Prophecy

March 14, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Purim: Don’t Mess with the God of Israel!

Wednesday, March 16, 2022, marks the celebration of Purim, also known as the feast of Esther. At this joyous feast, Jewish people gather to recall God’s protection in days of old. special foods are consumed, people dress up and read the Megillat Ester or scroll of Esther in the synagogue, where a lot of noise is made at the calling of the names of the three main protagonists: Mordechai, Esther and Haman. Additionally, gifts are exchanged, as well as donations made to charity.

• PURIM IN THE BIBLE: The only time we read about Purim, is at the end of the book of Esther–a book about God’s miraculous preservation of the Jewish people–even though this is the only book of the Bible where God is never mentioned by name. This didn’t prevent God from orchestrating an incredible story of survival, redemption and blessing, albeit behind the scenes.

The story of Purim is also a very strong post-Genesis example of God’s promise to Abraham to bless those who bless him and curse him who curses Abraham (Genesis 12:3). Haman, the archenemy of the Jews built gallows to hang Mordechai, and at the end, he and all of his sons were hanging on these very gallows…A curse for a curse! People ought to take the promise made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 very seriously. In a sense, it is God’s foreign policy when it comes to Israel, and it has proven true all throughout history (biblical and post-biblical).

Haman’s approach to the “Jewish problem” is worth looking at from the perspective of Satan, the ultimate enemy of the Jews. Early in the scriptures, in Genesis 3, Satan came up with a master plan: Use people – even Eve – to destroy the Jews on a global scale – and antisemitism was born! The reason? Satan is very familiar with the message of the Bible and with God’s master plan for the world in general and for Israel and the Jewish people in particular.

Satan knows that the day that the Jewish people recognize Yeshua as their long-awaited Messiah as told in Zechariah 12:10, will usher in His return, but that will also mark the beginning of the end of Satan’s career of hatred and destruction. In an attempt at postponing it all–since he cannot prevent it, Satan is the mastermind behind the longest hatred. He is the creator of antisemitism and he continually subcontracts his hatred against the Jews to various groups through the ages, making the most irrational thoughts, words and deeds appear very rational to those who listen to him. The book of Esther tells us the story of how Satan used Haman to go after the Jews. He could have succeeded, but he did not, because God is greater, even behind-the-scenes.

In Esther chapter 3, Haman puts his curse against the Jews in motion, and because of one Jew, namely Mordecai, Haman seeks to destroy all of them. We start seeing the irrational behaviors promoted by an antisemitic heart. Haman seeks to destroy ALL THE JEWS of the Persian Empire where many of them lived at the time.

In a sense, Haman tried to make antisemitism a government-sanctioned policy, something that will be picked up again much later in history by Nazi Germany. We read in Esther 3:1-2, 5-6 “After these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman; for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage…. When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman was filled with rage. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were; therefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Furthermore, in verse 8, Haman proceeds to give the reason why the Jews are not wanted in Ahasuerus’ kingdom, and that is simply because THEY ARE DIFFERENT. “Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people, and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain.

Because of his hatred for one man who happened to be Jewish, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews of the kingdom. This was a very extreme decision, driven by an irrational desire to hold all people of the same ethnic group responsible because of one of theirs who actually wasn’t guilty of anything but faithfulness to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Haman was on a mission to destroy all the Jews.

However, he also realized that his endeavor would require some logistical finesse, so in Esther 3:9-13, we read that he asked the king to issue a decree for the destruction of the Jewish people, knowing that a royal decree cannot be canceled or ignored. Not only did he ask for the decree, but he also committed to financing the whole project out of his own wealth. “If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king’s business,…And letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder.

While it might not be obvious at first glance, the process by which Haman sought to annihilate all the Jews within his reach and the one used by Hitler and the Nazi regime have many similarities. There is nothing new under the sun. Consider the parallels between Haman and Hitler in these five points:
• One Man’s jealousy led to uncontrolled hatred (3:5)
• Targeted hatred became global hatred (3:6, 13)
• Hatred was apparently caused because of non-conformity (3:8)
• Attempted annihilation of the Jews was structured and organized (3:9-13)
• Funds were spent and financial wealth was provided for the perpetrators (3:9, 4:7)

Fast forward to the 1930s and 1940s, and we see how Hitler developed his well-organized “factory of death” against the Jewish people.

