HOW the "ANZACs" TOOK JERUSALEM
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
published out of New Zealand and Australia, it was called the
"ANZAC" List. A lot of people used to ask me why it was called
that. The name ANZAC refers to the combined armies of both
Australia and New Zealand which fought in the war. Below is a
piece which was put out recently about how the ANZACs helped
to recapture Jerusalem from the Moslems - which led to the
refounding of Israel. (I don't think we knew any of that when we
named the List). Some of you may find it interesting:
HOW ANZACs HELPED to LIBERATE HOLY LAND
-By Lynley Smith of Challenge Weekly, New Zealand.
(Special to ASSIST News Service) - Apr 22, 2007.
AUCKLAND, NZ (ANS) -- The Gallipoli campaign in World War I,
celebrated on Anzac Day, April 25, has a much deeper meaning
than has been generally applied to it, according to historian Kelvin
Crombie, speaking in Jerusalem.
"I believe the Anzacs' defeat at Gallipoli was followed through by
geopolitical events that directly contributed to the restoration of
the state of Israel, and through that to the return of Jesus," he said.
Mr Crombie will soon be making a documentary on the subject
with a British-based film company. The film will be premiered at
the 90th anniversary of the Anzacs' 1917 victory at Beer Sheva, in
the south of Israel, on October 31 this year.
Mr Crombie has been researching for the past 25 years the
contribution of the Anzac troops to the Middle East. In 1992 he
set up the Bet Nicolayson Heritage Centre at Christ Church, Jaffa
Gate, Jerusalem, which documents the history of the church, its
surrounds and its relationship to the Anzac armed forces in the land.
Mr Crombie, an Australian non-Christian, was drawn to Israel
during the Six Day War in 1967.
"That captured my interest," he said. "I had a lot of questions and
I just knew I would find the answers in Israel."
Mr Crombie headed for Israel and found work on a kibbutz. From
then, he says, God led him step by step into faith in Jesus and
into a deep passion to discover the real meaning and purpose of
the heroic acts of New Zealand and Australian soldiers in the Holy Land.
"I hadn't had any time for Jesus because my experience was that
Christians were hypocrites, but I could see something tangible in
Israel," he said. "Three things I heard there gripped me: that Jesus
was a Jew; that he was the Passover lamb; and that the Jews
would return to the land before the return of Jesus. The last was
the knockout punch."
While becoming involved in the restoration of Christ Church to its
original purpose of ministry among Jewish people, he became
more and more intrigued by the role of the Anzacs in the history
of modern Israel.
In 1993 he came for a study year to New Zealand, where he
interviewed any World War II veterans or relatives he could find.
Back in Israel in 1994, he began to locate the places Anzacs had
fought, including his uncle's grave at Sollum in the Egyptian-Libyan border.
The Anzacs were used by the British to form a buffer zone between
the Turks in Palestine and the canal.
After a resounding defeat in Gaza, the Anzac troops turned the
tables on the Turks at Beer Sheva on October 31, 1917, when they
attacked from an unexpected direction.
With only one day in which to take advantage of the surprise factor,
the new Zealanders won the battle for Tel Sheva and the old city
of Beer Sheva, while the Australians took the new city.
A beautifully kept military cemetery, complete with Australian,
New Zealand and British graves and large memorial, now graces
the central area of this city, a tribute to the Anzacs' victory. Israelis
are well aware of the strategic importance of the Anzac victory to
its future existence.
The New Zealand troops went on to liberate Jerusalem later in the year.
"The Anzac history needs to be seen in that wider context," said
Mr Crombie. His book Anzacs, Empires and Israel's Restoration,
was published in 1998.
~SOURCE: http://www.assistnews.net