Olivier Melnick

November 14, 2018 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

To the antisemite, we are all Jews!

In the aftermath of the Pittsburgh Synagogue massacre, a lot of Jewish people are starting to ask themselves the same questions that European Jews have been grappling with for a couple of decades.
• Are Jewish people no longer safe in America?
• Do we all need to move to Israel?
• What can be done to fight the evil of antisemitism?

The Tree of Life Synagogue massacre might have appeared like the act of an isolated deranged person, but it was a symptom as much as it was a problem. The problem of evil in our postmodern world cannot be ignored. When we relegate the actions of an evil person to insanity, we exonerate personal responsibility. Evil is willful while insanity is often uncontrollable. Hitler was evil not insane!

There is a real danger today for Jewish people everywhere except in Israel because except for the Jewish State, all foreign governments approach antisemitism differently and they are not necessarily very efficient. Definitions of what constitutes antisemitism vary from country to country and sometimes even from various organizations within the same country. That is one reason why it is difficult to fight since acts against Jewish people are often under-reported, misreported or worse…not reported, especially if it involves a Muslim. The politically correct fear of insulting a particular group is so prevalent in the United States that an antisemitic crime might simply be categorized as a violent crime in fears of reprisals.

It is time for all Jews to unite against antisemitism, but unfortunately, we are far from being united, and it helps the enemy greatly. Jewish people define themselves in a variety of ways including religiosity, ethnic origins, and Zionism to name just a few. It can get confusing when one doesn’t differentiate between Jewishness (ethnic connection) and Judaism (religious affiliation). But really, one can be ethnically Jewish without practicing Judaism and one can practice Judaism without being born Jewish.

Then you have messianic Jews. Those of us who claim that you can be Jewish and believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. Truly if one can be Jewish (ethnically) independently from believing in anything, one can remain Jewish (ethnically) when they believe in anything, including that Yeshua of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Jewish community who doesn’t recognize Yeshua as Messiah, also rejects the idea that once we follow His teaching we remain Jews. This 2000-year old debate is far from over, and it must be noted that Christian antisemitism hasn’t helped the matter.

Considering all the ways we can define who is a Jew, there is one fact that the antisemites are right about…We are all Jews, and as such we are a nuisance, and in some cases, as we witnessed during the Tree of Life bloody massacre “All Jews deserve to die”. My point is that to an antisemite if a Jew is Ultra-Orthodox, agnostic, Reconstructionist or even Messianic, he remains a Jew. The antisemite is an equal opportunity xenophobe. He does not discriminate. To that person…We are all Jews indeed!

Fighting the monster of the New Antisemitism is akin to fighting the mythological Hydra of Lerna. Whenever you cut one of its many heads, two more grew in its place. Mythology tells us that Heracles had to enroll the help of his cousin Lolaus to cut all the heads at once and cauterize the neck with fire so that they wouldn’t grow back. I don’t ever want to be seen as promoting mythology over biblical truth, but by analogy, this story teaches us that antisemitism is a regenerating monster that will grow exponentially until all Jews will put their differences aside. Now is the time to join forces and cut off all of antisemitism’s ugly heads such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), Christian Palestinianism, Replacement Theology, Campus Intifada, and anti-Zionism.

Jesus will still be here tomorrow and we can debate His claims of being the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world later. Yet, if we don’t fight antisemitism together NOW, there might not be enough Jews to hold hands tomorrow. Incidentally, there are still quite a few evangelical Christians who love Israel and the Jewish people, and their hands are also worth holding in solidarity against the monster of antisemitism.

October 29, 2018 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

All hate crimes are a slap in God’s face!

It was just another peaceful Shabbat morning at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Jewish worshippers had gathered as a community to spend time together and with G-d. Before they knew it, antisemitic Neo-Nazi Robert Bowers barged in with a semi-automatic weapon, screaming “all Jews must die!” and aimed at the crowd. By mid-day, the death toll had reached 11. It is believed that this tragedy was the largest and deadliest attack on Jews on American soil. One of the victims was a 97-year-old woman who had survived the Holocaust. Our prayers go out to the community, the families who lost loved ones and those of the Jewish community, left behind to move on. How do you move on from such a bloody massacre?