• PURIM in the 1940s: Soon after coming to power, Hitler quickly banned the celebration of Jewish festivals including Purim. In a speech delivered the day after Kristallnacht, in November 1938, Julius Streicher (1885-1946), Hitler’s “Director of the Central Committee for the Defense against Jewish Atrocity and Boycott Propaganda” declared that since the Jews killed 75,000 Persians in the days of Esther, the same fate could befall the German people and so the Jews had to be stopped. Streicher was also the publisher of the virulently antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer. After the war, he was never accused of any actions or orders against the Jews but for thoughts and words published in his newspaper and as a result, he was convicted of “crimes against humanity” and sentenced to death. The Nuremberg military tribunal declared, “Streicher’s incitement of murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity.”

Again, the “curse-for-a-curse” biblical principle was applied to Streicher, who, on October 16, 1946, was executed on the gallows at the end of the Nuremberg Trials. Streicher’s final words before he was let down into the gallows trap door was “Purim Fest 1946”, as his final claim that the Jews were out to get him. It would have required a certain knowledge of the Jewish lifestyle and festivals for Streicher to even make that parallel.

• PURIM IN 2022: Satan knows that he cannot succeed, but he tries without ceasing. He has indoctrinated much of the world against the Jewish people, creating antisemitism and making it the oldest and most enduring form of hatred against an ethnic group. While he keeps sub-contracting his hatred to different groups of people, the danger remains the same and the Jewish people continue to be the “scapegoats of humanity”. The same approach used in biblical days and during Hitler’s reign is used today by historical revisionists, BDS promoters, Christian Palestinianism proponents and all other enemies of Israel and the Jewish people. Unfortunately, Satan has even been able to infiltrate and indoctrinate the church. If all these groups had their way, Israel would be erased from the map and the Jewish people completely eradicated from existence and from history. But in a very “Purimesque” ending, the Jewish people will continue to flourish as promised by God Himself in Jeremiah 31:35-37 and Israel will prevail because of God.

Jeremiah 31:35-37 35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar the Lord of hosts is his name: 36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” 37 Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.”

Be it during biblical times, during the 1930s and 1940s, or even today, through thick and thin, God has always had Israel in the palm of His hand. Even though He was absent by name in the book of Esther, and it felt more like “the eclipse of God” during the Holocaust, He never reneged on His promises. So, we can celebrate Purim with confidence and with joy because the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Who was behind the scenes in the days of Esther, has our back and He never changes His mind or the recipients of His promises.

Chag Purim Sameach! Happy Purim!

February 14, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The Rapture and the Second Coming: EXPLAINED!

The topic of the Rapture of the Church has been a controversial one for quite a while now. The pendulum swings from the Rapture being an invention or a myth all the way to being an imminent event to take place before the Great Tribulation, with a lot of adjusted theological positions in between. Additionally, many have come to look at the Rapture and the Second Coming as being one and the same event. The Bible does give us plenty of information regarding the timing of both the Rapture and the Second Coming to know how and when they will take place and who will be included. The differences will be looked at from a pre-tribulation/premillennial viewpoint, which means that the sequence of events is as follows: Rapture, Seven Year Great Tribulation (seven actual years), Second Coming of Messiah, Millennial Kingdom (1,000 actual years) and Eternal Order. Let’s look at the timing, purpose and people for both events.

The Timing of the Rapture: As to the Rapture, the timing is clearly unknown to all people, except that most believers hold to what is known as “imminency”. This means that the Rapture is as certain as it is signless Nobody knows when it will happen, but it will happen and there is nothing that needs to happen prior to the Rapture for the event to take place. The Bible is replete with verses telling us that the Rapture could happen at any moment:

1 Corinthians 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Yeshua the Messiah,

Titus 2:13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Yeshua the Messiah,

Hebrews 9:28 so Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

We must also keep in mind that imminency means certainty as it is inevitable, but uncertainty as to when it will take place. Its imminency should motivate us to share the Good News with the lost and give us hope for the future.

The Timing of the Second Coming: Some people see the Second Coming as a separate event from the Rapture while others will see the Second Coming taking place in two steps: The Rapture and the Return. Regardless of how one looks at the Second Coming (one or two events), it takes place at the end of the Great Tribulation, at the climax of the Campaign of Armageddon, so in that sense, it can be timed with a certain degree of precision. From the signing of the covenant between the Antichrist and Israel, there will be seven years, and then the Second Coming. Over three hundred references about the Second Coming can be found in the Bible (Zechariah 14:1-11; Revelation 19:11-19).

