Super-Power Politics and the New Anti-Semitism – Part One
The Passover season has come and gone. Jewish families across the globe have broken the matzah and eaten bitter herbs. We recalled our slavery in Egypt and God’s triumph over the mightiest nation of ancient times. Yet the majority of Jews who celebrated this Pesach sang the songs of Zion in a strange land – still in the Exile, still “living in Egypt.” The awesome curse – the reversal of the Exodus – of Deuteronomy 24:64-68 is still a factor in our day: “Moreover, YHVH will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth … And YHVH will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘‘You will never see it again!’”
But that is not the only prophetic parallel which flashes a warning light at us in our day. In the same way that a new Pharaoh came to the united throne of Egypt (see Exod 1:8) – a king whose heart had grown cold, indifferent and hardened to the Jewish people and their contribution to Egyptian society through Joseph son of Jacob – so in our day men of influence are rising up who are bringing the leaven of Judenhaß (German for ‘hatred of the Jews’) to the table of world politics. They are setting the stage for a renewed popularization of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli feeling, action and governmental policies. These stirrings are leading to the re-emergence of the same demonic spirit that energized Hitler’s Reich, and they are helping to build an altar for the soon revelation of the anti-Messiah – the anti-Christ.
Here is a brief consideration (and certainly not a comprehensive one) of some present manifestations of the above spirit on anti-Semitism, followed by a challenge to prayer and action.
American manifestations – the intelligence community
The opposite of love, Holocaust author and Nobel Prize recipient Eli Wiesel once said, is not hatred but indifference. Voices are being raised within American public forums which are indifferent to the fate of the Jewish people. These voices urge the President to cut free of any ties to Israel, seeing these as an impediment both to American influence in the Islamic world and to American trade in Middle Eastern markets. One current example is former long-term CIA officer and analyst Michael Scheuer, formerly involved with the South Asian desk (Pakistan and Afghanistan), and who headed the Bin Laden counterterrorism desk from 1996 to 1999.
In his recent book “Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror” (Brassey’s, 2004) Scheuer makes the following astounding declarations:
- “Surely there can be no other historical example of a faraway, theocracy-in-all-but-name of only about six million people that ultimately controls the extent and even the occurrence of an important portion of political discourse and national security debate in a country of 270-plus million people” (p.227).
- “Objectively, al Qaeda does not seem too far off the mark when it describes the U.S.-Israel relationship as a detriment to America”. (p.227)
- “There perhaps was a time in the late 1970s and 1980s when America could afford today’s relationship with Israel, one that drains resources, earns Muslim hatred, and serves no vital U.S. national interest” (p.228).
- “One can only react to this stunning reality by giving all praise to Israel’s diplomats, politicians, intelligence services, U.S.-citizen spies, and the retired U.S. officials and wealthy Jewish-American organizations who lobby and always amenable Congress on Israel’s behalf … The Israelis have succeeded in lacing tight the ropes binding the American Gulliver to the tiny Jewish state and its policies…” (p. 227).
These quotes seem to rise up like wraiths out of a “roomful of mirrors”. They present worrying historical parallels, comparable to the strident barkings of an Austrian corporal-turned-Reichschancellor and Fuehrer.
American manifestations – the political community
Two recent manifestations of a similar nature can be found in the writings and actions of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carter has authored two books “The Blood of Abraham” (1985) (www.danielpipes.org/article/4166) and “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” (2006) (www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/books/14cart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, www.frontpagemag.com/media/pdf/Carter4b.pdf, www.adl.org/carter/reactions.asp).
The first book revealed a cold and unfriendly bias against Israel’s leadership and a strong presupposition of Replacement Theology. The second book attacks Israel, falsely labeling her as an apartheid state even worse than South Africa, and calls for the dividing up of the land of Israel. In the past few weeks Carter has traveled to Syria in the last week to meet with Khaled Mashaal, politburo leader of Hamas (a group on the US list of terrorist organizations). Former President Carter insists that Israel must negotiate with sworn enemy Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood Islamist organization dedicated to the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.
John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt recently published “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” (2007) (www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/books/06grim.html, www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/060403/3edit.htm) in which they make similar charges as did former CIA analyst Scheuer above.