The safety of Jews is becoming a real challenge on a global scale. What do we Jews have in common over the rest of the world? We could easily answer that we are equally hated no matter where we go, except maybe for Eretz Yisrael. I would much rather spend time reflecting on all the other things that connect Jewish people around the world such as culture, traditions, language, history and more, but the sad reality is that the irrational hatred of our people is becoming more and more of a common denominator. What can men and women of good will do about this?

First, we need to realize that hate crimes are increasing exponentially. When we speak of hate crimes, we don’t just speak of crimes against Jewish people, but crimes against any group based on race, creed or religion. The FBI defines a hate crime this way “A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a ‘criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.’ ”

While the FBI insists that hate itself is not a crime and works hard to protect our freedom of speech, the line is being crossed more often than not to transfer hatred into actions against many different groups. Is there a difference between a hate crime and an act of terrorism? Since terrorism’s primary goal is to disrupt the normal flow of everyday’s life, upset the normal and put people on edge, so they start fearing their every move, the answer is NO! Hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, Christians, homosexuals or any other group are wrong and punishable by law.

According to a 2016 FBI study, over half (54.4%) of all hate crimes in the US are committed against Jewish people. The numbers are probably a bit higher if we take into account the crimes that are not reported and those not recorded as hate crimes. In comparison, hate crimes against Muslims only account for 24.5%. Those numbers come from a category titled “religious bias.” For Jewish people, it even gets a bit more complicated because one can be Jewish and not religious. In fact, about 85% of all Jewish people are not religious. This, unfortunately, doesn’t exclude them from the danger posed by hate crimes.

According to another study by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitism has surged 60% in 2017. Jewish people in America are starting not to feel safe anywhere. The sad part is that sometimes, the hatred coming against us, that materializes into hate crimes, is at the hand of people who have never had any interaction with Jewish people. Their antisemitism is viral and irrational. In their warped minds, the Jews are responsible for the ills of the world. Ask them for the reason why they think that way, and they are at a loss, except that “Jews must die!”

Jewish people have been victims of hate crimes more than all other groups combined, but this is not a competition. Hate crimes are an abomination and shouldn’t happen anywhere, especially in the United States and in 2018. Beyond the tragedy that they create in communities and families, they are a slap in G-d’s face Who created man in His own image. They are also a poke in G-d’s eye who calls the Jewish people “The apple of my eye” in Zechariah 2:8. It is because of man’s self-ruling outside of G-d’s will that hate crimes become possible.

We shouldn’t succumb to the temptation of politicizing this horrible tragedy, because it was not political but spiritual. When the enemy of G-d (Satan) is at work against the people of G-d, it is no time for political bickering, but it is time for prayer more than ever.
Let’s start by lifting up the memory of the victims (Joyce Fienburg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65; Rose Mallinger, 97; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Cecil Rosenthal, 59; David Rosenthal, 54; Bernice Simon, 84; Sylvan Simon, 86; Daniel Stein, 71; Melvin Wax, 88; Irving Younger, 69) and their families.

Tomorrow is the day to get educated and stay alert. If you are Jewish, while you shouldn’t yell it on rooftops, you also cannot live in fear. Otherwise, people like Robert Bowers have won the battle.

October 12, 2018 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The Perennial Scapegoating and Demonizing of the Jews

The Jews make the only people group that has been accused of almost all the ills of the world in the last 2000 years. They have been accused of killing Christian children at Passover, poisoning the wells of Europe to cause the Black Plague, lending money at high interest rates, not to mention the Crucifixion of the Messiah.

There is a unique predicament that Jewish people find themselves in. Not only have they continually been accused of many ills, but they are often equally found guilty on either side of an issue. In the first half of the twentieth century, Jews were accused of being communists and socialists and while, some adhered to the ideology by personal convictions, Communism was never exclusive to the Jewish people. At the same times, the Jews were also accused of being capitalists. Again, while Capitalism has definitely benefited Jewish people and we can honestly say that many Jewish people have a shrewd sense of business and profit, Capitalism isn’t exclusive to the Jews.

Strangely enough, when it comes to scapegoating the Jews, common sense has no place in the rhetoric of the antisemite. Irrationality reigns in a world dominated by those who seek to fault the Jews, any chance they have.

