Kingdom Come

“we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:” (II Corinthians 1:8)

As detailed in the post Chastening Agents Don’t Change, God uses the world empires to drive his people back to his kingdom, one after another as each collapses under its own weight of self-indulgence.

American Christians need to rethink the automatic assumption that political alliance with the Jews is blessed by God. On the contrary, biblical prophecy past and future state that every secular political alliance with the nation of Israel invariably leads to betrayal and the downfall of both Israel and the betraying nation.

Just look at recent U.S. political activity in the region.

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution’s total dependence on oil, the Ottoman Empire had no shortage of potential partners. The industrialized countries were eager to strike political deals to assure access to the vast oil fields in the Middle East. Prior to WWI. At this time Germany was the strongest Western power, and the Ottoman–German Alliance between the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire was ratified on August 2, 1914 after the outbreak of World War I to strengthen the ailing Ottoman military and provide Germany safe passage into neighboring British colonies.

As it turned out, the Ottomans backed the wrong horse. The American late entrance into the war turned the tide.

On the eve of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was in ruinous shape. Talat Paşa, the Minister of Interior, wrote in his memoirs: “Turkey needed to join one of the country groups so that it could organize its domestic administration, strengthen and maintain its commerce and industry, expand its railroads, in short to survive and to preserve its existence.”

The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement divided former Ottoman territory into British and French spoils of war.

As per standard practice to reimburse the costs of mercenary services, in this case the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, the 1916-1918 Husayn-McMahon Correspondence  granted Sherif Husayn (Hussein) of Mecca, Arab control over the whole of areas to be liberated from Turkey, except an area to the West of Syria (later split off to create French-mandated Lebanon) defined as follows:

At the same time, the 1917 British government’s Balfour Declaration promised the World Zionists a “national home” in Palestine in exchange for activism in engaging their national bastions – Russia and America – as England’s allies in WWI. Recall that at this time Russia was embroiled in a massive civil war and America was isolationist. 

After WWI the League of Nations duly granted Britain the pre-arranged Mandate for Palestine. Note, a mandate is authority granted by a constituency to act as its representative, i.e. the constituency is the League of Nations. The mandates in themselves constituted a betrayal of promises for independence to the Arab nations. Worse yet, the Palestinian mandate included not just the current inhabitants but “international society” as well, non-inhabitants, i.e. supported immigration from the Western nations of Zionist Jews. This not only paid off the Zionists for support in WWI but also transferred the burden of reparations, for two thousand years of European persecution culminating in the Holocaust, from Europeans to Middle Easterners, as under the terms of the mandate Britain consolidated its hold on the oil wealth of the Arab nations by openly facilitating a political, administrative and economic invasion and occupation of foreign overlords into mandate territories.  

The Great Arab Revolt of 1916 opposed British permission of a massive influx of Jews into their land, so the British decreed that Custodianship of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian Holy Sites, would remain in the custody of the Hashemite family under H.M. Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the revolt, and it remains until this day [2024).

Think about it rationally. How would Americans respond to Russia facilitating a massive transfer of Chinese into the greater part of America? We have on record the response of Americans to the influx of Hispanics. The Great Wall of Texas.

The Balfour Declaration (“Balfour’s promise” in Arabic) was a public pledge by Britain in 1917 declaring its aim to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine…included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

The question of why the Balfour Declaration was issued has been a subject of debate for decades…

In mainstream academia, however, there are a set of reasons over which there is a general consensus:

• Control over Palestine was a strategic imperial interest to keep Egypt and the Suez Canal within Britain’s sphere of influence
• Britain had to side with the Zionists to rally support among Jews in the United States and Russia, hoping they could encourage their governments to stay in the war until victory…

While Britain is generally held responsible for the Balfour Declaration, it is important to note that the statement would not have been made without prior approval…[from] President Wilson…Arthur Balfour confirming that Wilson was “extremely favourable to the movement”.

Former US President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognise Israel when it was created in 1948… right after World War II, when the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union was taking shape.

The Middle East, with its oil reserves and strategic waterways (think the Suez Canal) was a key battleground for superpower hegemonic influence. The US was taking over from severely weakened European powers as the primary western power broker in the Middle East.

Beginning in 1902 Abdulaziz Ibn Saud had been fighting his way up the political ladder the old fashioned way, uniting regions of Arabia into a single state with his Ikhwan (Arabic for brothers), an Islamic religious militia. Made up of rough-living Bedouins dedicated to the purification and the unification of Islam, cosmopolitan Ottoman society was uprooted, and Wahhabi culture was imposed as compulsory social order. He was so successful in seizing control of much of the Arabian Peninsula that he was able to make a politically advantageous arrangement with the Ottoman Empire during WWI. 

A rival chieftain, Hussein bin Ali, the sharif of Mecca and ruler of the state of Hejaz, used the opportunity to outbid Abdulaziz for regional power by making an alliance with the British. He recruited and led an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire on the promise of being rewarded a kingdom stretching from Syria to Yemen by the successful conclusion of WWI. 

Hussein could deliver manpower, but who could deliver oil?

Shortly after WWI Abdulaziz Ibn Saud met with a mining engineer who was convinced that much oil would be found throughout his territory. Just as they would do in the next decade while debating an alliance with Germany, the autocratic British monarchy practiced appeasement while Abdulaziz invaded and incorporated  Hussein’s Hejaz. The British recognized Abdul-Aziz’s independent realm with agreed-upon boundaries.

When Abdulaziz’ powerful Ikhwan pressed him to continue their jihad into British-held Arab territory he established his political boundaries by massacring the troops who raised him to power. In return, the British granted Abdulaziz Ibn Saud a kingdom within their Empire, thereby providing assurances of protection by the British.

Contrary to the declared aims of establishing self-determination of the peoples freed from the Ottoman Empire’s control, Saudi Arabia was not set up as a democracy. Named after the ruling / owning family, Saudi Arabia possesses and controls Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam, rendering the kingdom the highest religious status in the Moslem world.