The book has ignited a firestorm of debate in the USA and has been widely condemned as exhibiting poor scholarship. Its publication has created fear among many American Jews that this is a harbinger of a new escalation of American anti-Semitism.
British manifestations
In a recent lecture on British anti-Semitism at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, renowned Neuberger Professor of Modern European and Jewish History Dr. Robert S. Wistrich of Hebrew University (author of ”Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred”, Pantheon, 1991) stated that “Britain has become the center point for the meeting of anti-Semitic trends in Europe”. Wistrich sees four factors which encourage these trends:
- an English literature and culture which is drenched in anti-Semitism (from Chaucer to Shakespeare, and from Dickens through T. S. Elliot to D. H. Lawrence
- a growing Islamic population which is becoming increasingly radicalized
- a hesitant and reticent approach taken by the leadership of England’s Jewish leadership
- the abandonment by the majority of British Christians of their biblical roots, worldviews and beliefs, specifically the Bible-based reasons for a Jewish restoration to the Land of Israel.
Wistrich noted that “the loss of Christian identity in what was the most Bible-believing culture of its day is one of the deeper layers of what has happened here”.
Professor Wistrich also pointed out that today’s British media has adopted an almost universally anti-Israel bias. “You cannot read a British newspaper without encountering a variant of the libel that Zionism is racism or Zionism is Nazism . . . If you bring up the subject of anti-Semitism you are ‘playing the anti-Semitism card’ and you are ‘a dishonest deceitful manipulative Jew’ or ‘lover of Jews’ who is using the language of anti-Semitism ‘to disguise hide or silence criticism of Israel.’”
Islamist manifestations
A recent Jerusalem Post article “Report: Muslim anti-Semitism ‘strategic threat’“ by Haviv Rettig notes that, according to a recent intelligence report, Muslim anti-Semitism is growing both in scope and in extremism, to the point where it has become a credible strategic threat for Israel.
The semi-official Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC, chaired by former Mossad head Efraim Halevy) maintains close contact with Israel’s intelligence community. ITIC’s recently released report notes the worrying growth over the past thirty years of a new hybrid of ancient Koranic anti-Semitism which has now been grafted onto European and Nazi roots. This new perspective views the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as a “historic, cultural and existential struggle for the supremacy of Islam.”
The researchers noted that their report’s focus was on anti-Semitism, not on anti-Zionism. Yet they discovered that these anti-Jewish articles or speeches used terminology which was “confused and intertwined. You can’t distinguish the anti-Zionism from the anti-Semitism.” One of most radical expressions of Muslim anti-Semitism comes from Iran, the report notes, which “is the first example of its kind since Nazi Germany in which a state officially adopts an active policy of anti-Semitism as a means to further its national interests.”
ITIC director Col. (res.) Dr. Reuven Erlich, formerly of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, stated, that this Muslim anti-Semitism is now widespread, popular and expanding. “The anti-Semitism that fed the Holocaust isn’t dead. It is prospering.”
Rees Howell – a sign and a challenge
During WWII a determined intercessor names Rees Howell was led to pray for the protection, restoration and salvation of the Jewish people. He believed that this was one of the last great moves of God in the world, and a matter that all believers in Yeshua should hold near and dear. In the hills and valleys of Wales Howell led his prayer community in pleading with God for the fulfillment of the ancient promises of the Hebrew prophets – the return of the scattered sons and daughters of Israel to their Promised Land, and the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Messiah Jesus.
As this latest wave of cold-hearted and bitter anti-Semitism begins to rain down on our planet, pray for the Lord God of Israel to birth His purposes as the labor pains increase:
- Pray that God will expose Satan’s evil intentions
- Pray for the protection of Jewish people in Israel and worldwide from murderous and potentially destructive terrorist plans and political strategies
- Pray for the revelation to and for the salvation of all those who are opposing God’s heart for Israel’s restoration
- Pray for the full restoration and salvation of the Jewish people through Messiah Yeshua
- Pray about your part in helping to preserve Jewish lives as anti-Semitism spreads and in developing an international underground railroad to help persecuted Israel on its way back home.
In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,
Avner Boskey
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