An often ignored, but key component of the timing of the Second Coming, is Israel’s involvement. Yeshua promised at the end of Matthew 23 that Israel will not see Him again until they corporately say Baruch Haba Bashem Adonai, meaning “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. This is based on the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn,” that will take place at the end of the seven-year Tribulation, after two-thirds of all Jewish people living during the Tribulation will have been decimated

Zechariah 13:8-9 In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. 9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

If this was to happen today, two-thirds of all Jewish people alive would be 10 million which is almost double the casualties of the Holocaust. God didn’t give us numbers here but a percentage of 2/3 and 1/3. The percentage will never change, and any casualty is a tragedy, but the final number of Jewish people dying during the Great Tribulation can be drastically reduced if Christians share the Gospel with their Jewish friends and more come to the Lord before the Rapture. Truly, today more than ever, time is of the essence.

Honestly, we should boldly proclaim the Gospel to our Jewish friends if we believe that their acceptance would secure them a place during the Rapture and would prevent them from the carnage of the Tribulation.

The reason why this is very important is that by the time Yeshua returns at the Second Coming the clock starts ticking for Satan’s demise and the time is very short. Outside of a short time when he is released at the end of the Millennium (Revelation 20:7-10), Satan’s fate is sealed and he is bound for eternal torment in the Lake of fire without relief. Satan is never the “boss” of Hell, but rather one of the first ones thrown in; and this is because of Israel’s recognition of her Messiah, missed and rejected at His First Coming. The very Jewish people that are the apple of God’s eye according to Zechariah 2:8b, are the people Satan hates the most, and are also the people that will become the catalyst for Yeshua’s Second Coming. If the Jews don’t call on Him, He simply will not return and Satan’s job is secure. Pushing the Jewish people away from Yeshua has been Satan’s entire career. He’s managed to work with antisemitism – by placing that hatred in the hearts of men – and done much damage to the Jewish people over the centuries.

The Purpose for the Rapture: As to the purpose for the Rapture, that should be clear. Messiah is going to come back at some point and call His children to join Him before the start of the Tribulation. Yeshua wants to save His children from the upcoming wrath

1 Thessalonians 1:10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Yeshua who delivers us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah

Revelation 3:10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

Now, this is not a view shared by all believers, but for those who agree with the event, we can say that the Rapture is the first phase of the Second Coming of Messiah. This is the phase when He doesn’t land on earth but calls us up. At such a time, two things will happen, as seen in

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Messiah will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

So, the dead in Messiah (deceased believers from the birth of the Church to that time) will rise first, closely followed by all other believers alive at the time. This can also be called the resurrection of the righteous. The book of Revelation does not make any reference to the Church after chapter 3. This seems to indicate that the Church will not be part of the Tribulation, since all the damage inflicted by the Antichrist from the middle of the Tribulation forward never mentions the Church once.

The Tribulation seems to coincide with the 70th week of Daniel 9:27 starting after the Antichrist signs a peace treaty with Israel. Simply put, as the first step of the Second Coming, the Rapture will take place because God wants to protect His people from His wrath on earth.

Daniel 9:27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

The Purpose for the Second Coming: No one knows how much time will transpire between the Rapture and the Start of the Tribulation, but common sense would dictate that the Antichrist will have to show up quickly and establish his hegemony with authority. At least seven years after the Rapture, at the end of the Great Tribulation, Yeshua will return to earth with those He had raptured. This will take place at the end of the Campaign of Armageddon when He comes to defeat the Antichrist

Revelation19:19-21 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. 20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Messiah will come to fulfill His promise of return spoken of in the Old and New Testament (Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 25:31; Acts 1:9-11). Probably the most mentioned in the Tanach, is the fact that Messiah also comes to regather and restore the nation of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6; Jeremiah 30:10; Ezekiel 36:24-38). It will be both a physical and spiritual regathering. He is also coming to judge the living Gentiles (Matthew 25:31-46) and Jews (Ezekiel 20:33-38) who survived the Tribulation.

