(Okay, here we go, the long awaited update y'all have been waiting for. Strap in your seatbelts because a lot's about to go down.)
10 January 1940, 10:00 AM – Niavaran Complex, Tehran, Iran
Reza Shah sat in the dining room, awaiting the arrival of the Palestinian diplomat. He was surprised to see a 41-year-old woman entering with a pair of bodyguards.
“Reza Shah,” she said. “I am Golda Meir, here on behalf of the of the Zionist Council of Palestine.”
“Yes," he said, “I have been expecting you. Shall we proceed with the negotiations?”
“Of course,” she responded. “I come regarding the issue of the war.”
“Mrs. Meir, you know that I have an agreement with Soviet Union that I must uphold. I cannot enter the war yet under any circumstances.”
“Of course, I didn’t expect you to agree to that,” she said, adding “to be quite honest” under her breath in Hebrew. “However,” she continued, “as you know, reports are coming out about the treatment of the Jewish people, my people, across Europe. We request that you accept any Jewish refugees who make it to your borders, and that you also agree to take in refugees fleeing Hashemite Arabia and Palestine should the Turks invade.”
“And what about my borders? Do I have no right to keep them secure?”
“Well should you be attacked you will have the full might of the Soviet Union crashing down upon Bozkurt’s army."
Reza Shah could not help but notice something about this relatively young woman, some sort of incredible charm, but at the same time a spirit of determination, like she would not back down from these terms.
“Well, Mrs. Meir, I must admit that there is something quite remarkable about your wit and determination.”
“Well then hopefully something should come out of our negotiations.”
***
World War II (cont.)
1940
January 1: 10,000 Japanese troops launch a counter-attack in eastern Shanxi Province in China in an attempt to relieve the nearly-surrounded Japanese 36th division.
January 2: The Soviet offensive is halted by several Finnish victories.
January 7: The Second Battle of Northern Cyprus sees the the Turks launching another devastating attack on the Royal Navy. Among other ships, the battleship HMS Bravery is sunk. Following this battle, the Turks continue to launch regular raids against the British fleet at Cyprus.
January 10: Chaim Weizmann arrives in London and the relatively young diplomat Golda Meir arrives in Tehran. Each are sent with the mission to convince Britain and Iran respectively to agree to take in Jewish refugees, promising that they would be brought to Palestine once the war had ended. Reza Shah agrees to allow Jewish refugees into Iran. Neville Chamberlain, after much more extensive negotiations, declares that he will not allow any refugees into Britain out of fear of German spies entering amongst them, but agrees to allow them into British India.
January 16: Captured documents reveal Hitler's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia and a postponement of the invasion of France and the Low Countries until the spring, when the weather is more compatible for an invasion.
January 21: A U-boat sinks British destroyer HMS Exmouth and its crew of 135 are all lost.
January 24: Reinhard Heydrich is appointed by Göring for the solution to the “Jewish Question”.
January 27: Germany makes final plans for the invasion of Denmark and Norway.
February 9: Turkey launches its first air raid on the island of Cyprus itself. These bombings become a regular occurrence.
February 15: Hitler orders unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 16: British destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removes 303 British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters.
February 20: The first major action on Turkey’s Middle Eastern front since the fall of Kurdistan takes place with a small Hashemite offensive against Kirkuk intended to divert Turkish troops east in order to invade Iskenderun. The Hashemites have some success and temporarily retake Kirkuk, preparing to push into Iskenderun, but are then pushed back by the Turks, restoring the front lines to their previous condition.
March 1: Golda Meir is reassigned to go to Moscow to attempt to convince Joseph Stalin to allow Jewish refugees into the Soviet Union. However, Stalin is far more stubborn. He eventually agrees to transport Jews through the Soviet Union to Iran, Siberia, and Central Asia, but not to let them settle in any Soviet land in Europe.
March 3: Soviets begin their attack on the Finish city of Viipuri.
March 6: Finland sends emissaries to Moscow to negotiate a peace treaty.
March 12: Finland signs a treaty with the Soviet Union and are forced to give up significant territory in exchange for peace. Despite Soviet victory, the Winter War would be seen as an embarrassment for the Soviets.
