I have two questions. A) Why should the generation Jesus mentioned in Matt. 24:34 start with the rebirth of Israel, when Jesus didn’t mention this event when describing the end-time generation? B) In other words, is your position that Israel’s re-birth appears to be the earliest chronological sign even though Jesus didn’t mention it when describing the end-time generation?
Isaiah 11:10-11, Ezekiel 36-37, Amos 9:11-15 and others all tell of the end times regathering of Israel. Since Jesus was being asked about signs that said the End of the Age had come, and responded by warning those in Judea to flee into the mountains when they saw the abomination of desolation (which can only happen in the Temple), and since He spoke about the Great Tribulation, an End Times judgment for the Jews first mentioned in the Old Testament, most commentators believe that the End Times couldn’t begin until the Jews were officially back in their own land.
The Lord’s brother James also confirmed this in Acts 15 when He said in effect that after the Lord was finished building His Church he would then have the Temple rebuilt as Amos 9:11 promised.
Therefore the re-emergence of Israel in 1948 is viewed as the first of the End Times signs. So then according to Matt 24:34 the generation being born when that happened will still be alive when the Lord returns.