This week, President Obama is on his way to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he will meet with the Saudi King and his entourage. Most political analysts believe that this could end-up being a historic meeting comparable to the one that last took place in 1945 between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and then King Abdul Aziz. Topics of discussion will be Iran, Syria, Egypt and of course the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I believe that it could be historic too, but not necessarily in a positive way.
Prior to his Riyadh visit, Mr. Obama received requests from numerous non-governmental agencies as well as a bi-partisan group from Congress to confront Saudi Arabia about their ongoing human rights violations. What will actually transpire has yet to be seen, but let me predict that not much is to be expected in that area. The boldness required to confront the Saudis about their treatment of women, activists, religious minorities and Jews is something that simply doesn’t exist within the current administration.
If there is any doubt in your mind about such a statement of mine , consider the following. Jerusalem Post Washington Bureau Chief, Michael Wilner originally planned to join Mr. Obama and staff. He had scheduled his trip to cover the US President’s visit to Saudi Arabia for his newspaper. But Michael Wilner was denied a visa to the gulf country. He is the only journalist who was denied entry to Saudi Arabia on this upcoming trip. He must be a great threat to the country for being denied entry! Is he a political agitator? No! Is he a human rights activist? No! Is he a terrorist? No! So what seems to be the problem? Oh Yes, I failed to mention, Mr Wilner is Jewish, not Israeli Jewish, simply a Jew who lives in America and reports for the Jerusalem Post.
So what’s the big fuss? Am I upset that the Saudi government made such a decision? Frankly, I am not even surprised, considering that the same country banned Swissair from flying over Mecca because of the “offensive to Muslims”white cross being part of their logo. It is ultimately their decision, and as ludicrous and unacceptable as I think it is, they make their own laws for their own country. I wonder what reaction we would get if we were to state that such a move was archaic, paranoid and purely xenophobic? Is Saudi Arabia an “Apartheid” country? but I digress!
What greatly concerns me is the US administration’s reaction to the banning of Michael Wilner’s entry into Saudi territory. They are not disgusted, outraged, or even highly offended. They simply are “deeply disappointed” as was stated:
“We are deeply disappointed that this credible journalist was denied a visa,”US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said on Tuesday. “We will continue to register our serious concerns about this unfortunate decision.”
I feel better already for the American Jewish community. Next time anti-Semitism shows its ugly head, will our government be “disappointed” again? Merriam-Webster defines “disappointed” as: feeling sad, unhappy, or displeased because something was not as good as expected or because something you hoped for or expected did not happen.
The message sent by such a statement will not be mistaken; it shows weakness, lack of care, misunderstanding or possibly a combination of all three. The US administration’s decision to make such a weak statement days ahead of such an important visit will certainly set the mood and send a clear message.
America used to be a leader in the free world but they have become a secondary country. As a government, we are all bark and no bite. Hamas and Hezbollah are not afraid of us, Iran doesn’t take us seriously, Putin certainly doesn’t either.
If America is now simply disappointed at anti-Semitism, I fear for the upcoming day when Jews will have to seek shelter for their lives in the US. If and when a second Holocaust takes place, America might be “disappointed” at the way Jews are treated and massacred but they will be so much more “disappointed” when they face God and have to answer for how they treated Israel and the Jewish people (Psalm 83:1-5; Zechariah 12:9). Your choice America!
The lack of chutzpah displayed by our current administration doesn’t give us individuals an excuse to sit and be silent. While America might be asleep, wake up Americans and speak up!
When speaking on the death of the 6,000,000, Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said: “In a free society, few are guilty but all are responsible”. How pertinent for such a time as the Holocaust, and yet how pertinent for such a time as today!
French Comedian Dieudonné Builds Bridges…of Jew Hatred!
A quick perusal of the French press will suffice to determine that the man is not really taken seriously. Most often when a reference is made to him, the word comedian is in quotations. He has succeeded in making enemies in several European countries, where like in England and parts of France his show has been banned.
France’s interior minister, Manuel Valls, is not laughing anymore–if he ever was–. He was recently quoted saying: “We cannot tolerate antisemitism, historical revisionism and racism, and the highest jurisdiction in our country has agreed.”