March 16: The German air raid on Scapa Flow causes the first British civilian casualties of the war.
March 21: With Daladier’s resignation, Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France.
March 30: Japan establishes a puppet regime at Nanking, China under Wang Jingwei.
March 31: With the British fleet at Cyprus having taken a massive beating, and the island having been bombed repeatedly, a large Turkish force makes landings along the northern coast of Cyprus. Despite taking heavy casualties, the Cyprus Landings succeed.
April-May: 22,000 Polish officers, policemen, and others are massacred by the Soviet NKVD in the Katyn massacre.
April 3: The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill as its chair, replaces Lord Hatfield’s ministerial position of Minister for Coordination of Defence.
April 4: The Turks secure their victory on Cyprus as the British forces there flee west to defend Crete, south to protect Egypt, and east to help the Hashemites hold their line should the Turks continue their advance. Many Greek Cypriots attempt to flee to Greece.
April 7: With the negotiations with Chamberlain now wrapped up, Chaim Weizmann goes to Washington in attempt to convince President Franklin Roosevelt to agree to take in Jewish refugees. Having previously denied them entry, Roosevelt remains stubborn. In response, Weizmann begins to organize American Jews to lobby the President and Congress. Despite personal reservation, Roosevelt caves to political pressure and agrees a few months later.
April 9: The Germans land in several Norwegian ports and take Oslo. The Norwegian Campaign lasts two months. Denmark is invaded and surrenders in six hours.
April 10: The Germans set up a Norwegian government under Vidlun Quisling, former minister of defense.
April 11: In the First Battle of Narvik, British destroyers and aircraft successfully make a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. A second attack 2 days later is also a British success.
April 12: British troops occupy the Danish Faroe Islands.
April 14: British and French troops start landing at Namsos, north of Trondheim in Norway. The same day, a bomb goes off in the Hashemite capital of Damascus, killing 51 people in a crowded square. King Faisal declares that Al-Nar and Al-Iihya, unsure which organization set off the bomb, would both be purged from the nation.
April 15: British troops land at Harstad, near Narvik, Norway.
April 16: More British landings in Norway occur, mostly north and south of Trondheim. The struggle for the city continues until around the 22nd, and British begin to pull out on the 27th. The Turks launch their first air raids against Egypt which continue and become progressively worse throughout the spring.
April 20: A riot occurs against Cairo’s Jewish community, causing many to flee for Palestine.
May 1: The Allies begin evacuating Norwegian ports.
May 5: A Norwegian government in exile is established in London.
May 8: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, already viewed in a negative light by many as the man who lost Cyprus weeks earlier, resigns due to a clear loss in the Norway debate, hoping to prevent the opposition from taking power. He immediately regrets the decision with Winston Churchill’s rise to the position of Prime Minister.
May 10: Germany invades France and the low countries. The United Kingdom invades Iceland, in order to hold onto it for the Danish. Belgium declares a state of emergency. Churchill is called on to form a wartime coalition government. German paratroopers capture the Belgian fort of Eben Emael, but are fought off by the Dutch in the Battle of the Hague.
May 11: Luxembourg is occupied.
May 12: The Belgians blow up all the bridges over the Meuse River to halt the German advance. The Battle of Hannut begins in Belgium.
May 13: The Dutch government in exile is established in London. General Heinz Guderian’s Panzer corp breaks through at Sedan, France. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to the UK. Churchill delivers his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons. The Dutch lose the battle of the Grebbeberg to the Germans.
May 14: The Dutch defeat the Germans at the Battle of the Afsluitdijk. Meanwhile, the Germans win the Battle of Rotterdam, causing many civilian deaths and a great amount of damage. The Netherlands surrender.
May 16: Churchill visits Paris while the Belgian government leaves for Bordeaux, from where it later moves to London.
May 17: The Germans take Brussels and Antwerp. Paul Reynaud forms a new French government.
May 19: German forces surround Amiens and Arras, while other German forces reach the English channel.
May 20: German panzers take Abbeville.
May 25: The Allied forces retreat to Dunkirk. Hitler halts the advance and decides to use the Luftwaffe to attack while the British R.A.F. defends their forces. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union begins staging conflicts with the Baltic states in preparation of a total takeover.
