As we in the Western world shake off the last vestiges of a Judeo/Christian worldview and morality, it seems to be easier to look the other way when it comes to religious hate crimes. We have instances of attacks on churches – and more and more, we hear Christians branded as “right-wing extremists,” which is an attack in word and not deed. But it cannot be denied that most of the attacks and name-calling we have heard recently are of the anti-Semitic type. People seem to think that it’s OK to call for the death of Jews and the destruction of their homeland, and the driving of Jews “into the sea.” This is not really anything new for the Jewish population over the centuries, but it is certainly pretty novel today, especially in nations that have for a long time prided themselves on diversity, inclusion, and the freedom of all to worship as they choose without interference, and where racists and antisemites have been mostly driven to the sidelines of western societies.
Yet, all through history, many nations have been far more than just “intolerant” of Jewish people. The Jewish people have been grievously abused. The question is, Why? This hatred is irrational in the extreme and really seems to point to a spiritual reason for this big hatred of a rather small group. We believe the unreasoning hatred may at least be partially grounded in the fact that Jews and Israel have been widely known as God’s “chosen people,” a fact that is clearly stated many times in the Bible.
Tevia posed an interesting question to God in “Fiddler on the Roof” about his people being the chosen people, as they were dehumanized and persecuted in Czarist Russia. “Why don’t You choose somebody else for a while?”
Shockingly, Antisemitism seems suddenly today to have become a very acceptable form of bigotry among the uber-politically correct and in America’s elite universities today. Of course, it is not really all that sudden, but has been flying under the radar for some time. But it is utterly unthinkable to millions of Americans that this is truly happening. Until very recently, this animus hasn’t been overtly demonstrated, but now it’s as if someone has ripped the “tolerance” mask off the monster.
While antisemitism seems to have been creeping into acceptance, there appears to be a great but unwarranted concern in the United States by politicians, liberal news media and those leaders within the Progressive movement of the church, that American citizens will commit “hate crimes” against Muslims in this country, in retaliation to the horrific acts of Islamic terrorists that attacked Israel unprovoked a few months ago. We are not saying there is absolutely no animus among the population against Muslims, but think about it – do you know lots of Americans frothing at the mouth to attack Muslims? Yet we’ve seen large groups of people on the streets, blocking traffic and openly calling for the death of Jews and the annihilation of Israel.
To be fair, we should look beyond “people we know” and focus on the “hate crime” statistics in America. According to the 2019 FBI Hate Crime Statistics, about 13.3% of hate crimes are committed against Muslims, whereas 60.3% of the hate crimes committed were anti-Jewish. In other words, there is about 4 ½ times more likelihood of a hate crime being committed against a Jew than a Muslim. That fact is completely ignored by the Left – who are busy protesting across the US, utterly damning Jews and supporting Muslims. We also should consider that the FBI “hate crime” statistic is outdated – from 2019, 5 years ago now! According to Reuters, in October of 2023, US antisemitic incidents up about 400% since Israel-Hamas war began, report says. At the same time, the PC crowd regularly expresses concern about the possible rise (not the actual rise) of anti-Islamic attacks. The new hatred of Jews in America is not all related to mere jealousy concerning “the chosen people” appellation. Most of it seems way past any rationality, and we can only consider it to be a great blindness brought about by forces of evil. If you read the scriptures, you can’t really miss the prophecies of a dire coming persecution of Israel and the Jews, wherein “all the nations of the world” will be aligned against her, and God Himself will save them from utter destruction.
And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. (Zechariah 12:3-4, NKJV)
Though we do not break fellowship with people who disagree with us about prophetic meaning, those Christian brothers and sisters who believe that the Church has completely replaced Israel in God’s heart and plans might want to keep a sharp eye on some of these scriptures regarding Israel. It cannot hurt to just “put a watch” on the many prophetic scriptures regarding Israel, just to see what happens. Israel is NOT the Church, and the Church is not Israel. They are both greatly beloved of God. But back to today…
In Israel today, Muslims have representation in the governing body of Israel; they own businesses and participate as full citizens. Yet, the Muslim nations around Israel have been “cleansed” of Jews. How is this fact overlooked? Yet, while the Muslim nations do not welcome Jews, Israel is being – and has been for some decades – heavily pressured to continue giving up more land to the Muslims for “peace” – yet there will certainly be no peace if they do.
