Roosevelt: A little history

Jerusalem Report
from the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team

Dear Art,

I am going to Jerusalem to celebrate Israel’s 61st birthday, and want to take you with me but I know that’s not possible. God’s word says, “I will bless those who bless thee and curse him who curses thee.” (Genesis 12:3)

My great-grandfather was burned to death in his synagogue as Russians boarded up the doors and windows while screaming, “Christ killer.”

There is but one great question we must answer on this 61st anniversary of the rebirth of Israel: Will we stand with our friend and ally and receive the blessings of God, or will we turn our backs on Israel and receive God’s curse and judgment?

Just as President Harry S. Truman ignored the critics of his day – including the U.S. State Department – and stood up for Israel, so we must stand and raise our voices in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.

Shimon Peres was a lad of just 10 years old when an American President placed his hand on a Bible opened to I Corinthians 13:1 during his Inauguration: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Yet as tragic as sounds, for almost a decade before the beginning of World War II, the same American President hardened his heart to the cries of the Jews who wanted to immigrate to America to escape the growing anti-Semitism in Europe.

I believe World War II would never have been fought, and God would have divinely intervened had that President recognized the state of Israel, and had not closed the doors of America to Jews. “I will bless them that bless thee…”

Why did he not do it? He was attempting to appease the Arabs in order to prevent them from becoming allies of the Nazis. President Roosevelt’s words are painfully revealed in a meeting that he held with Stalin just before he met King Saud of Saudi Arabia. Stalin asked what President Franklin Roosevelt planned to give Kind Saud. Unfortunately Roosevelt said jokingly that he might offer the King Saud the Jewish people in the United States. His joke sent Stalin into an anti-Semitic, hateful diatribe.

Days later, Roosevelt met with King Saud and pledged to him to “do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs, and would make no move hostile to the Arab people.” A collision course between two ancient brothers, Ishmael and Isaac, Jew and Arab, and America was set in concrete on that day in 1935. This unholy covenant was cut to sacrifice the Jews to appease Arab rage, and has become an apocalyptic plague threatening the peace of the world. It struck at the heart of America on 9/11.

In the words of a prominent London-based Muslim cleric, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non- innocents, only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.”

America is in the midst of a battle between light and darkness. This was the very same battle America was fighting in 1933, and didn’t even know it. Upon assuming control in Germany, Hitler stated, “Today I believe I am acting in accordance with the Word of the Almighty Creator by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Hitler failed.

Appeasement has not and will not bring peace. Arab rage has grown to unprecedented proportions since that fateful day in 1935. For every “Hitler” that has failed, another stands in the wings to threaten the Jewish people. Every Jewish man, woman and child has become a target.

For more than six decades Israel has been threatened…but she has always survived by God’s grace. Why? During each time of threat and challenge, men and women such as you, men and women of courage and conviction have answered the call.

Isaiah 58:11 and 14 says: “The LORD will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring…the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob, your ancestor. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

Your ambassador to Jerusalem,

Mike Evans