Page 102 - Heavenly Signs III by Mel Gable

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The Jews won their war of independence with minimal help from the West. In fact, they won despite efforts to
undermine their military strength. There is no nation from the West during the Great Tribulation that comes to
the support of the nation of Israel. Maybe, it is because this nation no longer exits as the United States of
America during the Great Tribulation. History repeats itself.

Although the United States highly supported the partitioning resolution, the State Department did not want to
provide the Jews with the means to defend themselves. Otherwise, undersecretary of State Robert Lovett argued,
“the Arabs might use arms of U.S. origin against Jews, or Jews might use them against Arabs.” Consequently, on December
5, 1947, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo on the region. Many in the State Department saw the embargo as yet
another means of obstructing the partitioning. President Truman nevertheless went along with it. He was hoping
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it would be a means of “averting bloodshed.”

The Arabs had no difficulty obtaining all the arms they needed. In fact, Jordan's Arab Legion was armed and
trained by the British and led by a British officer. At the end of 1948 and beginning of 1949, British RAF planes
flew with Egyptian squadrons over the Israel Egypt border. On January 7, 1949, Israeli planes shot down four of
the British aircraft. The Jews, on the other hand, were forced to smuggle weapons, principally from
Czechoslovakia into the country. When Israel declared its independence in May 1948, the army did not have a
single cannon or tank. Its air force consisted of nine obsolete airplanes. How Israel could defeat its Arab enemies
with so little weapons of war? But, it is just like in the Biblical accounts of Israel conquering its enemies. Could
this be because Israel is God’s chosen people on this earth? 173

Israeli Six-Day War – 1967

The next set of blood moons occurred in 1967 over Jerusalem. The Six-Day Israeli War was fought between June
5 and June 10, 1967 by Israel and the neighboring countries of Jordan, Syria and Egypt, which was known at the
time as the United Arab Republic. The war began with Israel launching surprise bombing raids against Egyptian
air-fields. This included an Israeli raid into the Jordanian controlled West Bank and an Israeli initiated aerial
clashes over Syrian territory. Syrian artillery attacks against Israeli settlements in the vicinity of the border
followed by Israeli response against Syrian positions in the Golan Heights. This included encroachments of
.
increasing frequency into the demilitarized zones along the Syrian border This resulted in Egypt blocking the
Straits of Tiran and ordering the evacuation from the Sinai Peninsula. Within six days, Israel had won a decisive
land war. Israeli forces had taken control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank
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and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate with its neighbors. In an address to the U.N. General Assembly
on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Nasser answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to
deceive world opinion and made the statement that his country would never recognize the Jewish State. In 1963,
the Arab League decided to introduce a new weapon in its war against Israel and a new Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO). The PLO formally came into being during a 1964 meeting of the first Palestinian Congress.
The PLO’s hostile and aggressive statements were matched by their deeds. Terrorist attacks by the group grew
more frequent. In 1965, thirty-five raids were conducted against Israel. In 1966, the number increased to forty-
one. In just the first four months of 1967, thirty-seven attacks were launched. The targets were always civilians.
On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat. This blockade

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Foreign Relations of the United States 1947, (DC: GPO, 1948), p. 1249.
178 Maoz, Zeev (2009). Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security and Foreign Policy. University of Michigan Press