Dieudonné claims that he is not an anti-Semite, yet every single one of his shows of the last 15 years has been punctuated with hate speech. For instance, ridiculing the French Jewish singer Patrick Bruel, he said: “when I hear Bruel’s songs, I no longer doubt the existence of the gas chambers, it is obvious that Germans didn’t have my patience”. He continues by saying that:” all the crooks of the world are Jewish”, or “Death would be more comfortable than submission to those dogs”, and he also calls Israel ” a satanic entity”. I could go on and on with a myriad of examples each one more chilling than the previous. But you get the idea…Dieudonné M’bala M’bala is an unashamed anti-Semite. Even though he is not taken seriously by the press and the entertainment world, how dangerous is a man like him?
Twenty or thirty years ago, Dieudonné would have been very controversial but rather unable to spread his message of hate like he is doing today. Let’s face it, a few days ago, a single tweet of mine was retweeted to over 10,000 people with click of the mouse and I am far from being as popular as Mr. M’bala M’bala. The Internet revolutionized the world and then the social networks revolutionized the Internet. We live in an age when information is absolutely instantaneous AND global, and that is what will promote the lies of Dieudonné even if he stops an/or ceases to exist. Unfortunately for the rest of us, He has been inducted in the Hall of Fame (read Shame) of Jew hatred.
His quenelle inverted Nazi salute is being replicated by people everywhere including many in front of Jewish sites such as synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, Holocaust memorials and even camps like Auschwitz. While he claims that the gesture is simply anti-establishment, he has done nothing to distance himself from those who use the quenelle in an anti-Semitic fashion.
Using humour, albeit sick, he has succeeded where others failed. In the case of Dieudonné, the old adage couldn’t be truer as the enemies of his enemies have become his friends. He manages to attract both extreme-right fascists, leftists AND disgruntled suburban Muslim youth. It goes without saying that all three groups are usually far from getting along, yet, as it pertains to Holocaust denial, anti-Zionism and Jew hatred, they found a common ground. Bravo Mr. Dieudonné for multiplying hatred exponentially! In the meantime, France continues to breed anti-Semitism on an almost daily basis.
There might be very little that we can do to stop the fire that Dieudonné started. It is fueled both by French authorities’ failed attempt at stopping him and French masses gaining boldness in the expression of their hatred of the Jews. The soil is fertile for the weed to choke the country again.
Yet if we cannot stop the spreading of Dieudonné’s message, we certainly can help within our own circle of influence by exposing the damage he and his followers are doing. We all have access to the Internet and should use it to counter his message the best we can. If nobody stops him for now, we still have an obligation to tell others about the senselessness of his words and deeds. Praying that people will use common sense in assessing him.
It was only a month ago that protesters during an anti-government rally on the streets of Paris yelled: “Jews out of France, you don’t belong here”. As scary as this sounds to me, I must admit that maybe they were right, because in the France of today, maybe Jews don’t belong anymore! Seventy years ago, most Jews didn’t even have the luxury of escaping Europe’s persecution, today they do, they have Israel!
The Dangerously Changing Demographics of the New Anti-Semitism!
Demographics can tell us a lot about the way a society is evolving. Demographics can change our culture. Demographics can re-shape the political profile of a region or a country. They obviously can turn any economy around. What might be less known but nonetheless as important to understand, is that the world is currently going through a demographic shift that is affecting anti-Semitism.
The oldest hatred as some call it, isn’t going away anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I have been arguing for a while now that it keeps growing and is currently at levels rivaling the 1930s and 40s, especially in Europe.
It was only 70 years ago, the Second World War had just come to an end and the whole world was beginning to discover the horrors of the Holocaust. General Eisenhower wanted to be a first hand witness of these horrors to help preserve their memory, as he visited the camps and documented much of what he discovered.
It wasn’t long before anti-Semitism became a taboo subject. To be sure, the beast never died but it was suppressed for a while. World powers and European countries were in one accord along with the surviving Jewish community and a new motto was born: NEVER AGAIN!
It could be argued that the modern State of Israel was reborn in 1948 as a result of collective guilt, fulfilled biblical prophecy and/or fate, depending on one’s reliance on God. As far as I am concerned, I believe that God was very much involved in the rebirth of Israel, and it was no afterthought of His, but part of His plan for mankind all along.
Yet, the suppression of anti-Semitism was short lived and within twenty years, after Israel was reborn, the oldest hatred was also experiencing resurgence. Anti-Semitism was back, and this time it had returned with a vengeance–although we could argue that in essence anti-Semitism has always been a vengeance against the Jews.
