In 1636 Harvard University was founded as a school to train Christian ministers. In 1646 the University adopted “Rules and precepts that are observed in the college.” Here are some of those foundational points:
- 2. Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him (Prov. 2:3).
- 3. Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in Theoreticall observations of Language and Logick, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).
- 4. That they eshewing all profanation of God’s name, Attributes, Word, Ordinances, and times of Worship, do studie with good conscience carefully to retaine God, and the love of his truth in their mindes, else let them know, that (notwithstanding their Learning) God may give them up to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate minde, 2Thes. 2:11, 12. Rom. 1:28.
- 6. None shall…frequent the company and society of such men as lead an unfit, and dissolute life . . .
- 8. If any Scholar shall be found to transgresse any of the Lawes of God, or the Schoole…he may bee admonished at the publick monethly Act
The motto of the University adopted in 1692 was ‘Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae’ (Latin for ‘Truth for Christ and the Church’). But as Harvard University increasingly abandoned Evangelical theology and embraced German Liberalism, its motto morphed into what is in use today – simply the word ‘VERITAS’ (Latin for ‘Truth’).
Neither Christ nor the Truth
Since then, Harvard has become a bastion of anti-Christian teaching; it has lost its once-legendary Ivy League backbone for defending Biblical truth. A recent October 2024 lecture at Harvard by anti-Hamas speaker Mosab Hassan Yousef (son of one of Hamas’ founders) was only granted official permission to go forward if a University-authored statement was read out, informing the audience that pro-Hamas protestors would be allowed up to ten minutes to disrupt the event before being removed. The statement noted that it would allow pro-Hamas demonstrators access to the public pulpit, because “speech is privileged in the University community.” At Harvard, so it seems, free speech for jihadis trumps the unimpeded right of God’s watchmen to call out a warning.
On the Harvard campus, just one day after Donald J. Trump’s presidential re-election victory on November 5, 2024, many anti-Trump students and faculty found themselves spiraling into depression:
- Physics professor Jennifer E. Hoffman sent an email to physics students and faculty that her office would be “a space to process the election. Many in our community are sleep-deprived, again grieving for glass ceilings that weren’t shattered, fearful for the future, or embarrassed to face our international colleagues,” she wrote. “I stress-baked several pans of lemon bars to share.”
- Student Rachele D. Chung declared: “I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump won, because he is literally a felon, he’s a criminal, and he’s a racist. I just can’t believe America voted that way.”
- Harvard student and College Democrats Co-President Tova L. Kaplan stated: “I’m very clear eyed about what this election means in terms of emboldening misogynistic, racist, hateful rhetoric.”
- Harvard Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko wrote in a Wednesday email to students in Economics 1010a that the course’s in-class quizzes would be optional: “As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit. Feel free to take time off if needed.”
- Harvard student Jack A. Kelly said he “was tempted to say ‘no’ to class today. I had some professors that have been like, ‘If you need to not come to class, that’s understandable.’ This definitely takes a toll on people’s mental wellbeing.”
- On Wednesday morning, College Dean Rakesh Khurana told students at Harvard’s freshman dining hall to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”
- One Harvard student told the Harvard Crimson student newspaper that she cried for an hour upon learning that VP Kamala Harris had lost the race.
Can snowflakes endure a marathon?
According to the Pew Research Center report of August 9, 2024, about six out of every ten American (62%) say that a major problem in the U.S. today is “people being too easily offended by things others say.” A February 2, 2017 article in USA TODAY describes such easily offended people as ‘snowflakes’ – a term referring to “young people who take offense [at] political comments.” The USA TODAY article says that this term can refer to people who are “as weak and vulnerable as a speck of snow.”
In an early morning tweet the day after the elections, Elon Musk made a thoughtful observation regarding Democratic shock at a Republican victory: “For anyone, whether in America or other countries, who finds this result shocking, they should reconsider where they get their information. This trend was obvious in X for months, but almost all the legacy mainstream media pushed a completely false reality. They lied to you.’
- Fragility, brittleness and intolerance are commonplace among many today – even among some Evangelicals – regarding attitudes toward Israel or toward national leaders on the more conservative side of the political spectrum. When these traits are coupled with rising and virulent anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, this is a double-indicator that a major tremor is coming – a devastating temblor – one which is about to catapult mankind into a ramped-up repeat of Hitlerian days.