Gaza itself is a major case in point. Israel completely gave up the Gaza Strip to Muslims in 2005, under great pressure from the George W Bush administration. The Israelis erected a strong wall between the two, obviously not being completely convinced that they would get the peace with their Arab neighbors that was promised. Was there peace? For a time, Hamas strengthened its political hold on Gaza and built tunnels from which to attack Israel. The rest is now history. Yet, even now, we don’t think the world, including our own nation, will stop demanding more and more from Israel – for “peace,” of course. For the past almost quarter Century, the U.S. government has and is continuing to work hard at creating a Jew-free zone called the Palestinian State. The Muslims who are clamoring to have the land divided have been clear that the new nation will not allow Jews and have also been clear that this is just the next step to the total elimination of a Jewish nation and, if possible, the elimination of all Jews from the face of the earth.
While being anti-Jewish seems quite acceptable in certain circles these days and certainly tolerated, even fashionable, that same hatred against any other race or people would not be considered OK, and rightly so. Racism is racism, whether against Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or any other ethnic group. While we may not agree with what all religions teach, we certainly have no right to call for their extermination, to say the very least. Yet, blatant anti-Semitism has gained acceptance into our most elite educational institutions.
A question in the “Terrorism by Individuals and Organizations” section of the textbook The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography asks:
If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?
Hmmm. The story first gained public attention with a FOX News Todd Starnes story, Parents Call Textbook Anti-Semitic, in April of 2013. Starnes gave a good thumbnail sketch of the issues and also the context of the quote, which actually demonstrates that the idea in its fuller context is even worse than the shorter quote above shows.
Consider this: The Federal Government and courts have worked hard – regardless of the views of the American people – to force acceptance and celebration of homosexuality, and are currently repeating the process with transgenderism. How would liberal media react if they came across a high school textbook that had a question like:
If a Christian Identity suicide bomber kills several dozen Homosexual teenagers in a Chicago Gold Coast restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against United States government policies and judicial actions?
This would and should be immediately classified as an act of terrorism. What if the terrorist was a Muslim instead of a Christian Identity terrorist? There would be some confusing vocabulary gyrations from the left or perhaps VERY LOUD silence since both homosexuals and Muslims are currently seen as protected groups. However, the comparison example is valid, so why is the one in The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography acceptable, but the other is not?
Joan Graves in her 2013 article I’m Not Anti-Semitic — I’m Anti-Stupid wrote:
Sentence one reads, “Distinguishing terrorism from other acts of political violence can be difficult.” Um….no not really. Political, medical, global, whatever the venue, anytime violence is used to try to force someone to agree with you or at least make them afraid to disagree, is terrorism. I didn’t need an AP class to figure that out.
Speaking of the school textbook example, Grave continues:
In a futile attempt at clarity the paragraph continues. “For example, if a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?” So, as long as it’s considered retaliation it’s acceptable? Well, that’s just what we need to teach in high school. Let’s go into the place where far too many use bullying as justification for mass murder and have them ponder the merits of murdering teenagers in retaliation. Yea, THAT’S a good idea.
The paragraph closes with, “Competing arguments are made: Israel’s sympathizers denounce the act as a terrorist threat to the country’s existence, whereas advocates of the Palestinian cause argue that long-standing injustices and Israeli army attacks on ordinary Palestinian civilians provoked the act.” Sooooo, depending on your point of view terrorism is acceptable? Seriously? That’s what we want to put out there? Good Lord no wonder America is dangling at the bottom of the educational chain.
Graves is correct. It isn’t really difficult to distinguish between terrorism and other supposedly lesser acts of political violence. It is not acceptable to excuse some acts of terrorism while condemning the very same acts if we feel our own favored ox is gored.Ω
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