Fast forward to 2014 and as the world increasingly grows into a global village, anti-Semitism is now benefiting from cyberspace and its new frontiers or lack of! There is currently nowhere in the world where Jewish people are safe, except possibly Israel in spite of all the terror and violence present there.
The demographics are shifting. Pre-World War Two classic anti-Semitism was almost purely racial. The Nazis were motivated to completely annihilate European Jews simply because of their conviction that they [the Jews] were sub-human and as such, not worthy of existing. This right-wing fascist approach to Jewish existence for the most part became obsolete or at least taboo by 1945.
Then came the liberal left-wing factions–greatly helped by Arafat and his cohorts–who within twenty years started to paint the picture of Israel, the Jews and Zionism as oppressors, occupiers and murderers of Palestinians. This picture is of course not based on any truth but on a desire to further ostracize the everlasting scapegoats of humanity. It is working very well as we can witness on campuses across America. The recent increase in popularity of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is very symptomatic of the new direction the world is taking against Israel and the Jews. Benjamin Netanyahu just spoke against BDS and other ills of anti-Semitism at AIPAC2014. He very simply calls BDS anti-Semitic and rightfully so! Israel is not South Africa, never was and never will be.
Of course the picture wouldn’t be complete without the involvement of the Christian Church. Here is another global community that has much baggage when it comes to Judeo-Christian relations over the last 2000 years. You would think that a church community that hasn’t done a whole lot to protect the Jews of Europe would tread very lightly when it comes to modern day Jews and Israel. As I spend a tremendous amount of time in speaking in churches across America and some in France as well, I am saddened by the shift from Christian Zionism to Christian Palestinianism. I still continue to meet people who love Israel and the Jews but they are no longer the majority within the Christian church as the recent “Christ at the Checkpoint” testifies.
The changing demographics of anti-Semitism are moving people towards a new unity against Jews and Israel. As a victim of postmodernism, today’s Jew doesn’t have to fit a profile to be demonized; he simply has to be a Jew anywhere in the world. Truth no longer being required and absolutes having become irrelevant in today’s world, when it comes to singling out the Jews, the irrationality of anti-Semitism goes unchecked. There is NO MORE TABOO!
Neo-Nazis, Islamists, liberals, academics, politicians, entertainers, Christians, atheists et al might have very little in common, except when it comes to ostracizing my people. Ideologies, religious convictions and cultures vary, yet there is a communal draw to single out Jewish people that defies logic on so many levels.
I always find solace and a balanced approach to mankind in general and Israel in particular on the pages of God’s Word. God also desires unity between men but I am pretty sure that the unity He speaks of isn’t at the expense of Israel! While the world might be jealous over Zion in a destructive way, God is jealous over Zion in a protective way!
Christ at the Checkpoint 2014: Reconciliation or Indictment?
This coming March, the third Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CaTC) will take place in Bethlehem. The theme for this year’s conference is taken straight out of the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:10: “Your Kingdom Come”. By their own declaration, the organizers of CaTC have a mission defined as follows:
The mission of Christ at the Checkpoint is to Challenge Evangelicals To Take Responsibility To Help Resolve the Conflicts in Israel-Palestine By Engaging With the Teaching of Jesus on the Kingdom of God.
They have a noble cause –so it appears– as they claim to be promoting reconciliation. As a matter of fact, reconciliation is an important part of the conference manifesto and appears in the first two of their 12 articles:
As long as they belittle, denigrate and humiliate my people, I can only call them a fraud. All the while I will continue to pray for true reconciliation of Arabs and Jews through the shed blood of Yeshua the Messiah.
Eschatological Anti-Semitism is Here and the Clock is Ticking!
There is no doubt in my mind that organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League or the Simon Wiesenthal Center are instrumental in fighting bigotry and xenophobia in general and anti-Semitism in particular. They are very involved in tracking, exposing and fighting all kinds of anti-Semitism worldwide. Yet, I still believe that the best barometer to measure the global level of anti-Semitism remains the nation of Israel.
Biblically, Israel has been in existence since God gave the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:18-21, 17:8, 26:2-5, 28:12-15). There was no condition and the covenant is eternal, especially because only God’s glory went through the split animals to ratify that foundational covenant with Abraham, and we know from His word that God never changes (Hebrews 13:8).
Additionally, 1948 saw the prophetic re-birth of Israel as a modern nation. Ever since its re-birth, Israel has been at war with its neighbors in the Middle East. It is only because of God’s grace and the promise He made to Abraham and his descendants that Israel still exists today. Israel’s destruction is the goal of many but Israel’s survival and future glory is part of God’s decree (Jeremiah 31:35-37).
Simultaneously, anti-Semitism has punctuated Jewish history through the ages since the Jewish people came into existence and Satan realized that God had a special plan for those He calls “the Apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8).
The majority of the Jewish people have spread out globally since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD. They are known today as the “Diaspora” meaning dispersion. While Jews around the world have been able to preserve their identity through the ages, they have not been so successful in escaping the re-birth of anti-Semitism. As a matter of fact, I believe that we live in an age where the recent New anti-Semitism is merging with classic anti-Semitism giving birth to a new hybrid hatred of the Jews that I call “Eschatological1 anti-Semitism” or the anti-Semitism of the last days.
By this I mean that the already loathsome and pervasive hatred of the Jews that we have witnessed through the centuries has now joined forces with post-modern anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. The goal being the final blow on God’s chosen people. This is the final chapter in Satan’s book of hatred against the Jews and he has many ghost-writers helping him to write it!
I still have confidence that God will never forsake Israel, yet the process by which Israel will be refined and brought to Him will be very painful and rather decimating (Zechariah 13:9). We also know from the Bible that in the end-days, the whole world will turn against Israel (Zechariah 12:2-3, 14:2-3). It’s a guarantee and that is what I mean by Eschatological anti-Semitism! But I do not want followers of Yeshua to feel like they just have to throw the proverbial towel. After all, if we are on God’s side, who can defeat us?
Eschatological anti-Semitism is clearly evident in France where two weeks ago Paris witnessed a street protest of about 20,000 people that would make both Hitler and Ahmadinejad very proud. In an interesting turn of events, a march that was originally labeled as “Jour de colère contre Hollande” or “Day of anger against Hollande” turned into a march against French Jews where people did the Nazi salute (0:26) and chanted slogans such as:
• “Jews, get out, France is not for you!”
• ” Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew!”
• “Jews and LICRA2 we don’t want you!”
• “Jews get out of France!”
• “Faurisson3 was right, the gas chambers were a hoax!”
• “Jews, you don’t belong in France!”
It was very scary to watch French people walk the streets of Paris and scream their hatred of the Jews. Ratings for Mr. Hollande are at their lowest for reasons that are beyond the scope of this article, but one thing is certain, French Jews are not responsible for Mr. Hollande’s incompetence. But then again, they were not responsible for the Black Plague, the control of world banks, 9/11 or even the death of Messiah. Unfortunately, it never stopped their enemies from stating the opposite and the masses from believing it.
I was born in Paris and even though I now live in the United-States, I left a part of my heart in France. I ache for the Jewish community that happens to be the third largest in the world. But frankly, I am not sure that it will remain the third largest because of a current wave of emigration from France to America, Canada and of course Israel.
More than any other country in the world, Israel understands the plight of the worldwide Jewish community. The country was not in place during World War II (at least from a modern perspective), and millions of Jews perished with nowhere to flee. Today, Israel is very much in place, thriving and here to stay. Israel is the only safe haven for Jews from anywhere on the planet. They understand their role very well in these end-days even though much of Israel is agnostic at best or secular at worst. They can still be players without acknowledging the Master who is behind the scenes.
As a matter of fact, Israel just started a program to draw French Jews out of France to Israel. We have seen a great number of Jews leaving France in the last few years and 26% of the French Jewish community still wants to flee France. Israel now has a program currently named “France First” stating that 3,000 Jews left France in 2013 and that they expect at least another 17,000 to leave in the next 3 years. Time will tell for sure, but Israel chooses to be proactive about the problem of anti-Semitism in France and the rest of the world. Israel understand the gravity of the current situation more that anyone else.
Eschatological anti-Semitism shouldn’t surprise the faithful followers of Yeshua the Messiah but it should compel us to reach out to our Jewish friends and family members as the final chapter of human history is being written. Yes, the context of that final chapter is Israel and the Jewish people and there is nothing we can change about that, except of course making sure that more Jewish people meet their Messiah now, before it is too late!
1 Eschatology is a branch of theology concerned with the study of the final events and the last days of mankind on planet earth.
2 LICRA is the in International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.
3 Robert Faurisson is a French Holocaust denier claiming that the Holocaust is a myth and that the gas chamber didn’t exist)
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