It is also after the Second Coming that Yeshua will resurrect the Old Testament saints Revelation 20:4-6 and

Daniel 12:1-2 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Yeshua will also bind Satan (Revelation 20:1-3) and reign as the Davidic King in Jerusalem for 1,000 years (Revelation 19:6; Daniel 2:44) so, this coming is literal, physical and future.

The People of the Rapture: For those of us who believe in a literal Rapture, it is actually quite simple to understand. Only those “in Messiah” will be included in the event, requiring them to be in Messiah by the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13.) That includes all believers who died from the birth of the Church at Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) and all who are still alive, as we learned in Acts 2. The dead in Messiah first and then those alive, not long after. Nobody else will be included at that time.

The People of the Second Coming: Yeshua’s Second Coming will deal with a different group of people. First, He will return with the believers (saints) in their glorified bodies that were raptured seven years prior. Our role in His return will simply be to accompany Him and be observers of the final chapters of history. The Campaign of Armageddon is between Yeshua and His enemies led by the Antichrist. We will be there, but uninvolved. It will be a literal, personal, sudden, visible and glorious return. The Second Coming includes a judgment of all people known as the Great White throne judgment (Revelation 20:12-13). It is for all those who died without trusting Yeshua. Many will be surprised as they thought that religion was the answer, but they truly didn’t have a personal relationship with Yeshua, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23). It is different from the Bema Seat Judgment that believers will undergo after the Rapture (2 Corinthians 5:9-10). That judgment of the believers is connected to service to the Lord and rewards for service, but salvation is never in question.

The Rapture is very different from the Second Coming or is at the very least the first part of the Second Coming. The second part is the physical future return of Yeshua on the Mount of Olives to judge the world. Regardless of where one stands on the Rapture, most people will agree that Yeshua is coming back at some point in the future, and when that occurs, a lot of people will not make the cut. The question is: Will you?

February 4, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Amnesty International: Israel Criticism or Blatant Antisemitism?

The NGO Amnesty International just made the news again with a 276-page report entitled “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and crime against humanity.” To most people, the title will say it all and they will not bother reading the over-200 -page report. Amnesty International still relies on a name and reputation that was originally established with ethical intentions to fight crimes against humanity, but where does Amnesty International stand today?

Amnesty International was started in the United Kingdom in 1961 by Lawyer Peter Beneson. His intentions were very honorable as he was quoted saying, “Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Amnesty International publishes a vitriolic report against Israel’s right to exist. They boldly declare, “Amnesty International has analyzed Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and examined its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights. It has concluded that this system amounts to apartheid. Israel must dismantle this cruel system and the international community must pressure it to do so. All those with jurisdiction over the crimes committed to maintain the system should investigate them.”

This statement of just a few lines is laced with lies and false assumptions that can easily be debunked if one takes the time to do proper research such as the work of the Jewish Virtual Library. In fact, the entire document prepared by Amnesty International is built upon years of propaganda and the false narrative about the Palestinian people living in the Land of Israel centuries before the Jews. It is critical to understand that since the Bar Kochba Jewish revolt against the Romans under Emperor Hadrian, the land of Canaan, also known as Israel, Judea and Samaria was renamed. The whole land was renamed Palaestina and Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina. The name change was done by the Romans to further humiliate the Jews in their defeat against Hadrian. The name was simply meant to be a geographical name change, never based on history or archeology. Back then, none of that even crossed the minds of the Romans. They just wanted to ridicule the Jews in calling our land and capital by a non-Jewish name.

Not long after the birth of the modern State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the name started to take on more of a geopolitical meaning. Up to that time, there were Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Now, the Arabs had become Palestinians and the Jews were Israeli Jews. The chasm was created and continued to widen for several decades. Today, it is accepted as a fact that Jews are occupying Palestinian land and the accusation of apartheid keeps coming from various foes like the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), some people in Hollywood, academia, government and even some church denominations.

If one is seeking the truth in that matter, it doesn’t take long to realize that pre-1948, Palestine only had a geographical meaning. A great way to prove that is by looking at a “Palestinian coin” prior to 1948. The coin will have the word “Palestine” in Arabic, English and Hebrew and next to the Hebrew version of the word, there are two letters in parentheses (Aleph-Yod). These two letters stand for the initials of Eretz Yisrael, meaning “the Land of Israel.” Every pre-1948 Palestinian coin had words added to remind people that Palestine was really the land of Israel, and nobody complained or even cared.

