Broccoli and blessings

The 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush once commented at a news conference on March 22, 1990: “I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid. And my mother made me eat it. Now I’m president of the United States. And I’m not gonna eat any more broccoli!”

A Hebrew maxim states, “L’ta’am vare’ach ein l’hitvake’ach!” (‘Regarding taste and smell, there really is no debate!”  English historian William Camden stated in 1605: “All the proofe of a pudding, is in the eating.” So POTUS Bush evidently did have the right to express his strong aversion to the green vegetable he had been forced to eat as a child – even if turns out that broccoli is good for you . . .

How the U.S. Vice-President evaluates the problem of anti-Semitism

On December 16, 2025, U.S. Vice President JD Vance responded on X to an article by Jewish commentator Yair Rosenberg, ‘What J.D. Vance – and many others – miss about American anti-Semitism.’ Rosenberg stated that “the research collectively suggests that America is becoming more anti-Semitic because its young people are becoming more anti-Semitic. This finding flies in the face of the folk wisdom that prejudice is the province of the old and will die out with them.”

Vance’s rejoinder was an attack on Rosenberg’s professionalism. Writing on X, he stated: “Mainstream journalism is just profoundly uninteresting and lame, consumed by its own pieties . . .   These guys … all lack curiosity and introspection.” To get a different take on the matter, read Rod Dreher’s cutting-edge article of November 11, 2025.

Rosenberg responded to Vance’s words: “Many liberals are more comfortable calling out conservative anti-Semitism, and Vance appears most comfortable focusing on anti-Jewish sentiments among immigrants, while sidestepping the same problem on the American right … Anti-Semitism predates our present political and religious divides. Before there were capitalists, Communists, Republicans, Democrats, or even Christians or Muslims, there was anti-Jewish prejudice. Which means that although such bigotry is expressed by all of these communities, it has roots in more fundamental forces. The effort to identify and understand these forces is what drew me to  … investigate how anti-Semitism operates as a conspiracy theory that appeals to actors across the political and religious spectrum.”

Is ‘not liking Israel’ like ‘not liking broccoli’?

An Israel-bashing white nationalist who uses antisemitic tropes (Sarah Stock) and lists herself on X with a cross and the phrase ‘Christ is king,’ responded to Vance with an anti-Israeli barb: “Actually White conservative zoomers don’t really like Israel anymore either, JD.”

Vance then responded by moving positively in Sarah Stock’s direction, stating: “I would say there’s a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-Semitism.” The Vice-President is back-pedaling here, stating that not liking Israel is an acceptable position, and such a stance should not be classified as anti-Semitism.  Vance is clarifying that he does not define anti-Israel sentiment as necessarily anti-Semitic.

The VP’s position is quite different from conservative spokesmen like Charlie Kirk and Senator Ted Cruz, who spoke with great clarity about the dual threats of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism, and warned that this poison is now manifesting among Republicans. Vance’s recent shift from a pro-Israel spin to a position which resonates more sympathetically with young anti-Israel Republicans may of course be politically motivated. Unfortunately this PC pandering feeds a growing anti-Jewish sentiment on the right side of America’s political world (which has dropped from 78% sympathy for Israel to 64%).

Inna Vernikov, a City Council Republican Jewish lawmaker who represents a south Brooklyn district with a large Russian Jewish population, did not attend the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala in the US on Saturday December 13, 2025 whose guest list included white nationalists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists. On Sunday December 14, 2025, Vernikov posted on X about the Republicans’ growing antisemitism problem:

• “Antisemitism has no party. For years, antisemitic rhetoric has dominated THE LEFT and has fully infiltrated the Democratic Party, as spineless politicians refused to take action or stand up for Jewish communities, thereby allowing the rot to fester and the cancer to metastasize. This rhetoric & inaction continues to result in violence, murder and terror the likes of which we saw in Sydney. Unfortunately, today the same venom has entered corners of the conservative movement and the hard RIGHT WING of the Republican Party. Lunatics like Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who spew bigoted, racist and antisemitic rhetoric, should be condemned and excommunicated from the Republican Party never to be welcomed again. . . . I will DISASSOCIATE myself from any event, individual, or organization whether Democrat or Republican, that welcomes these vile bigots into their mist, defends them or amplifies their voices”

It is common knowledge that the Democratic/leftist wing of the US body politic is already captive to similar (but leftist) anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish drum bangers like NYC’s incoming mayor Mamdani, the Squad (and here) and Bernie Sanders.

• What do the Scriptures say about ‘not liking Israel’? Is it just a question of personal preference – kinda like Bush’s dislike for broccoli – or is something more significant at stake?

Cruzing with Tucker

On Tuesday June 17, 2025 Tucker Carlson interviewed Senator Ted Cruz on his podcast. The heated exchange focused to a large extent on Carlson’s negative obsession with Israel. Cruz expressed his belief that God’s calling on the Jewish people is irrevocable; that whoever blesses the Jewish people will be blessed, while whosoever curses the Jewish people (which includes cursing their state) will be cursed:

• “As a Christian growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things.”