Harvard snowflakes may get easily rattled by the presence of anti-Hamas and pro-Israel lecturers on sacred campus property; they may spin into deep depression from the careful exercise of the democratic process in America (even if it brings a Big Orange Man to the White House). But the truth is that there are actually real threats coming down the track for the Western world. Recent violent jihadi attacks in the Netherlands on Israeli soccer fans (on the night of November 7-8, 2024) present another strong wake-up call to a narcissistic generation – one that, even though it calls itself woke, it has actually fallen deep asleep.
Santa Claus is coming to town
Amsterdam has always been a magnet for tourists, offering picturesque canals, beautiful old buildings, cream cakes and well-prepared cuisine. For those who love the Christmas season, Santa Claus’ origins are often connected to this city. Santa is known in the Netherlands as Sint Nicolaas or Sinterklaas. In medieval times, the Feast Day in his honor was usually the occasion of mass public drunkenness. Though the origins of the red-suited white-bearded figure were originally from Greece, Santa has taken on a distinct Dutch hue over the years. Dutch settlers in Manhattan brought Mr. Claus’ toy-giving traditions over to New York City, and from America they have spread worldwide.
Another old tradition started not far from Greece, and it too has spread worldwide. Its founder also had a beard, though its color is a matter of dispute. That founder was Mohammed, and the tradition he started in the Hejaz region of Arabia is called ‘Islamic jihad.’ Based on the classic Islamist texts of the Quran and the Hadith, the zealous adherents of the tradition of jihad (jihad warriors or mujāhidīn) have spread their message from Mecca to Manhattan, and from Alexandria to Ankara – even to Amsterdam.
Time line of anti-Israel activities
The past few days have seen intensive pogrom-like attacks on over 3,000 Israelis in Amsterdam. Here is a time-line and explanation of those events.
- Pro-Palestine anti-Israel protests were held on November 3, 2024 in front of the Queen’s Palace at Dam Square, Amsterdam.
- On Monday, November 4, 2024, Spain’s AS newspaper reported that a pro-Palestinian Islamic group linked with the Communist Party, ‘Week 4 Palestine’, was planning to protest outside Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena, targeting the Israeli team and its fans. On Tuesday, it was reported that in addition to Football Club Maccabi’s regular security, Israeli Mossad agents would provide additional protection to the Israeli football team.
- Leading up to the game, intense efforts were made by BDS organizations and ‘Week 4 Palestine’ to have the game canceled. Signs and banners appeared across the city reading, “Kick Israel out of the UEFA.”
- On November 6, 2024, the Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema, the local police and the public prosecutor decided to ban the pro-Hamas group ‘Week 4 Palestine’ from demonstrating outside the main gate of the Arena, since “violent confrontations are a realistic project.” An alternate location for protest was offered at Anton de Komplein Square, a few hundred metres from the stadium.
- ‘Week 4 Palestine’ announced that they were expecting “a large number of Zionist football hooligans” at the Arena, and expressed concerned that, somehow, IDF soldiers would appear and “cause issues.” They encouraged anti-Israeli protesters to hide their keffiyeh headscarves and their Palestine symbols until the protests were under way.
- Israeli fans who traveled to Amsterdam said that they were attacked by Turkish and Moroccan gangs also on the night of Wednesday November 6, 2024. “They waited for us outside the casino. Every Israeli who ordered a taxi got ambushed by eight Turks who beat them up. In the end, we walked with a police escort from the casino to Dam Square, with Turks carrying sticks and such passing by us the entire way. It was the scariest experience I’ve had in football.”
- A November 6, 2024 eyewitness, Babak Taghvaee, posted on Twitter: “This shocking incident has taken place in Amsterdam, Netherlands last night. Dutch football fans all with Turkish and Moroccan roots used clubs and knives to attack Israeli tourists. They caused injuries to their victims by using their knives and then pushed them into the canals.”
- ‘Week 4 Palestine’ posted a video of a man who had been pushed into a canal, with the caption, “A Zionist got a free swimming lesson.” A voice can be heard saying in the video, “Say free Palestine and we go.” In another tweet, ‘Week 4 Palestine’ doxed a Maccabi fan, posting a photo of his stolen passport which showed him dressed in his Israeli Air Force uniform.