Amnesty International compiled this 276-page report to prove that Israel is oppressing the rightful owners of the land. They boldly claim that “Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while minimizing the number of Palestinians and restricting their rights and obstructing their ability to challenge this dispossession. In 1967, Israel extended this policy beyond the Green Line to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied ever since. Today, all territories controlled by Israel continue to be administered with the purpose of benefiting Jewish Israelis to the detriment of Palestinians, while Palestinian refugees continue to be excluded.”

It looks like Amnesty International chooses to ignore some very important events in history that have helped validate Israel’s right to the Land. Going back to 1917, we cannot ignore the Balfour Declaration that was the modern catalyst for the 1948 rebirth of Israel. The Balfour Declaration, penned in November 1917 by Lord Arthur Balfour, was a simple policy statement drafted to facilitate the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in what was then known as Palestine. It was official and carried some political weight, but it was not until three years later that things really gelled for the Jewish people, at the San Remo Conference in Italy. At that time, it became a “binding act of international law” and was incorporated in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. The minutes of the “San Remo Palestine Meeting of the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers” shed much light on the legal aspect of Palestine becoming the homeland for Jews. Additionally, more can be learned about that part of history in Randall Price’s (Editor) recent book “What Should We Think About Israel?” This is all part of history and I cannot help but wonder if Amnesty International is ignoring it?

Accusing Israel of Apartheid shows that Amnesty International doesn’t really understand the meaning of the word and it is also a slap in the face of the myriad of South African people who suffered from apartheid for decades. The dictionary definition of apartheid is, “a former policy of segregation and political, social, and economic discrimination against the nonwhite majority in the Republic of South Africa.” While Israel is far from being perfect, this is not what Israel is all about. While almost no Jews live in the Arab world today, 21% of people in Israel’s 9.5MM people are Arabs, which is much more than in 1948. This is not apartheid and it is the opposite of ethnic cleansing.

Amnesty International’s report was quickly rejected by serious scholars, honest students of history and many Jewish organizations; but the intention was to make noise on the international scene, and that, they did! Calling for the dismantling of Israel is an all-out war against the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog clearly stated the truth, “This report, which frames Israel as an apartheid state, doesn’t belong in the category of criticism designed to promote human rights, but rather in the category of ideological delegitimization of the very right of Israel to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

Under the self-righteous cloak of criticism of Israel and the protection of human rights for Palestinians, Amnesty International continues to spew its antisemitic venom on the international scene, painting Israel as the unlawful occupier of Palestinian land and emboldening antisemites the world over. This report hit the scene just as antisemitism is at its highest in the past decade. The timing almost seems to be planned. I beg all truth-seekers to study the annals of history to not only learn about the events of the past but to also learn how to debunk the Amnesty International report and come to appreciate Israel even more! And again, while not perfect, Israel incorporates Arabs in every aspect of Israeli life from police, fire, doctors to the judicial system and Parliament. This is hardly “apartheid”! This, in the Middle East, has sadly always been and apparently will remain, a one-way street.

January 13, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The United Nations Against My People!

In 1920, only a couple of years after World War One, the League of Nations, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was founded following the Paris Peace Conference. It operated for 26 years to keep the peace between nations and promote unity. As is delineated in its covenant: “The High Contracting parties, to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another, agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations.”

At its peak, the League of Nations had 58 members/countries. At the onset of World War Two, it was clear that the League had failed its purpose and remained inactive throughout the war and was completely dissolved in 1946, soon to be replaced by the United Nations headquartered in New York. Within a year of its inception, the United Nations voted for the partitioning of British Mandate Palestine on November 29, 1947. Within eleven minutes of Israel declaring its independence on May 14, 1948, President Truman was the first world leader to congratulate David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the newly formed country. Even though not all countries voted in favor of the partitioning of British Mandate Palestine, those were the good years of the United Nations. How quickly did things change!

One factor that we shouldn’t ignore is that several of the current countries represented at the United Nations (193 today from 51 at its foundation) are antagonistic towards the Jewish State and the Jewish people – and those nations have become very influential in the drafting and passing of UN resolutions over the years. Looking at 2021 only, we inevitably notice an incredible bias against Israel with an unjustifiable imbalance in the number of resolutions passed against the Jewish State. Seriously, if aliens would land on earth and look at the records of the United Nations resolutions for the past several decades, those aliens, concluding Israel to be the worst country on the planet, would solely be basing that assumption on those resolutions passed to serve an agenda – the demonization of the State of Israel!

