Letters From Grandpa #321

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA

• 321

Dearest Grandchild,

In November 1953, just a few months after leaving the presidency of the United States, Harry S. Truman was invited to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to meet a group of Jewish dignitaries. His good friend Eddie Jacobson introduced him to the assembled theologians by saying: "This is the man who helped create the State of Israel." Truman retorted, "What do you mean, ‘helped to create’? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus."

In previous letters we have pointed out that when the Jews returned from Babylonian Captivity Cyrus the Persian, as prophesied by Isaiah and Jeremiah, had ordered the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and funded the rebuilding of their Temple. He did this in the first year of his reign (Is. 44:28; Ezra 1:1-11). Now, 2,500 years later, the Jews had again returned to their homeland and needed help from another Gentile world leader. In 1948 President Truman was that leader. He was a friend of Israel in modern times like Cyrus had been a friend of Israel centuries before.

On May 14, 1948, just a few hours before the U.N. mandate expired ending British control over Palestine, Israel declared it’s independence. This was the first time Israel had been an independent nation in 2,900 years. The whole transaction took place in 24 hours, prompting some to remember the words of Isaiah: “Who ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day?” (Is. 66:8). No one expected Israel to survive, but defying the unified advice of his advisors, President Truman immediately recognized Israel as a nation just the same.

The next day, May 15, 1948, six Arab states declared war on Israel. They were: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, said: It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacre of the Mongols or the Crusades”. At that time Israel did not have a single tank or cannon. Their tiny air force consisted of 9 obsolete planes. They had only one weapon for every 3 soldiers. By comparison the Arab nations had plenty of arms, plenty of ammunition, plenty of tanks, plenty of planes, plenty of gasoline, and plenty of soldiers. The combined population of the 6 nations at war with Israel is over 200 million. The population of Israel is less than 10 million.

Against all odds the tiny Israeli army defeated all of their enemies. From then until now they have been constantly under attack. Israel has been involved in 15 other wars and military operations since 1948 and have thus far triumphed every time. The Palestinian National Charter openly declares its goal of eliminating Zionism in Palestine. The PLO, Hamas, and Hezbollah are all united in their intent to destroy Israel. In 2013 the new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani also pledged to destroy Israel. Since March 2018 2,600 rockets have been fired at Israel by the Arabs. Someone has observed that if the Arabs were disarmed there would immediately be peace. If the Israeli’s were disarmed there would immediately be no Israel.

While Anti-Semitism remains rampant, Jewish geniuses have quietly revolutionized the world. Here are 10 Jewish inventions (and their Jewish inventors) that have transformed society:

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The laser - Jewish American physicist Theodore Maiman.

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The pacemaker and defibrillators – Jewish American cardiologist Paul Zoll. •

Genetic Engineering – Jewish American scientist Paul Berg.

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Stainless steel - German Jewish chemist Hans Goldschmidt.

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Mass – energy equivalence (E = mc squared) – Jewish physicist Albert Einstein.

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Cholera and bubonic plague vaccinations - Jewish bacteriologist Waldemar Haffkine. •

Polio vaccine - Jonas Salk, Jewish medical researcher.

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Nuclear weapons - Jewish American theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer. He is known as “the father of the atomic bomb”.

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Capitalism - Jewish political economist David Ricardo first used the term “capitalism” in 1817. •

Google - Founded by Jewish colleagues Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they attended Stanford University.

To these 10 remarkable Jewish inventions we can add MANY others such as: jeans, lipstick, the ballpoint pen, contraceptives, instant coffee, television remote control, traffic lights, scotchguard, the flexistraw, drip irrigation, scale model electric trains, the pager, the walkie-talkie, refrigerated railroad cars, high-vacuum electron tubes, the incandescent lamp, kodachrome film, the blimp, the adding machine, tapered roller bearings, Etc. Etc. Etc. At least 178 Jews have been awarded the Nobel Prize. This is 23% of all individual recipients worldwide who received the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2008. This also constitutes 37% of all US recipients during the same period. (Jews currently make up approximately 0.25% of the world’s population and only 2% of the US population). It is incredible that in the scientific research fields of Chemistry, Economics, Medicine and Physics this tiny group of Jews have earned 27% of world honors and 40% of honors in the U.S.

God bless the late Harry Truman, and others like him, who are willing to stand up for Israel. In Romans chapters 9 – 11 Paul predicts that Israel, that once rejected Jesus, will someday join with Gentiles in the Christian faith. Winston Churchill said it like this: “Some people like the Jews. And some do not, but no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world”.

Never bet against God – There is no one like Him making known the end from the beginning and from ancient times what is still to come! (Is. 46:9,10).

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce