I recently returned from the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism 2012 North American Conference in San Diego where I had the opportunity to present a paper on “the New Antisemitism: Perpetrators and By-Standers of the 21st century”. While I made an effort to categorize the 21st Century players on the current platform of Antisemitism, I did not include one particular group either in the perpetrators or in the by-standers. That group can be described as “self-loathing Jews”. It was and still is very painful for me to admit that my own people could turn against Israel and the Jewish people. Yet, as preposterous as it is, this wouldn’t be the first time that we witness Jews turning against their own people.
For instance, last year I shared about a strange group of “Orthodox Jews” known as Neturei Karta (although in that context, orthodox needs to be redefined as opposed to the standard definition meaning a rigorously practicing Jew). This anti-Zionist fringe group started in 1938 cannot be ignored and is a disgrace to Judaism, yet for the most part it is not taken too seriously by mainstream Jews.
What causes me some grief is the section of the “self-loathing Jews” that comprises mostly members of the Jewish left who vehemently lobby against Israel, the Land and the People. The organization known as JStreet, (founded in 2008), made mostly of liberal Jews (and some non-Jews as well) promotes itself as “The political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans”. They believe in and boldly promote a “two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. As anyone browses the JStreet website, it gives an appearance of peace seeking and reconciliation. In reality, they show contempt for anything Jewish and associate themselves with organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and personalities so despicably to the left like Ilan Pappé (son of German Jews who escaped the Holocaust), that they end up painting themselves in a politically correct and multicultural corner, using their own antisemitic brush.
JStreet receives the support of US House of Representative first Jewish woman member, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who was recently appointed 52nd Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Wasserman-Schultz, who is also the Democratic Party Jewish Outreach liaison was caught in a controversial Facebook photo depicting her and other women as “Jewbags” kissing dollar bills. I sincerely doubt that mainstream Jews will have any desire to associate themselves with a “Jewish” woman ridiculing the Jewish people as lovers of money. We certainly don’t need anymore fuel added to the fiery diatribes of the last 2000 years!
“Self-loathing Jews” do not hate themselves as Jews but rather, they work hard at rejecting their customs and heritage in an effort to advance towards a more tolerant and “all encompassing” future. Mainstream Judaism appears way too narrow to leftwing Jews. They certainly wouldn’t consider themselves antisemitic but rather prosemitic (as in Jews AND arabs).
The tolerance they espouse is based on a very false premise that all groups tolerated equally reciprocate, which is hardly a fact when it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hizbollah and the likes.
When it comes to the two-state or one-state solution including Palestinians, the outcome will inevitably be the takeover of Israeli government and institutions to the point where the annihilation of 6 million Israeli Jews would just become a simple bureaucratic move.
Dear self-loathing Jew, If you don’t want to recognize Israel’s sovereign right to the land and the Jewish people’s right to live in peace in the only democracy of the Middle East as well as the rest of the world, do the rest of us a favor, DON’T CALL YOURSELF A JEW because your are causing your forefathers to roll over in their graves!
Real Jews support Israel!
Real Jews support their Jewish Community!
And incidentally, I cannot help but proclaim that I have never felt more fulfilled as a Jew than since I have found my Messiah Yeshua (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 4:25, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Yeshua (Jesus) the Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us and any reconciliation between men will only come when men are first reconciled to God through Yeshua.
The Toulouse Massacre: Let’s Call a Spade a Spade!!!
Over a week ago, I woke up to the news of the killing of a Rabbi and three other children at the Jewish school Ozar Ha Torah in Toulouse, France. Additionally, the gunman appeared to have been the same who also killed several french paratroopers days before. France was in shock, so was I.
But in an effort to be accurate and err on the side of safety, I felt that before we pigeonholed the killer into a specific category, we should wait an allow the French authorities to do their job. Great was the temptation to immediately cry “anti-Semitism killed again” and greater was the temptation to label the gunman as an Islamist on a mission to kill Jews. Yet, he was also responsible for the death of a man from the Carribbean and two other men, a Muslim and a Catholic. Was he a Neo-Nazi or was he simply insane?
The French media outlets excelled at their attempt to whitewash the crime. Their agenda was hiding in plain sight as they made every effort to divert public opinion of Merah from a radical Muslim terrorist to an extreme-right terrorist or even worse an insane individual. Insanity exonerates responsibility, how convenient!
It only took a couple of days for the French police to locate Mohammed Merah less than 3 miles from the Jewish school where he massacred the 4 people. After an intense raid on his apartment that lasted over 30 hours, the police shot him as he tried to jump through a window.
All doubts about his motives were quickly removed when it was proven that he was ideologically linked to Al-Qaeda. MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) documents Merah’s affiliation to Al-Qaeda through the French group Fursan Al-‘Izza (The Knights of Pride). Merah had been under surveillance by French authorities since at least 2005. He had travelled several times to the Middle East and Afghanistan, including Israel in 2010. He was arrested in Afghanistan in 2010 an immediately put on a no-fly list by the United-States while France decided to simply put him under surveillance.
While Merah might have acted under the leadership of Al-Qaeda, it is more likely that he acted alone, simply led by his ideological convictions. And frankly, that makes him and others like him more dangerously impulsive.
In the end, Merah’s ties to Al-Qaeda being real or simply ideological makes no difference, especially to the victims’ families. He murdered 7 people in a coldblooded act that he also saw fit to put on video. The man was evil NOT insane. Insanity exonerates responsibility, evil does not!
There should be no room in our minds for doubt about Merah’s motives. There should be no excuses for his hatred, and there should be no justification for his actions. Yet, on March 23rd, a teacher in Rouen, Normandy asked her 12th grade class to observe “a minute of silence for the victim” referring to Merah. Half of her class walked out and she was immediately suspended with possible further sanctions. The teacher had also said that Merah’s ties to Al-Qaeda were invented by the media and by President Sarkozy. The teacher later claimed that she was not well and that she needed time off. Insanity exonerates responsibility!
Liberalism and political correctness are becoming the accomplices of Radical Islam in the global takeover of Western civilization. Liberals are facilitating the work of radical Muslim extremists as they join forces aiming at a common enemy: Israel and the Jewish people.
Do not be fooled though, if Radical Islam is using Liberals to further their agenda of demonization and destruction of the Jewish people, guess who becomes the next enemy when Israel is no longer a threat?
Of course, God will never forsake Israel as the Bible promises in no uncertain terms in the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:35-37):
France’s Worst Hate Crime in Three Decades!
I remember the day when the French media announced that the Jewish Deli Jo Goldenberg in the Paris Jewish quarters had been bombed, it was August 9, 1982. Two men entered the restaurant, threw a grenade and then emptied their machine guns randomly onto the patrons. Six people died and 22 were wounded in what was soon recognized as the worst Jewish death toll in France since World War Two.
Then, two days ago, on March 19, the news came that an unidentified gunman had just shot 4 people at a Jewish school in the city of Toulouse in Southwestern France. A Rabbi from the school, his two sons and another girl were shot to their death by a man who came and went on a scooter. The civilized world is mourning the lives of these innocent people and I personally grieve for Rabbi’s Jonathan Sandler family.
France is currently on high alert. This level of heightened security hasn’t occurred since post 9/11. A manhunt of national proportions is underway while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that everything will be done to find the killer and bring him to justice. What a test for leadership within 90 days of the next presidential elections!
“This is a national tragedy,” Sarkozy said at the Ozar Hatorah school. “Everything will be done to find who is responsible and to make him pay for his crimes. Hatred must not win.”
In the meantime, many around the world and especially within the Jewish community are speculating as to the motives and/or agenda that drove the gunman to such a heartless, coldblooded massacre. Antisemitism is obviously the first thing that comes to mind when one recalls the horror that took place at the Jewish school. But we must resist the temptation to jump to conclusion out of a desire to show our compassion to our Jewish friends. A crime? Yes. A hate crime? Most certainly! beyond this we must be patient and let the authorities do their work.
It would be very easy for someone like me to quickly draw the same conclusion of blatant anti-Semitism based on my years of research on the subject, yet, the French police, the French anti-terrorist units and the rest of the world do not have enough evidence to clearly paint that picture. And yet, there is more!
It is now becoming pretty certain that the same killer was also responsible for deaths of two paratroopers in Montauban (30 miles away) on Thursday and one more in Toulouse a week prior. The shooting rampage was done by a man on a black scooter and the same weapon was identified in all the crimes.
I am still reluctant to label this carnage solely as an antisemitic crime because the other victims were from the Northwest African region known as the Maghreb and from the Caribbean. Was the killer racist? no question in my mind! Was he deranged? I think he was, considering that he had strapped a recording device on his chest and possibly recorded the whole event! Was it an act of antisemitism? Time will tell and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to be able to determine if this act was from a radical Islam agenda, a right-wing Neo nazi agenda or simply a mad man on a serial killing rampage.
No matter what we find out, the tragedy remains the same, and those left behind have a duty to fight and expose such hatred. This tragedy, if it proves to have been driven by pure hatred of the Jewish people will only confirm a sad reality that I already have known too well for over a decade now: France is no longer a safe for Jewish people!
In the meantime, God, who never changes, is waiting for us to go to Him in prayer.
My prayer is that the families of the victims (both the paratroopers and the Jewish family) would be comforted by God’s shalom at such a difficult time.
It is hard for me to grasp such cruelty, but then again,
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)
The Dejudaization of Jerusalem! Really?
The new catchphrase within anti-Zionist circles is the “Dejudaization of Jerusalem”. Historically, it is as ludicrous to attempt to dejudaize Jerusalem as it is to claim that the Eiffel Tower must be “returned” to China!
Jerusalem might be at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but historically and biblically, it is the Jewish capital. For instance, Jerusalem is mentioned by name over 800 times in the Bible ( about 75% of them in the Tenach and 25% in the New Testament) while it is possibly only mentioned once in the Qur’an and not even by name but simply as the place of the “farthest mosque” in conjunction with Muhammad’s “night journey in Sura Bani Isra-il 17.1, and even then, there are no mention of the word Jerusalem at all. It is also referred to in Sura Bani Isra-il 17.7 when mention is made of the “Temple”, and that is it for the entire Qur’an!
So why is it that Muslims are insisting for the acquisition of Jerusalem as one of the most holy sites under Islam? Could it be simply because Jerusalem is the holiest Jewish site and by virtue of that claim both historically and biblically, Muslims must take it upon themselves to “reclaim” Jerusalem? But reclaiming requires a prior ownership and the Bible is clear as to whom Jerusalem belongs to. Every occurrence of the word “Jerusalem” in the Bible has within its context a connection to the Jewish people, the God of Israel or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And all of this of course, happened centuries before the 622 AD birth of Islam. The Jewish prophet Daniel prayed daily towards Jerusalem while in captivity (Daniel 6:10).
Additionally, a great future awaits Jerusalem and the Jewish people as we can read in Zechariah 8:1-23
According to Canadian Lawyer and author Jacques Gauthier, It has also been proven that by international law that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. Gauthier’s 1300 page dissertation on the topic documents the series of treatises (including the critical San Remo treaty in Italy) that established Jerusalem’s Jewish ownership beyond the shadow of a doubt.
I think that the dejudaization of Jerusalem is simply the next step on the anti-Zionist agenda to delegitimize Israel and the Jewish people. If it can be proven to the world that Jerusalem is the Palestinian capital and as such, must be reclaimed, then the enemies of Israel from the liberal Left to Radical Islam will have justified the eradication of the Jewish people. For centuries, the Jewish people were “A people without a country”, then they were historically and prophetically granted Israel back as a modern nation in 1948. From that moment on, Antisemites and anti-Zionists around the world have worked overtime and with increasing creativity to delegitimize the Jewish people and their right to the land and to Jerusalem. The final goal being: “A country without a people”! The Jewish people that is!
Multiple attempts have been made and have attracted the world’s attention via a myriad of media outlets. The Gaza flotillas, the Durban I, II and III anti-Zionist conferences in the name of “anti-racism”, Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt at a unilateral declaration of statehood at the United Nations in September 2011, UNESCO acceptance of Palestine as its newest member, Christ at the Checkpoint “Evangelical” Conference (see my previous blog entry on that topic) towards “reconciliation” between Israelis and Palestinians and the lists goes on!
And now the world appears to be uniting as 20 countries are joining hands and marching towards Israel under the banner of the “Global march to Jerusalem“ to “unoccupy” Jerusalem on March 30, 2012 as they all converge on the capital. A million people is expected to invade Israel’s borders. The long list of international organizations and personalities bears witness of the agenda being furthered here. Bishop Desmond Tutu and Pastor N.T Wright are amongst the many endorsers.
The promotional video is a mixed collage of world cities appearing to support the cause along with international personalities giving their two-thumbs up. The colors and shape of the Palestinian flag are almost on very frame, not to mention the one-sided message of a Palestinian flag (at 1:24 min.) layering the entire map of Israel. No two-state solution here! You can watch their promo video here.
The actual “peaceful invasion” has yet to take place and it might be thwarted but regardless of the outcome, Israel will be painted further in the corner of the oppressor/invader of Palestine… guaranteed!
There is a great danger here for Israel as the world community is being recruited under the false premise of a peaceful march. One is to wonder what kind of real agenda is being driven when the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is included and Iran is endorsing the event. The potential for confusion and a plethora of opportunities for the pro-Palestinian media will be limitless. Israel is about to be demonized by an international delegation of misinformed militants at best or antisemitic enemies at worst. In both cases, we are getting closer and closer to the day when in accordance with God’s word, the whole world will turn against Israel (even though He will never allow for her complete destruction). We shouldn’t be surprised!
Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will
gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women
ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Zechariah 14:1-2
(see also Zechariah 12:3)
The March to Jerusalem is one more milestone being added to the destructive agenda of hatred promoted by the enemies of those God calls “the apple of my eye” in Zechariah 2:8.
May God have mercy on them as we pray for Israel’s safety and as we also pray for Israel’s enemies and their salvation.
Truth, Half-Truths and Lies: “Christ at the Checkpoint” anti-Israel Conference
The Christ at the Checkpoint Manifesto
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