Wingate’s Controversial Legacy and Christian Zionism

I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.”

Genesis

12:

3

(the israel bible)

April 30, 2023

6 min read

During this season of Israel’s Memorial and 75th Independence Day, we remember all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of Israel. As a Christian Zionist who is not an Israeli citizen, I have been asking myself who I should be remembering in specific? When an IDF rabbi at a memorial service began intoning the prayer “Kol male rachamim (God, full of compassion),” I recalled another such prayer, composed long ago, for another Christian Zionist. 

Major General Orde Wingate was truly larger than life, a man whose dramatic story is almost hard to believe, somehow both tragic and triumphant at the same time. His personal friends and admirers included names like Ben Gurion, Churchill, Weizmann, and Emperor Selassie. He trained Israeli warriors the likes of Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon. The British awarded him one of its highest honors, the Distinguished Service Order. As if that is not enough, his cousin was Lawrence of Arabia. It says something of Wingate’s confidant nature that he was not all that impressed with his cousin. Inexplicably, Orde grew up with a strong sense that he was destined to deliver entire nations.

By happenstance, I got my own connection to Wingate by having an office in the historically landmarked apartment where Orde and his wife Lorna lived during the pivotal years of 1937-1939. Institutions, streets, and squares all over Israel bear the name Wingate, yet somehow, I feel his memory fading. Over the years working in the old Wingate residence, I often pondered, who was he, and what legacy does he leave to us today? 

Lorna Wingate, wife of the British officer

Wingate was a British intelligence officer posted to pre-state Israel in the 1930s. Bullied for his Plymouth Brethren upbringing, Orde grew up as a contrarian and never accepted conventional wisdom without investigation. After seeing the situation in Palestine for himself, he became an ardent Christian Zionist. He believed passionately in the morality of the cause as a fight for human justice and freedom. Other Englishmen would say, ”You know, there are two sides to the conflict in Palestine.” “I know,” Orde would reply, “and I am on the right one.” 

A Jew once asked him if he had read any books on Zionism. “There’s only one important book on the subject. the Tanakh, and I’ve read thoroughly. This is the cause of your survival. I count it as my privilege to help you fight your battle. To that purpose I want to devote my life. I believe that the very existence of mankind is justified when it is based on the moral foundation of the Bible. Whoever lifts a hand against you and your enterprise here should be fought against. Whether it is jealousy, ignorance, or perverted doctrine such as have made your neighbours rise against you, or ‘politics’ which make some of my countrymen support them, I shall fight with you against any of these influences. But remember that is your battle. My part, which I say I feel to be a privilege, is only to help you.”

He pleaded with Britain to “advance the foundation of an autonomous Jewish community with all the means in its power,” adding prophetically: “For pity’s sake, let us do something just and honorable before it [world war] comes. Let us redeem our promises to Jewry and shame the devil of Nazism, Fascism and our own prejudices.” 

Rumours began spreading that Wingate had a Jew stuck up his family tree. He retorted emphatically, “Neither I, nor my wife, nor any member of our families has a drop of Jewish blood in our veins. … I am not ashamed to say that I am a real and devoted admirer of the Jews.”

During the 1930s, the Arabs had launched a campaign of violent terrorism. To the chagrin of the often anti-Semitic British authorities, Wingate trained the Jewish community in defence and cutting-edge military tactics. Moshe Dayan later stated: He “taught us everything we know.” His bold support for Israel earned this non-Jewish hero the nickname HaYedid, “The Friend,” and, “The Father of the IDF.” Had he not died fighting the Japanese in Burma during WWII, Ben Gurion said he would surely have become the first Chief of Staff of the IDF. 

Former IDF Chief-of-Staff and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan

Wingate’s campaign in Palestine was a major success. This earned him the ire of the anti-Zionist British brass and an Arab assassination attempt, which injured him badly. As WWII loomed, the British banned him from Palestine. He openly offered the Zionist leadership to desert the British in order to lead the Jewish army. But they considered him too valuable as a sympathetic British officer. A wounded Wingate left Palestine and spent the rest of his life trying to return. 

