The British Mandate
Daniel 11:20
"His successor will send out a tax collector to
maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet
not in anger or in battle".
This
verse is very distinctive of the relatively brief, British involvement
in the Middle East. The British and French succeeded the Ottomans but
only under the mandate system. The mandate system was created in 1919 as
a temporary arrangement where the communities would receive mandatory advice
and assistance until they were able to stand on their own. It was
stipulated in the mandate that the “wishes of the communities” be a principle consideration.
There were no set boundaries for anything but by 1923, the French had accepted
Syria and Lebanon while the British took Iraq and Palestine. In time,
they both left voluntarily but they left behind a “tax collector” in the
form of an oil company, which took a disproportionate amount of Iraqi
profits. After several decades, the Iraqi government regained control of
their oil revenues yet not in battle but in international
courts.
Before I talk about the oil, I
will discuss the division of land, which went pretty smooth except for one
part. The British decided to split Palestine into two sections, separated
by the Jordan River. They retained control of the western section,
including Jerusalem, while the eastern section became Jordan. They picked
two sons of a Hashemite ruler from Mecca, Faisal and Abdullah, to become kings
of Iraq and Jordan. The Hashemite ancestry went back to Muhammad’s
grandfather so they had some degree of popularity. Iraq became an
official nation in 1932, followed by Syria and Lebanon in 1943, and Jordan in
1946.
Of course, the one part of the system that did not go smoothly was
the western 23% of Palestine. Circumstances occurred that were impossible to foresee when the British
retained the small area. In the 1920’s, the British started allowing an
influx of Jews because the mandate stipulated that the “wishes of the
communities” be a principle consideration. It seemed logical because
there were Jewish communities in Palestine. Problems arose in the 1930’s when
Nazi persecution caused the influx to skyrocket. In 1939, just as
persecution got worse, the British imposed an quota on annual
immigration. With no where to go, the Jews either immigrated illegally or
ended up in detention camps. By the end of WWII, in 1945, the population
of Palestine was 31% Jewish, up from 11% in 1922. Despite criticism from the
United States and others, the British maintained their ban on immigration after
the war. Over 250,000 Jews were held in “displaced persons” camps in
Europe and others were diverted to Cyprus. Finally, the British gave up
and turned the problem over to the newly formed United Nations.
After months
of debate, the United Nations approved a resolution to make two
nations out of the small strip of land. One nation would be
Jewish and the other Arab with Jerusalem remaining under international
administration. Most Jews accepted the proposal but most Arabs were
against it. Nevertheless, on May 14, 1948, Israel proclaimed their
independence for the first time in over 2500 years. In a matter of days, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon
attacked the tiny nation but Israel survived because it was God’s plan.
Since then, much of the hostilities in the Middle East have been directed
towards Israel. As a result of the first war, approximately 700,000
Palestinians were expelled or fled from their land, which continues to be a
problem for Israel today. Following the 1948 war, Egypt began blocking
ships traveling to and from Israel. That led to wars in 1956 and 1967 but
Israel just gained more land from the Arabs. Yet, they gave much of it
back in efforts to make peace, which have resulted in treaties with Egypt and
Jordan.
However, Israel remains at odds with groups such as Hezbollah and
Hamas. Hezbollah is a Shiite party in southern Lebanon, backed by Iran and
Syria. They want the Golan Heights back but Israel refuses because it is
too easy to launch rockets into northern Israel from there. Hamas is a
Palestinian party currently ruling the Gaza Strip. They want their
independence but they refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. They
also want a return to the 1948 borders (above) but Israel refuses because
that would require them to return East Jerusalem. When Jordan controlled
East Jerusalem, they blocked access to the Western Wall. Besides, Israel
considers Jerusalem to be the eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish
people.
The Oil Factor
The “tax collector” reference is distinctive to the oil in Iraq
because its value would have been unknown in previous verses. The royal
splendor sounds typical of Great Britain who primarily initialized the
plan. It started slightly before WWI, in 1912, when the Turkish Petroleum
Company (TPC) was formed to seek concessions from the Ottomans to explore for Iraqi
oil. It was the mastermind of Calouste Gulbenkian, a naturalized British
citizen born in Constantinople. In the original deal, TPC would be owned
50% by the British government, 30% by Royal Dutch/Shell (which Gulbenkian owned
a majority), and 20% going to the Ottomans. When WWI broke out, that
arrangement was dissolved. In 1923, TPC resumed negotiations but under
the provisions of the British mandate. Now, four countries, besides Iraq,
wanted a share in the ownership of TPC. Iraq wanted the same 20% promised
to the Ottomans but three of the four countries voted “no”. Iraq was
afraid that the province in question, Mosul, would be annexed into Turkey
without British support so they conceded to demands in 1925. TPC was
divided equally between Britain, France, Persia, and the United States, with 5%
going to Gulbenkian. It was renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) but
Iraq only got a small royalty on each ton extracted.
After oil was struck in 1927, Iraqi oil money flowed into IPC pockets for 45
years. In return for completing two pipelines to the Mediterranean, IPC
received more concessions to develop oil fields in southern Iraq. As time
went by, they received larger areas on both sides of the Tigris River.
The windfall started to crumble in 1958 when the Iraqi army overthrew the Hashemite
monarchy and formed the Republic of Iraq. In 1961, President Abdul Qassem
nationalized 99.5 % of the concession areas, leaving only the producing oilfields
in IPC's control. In 1972, the Arab Socialist Baath Party took control of
the government and nationalized the rest of IPC's assets. The Iraqi
government settled ensuing legal claims in international court, which got rid
of the tax collector but not in battle
In summary, I think it is
obvious that Daniel 11 perfectly matches Middle Eastern history so far (verses 2-20).
Although vague at times, God provided enough key words to distinguish each empire from
the others. When presented chronologically, it is unmistakable. No one has discovered this
before because the information was “sealed until the time of the end”. (Daniel
12:9) With the information unsealed, it proves, without question, that God is actively controlling the
Middle East.
Starting in the next verse, I will explain how the
final empire started back in 1979. Considering the tax collector was eliminated in 1972, I would say that
Daniel 11 is moving right along. It’s just that God’s concept of time is
different from ours. Peter said, “The Lord
is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2Peter 3:9) Even though God is patient, there is a limit because
the future verses, described in Daniel 11, will eventually come and go, just as the previous
empires did. ~
from daniel11truth.com