May 26: After a daring push against the Germans meant to divert attention from Dunkirk, Calais surrenders. Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk begins.
May 28: Belgium officially surrenders to the Germans.
May 31: The Japanese heavily bomb the Chinese Nationalist capital of Chungking.
June 1: Al-Iihya, which had steadily been gaining membership over the course of the war, begins more riots in Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, and other Egyptian cities attacking Jewish and Coptic communities as well as British troops. Under this distraction, the a combined Jewish and Turkish force lands on the Sinai Peninsula and push west towards the Suez Canal.
June 2: British troops stationed in the Middle East are instructed to go to Egypt to defend the canal.
June 3: Operation Dynamo ends over 220,000 British troops and over 120,000 French and Belgian troops having been evacuated. The same day, the battle of Port Said ends in a decisive Axis victory. Italy officially enters the war, with another combined Axis force pushing west into Egypt from Libya. That same day, Saudi Arabia declares war on the British and Hashemites. Saudi forces and Al-Iihya militants attack the British protectorates of Aden, Oman, the Trucial States, Qatar, and Kuwait. The Hashemites begin to divert more troops from their northern border to the Red Sea coast and the border with the Saudis.
June 4: In response to the evacuation from Dunkirk and the invasion of Egypt, Churchill gives his rousing “We shall fight on the beaches” speech to the House of Commons, declaring that the British will fight on and never surrender.
June 7: Due to the fall of the Suez Canal and the Arabian British protectorates, Britain secures a deal with Iran for oil. Iran agrees ship oil to British India, from where it can be transported around Africa to Britain. The British also evacuate soldiers from Egypt to Crete.
June 10: Norway surrenders to the Germans.
June 11: The French government moves to Tour. The siege of Malta begins.
June 12: The Hashemite navy attempts an assault on the Turkish vessels entering through the Suez Canal. The Battle of the Tiran sees the destruction of a large portion of the Turkish fleet, but the Turks still manage to take the islands of Tiran and Sanafir, establishing a base mere miles away from the Arabian Peninsula.
June 13: Paris is occupied by German troops. The French government moves to Bordeaux. The Hashemites launch an offensive south into Asir.
June 14: French naval forces based in Toulon carry out offensive operations against Italy along its northwestern coast.
June 16: Philippe Pétain becomes premier of France with Reynaud’s resignation.
June 18: General De Gaulle forms a French government in exile. The Baltic States are occupied by the Soviet Union. After a Hashemite defeat at the battle of Al Qunfudhah, the Saudi forces retreat back up north into the Hejaz region, ending the Asir Offensive.
June 20: Kuwait falls to the Saudis.
June 21: Italy invades France. Soviet-led coups in the Baltic States face little resistance.
June 22: A Franco-German armistice is signed.
June 23: The Trucial States and Qatar both fall to the Saudis.
June 24: A Franco-Italian armistice is signed. Bahrain is invaded by the Saudis and is conquered quickly.
June 25: France surrenders to Germany. The Turks begin a naval blockade of Jeddah and other coastal Hejazi cities.
June 26: The Soviets demand Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Romania. Aden falls to the Saudis.
June 28: The Soviets occupy Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. The Luftwaffe bombs the British channel islands.
June 30: Germany invades the channel islands.
July 1: The sultan of Oman agrees to an armistice with the Saudis. Later that day Oman surrenders and is occupied by Saudi troops.
July 2: After a long period of stillness on its own borders, the Turks and Saudis launch a two front attack against the Hashemites. The Saudis push north from Kuwait, cutting off the Hashemites from the Persian Gulf and seizing Basra, and also push north from Asir and west from the Nejd into the Hejaz Region. The Turks land on the Hejazi coast, and both begin a push towards the cities of Mecca and Medina. Rather than invade the heavily defended border of Syria, the Turks invaded the more lightly defended Mesopotamia from Kurdistan. The Axis agrees not to push east from the Sinai Peninsula as to keep the front calm to make sure control over the Suez Canal was kept.
July 3: Cardiff is bombed by the Luftwaffe. The British attack and destroy the French fleet to prevent it from falling into German hands, causing the Vichy French to break off relations with Britain. Jeddah falls to the Turks.
