was more important than keeping their word to the Jews.
And Britain decided to go with the House of Saud against the heriditary ruler of Mecca and Medina, a direct descendant of Mohammed. The tribe of Saud had the oil, but they also wanted the religious authority so Britain CARVED OFF JORDAN and gave the king (the Hashemite kingdom) to rule over this new kingdom called Jordan so he would leave Mecca and Medina and allow the Saudi tribe to rule Saudi Arabia.
Jordan was also Britains way of dealing with all those rebellious bloodthirsty arabs in the area who were bugging the Jews and trying to kill them (in between working for them). This was to be the homeland of the Palestinians!
The Jews kept the area west of the Jordan, and Jordan got the bulk of the pie east of the Jordan.
And Britain's power began to fade.
In between the 2 wars- the crossover period.
At the very same time, the USA is pulling out of decades of isolationist policies, and the pain of the civil war as they pulled together a good army for WW1. They come home, the boom time of the 20's takes over, the stock market goes nuts and all over the world the roaring 20's is happening. So is the first big atheist and agnostic movement.
The Wall St Crash happens and the ripples spread across the globe. The US does some interesting things with the Smoot Hawley act, and goes isolationist again for a time. Britain is now struggling financially, and bit by bit their Empire is crumbling away.
While all this is happening Germany is in tough shape, bankrupt after WW1 and the punishing reparations that Britain France and the others imposed on them. A young fellow who had served in the German Army named Adolf Hitler began to rise. His hatred of Jews and their "money" led him write Mein Kampf in 1925. He outlines exactly what he plans and nobody is listening. Yet.
Hitler tries to get the Jews to leave, they want to, but Britain still controls "Palestine" which is the Israel side of things, Jordan being the other side. Britain won't let the Jews emigrate for fear of disturbing the local Arabs who have grown in number and violence.
The more that Britain makes the Jews suffer, the worse their hold on Empire is. Some Jews escape Europe, many remain to die in Hitlers ovens and the Holocaust.
Sept 1, 1939 WW2 begins when Hitler invades Poland. Sept 3 France and Britain declare war on Germany.
WW2 starts in earnest. Britain under Chamberlain desperately tries to appease Hitler, letting him have Czechoslovakia, letting him have Poland (stabbing British allies in the back for self preservation) but Hitler keeps growing in power.
May 10, 1940 Churchill finally gets elected PM of Britain, Chamberlain is ousted, and Churchill who had been warning of Hitler since the early 30's is finally in charge.
June of 41 Russia turns sides as Hitler attacks Russia. This is the turning point in Hitler's misfortunes and things start to go down hill for Germany. Russia joins with Britain in somewhat coordinated attacks
WHAT ABOUT AMERICA????
The US holds out of the war until Dec 8 of 1941 when the Japanese (an ally of Germany) attacks Pearl Harbour. Germany and Italy declare war on the USA on Dec 11.
At this point Britain has been fighting WW2 in Europe for over 2 years now with only the help of a few allies- her daughter nations- Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Along with expats from Poland, France etc. Russia joined in June of 41
Britain had been begging for help, but until Japan attacked, the US was staying out of the war.
Britain at this point is nearly bankrupt fighting this war singlehanded, and it is the real turning point for the western powers when the US joins the fight. Germany may have begun the slide when they invaded Russia, but Britain wasn't able to finish them off until the US came in. Even then it will take another 4 years.
The war drags on till Jan 1 of 1945 when Hitler's forces begin to retreat.
Feb of 45 YALTA conference between Britain, Russia and the USA meet to carve up the post war boundaries of Europe.
May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders.
In Sept 2 1945 Japan surrenders.
BACK to ISRAEL
The British Mandate still rules the area of Israel- and they make life difficult for the Jews to return after the war, out of the camps. British MERCHANT SHIPS bring the survivors of the death camps to the shores of Israel. This fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah 60 v 9 about the ships of Tarshish bringing the children of Israel from afar.
That rule by Britain ended May 14, 1948.
On that same day Israel became a nation.
The birth of Israel, all the threads of the story I outlined above are fleshed out in a book by Leon Uris, called EXODUS. It covers the years between the end of the war and the beginning of the state of Israel. There is a good movie, an old one with Paul Newman in the lead role.
Britain in the first years after WW2 nearly starved to death- they didn't have the benefit of the US aid given to rebuild Germany, they were experimenting with Socialism and they had long abandoned Israel. Those were tough years for them, and the death of their Empire was part of all that.
But when you see it in light of Israel, it makes sense, the rise of America, the fall of the British Empire.
I'm sure you've heard enough American history about the post war period, but the US has stood by Israel, sometimes better than other times, and the rise of American power in the world mirrors their support of Israel.
at least in the War Department.