- Stun grenades were thrown on Wednesday night at apartments/Air BnB’s where Israelis were staying.
Statements of world leaders
U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, wrote that she was “horrified by the attacks tonight in Amsterdam, which are terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, wrote that “we are receiving very disturbing reports of extreme violence against Israelis and Jews on the streets of Holland. There is a pogrom currently taking place in Europe in 2024.”
The King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, told the President of Israel Isaac Herzog on November 8, 2024: “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
The Israeli Embassy in The Hague stated: “Horrific scenes from Amsterdam last night, echoing Europe’s darkest history. Hundreds of fans of Israel’s Maccabi TLV were ambushed and brutally attacked in Amsterdam last night after the match against Ajax. Mobs chanted anti-Israel slogans and proudly shared videos of their violent acts on social media – kicking, beating, even running over Israeli citizens. On the eve of Kristallnacht [November 8-9, 1938] – when Jews in Nazi Germany faced brutal attacks – it is horrifying to witness antisemitic violence on the streets of Europe once again.”
Geert Wilders, Dutch politician representing the largest party in the government, the Party for Freedom (PVV), tweeted: “A pogrom in the streets of #Amsterdam. We have become the Gaza of Europe. Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews. I will NOT accept that. NEVER. The authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens. Never again.”
Wilders added: “Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable.”
What happened in Amsterdam?
On the evening of Thursday, November 7, 2024, Muslim gangs of Turkish and Moroccan origin began attacks which quickly intensified into pogroms. Their target was the 3,000 Israeli fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv who had come to enjoy the November 7 UEFA Europa League soccer match between the Maccabi team and the local Amsterdam team Ajax at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena.
Crowds of Middle Eastern Turks and Moroccans were waiting outside the Arena for Israeli fans to come out after the game, prepared for a large-scale pogrom. Groups of Arabs dressed in black gathered in pre-arranged clusters of 5 to 10 in alleys and key exits from various train stations, especially around Amsterdam’s main Dam Square and also the streets near hotels where Israelis were staying. The gangs had precise intelligence where to wait and, as soon as they spotted Israelis, they attacked them in many locations across the city with bats, knives and other weapons, yelling “Free Palestine.” A 30 year-old Israeli Maccabi fan, who had recently finished four months of reserve duty in Gaza, stated: “We were ambushed.”
Israeli fans ran to hide in hotels, restaurants and businesses near the Arena. Video footage on social media shows fans being beaten, kicked, chased with knives, punched, run over by vehicles. One video shows a man been kicked to the ground, while he yells at them “I’m not Jewish.” An Israeli fan told a journalist how a group of Arabs ran over to him, pulling out knives. He declared, “The police here abandoned us. Every fourth person walking the street is a Muslim who has come to attack Jews.”
In the middle of the pogrom, one Israeli fan called his friend’s cell phone to check up on him; “A voice in Arabic answered,” he said. Another Israeli interviewed said: “We experience the very thing they told us in school would never happen [to Jews] again.” Arab crowds threw fireworks into hotels where Israelis were hiding. Israelis at the scene said that Amsterdam police left Maccabi fans unaccompanied after they exited the Johan Cruyff Arena, and provided no escort for them at all, from the moment they boarded the trains to their hotels.
Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema described the terror attacks as ‘hit and run.’ She added that Arab men on scooters were driving around the city, searching for Israelis to attack. One 24 year-old Israeli fan, Adi Reuben, told the BBC:
- “Last night we got off the metro station and started walking towards the Mozart hotel where we were staying. More than 10 men who looked Arab or Turkish just came up to me and my friends and asked us ‘where are you from’. They shouted ‘Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF’. They started to mess with me and I realized I had to run, but it was dark and I didn’t know where to go. I fell to the floor and ten people were kicking me. They were shouting ‘Filasṭīn’ [Palestine]. They were kicking me on the floor for about a minute, then they walked off, they weren’t afraid of anything. I realized I had full blood on my nose and my nose was broken and it is very painful. I also couldn’t see well for about 30 minutes after it happened.” Adi added: “This was a specific attack that was organized beforehand.”
