The significance of the Anzac contribution to the establishment of modern Israel – Pt 2

In Part 1 we explored the historical and theological background to the Jewish connection with the land of Israel and the geopolitical developments that gradually brought the region back into the focus of European powers. As the First World War erupted, these long-developing forces converged in the Middle East, where British-led forces — including Australian and New Zealand troops — would play a significant role in campaigns that helped reshape the future of the region.

Germany and the First World War

From 1898 Germany became involved in the Eastern Mediterranean, and when the First World War broke out in 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined with Germany against Britain, France and Russia.  Soon after Australian and New Zealand troops (the Anzacs), arrived in Egypt. Russia then requested Allied assistance, and so preparations began for a campaign to break open the strategic Dardanelles-Gallipoli waterway.  

Then in March 1915 the Russians informed Britain and France that once this strategic location, plus Constantinople and the Bosphorus Straits, were captured they were to be surrendered to the Russian Empire.  The Russians also informed Britain and France that they could take control of other areas of the Ottoman Empire.  Although Britain had no desire to control the land of Israel, they did not want France to control the east (Sinai) side of the Suez Canal.  The British Government now began to consider the future of what was then Turkish-occupied Palestine.

The defeat at Gallipoli and beginning of conquest of the land of Israel

The Allies were defeated at Gallipoli, and the victorious Ottoman Turks now aimed to seize the Suez Canal. A British-led force, spearheaded by Anzac horsemen (the Australian Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rifles) was formed and captured the Sinai region in 1916. Then in early 1917, following a decision from prime minister David Lloyd George, this force crossed into Turkish-occupied Palestine.  The first battles were at Gaza, where the British-Anzac force suffered two major defeats. The military objective later focused on capturing the town of Beersheba – associated with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  

Then in June 1917 the Jewish Zionist movement presented a proposal to the British government that when the land of Israel was liberated from Turkish occupation that Britain would endorse the establishment there of a Jewish national home.

The Allied attack on Beersheba began on 31 October 1917, and following British and New Zealand successes, victory was finally gained by the gallant charge of the Australian Light Horse.  On that same day the British War Committee meeting in London promised to establish a Jewish national home in the land of Israel – once the land was fully redeemed from Turkish-Islamic occupation.  This decision was later known as the Balfour Declaration.¹  

This campaign was fought with geo-political factors in mind – the land of Israel was sandwiched between Britain (and Europe) on one side and India and the empire including New Zealand and Australia, on the other.  This factor again reveals that a sovereign God had determined exactly where the physical boundary lines would be established and when certain people groups would be where.  God knew exactly what He was doing when He placed the land of Israel at the centre of the world – and when He sent the British to settle in Australia and New Zealand!² 

Redemption of the land from Islamic control took another major step on 9 December 1917 when British-led forces including Anzac horsemen captured Jerusalem.³   On 11 December the official surrender ceremony occurred on the steps of the Citadel or Fortress of Jerusalem – opposite Christ Church – at which New Zealand and Australian soldiers participated. 

By 31 October 1918 the Ottoman Turkish Empire was defeated.  At subsequent peace conferences Britain and France were offered mandates to prepare these liberated regions for local sovereignty.  The Mandate for Palestine was offered to Britain in 1922 by all member states of the League of Nations – to prepare the land for a future Jewish national home.  The League of Nations recognized the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and this endorsement became enshrined into international law. This act vindicated that Almighty God honours His covenant oaths and promises.  Islamic control and occupation over the land of covenant promise was being repealed.

In the vast territory captured mostly by British, Australian, Indian and New Zealand soldiers, the Arabic-speaking nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan were ultimately formed.  A very small part of that captured region was to become the Jewish national home.   

The full restoration of Israel was now drawing nearer, whereupon ‘all Israel’ would come to know God in a personal way through the new covenant.  This reconciliation, Paul wrote, would be ‘like life from the dead’ (Romans 11:15) and would be closely associated with the physical return of Jesus to Jerusalem.⁴  But most Jewish people living in the land of Israel at the time (and still today) were not inclined to consider turning to Jesus.  It would be nothing short of a miracle for the nation to turn en-masse to accept Jesus as Messiah.  

Unfortunately, most of the local Muslims and Christians did not understand Almighty God’s plan for the redemption of the world, and opposed Israel’s physical restoration.  Satan knows that when Jesus returns to Jerusalem and establishes His reign over the redeemed of Israel and the nations, he will be bound, therefore he will do everything possible to hinder this return and the associated spiritual restoration of Israel.  

Then from 1933 following Nazi persecution in Germany thousands of Jewish people came to the land of Israel.  Once again the Arabic-speaking leaders resorted to violence.  The British proposed to partition ‘Palestine’ in 1937, into a very small Jewish State and a much larger Arab State.  The Arab leadership rejected this offer outright. For them there could be no Jewish State at all.

The second Anzacs and total genocide averted

The plight of all Jewish people in Europe then deteriorated when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, plunging the world into another War.  In early 1940 the first of tens of thousands of soldiers from New Zealand and Australia arrived in Egypt and the land of Israel.  While persecution of Jewish people intensified in Europe these soldiers fought all over the Eastern Mediterranean endeavouring to stop the combined Italian and German forces from taking control over the region, especially the Suez Canal.  

Then in 1942 the Nazi-leadership officially decreed their plan to murder eleven million Jewish people in Europe and surrounding regions – including in the land of Israel and the Middle East.  The quest to murder the 700,000 or so Jewish people in the Middle East would be conducted together with local collaborators.  

Thankfully the attempt upon the lives of the Jewish people in the land of Israel and the Middle East was stopped, due mostly to the Allied victory at the battle of El Alamein in Egypt in late 1942.  Tens of thousands of Allied forces, including many Australians and New Zealanders, were involved in this strategic victory.⁵   The Jewish people living in the Middle East were physically saved.  Unfortunately, however, some six million Jewish people were murdered in what became known as the Holocaust.  

The State of Israel established – a modern-day miracle

Following the end of the War and with hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors desperate to leave Europe, the British closed the gates to ‘Palestine’.  Ultimately, they relinquished the Mandate to the United Nations, which voted on 29 November 1947 to partition ‘Palestine’ into a Jewish State and an Arab State.  Australia and New Zealand voted for the establishment of both Jewish and Arab States. 

While the Jewish leadership accepted this offer, the regional and local Arab leadership refused to accept the United Nations decision.  The collective Arab leadership refused the opportunity to form their own sovereign state – preferring instead to destroy the Jewish State.  

The outcome

There is absolutely no doubt that the soldiers from New Zealand and Australia, the majority of whom were of British heritage, played a pivotal supporting role in this physical restoration of Israel.  But this physical restoration is but only one part of God’s great plan of worldwide redemption.  This plan still anticipates the collective nation of Israel accepting Jesus as Redeemer and King – and of Jesus’ ultimate return to Jerusalem-Zion, where He will reign over redeemed Israel and over the redeemed of the nations.

1. My own research and involvement in this period is found in Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration; Journey to Beersheba; Anzacs & Israel; Gallipoli – The Road to Jerusalem.

2. Deuteronomy 32: 8-9 ; Psalm 104: 5-9 ; Acts 17: 24-26.

3. On this occasion one Anzac unit was involved – the 10th Light Horse Regiment from Western Australia.

4. Matthew 24: 30-31; Acts 1:6-9; Zechariah 9: 3-4a.

5. My own research on this subject is found in: El Alamein – Halting an Impending Holocaust in the Middle East (Mundaring: 2012).