July 6: The Turkish and Saudi forces storm into the city of Mecca. Many soldiers begin to desert from the Hashemite Army, favoring the Saudis and Al-Iihya, and to a lesser extent Al-Nar.
July 8: The Saudis and Turks surround and begin to shell the city of Medina. They enter the city the following day, seizing it with little effort.
July 9: Medina falls to the Saudis and the Turks.
July 10: The Battle of Britain begins with Luftwaffe raids on channel shipping. President Roosevelt asks Congress for huge increases in military preparations. The city of Basrah surrenders to the Saudis, who then begin their march north to meet with Turkish forces in Mesopotamia. The Saudis and Turks are repelled at the battle of Tabuk.
July 11: RAF raids on enemy emplacements in the Netherlands and on German munitions factories occur. The Battle of Baqubah ends in a decisive Turkish victory. The Turks march south to Baghdad.
July 12: The Luftwaffe attacks Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The Battle of Baghdad begins with the Turks heavily bombing the city.
July 13: The Turks push into the city of Baghdad, but are met with heavy fighting in the streets by both Hashemite forces and Al-Nar, the latter of which is simultaneously attacking the Hashemites. The Turks fall back and continue bombing.
July 14: The Soviets organize rigged elections in the Baltic States. The parliaments will be in the control of the Soviets. Infighting continues within Baghdad between the Hashemites and Al-Nar, all the while the city is being bombed from above by the Turkish Airforce.
July 15: The Saudi troops arrive on the outskirts of Baghdad. A second push into the city, this time with Saudi and more Al-Iihya support, is more successful.
July 16: Baghdad officially falls to the Turks and Saudis.
July 18: The Vichy French Air Force bombs Gibraltar.
July 19: Allied ships clash with two Italian light cruisers, sinking one in the Battle of Cape Spada.
July 20: More Hashemite forces arrive from the northwest and manage to retake Baghdad and force the Saudis and Turks further south in the Hejaz region.
July 21: Shiites, Christians, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Mesopotamia flee to Iran where some begin to receive asylum. The brief Hashemite recapture of Baghdad is quickly ended with an even more massive force. The combined Turkish and Saudi forces begin their march westward. The Baltic States, all effectively controlled by the USSR, request membership into the union.
July 22: The Havana Conference meets; the nations of the Western hemisphere meet to discuss neutrality and economic cooperation.
Fumimaro Konoye is named the Prime Minister of Japan.
July 23: The British “Home Guard" is officially established, drawing on elderly men and those considered unable to serve in the regular armed forces.
July 24: After a large push by the Hashemites and Axis begin to stalemate around Shuwaq.
July 25: With Syria no longer as heavily guarded as it was before, Turkey begins Operation Selim, a push into Syria starting with an attack on Antioch at 3:00 AM. The city falls to Turkish control that evening as Faisal attempts to call more troops from the south and east. All women and children are ordered to evacuate Gibraltar.
July 26: The Turks invade Aleppo and Ar Raqqah as the Saudis take Tabuk. The United States of America activates the General Headquarters (GHQ), United States Army, which is designed to facilitate mobilization by supervising the organization and training of the army field forces within the continental United States, which is code named the Zone of the Interior.
July 27: After successfully seizing Ar Raqqah, the Turks push south along the Euphrates, while the Saudis begin another offensive north into the deserts of southwestern Mesopotamia.
July 28: The Saudis and Turks seize the city of Aqaba and begin shelling Eilat. Casualties in Eilat remain relatively low as a result of the massive construction of bomb shelters, and the Saudis and Turks agree to hold off on invading Palestine until the Hashemite proper was dealt with.
July 29: Aleppo falls to the Turkish forces. The Turks seize Qa’im and the Saudis take Rutba, effectively cutting off the Hashemite forces in Mesopotamia from Damascus. The Hashemite army in Mesopotamia is forced to surrender.
July 30: The Turks continue their offensive south through Syria, while the Saudis push north into Transjordan.
