Religiously, American Christians followed the idea of restorationism. They didn’t believe that Islam should be primarily in control of Jerusalem. The idea of restorationism is that Jerusalem should be brought back to how it was in the bible, and in the bible Jews were in control of Jerusalem. This created even more support which in turn gave the Jews more funding. All in all, in the early twentieth century the Zionist Movement was generally a very popular idea to western countries which helped strengthen the Zionists. (Cohen, Week 10 Lecture 1, …show more content…
They were fighting for the land that they had been living on for hundreds of years. The Jews had never been liked by them but now they were stealing their land, which according to Islam is a just reason to fight back. The Palestinians fought hard, but they couldn’t compete with the well-funded Jews. The civil war ended just five months later on September 30th which marks the end of Palestine and the beginning of Israel independence. (Cohen, Week 11 Lecture 2, 11/4/13) Western powers accepted Israel independence because they felt that after everything the Jews had been through, they deserved it. People felt that they had been oppressed for so long that it was about time that they fought back. On top of that, the Palestinians were not a very popular group of people and were still viewed as infidels. Jews didn’t gain popularity until after World War II based off of the guilt that Westerners felt. Religiously, the idea of restorationism was finally achieved. Christians in America still wanted the Jews back in the holy land to have the area be under rightful ownership. This helped for even more funding for the Jewish people especially during the war. Restorationism was a popular enough idea that it helped Western acceptance of the Israeli’s take-over of Jerusalem in the sixties. (Cohen, Week 11 Lecture 3,