During that podcast, Tucker Carlson mocked Cruz for not being able to quote chapter and verse on that passage. The relevant quote, by the way, found in at least three biblical passages, including Genesis 12:3 (referring to Abraham and to his physical descendants), Genesis 27:29 (referring to Isaac) and Numbers 24:9 (which states that the promise applies to the entire Jewish people). Carlson then states off-handedly that he thinks the passage in question is in Genesis 16, but he is incorrect here.  Tucker then sarcastically disses Cruz for expressing his own theological understanding: “You’re a senator and now you’re throwing out theology. And I am a Christian and I am allowed to weigh in on this!” Tucker is trying to score some cheap debating points, but does not seem to understand that calling himself a Christian does not mean that his ‘weighing in” on this or any other issue has either biblical basis or truth-based validity. When Cruz says that “most people understand that line in Genesis to refer to the Jewish people, God’s chosen people,” Tucker responds: “That’s not what it says.” This flippant response shows that Carlson adheres to Replacement Theology, denying that the gifts and calling which God has given to the Jewish people (see Romans 11:28-29) are still valid today. Carlson’s theology is an anti-Semitic one, based on centuries of theological contempt on the part of ‘the Church Fathers’ for God’s chosen people.

The Hebrew of Genesis 12:3 decisively solves this argument between Carlson and Cruz. Let’s look at it now.

A promise is forever, and so are God’s gifts

The God of Jacob covenanted to Abraham three unconditional things (see Romans 11:28-29):  

• one, the unconditional gift of the Land to the Jewish people
• two, the unconditional gift of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants being the covenant people
• three, the unconditional protective blessing and cursing dynamics over the Jewish people

• YHVH said to Abram, “Get out of your land, your native country and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever makes light of you (Hebr., qalal), him I will curse (Hebr., arar). And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Though most English Bibles use the verb ‘curse’ twice in Genesis 12:3 (as in ‘cursed is the one who curses you’), there are actually two very different Hebrew verbs used here. The first verb, qalal, has the following range of meanings:

• to consider as superficial or as of little account
• to treat with contempt
• to make light of
• to view as being a small matter

The second verb arar refers to the process of binding someone with a curse or an enchantment, and is used when invoking the name of God that He might cause the curse to work (cf., Lexicon In Veteris Testamenti Libros, ‘Arar,’ ‘Qalal,’ pp.89-90, ed. L. Kohler, W. Baumgartner, Leiden, E.J. Brill 1958, p. 840).

God is stating that each individual (the Hebrew verb used here is in the singular – ‘whoever makes light of you’) will be weighed based on his own heart-attitude to Jacob’s descendants. If someone scorns, makes light, is contemptuous toward, or doesn’t like the Jewish people or their state, he will be faced with God’s strong disapproval – indeed, YHVH’s curse. YHVH is clearly declaring that one’s attitude to the Jewish people is not like one’s attitude to broccoli, à la President Bush. He is pronouncing that a person who does not like Israel comes under a spiritual curse. From this perspective, Vice-President Vance’s flippant statement about those who do not like Israel – the God of Jacob sees such attitudes in a far less tolerant way.

Jeremiah sums the matter up with his prophetic declaration:

• “Therefore all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity! And those who plunder you will become plunder, and all who plunder you I will turn into plunder. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares YHVH, because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is [only] Zion, no one cares for her!’” (Jeremiah 30:16-17).

When podcasters like Tucker Carlson sarcastically shower contempt on the Jewish people, on the Jewish land, and on those watchmen on the walls who defend the Jewish people – they are bringing on themselves the curse of Abraham’s covenant.  Their poison needs to be discerned from afar and whole-heartedly rejected. Believers in the God of Jacob need to pray:

• for Israel’s protection
• for America’s repentance
• for the gift of repentance for people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens

Lifting the veil of darkness off of the Body of Messiah

In the same way as a veil has been placed upon some Jewish eyes (see 2 Corinthians 3:14-16) regarding a difficulty in recognizing the Messiahship of Yeshua, so in our day a veil of judgment has been placed upon many Gentile eyes (see Romans 11:18-25) regarding God’s priority love and covenant faithfulness to the Jewish people:

• “In relation to the gospel [the Jewish people are] enemies [of the gospel] on your account, but in relation to God’s choice they are beloved on account of the fathers [the Patriarchs]; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29)

Paul prophesied long ago that even believers from among the nations of the world would sooner or later manifest arrogance (Romans 11:18), conceit (Romans 11:20), ignorance (Romans 11:25) and lack of awareness (Romans 11 :25) concerning the calling of the Jewish people and God’s heart for them.

The blowback of Replacement Theology has Last Days ramifications

Those who scorn the Jewish people, who scorn the restoration of the Jewish state, end up scorning the heart and strategies of the God of Jacob. They also end up coming under the influence of malign spiritual forces which seek the destruction of the Hebrew nation.

The shifting of America in our day from a strong position of standing with Israel to a cooling of heart regarding the people of Jacob and the Jewish state; the rise of anti-Semitic attacks on a daily basis across the USA, Europe and Australia – all these reveal that one’s theological beliefs about the sons and daughters of Jacob affect not only the destiny of individuals (as per Genesis 12:3) but also the destiny of all nations concerned.

How shall we then pray?

• Pray for Israel’s protection as enemies surround her physically and spiritually

• Pray for repentance from anti-Semitism and from cold-heartedness to the Jewish people to sweep over this planet

• Pray for the gift of repentance to open blind eyes of podcasters and media people who have become willing tools in the hands of an anti-Semitic spiritual enemy

• Pray for the entire people of Israel to seek and find salvation in Messiah Yeshua

• Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth!

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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