***
3 August 1940, 12:32 AM– Sultan’s Palace, Damascus, Hashemite Arabia
King Faisal could not sleep. How could he? Nearly 20 years ago he established his kingdom, and now it was being conquered by foreign armies, one of which had been the one from which he had hard fought for his people’s independence. He looked out the window, thinking only about how he had failed. He had failed to hold his people together. He had failed to fend off against the invaders. He had failed the Arab people.
He rose out of bed and left his room. He began to pace the halls of the palace. It was a beautiful building that had been built for him from which he could rule his people fairly and justly. However, what gave him the right to this palace? What good had his rule brought? There had been prosperity in the early days of his Kingdom, when he had made peace with the Zionists, when he had reigned victorious from the Anatolian War, when he had made allies with the Greeks and the Kurds, when the sweet sounds of ruach filled the streets from Jeddah to Baghdad. But those days were gone. Now, there was nearly nothing left.
“Your highness–"
The Sultan, who had been forced to snap out of his deep thought, turned around to see his secretary Aisha.
“Aisha,” he said.
“I’m sorry your majesty,” she said, “did I startle you?”
“No, no,” he said, “it’s quite alright. I was just taking a little stroll, that’s all. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“Yes, but I have some news to report to you.”
“What is it?”
“Homs has fallen,” she said. “We just received word.”
“Well then,” he said, “we'll need to leave as soon as possible. We don’t know when the Turks are going to reach Damascus, but we’ll want to be out when they do.”
“Where can we go?” Aisha asked. “They’ll make it to Lebanon just as quickly as they will Damascus. Amman’s been seized by the Saudis. We’re surrounded by enemies on all sides.”
“Well then I want you to send a message to David ben Gurion immediately letting him know that we will be going to Jerusalem.”
“Yes your highness,” she said.
Faisal went back to his room and tried again to sleep. He would need it for the journey of the following day.
***
August 1: The Italian Royal Navy establishes its BETASOM submarine base in Bordeaux and joins the “Battle of the Atlantic.”
August 2: The Battle of Homs serves as one of the major last stands of the Hashemites. A decisive Turkish victory opens up the road into Lebanon and Damascus. With nowhere else to turn, Faisal and his government flee Damascus through the Golan heights into Palestine. The USSR annexes Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
August 3: The Saudis win the Battle of Na’ur, allowing them to march onto Amman. The Turks take Tripoli. The USSR formally annexes Lithuania.
August 4: The Battle of Damascus begins. The Turks face constant resistance on every street and attempt to stamp out various armed guerrillas throughout the city. A similar situation unfolds in Beirut, which is also heavily bombarded by German and Turkish ships, causing it to fall later that same day. Thousands of refugees begin to pour into Palestine. Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi, aided by Turkish and Saudi troops from Yemen, invade and occupy British Somaliland during the East Africa Campaign.
5: Failure to achieve air superiority and bad weather in the Channel results in a postponement of the invasion of Great Britain. The USSR formally annexes Latvia.
August 6: Damascus is fully brought under Turkish control with most seeds of resistance being effectively destroyed. The USSR formally annexes Estonia.
August 7: Sidon is captured.
August 9: Tyre is captured. The Golan Heights are incorporated into Palestine to make the territory more defensible against the eventual Axis attack on the region.
August 10: On the day of the 20 year anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres which officially established Hashemite Arabia as an independent nation, the entirety of its former territory was officially brought under control. The charter on the mandate runs out, but Ben Gurion requests that Faisal hold off on taking action, since the Hebrew month of Av, the first nine days of which were dedicated to mourning, had recently begun, and Ben Gurion feared that any sort of action would disturb the more religious Jewish community.
August 11-13: The Battle of Tug Argan is fought in British Somaliland during the Italian invasion, aided by Italy’s Middle Eastern allies. To avoid encirclement, the British withdraw.
August 13: During the early morning of Tisha B’av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, the Turks begin a massive bombing campaign on Eilat, Palestine's Mediterranean coast, and the Judean hills, beginning the Battle for Palestine, which would later be known as the Battle for Israel. Due to many Jews being disconnected from their radios and other forms of communication at the time to observe the holy day, casualties quickly mount. Later that evening, with Tisha B’av coming to a close, Ben Gurion gives Faisal the go ahead to take action on the charter. Not in a position to deny anything to the Zionists, not having anything else to lose, and hoping that it may inspire them to put up a fight, Faisal agreed. Meanwhile in Europe, this is “Adler Tag" or "Eagle Day”. Hermann Göring starts a two-week assault on British airfields in preparation for invasion.