At least 62 rioters were arrested that night, Dutch police said, and at least five people were taken to hospital with injuries.
Former Harvard student Shabbos Kestenbaum posted a tweet dripping with dry sarcasm, which was accompanied by videos of Islamist violence: “I am deeply thankful that the Muslim refugees hunting for Jews with knives tonight in Amsterdam are only anti-Zionists and not in any way motivated by Jew-hate.”
I’d hammer out danger, I’d hammer out a warning
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora and Battle Against Antisemitism (MDBAA) has been sending security intelligence briefs to Dutch authorities regarding Palestinian violence planned against Jewish and Israeli targets since 2022. These warnings culminated in the MDBAA issuing three hot warnings at 1900 hours on November 7, 2024 to Dutch authorities about upcoming attacks in Amsterdam planned by pro-Hamas groups targeting the Israel football club members and their fans, against locations popular among Israelis.
- A warning regarding a violent demonstration to be led by pro-Palestinian activist APPA
- A specific warning about a hit planned on a Border Patrol IDF soldier who was a Maccabi fan
- A warning about an attack on the Leonardo Hotel where Israelis were staying, where the rioters would incite violence and attack specific individuals while broadcasting those attacks on social media.
These warnings had been passed on, first to SHABAK (Israeli FBI) and to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, who then passed them on to the local security forces of Holland – the party responsible for the soccer fans safety. The MDBAA noted that, on Wednesday night November 7, 2024, at 2100 they received an update that the Israeli soldier under threat was informed of the danger and was able to take precautionary measures. Also, the Israeli security contacts were informed by local Amsterdam police that they had received these updates and was responding accordingly.
Israeli Ministry of Diaspora and Battle Against Antisemitism released a statement on November 8, 2024 that, to their regret, the local Dutch forces failed in their task to defend the Israeli citizens soccer fans, and that by 0230 am Israeli time on November 8, 2024, events on the ground in Amsterdam got totally out of hand. Despite clear warnings from Israeli security intelligence, it turns out that the Dutch authorities reportedly ignored the warnings, allowing violent acts to proceed and later attempted to blame Israeli soccer fans for “provocative behavior.”
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry further stated on the morning of November 8, 2024: “As of 3:30 a.m., we have transmitted additional information from the networks which are assisting the security forces in compiling an up-to-date picture of the situation.”
Keeping up with the Joneses
There is an assertion that many Israelis respond with when asked about whether or not another Holocaust will ever happen again to the Jewish people. That declaration is: “Never again!” We Israelis for the most part believe (and hope) that our people will be able to live a normal life; will be able to fit in to the family of nations and live in peace and prosperity; will have our children grow up without the threat of terrorism and murderous neighbors. We hope and pray for the blessing of God on the work of our hands.
- Yet the words of the prophet Ezekiel echo back at us and our whispered prayers: “And whatever comes into your mind certainly will not come about, when you say: ‘We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, serving wood and stone’” (Ezekiel 20:32). God has chosen His Jewish people to be different, and He has given us a different destiny: “For I see him from the top of the rocks, and I look at him from the hills. Behold, a people that lives in isolation, and is not numbered among the nations” (Numbers 23:9). The hatred of the nations pushes us to ask the big questions: what does the chosenness of Israel mean? Why is God working things out this way? If we will never be able to fit in and be like everyone else, what does God want that we should do? What does He want that we should be? What is the destiny of Israel, God’s chosen people?
Holland in times past was perhaps the most friendly country of all to the Jewish people, and Amsterdam was one of the Jewish people’s favorite watering holes. But now it has become a city known for murderous pogroms. The country of Corrie ten Boom has morphed into a haven for jihadi monsters. The God of Jacob is calling His Jewish people home. According to the promise of the ‘Dry Bones Vision’ in Ezekiel 37:1-14, YHVH will fill us – the whole people of Israel – with His Spirit and transform us into “a mighty army, much much” (original Hebrew wording). This vision needs to be fixed before our eyes, and be the substance and focus of our prayers!
How should we then pray?
- Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations
- Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel
- Pray for the annulling of Iranian war strategies and counter-attacks, and for the blocking and frustration of jihadi plans against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8)
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips
- 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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