In the ongoing debate over exactly what role Gentile Christians should play in biblical Zionism, Wingate is particularly interesting. He was controversial, always pushing the envelope in support of what he fiercely believed was right. He repeatedly criticised leading Zionists, even his friend Chaim Weizmann, for not being pro-active enough. As the horror of the Holocaust progressed, the two reconciled, Weizmann admitting he should have pushed the British harder and Orde admitting he could be too hot headed. 

To many of his secular Israeli troops, Orde was an oddball who delivered long “religious speeches.” Nowadays, as the Religious Zionist community has grown in prominence, Wingate’s sermons would not seem as unusual.

In military philosophy, Wingate was well ahead of his time. He would push himself and his troops to find their mental and physical breaking point. He left the modern Special Forces community, and the IDF, many of their guiding doctrines, which are taken for granted today. But it cost Wingate constantly being labeled an eccentric nutter by academics and journalists. 

For example, after nearly dying of malaria in Africa, Orde developed the simple survival trick of constantly eating raw onions so the mosquitoes would leave him alone. In the 1930s, this made him an eccentric. British military historians also never forgave Wingate for siding with the Jews, or for his disrespect for military brass. Yet, some of his reputation is deserved. He couldn’t stomach those he saw as military bureaucrats who lacked his vision and he enjoyed shocking them by greeting them at camp in the nude. 

“I am not ashamed to say that I am a real and devoted admirer of the Jews.” – Orde Wingate

Wingate’s modern reputation in Israel has in large part been ruined by Israel’s “new historians,” especially Tom Segev, who wished to purge Israel from any of its national heroes. He was called “ruthless,” a “villain,” “war criminal,” and a “sadist.” But, as historian Michael Oren has noted, in their crusade against Wingate, they inexcusably twisted the words of historical sources to, at times, say the opposite of what they do. They attributing actions to him that the records do not support, and went to extreme lengths to frame his real actions without context or complexity. 

His troops bear witness that he continually demanded they not mistreat Arab prisoners or civilians. Yet, in a particularly brutal guerrilla conflict against an enemy determined to blur the line between civilian and combatant, he did not always succeed. Wingate was a flawed human who made mistakes and struggled with deep depression. It also seems that his own personal relationship with God was not very strong until later in life. 

In light of his time and context, I find his life astounding. He was even an anti-imperialist, which hurt his military career in the British Empire. In the midst of fighting to successfully free Ethiopia from the Italian fascists, he stated, “To give the black races of Africa a chance to realize a free civilization is a worthy cause for which to die and more worthy than a mere defense of one’s own midden [pile of dung].” Yet, he was not a self-hater and wanted the best for Britain, citing Proverbs, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” 

Wingate died fighting to stop the Japanese fascists from taking Burma and India. He left Lorna behind as a pregnant widow and without seeing the miracle of Israel’s rebirth only four years later. Lorna, who was no less a Zionist than Orde, continued to fight for Israel. In Orde’s memory, she swayed Ethiopia in Israel’s favor at the landmark UN vote of 1947. As the War of Independence raged, Lorna got in a Piper Cub and airdropped Orde’s Bible to encourage his former troops, who were hopelessly cut off and ready to sacrifice themselves to hold Ramot Naftali. Miraculously, the battle turned and today that Bible is kept in a museum at Kibbutz Ein Harod.

When the news of his death reached Jerusalem in 1944, the large Yeshurun Synagogue composed a special version of the Kol Male Rachamim in his memory, 

“Remember unto him his love for the words of Your Prophets concerning the return of the House of Israel to its Holy Land … May the name of Orde Wingate be remembered in the book of redemption of the House of Israel for eternity.”

John Enarson is the Christian Relations Director at Cry For Zion (cryforzion.com). He is happy to receive input or questions about his articles.

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