A recent example is the confirming of Supreme Court Justice Brent Kavanaugh. The process by which he was confirmed was a painful reminder of how far we have gone with the polarization of America. It had nothing to do with any Jewish conspiracy focused on taking over the world, and yet the Jews have recently been accused of being behind it. This takes us back to the “global Jewish takeover” hoax known as “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” first published in 1904 by Russian Sergei Neilus. It was and continues to be believed as truth by antisemites.

Days after Brent Kavanaugh was confirmed, people at both UC Davis and Berkeley in California, posted antisemitic flyers accusing Jews of being behind Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The text said, “Every time some anti-white, anti-American, anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it and it’s Jews behind it.” Around the text, you can see mugshots of Jewish members of Congress with stars of David on their foreheads, George Soros and a few Gentiles with “Good Goy” written on their foreheads were also part of the design. The posters were apparently produced by the “Daily Stormer Book Club”, a neo-nazi organization. They were quickly removed and the schools denounced the antisemitic actions.

What most people missed though is the fact that the “Jews” accused of being behind the confirmation were all Democrats, and as liberals, they fought against Judge Kavanaugh, not in favor of him. Even billionaire George Soros who has Jewish blood is known for financing a lot of anti-conservative events.

Once again, ignoring the truth, antisemitism’s goal is to demonize the Jews. Those who fought Brent Kavanaugh to the end included all kind of people. Some were Jewish some weren’t, but those who were Jewish instantly became guilty. Guilty of what, you might ask since they actually supported the people who didn’t want Kavanaugh to become the next Supreme Court Justice? Guilty of being Jewish, which in the eyes of the antisemites seems to be all they need!

September 19, 2018 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Can a Biblical Zionist Love the Palestinians?

Whenever one puts biblical, Zionist and Palestinian in the same sentence, definitions are in order. Unity might never be fully achieved, but it should never be because of lack of clarity. First, what I mean by biblical is “in accordance with the biblical record” that as far as I understand includes the sixty-six books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. As far as a fair definition of Zionism, lest I’d be accused of any bias as a Jew, I prefer to give a plain dictionary definition of the word as, “a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.”

Now, for the definition of who is a Palestinian, it gets a little tricky. Again, for the sake of clarity, I will say, “any physical descendant of the various Arab inhabitants of the Land of Israel known as Palestine prior to 1948.” While I do not believe that tracing the Palestinian people historically is possible, we must recognize that Arabs born in the Land of Israel when it was still known as Palestine are real people, not responsible for the conflict in which they were born. We must not forget that Palestine as a word was introduced by the Roman empire at the time of the Bar Kohba Revolt in AD 132 (A failed Jewish revolt against Rome.) To humiliate the Jewish people, Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina and Israel became known as Palaestina. Unfortunately, the word stuck and until 1948, “Palestine” was the word used to describe the geographical area that has always been known as Israel before. Eventually, under the leadership of Yassir Arafat and subsequent “Palestinian” leaders, the etymology of the word was expanded to mean both a land AND a people, a political claim that cannot be proven historically, archeologically, culturally or biblically.

Logically, we now need to look at what defines a “biblical Zionist.” We often hear the words “Christian” and “Zionist” put together to describe someone who would consider himself a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) and a supporter of Israel and the Jewish people’s right to the land. I prefer the term “biblical” to “Christian” as it pertains to those who love and support Israel. Unfortunately, in the last few years, many people who call themselves Christians have displayed quite a bit of antisemitism and have supported faulty views like Replacement Theology or Christian Palestinianism. We also need to mention the recent upsurge of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement from several mainline Christian denominations.

The biblical Zionist position is usually taken as a result of one’s eschatological (End-Times) perspective and/or theological approach. Many evangelical Christians have supported Israel over the years, seeing that God is not finished with the Jewish people and has never fully fulfilled His promise given to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12:1-3. That same promise was ratified as a covenant known as the Abrahamic Covenant with a promise of a seed, a land and a blessing. At the signing of the covenant made between God and Abram (Genesis 15:7-19,) no conditions were made, but specific land boundaries were given, that incidentally are much larger than current Eretz Yisrael. When God specifically gave Abram the boundaries of the land He was giving him, He simply stated, “To your descendants, I have given this land.” When Abraham’s son Isaac settles in Gerar instead of moving to Egypt God repeats the promises of the Covenant He made with Abraham (Gen 26:1-4,) Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
Furthermore, in Genesis 28:13-15, the Abrahamic Covenant is reconfirmed through Isaac’s son Jacob where the same land (vv. 13, 15) spoken of prior, is promised to Jacob and his descendants, as it was promised to Isaac before. It continues to be unconditionally given as we know through the biblical record that Jacob lied to his father about his birthright. Apparently, it was in God’s plan to have Jacob and not Esau inherit the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant from Isaac. So biblically speaking, the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and through Jacob can only be the Jewish people.

