Growing up, I remember my grandfather often saying to us, his grandchildren, “May it be that when you grow up, you won’t have to go to the army because we won’t need to fight anymore”. My grandfather fought in several wars and knew first-hand the impact of war. If he were alive today and saw this war, it would break his heart.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a history teacher. Some of the material I teach is about the War of Independence. Teaching this during a time of war, is rather surreal. The more I teach about it, the more parallels I see between this war now and the War of Independence. So please bear with me as I give a short, but important, history overview.

Today, November 29th, marks 76 years since the Resolution 181, known as The Partition Plan was accepted and passed by the UN General Assembly. The land, according to this plan, would be divided into three parts – a Jewish state, an Arab state, and Jerusalem as an international city under the supervision of the UN. Many Jewish settlements in the Negev area were to be included in the territory of the Arab state.  The Jewish state would receive most of the coastal and valley areas, including the Sea of Galilee and some access to the Dead Sea. However, there were security threats to the proposed borders. Despite all that, the Jewish leadership agreed to the plan, recognizing that this was a one-time opportunity. Celebrations broke out throughout Israel. Jews rejoiced, sang and danced in the streets at the prospect of establishing a Jewish country. The Arab leadership, however, responded very differently. They rejected the Resolution and declared that they would never accept a Jewish state. The Syrian representative at the UN declared that many years of war would pass on the holy places and there would be no peace there for generations. The then existing, Arab League declared that the partition line would be one of fire and blood. So much for peaceful intentions on their part.

The following day, on November 30th, Arabs fired at an Israeli bus on its way to Jerusalem, killing 5 and wounding 7. That signaled the opening of a war. that became known as the War of Independence, a war of existence, during which the State of Israel was established, on May 14, 1948. During the first few months, the war was between Arab forces led by volunteers from Syria and Egypt and composed of Arabs living in Israel, fighting and attacking Jewish settlements and vehicles. The IDF, as such, didn’t exist at the time. But the underground military organizations, that helped defend the Jews during the time of the British Mandate, fought to defend them again during the war.

When the British left, officially ending the Mandate over what was then still called “Palestine” = a name given by the Romans two thousand years earlier that “stuck” throughout the millenia, the State of Israel was born. The underground organizations were all joined into one army and the Israel Defense Forces was established in one day. Why defense? Well, that was always the attitude of the Jewish settlements, they sought then, and still seek, to defend and protect. Four Arab nations, along with military units from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan, all attacked the young, fledgling country which now fought for its survival.

At the beginning of the war, David Ben Gurion, who later became the first Prime Minister of Israel, told the leaders of the Hagana (the largest underground para-military organization): “We cannot win merely by military force. In our days, war is not done by the military alone and our war is not easier than all other wars. On the contrary, it is the hardest, because this war is not against the Jewish military force, but against the entire Jewish settlement in Israel and one cannot distinguish between the front lines and the home front. Each of us, great or small, man and woman, elderly and infant, whether they want to or not, are in the front lines…”.

Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? A nine-month old baby did not choose to be on the front line. An elderly woman in her 80’s did not choose to be on the front line. Teenagers, men, women, children – did not choose to be in the front line, to be taken captive, to be starved, to be brutally beaten and to be afraid of speaking or even crying lest they be shot.

I won’t get into all the parallels of these two wars, or how the home front became the front lines as Arabs attacked Jewish civilians in their cities, how 60,000 Jews were forced to vacate their homes because of the fighting, how it was a war of live or die. Thousands of volunteers, Jews and non-Jews, came to Israel during the War of Independence to help with the fighting and establish the air force, navy, artillery corps, medical corps and more. They came out of identifying with the Jewish people and desiring to help them build a country – in Israel. Just as in this war, many chose to come at this time especially, to help with agriculture and supplying military equipment, even while many foreigners chose to leave Israel. There are too many parallels to list. The countries of the world had to decide which narrative to believe then and how to relate to the new State of Israel. Lies, tales (that we would call today “fake news”) and a false narrative abounded then, as they do now. Some of the countries who supported the Partition Plan at the outset, chose to withdraw their support when the war broke out. Some, however, continued to support and remained “friends in need”, such as Czechoslovakia (now known as the Czech Republic), and sent weapons and fuel to support Israel, just like during this current war.

The past few days have been full of news of hostages being returned as part of a cease-fire deal. One little girl returned alone, without parents to greet her, as both her parents were murdered on October 7th. Her siblings were able to hide and survive. As her grandfather was asked how they were, he said the children have “sadness in their eyes”. Many of these children return after having seen horrific sights, including parents or siblings murdered before their eyes and atrocities that are too difficult to express here. Pray for them, for their physical, as well as emotional, healing. Not just the children, but all the hostages, those who were returned and those still being held by Hamas and other terrorists.

The nation of Israel is still fighting for its survival. Yet, as we look to what was accomplished 76 years ago, we rejoice that we do have a country and in one way or another, the people express gratitude for all God has done and will continue to do in and for the “apple of His eye”. The fact that four well-trained, heavily-equipped, armies invaded Israel 76 years ago with the goal of removing all Jews from this land and to divide the land between them…and lost…is nothing short of a miracle. Many miracles happened during the War of Independence, and there are reports of many miracles that are taking place in the current war. May the nation of Israel turn to God for help and strength, as He is the one who brought forth the victory 76 years ago, the miracle that is Israel. We look forward to seeing His victory in this war as well.