***
14 August 1940, 5:30 PM – Jerusalem, Autonomous Mandate of Palestine
The Zionist Council of Palestine had been gathered in Jerusalem. However, unlike the usual gathering, they had also been joined by leaders of all different Jewish and Arab communities from all across Palestine, and the cherry on top had to be the Hashemite Sultan himself.
Faisal had been to Jerusalem many times, and had even met with the Zionist Council under both the leadership of David ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, his old friend who had gone overseas as an ambassador. However, this time was different. He was not here to check up on the affairs of his own autonomous mandate, but to witness as they changed history together as one. He had signed off the end to the charter earlier that day, and he knew what was now about to happen.
Finally, David ben Gurion walked out. The man was short, only around five feet tall, yet when he walked into the room, his large presence shadowed all, even the Sultan. And so, with that, he walked up to the podium and began to speak.
“The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement,…”
King Faisal noticed Ben Gurion giving him a warm, friendly look as he mentioned the agreement he had made with Weizmann over 20 years ago.
"…and again with the Treaty of Sevres and the League of Nations Mandate, which gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home, provided that we do so in peace, alongside our Arab brothers.
The catastrophe that now befalls the Jewish people, the Arab people, and the free world has shaken our people to the core. The Nazis, the Ulkus, and all of their allies have been and continue to be the death of many free nations from Europe to the Pacific Ocean. However, it is time that our people become the masters of our own fate and, like the other great nations of the world, claim our own sovereign state.
Accordingly we, the members of the council, and representatives of our great communities and the Zionist council, assembled on the day in of the termination of the Hashemite Mandate over Eretz-Israel, by virtue of our natural and historic right, hereby declare the establishment of an independent state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.
We declare that, until the end of this long and brutal war, the Zionist Council shall act as a Previsionary government of our nation. The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of liberty, justice, and equality. The Jewish people extend out their hand to our Arab brothers, and declare that all those who wish to live in peace are to be full and equal Israeli citizens.
Placing our trust in the Almighty, we declare that today, the 13th of August and the 10th of Av, will go down in history as the day that the tides turned. From millennia of laying dormant scattered across the world, the nation of Israel will rise again. We will rise like we did against Pharaoh, when we made our Exodus from Egypt. We will rise like we did out of Babylon, reclaiming our home. We will rise like David against Goliath, like Daniel against the lions, and like the Maccabees against Antiochus. We will rise against our oppressors. We will rise against our conquerors. We will rise against Hitler, and Mussolini, and Abdulaziz, and Bozkurt. We will rise to claim our dignity. We will rise to claim our freedom. We will rise like a light unto the nations, a beacon of hope fending off the darkness in these dark times. We will rise to never again be knocked down. We will fight on, and no matter the horror we face, Israel will rise again!”
As Ben Gurion finished reading the declaration, the entire room stood up in applause. It started with Ben Gurion’s close supporters, and soon enough, everyone, Jew and Arab, joined in the standing ovation. Faisal, too, the last one sitting, could not bare to remain seated any longer and joined the celebration. It seemed that his deal had at least in some sense paid off. He had brought pride and a newly invigorated spirit to Jew and Arab alike, a spirit he had not seen in a long time. He thought, if these people, surrounded by the forces of their enemies, could have such spirit and determination to rise again, he too could fight on. For the first time in a long time, Faisal had felt something that he had never thought he could feel again: hope.
David ben Gurion was the first to sign the declaration, followed by the other council members and community leaders. Ben Gurion knew exactly what struggle would be coming his country’s way. They were indeed surrounded on all sides. However, he had faith in both God and in his people. No other country had such a perfect network of tunnels and bomb shelters. No other country had as strong of a defensive line as that which had been formed on the Jordan Rift Valley and the Golan Heights. The Israeli, Hashemite, and Kurdish militaries had all been brought together in one place from which they could put up a strong defense, and the people of Israel would never accept defeat at the hands of Bozkurt. They were ready. The time had come to rise again.