The biblical Zionist’s love for Israel and the Jewish people is a result of his understanding of the eternal, unconditional and unilateral Abrahamic Covenant and its three promises made that were later amplified in three other unconditional covenants known as the Land Covenant (Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20; Ezekiel 16:53-63,) the Davidic Covenant (II Samuel 7:11-16,) and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34.)

But the great love that biblical Zionists display for Israel and the Jewish people should not be exclusive, and it should extend to all, even those who have been indoctrinated to hate and destroy Israel. In the words of Yeshua in Matthew 5:44, we read, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This absolutely doesn’t imply that all Palestinians today hate the Jews, as we should never paint with broad strokes. Yet, as difficult as it might be to fulfill that command, for those who take the Bible seriously, it is a command nonetheless.

So YES, a biblical Zionist not only can but should love the Palestinians. Over the years, I have found that to love Israel one doesn’t have to hate the Palestinians, but sadly, the opposite is seldom true!

August 25, 2018 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

UNHRC: Actions Speak Louder Than Words!

Recently, the United States decided to leave the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council.) United Nation US Ambassador Nikki Haley shared the reason in a statement where she said: “For too long, the Human Right Council has bee a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.” Many have seen the move as a retreat, but Miss Haley clearly stated that the move was anything but a retreat. It was because the United State would no longer be part of a hypocritical UN organization that allows for a myriad of human rights violations, elects human rights violators to the UNHRC and has a chronic bias against Israel.

The UNHRC was created by the UN General Assembly in early 2006 through UN Resolution 60/251. It comprises 47 seats from five different regional groups. Commendable aspirations were laid out in the text of the resolution: “Emphasizing the responsibilities of all States, in conformity with the Charter, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language or religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” In reality, the UNHRC was a hypocritical body bent on finding fault with Israel at any chance they had. The UNHRC has proven over and over again that actions speak louder than words.

In its first year of business, the Council only found fault with Israel and did not condemn one other of the 193 countries of the world. According to UNWatch.org, Israel is the only country that is on the council’s permanent agenda, almost as if the UNHRC was created with the sole purpose of demonizing Israel. The council has found fault with Israel repeatedly while blindly exonerating Hamas and Hezbollah. It could be argued that not only are they anti-Israel but that they possibly support terrorism.

In leaving the UNHRC, the United States made a bold move signifying that the days of letting Israel being accused of human rights violation while looking the other way when obvious violators act with impunity are over. Some politicians including John Kerry had spoken against the bias on occasions, but these apparently were just words. Over 50% of the governments sitting on the council are considered repeat offenders when it comes to human rights violations. Like China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, to name just a few, they are either totalitarian regimes or “non-democracies.”

Actions speaking louder than words actually works both ways. The United States took a stand a few weeks ago when it decided to leave the UNHRC. Some called it a cowardly move or a move that would be detrimental to human rights, I beg to differ! Miss Haley, representing the United States was led by integrity and ethics in a genuine effort to unmask the hypocrisy, especially when it comes to Israel, the only democracy of the Middle East. But while walking out sends a message, defunding will go much deeper.

In another blow to the UN, US National Security Adviser, John Bolton just announced the United States decision to defund the UNHRC. According to John Bolton, the US pays 22% of the UN budget and it would calculate how that relates to the funds given to the UNHRC and defund them. Hopefully, the world will start taking notice of the anti-Israel bias from the UN and the UNHRC and speak up.

The current administration has been one of the strongest friends of Israel in decades. With the recent decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, President Trump received praises but also a lot of criticism. Undoubtedly, the UNHRC walk-out and defunding will generate a lot of criticism, especially from those who loathe Israel. It was the ethical thing to do and time will show it. It is time for the hypocrisy to end!

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