According to UNWatch, 14 resolutions were passed against Israel (population 9.5 MM) in 2021, while five were passed against the rest of the world (population 7.9B), which shows the bias against Israel! Israel represents only .012% of the world population. There was three times more resolution against a country the size of New Jersey than against the rest of the entire world. This happened during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly for 2021-2022.

The five countries against whom resolutions were passed for human rights violations were–and rightfully so–Iran, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar, and Crimea. What about China, Russia, Sudan and so many more countries that abuse human rights, kill their own and rule with an iron fist? What about the Palestinian Hamas leadership, for that matter? They use their own civilians as human shields, and nobody says anything. It would be one thing if the resolutions against Israel were justified. We could argue that Israel’s foul play has led the UN to pass justified resolutions against the Jewish state, but that would be if Israel were guilty of foul play. Let’s consider some of these resolutions:

November 2021: Senegal and Yemen drafted a resolution titled “Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine”. In it, paragraph after paragraph, under the umbrella of the General Assembly, Israel was demonized. It was requested that Israel’s borders be brought back to pre-1967, which has become known as the “Auschwitz borders”, leaving Israel indefensible with only a nine-mile width at its narrowest point. It also asked for “The realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent State“. This demand for the self-determination of the Palestinian people in their independent state would be honorable if the Palestinians were a real people group, but they are not. There is no question that Palestinians are real people and that from 1948 on they have been dealt with unfairly, but not by Israel. The people called “Palestinians” today descend from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese and other neighboring countries that exist around Israel. Most of these people were not allowed back into their countries of origin after Israel became a state. They were forced – by their respective governments – to stay in Israel and become “refugees” so that the “Palestinian narrative” could have a leg to stand on. Seventy years later, not only the narrative has a leg to stand on, but it has kicked the truth out of the equation altogether. Israel has become the “unlawful occupier” of a country created out of thin air. Incidentally, there is only one short line on page two of the resolution as follows,“Condemning the firing of rockets against Israeli civilian area“. The rest of the five pages are all anti-Israel rhetoric.

December 2, 2021: UN erases all Jewish connections to the Jewish most holy site at the location of the Temple Mount/Western Wall. The UN declared: “the Council called, for the exercise of restraint, refraining from provocative actions and rhetoric and upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif – in word and in practice, as well as for full respect for international law, including international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as may be applicable in Jerusalem“. The Haram al-Sharif is the Muslim name for the Temple Mount, but it is historically, biblically and archeologically well documented that it has been the site of the first Temple and subsequent ones since King Solomon who reigned from 970-931 BCE in the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah.

These are just two of the fourteen resolutions against Israel for 2021. If we were to go back a few years, we would see that the UN bias is very consistent. In 2017, the UN passed 20 resolutions against Israel and only 3 against the rest of the world. In 2018 21/6, in 2019, 18/7 and in 2020, 17/7. They all ignore entirely the terrorist actions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. So, this is wrong on at least two levels. First, the accusations made against Israel are based on lies and a fabricated antisemitic narrative. Second, much of the real issues are ignored or whitewashed. There has never been so much antagonism against one country in the entire history of mankind. One has to wonder what the driving force behind all this is. From a human perspective, it is impossible to comprehend such hatred against Israel and the Jewish people. It is not until we look at this through a biblical lens that we understand that this is not a political battle, a geographical disagreement or even economic strife. No, it is 100% a spiritual battle between Satan and Israel.

God’s program recognizes the existence and activities of Satan as well as the existence and covenantal relationship that Israel has with her God. Satan is jealous and power-hungry and he hates what God loves. The United Nations has long departed from their original noble cause of world peace. Many within the organization are being manipulated by Satan to believe that the victim has become the perpetrator, and in turn, they present these lies as facts to the masses. The United Nations’ charter implies they are to unite all people in peace. Certainly, they are united – but mostly against my Jewish people!

December 15, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Antisemitism 2021: My Top Ten List! – Part 1

As I do each year in December, here is my review of the most important moments I documented in the area of antisemitism in 2021.

January 2021: International Holocaust Remembrance Day!
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is different from Yom HaShoah (Day of the Catastrophe) which falls annually, a week after Passover in Israel (started in 1953). Each year, on January 27, the international community remembers the Holocaust in various ways from synagogue services to vigils to educational events that include Holocaust survivors or scholars. Survivors have dwindled down to a few thousand globally. Considering that anybody born at the onset of the war in 1939 would be eighty-three years old today, most survivors of the Holocaust are in their late early nineties or older. Soon, they will all be in our memories. Here are a few things we can do:

Listen to a Holocaust survivor: The powerful work of the staff at The Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation brings many testimonies from survivors on video, and by virtue of that medium, renders their unique stories eternal. Additionally, the Steven Spielberg Shoah Foundation has over 54,000 video testimonies of survivors that are there to stay. Every single one of them is poignant and memorable in its own way.
Visit a Death Camp: Walking alongside the one-way train tracks, through the eerily empty barracks and on the death-camp grounds will leave an indelible mark in your memory. The Death Camps are gruesome monuments from one of the darkest periods of mankind’s history. If at all possible, everybody, and most definitely every Christian should walk through one of them once in their lifetime.
Visit a Holocaust Memorial Museum: There are several Holocaust Memorials in the United States. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. or the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles are just two of the most impactful and fruitful in their respective communities and nationally. The list is much longer and warrants several different visits if possible.
Read an account of the Holocaust: From survivors’ accounts to biographies, historical accounts and even poems, the choices are many. Every human being should read the short but life-altering account of Elie Wiesel’s time at Auschwitz-Birkenau retold in Night, his story of resilience and survival against all odds. A detailed and accurate account of the Holocaust can be found in Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews or in The destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg. If you are not a reader, you can always watch Schindler’s List.

It is our duty as human beings to remember the Holocaust, retell its history to the current and future generations and resist antisemitism by speaking up against those who deny that it ever happened. Don’t rely on others to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust! Don’t wait for someone else to come alongside or speak up in your place. speak up and remember because it is the right thing to do, and not only on January 27.

February 2021: Covid 19 and the Jews!
• 20% of all English people believe that Jews created Covid-19: As people were surveyed, according to The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS), “Presented with the statement “Jews have created the virus to collapse the economy for financial gain,” 5.3% of the interviewees “agreed a little,” 6.8% “agreed moderately,” 4.6% “agreed a lot,” and 2.4% “agreed completely,” while some 80.8% did not agree with it at all.”
• People accuse the Jews of using the vaccine to control the world population: The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, is a Greek man of Jewish ancestry. This is enough for crazy conspiracy theorists to claim that the Jews created the vaccine and will use it to streamline the world population and control the world. This is in line with the same theories advanced in the 1904 hoax “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
• Ohio men accuse Jews of being the real plague: During a street protest in Columbus, Ohio against Covid-19 restrictions, two men displayed a sign of a rat looking like a Jew with an Israeli flag. The sign also said: “the real plague”. This is strongly reminiscent of the accusations against the Jewish community during the Black Plague of 1348-51 when Jews were accused of poisoning the wells of Europe simply because of the smaller number of Jewish casualties due to kosher laws and liturgical hygiene.
• Social networks abound with antisemitic memes about the Jews either being or controlling the virus: Vicious attacks on Jewish people and on Israel are everywhere on social networks and most of them are not being censored because of the First Amendment. I am all for claiming Freedom of Speech as long as we are consistent and do not allow for double standards. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case.
• Rashida Tlaib claims that Israel doesn’t vaccinate Palestinians: She tweeted, “It’s really important to understand that Israel is a racist state, in that they would deny Palestinians like my grandmother access to a vaccine, that they don’t believe she’s an equal human being who deserves to live.” The opposite is true. Israel has offered vaccines to Palestinians and many have accepted them. The Palestinian Authority also refused a recent planeload of vaccines from the United Arab Emirates, simply because it was coordinated with Israel for distribution.
• Saturday Night Live comedian claims Israel only vaccinates Jews: On February 20, SNL host Michael Che said: “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half.” It really looks like using the blood libel to demonize the Jewish people is still in fashion. Incidentally, Michael Che has repeatedly insulted Jewish people before, but he is very careful not to denigrate other minorities. