Donnerstag, 28.03.2024 22:09 Uhr

The Hanukkah Miracle of 1917

Verantwortlicher Autor: Sharon Oppenheimer Jerusalem, 30.12.2019, 10:27 Uhr
Fachartikel: +++ Special interest +++ Bericht 7807x gelesen

Jerusalem [ENA] On December 11, 1917 General Allenby chose to walk into Jerusalem. He said, only the Messiah should ride into the Holy City. One of the officers marching behind him was T.E. Lawrence, later known as Lawrence of Arabia. It was the end of four centuries Ottoman rule over Jerusalem. The Turkish army and its German commanders had fled the city ahead of the British advance.

With the beginning of WW I in 1914, Cemal Pasha became military commander and governor general of Syria and jointly responsible for the genocide of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire ordered by the Young Turk government in 1915. Disguised as an "evacuation" it was actually a "final solution" of a minority problem through genocide, organized centrally by the Turkish leadership. In the province of Syria (Muslims called todays Israel Southern Syria) Cemal Pasha acted very hard against both Arab nationalists and Jews. In the spring of 1917, he ordered the "resettlement" of Jaffa´s Jews accusing them of collaborating with the British enemy. He also considered deporting the Jewish population of Jerusalem.

There were riots and murders by the Ottoman army. The catastrophy was only prevented by a veto by the German Foreign Office, for whatever reason. Cemal's military success as commander-in-chief of the 4th Army in Syria was poor. Attacks on Egypt in 1915/16 were unfortunate: large parts of the Middle East and today's Iraq were lost to the British. Under his rule, about 1,000 people starved to death in Jerusalem and more than a thousand fled the city, when the land was suddenly haunted by a plague of locusts of biblical proportions. Only the food deliveries from a Jewish organization from the then neutral USA prevented further starvation.

After the defeats of the Turkish Armed Forces by the British and Bedouins in 1915, Cemal Pascha was constantly on the defensive. Turkish soldiers deserted because there was nothing left to eat. The Germans should therefore replace them. At the end of September 1917, Erich von Falkenhayn, the inventor of the bone mill of Verdun, was given command of the Ottoman-German troops. He set up his quarters on November, 5 on the Mount of Olives in the Auguste-Viktoria-Foundation. Von Falkenhayn replaced Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey as commander in chief.

The Federal Foreign Office founded seven German-speaking schools and medical institutions early on in order to gain local influence. Among the German troops there was the pure evil: Franz von Papen, the future Chancellor of the Weimar Republic and subserviant lapdog of Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hoess, later commander of Auschwitz and mass murderer, who pissed in his pants when the Poles hanged him after WW II.

In June 1917, Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1. Viscount Allenby was appointed as commander in chief of the British troops in Egypt and began a successful offensive. He relied on his foreign troops from Australia, New Zealand and of course India. General Edmund Allenby did not have precise maps of the Judean Mountains, but he had the Sikhs, India's legendary warriors.

The British fought two cruel wars to crush the Sikh Empire, the last well organized state on the Indian subcontinent. If treachery had not been involved, the Sikh state with its fabulous treasures would probably not have fallen into the hands of the British Empire. Impressed by their fighting skills the British started to recruit the Sikhs for their army. Like Samson once, the Sikhs do not cut their hair and do not consume alcohol. Their military successes in Allenby's campaign was amazing. Only a few months later , two Sikh battalions defeated the Ottoman troops and their allies in Haifa. On November 9th it started to rain and the rain flooded the wadis.

Four days later, the British moved their headquarters to Nahal Soreq, where Delilah had cut off Samson's hair and robbed him of his strength. Despite all adversity, they managed to break through the ottoman defense line. By December 1, it was clear to everyone that the immediate end of Turkish rule in Jerusalem was approching. Allenby had almost completely surrounded the city and was determined to avoid hostilities in and around Jerusalem. The British Air Force played an important role: they flew the planes over the city at such a low altitude that the Turkish soldiers feared that this would cause the buildings to collapse.

The British Air Force had driven enemy soldiers out of the positions in the days leading up to the surrender and avoided further disaster that could have resulted in the city's destruction. During the 8th of December it rained continuously and Chetwode launched another attack to take the mountain range west of Jerusalem. Towards evening the Turks withdrew. In the German headquarters they started to discuss about the sense and senselessness of further defending Jerusalem and in the end it was decided to vacate the city and move to Nazareth. On the morning of December 9th, after a brief combat operation, the last remaining Ottoman troops disappeared from the Mount of Olives towards Michmash.

Mayor Hussein Al Husseini, along with several other city dignitaries, offered the British to surrender. Allenby initially placed Jerusalem under martial law and waited another two days before he officially marched in with his troops. He entered the city through the Jaffa Gate and on foot, like a pilgrim, quite differently than the German Emperor Wilhelm II, for whom a breach was made in the city walls so that he could move in on horseback like a conqueror with his court. It was Hanukkah and almost the entire city was on its feet to greet General Allenby and his soldiers.

Eyewitness Major Vivian Gilbert describes it years later in his book, "The romance of the last crusade: with Allenby to Jerusalem" as follows: “The women had arms full of flowers which they showered amongst the troops; whilst the children, calling out English words of welcome,ran forward and seized the soldiers' hands… Venerable Jewish rabbis, with long grey beards, knelt in the mud by the wayside and with tears coursing down their furrowed cheeks, blessed us.“ This was the time the song "Hava Nagila" was created as we know it today. Originally a Hasidic niggun, who became an evergreen because of Abraham Zvi Idelsohn.

Some sources say that when the British marched in, it was not "G-d save the King" but "Hava Nagila" that was sung by the Jerusalemites. The war was not yet won and the fighting in the country should continue, but for the inhabitants of Jerusalem this Hanukkah festival looked like the fulfilled prophecies from over 2500 years ago. The prophet Haggai had predicted that Jerusalem would be liberated on the 24th of Kislev: "...From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid... " (HAGGAI 2:15-18)

However, Haggai did not reveal the year: In 1917 the 24th Kislev matched December 9th, when the last Ottoman troops had left the city and the mayor stepped outside to find the keys to Jerusalem. The Prophet Daniel named 1335 (DANIEL 12:12) as date of liberation – a date what we will understand much later in history. The year 1917 of the Gregorian calendar roughly corresponds to the year 1335 of the Islamic calendar.

Did General Allenby know about the prophecies? Maybe. Gilbert mentions in his book "The romance of the last crusade: with Allenby to Jerusalem" a prophecy several times, but refers to the British Empire. The British conquest of Jerusalem was hailed as a "Christmas present for the British Empire". History has shown that it was not a Christmas gift for the British crown.

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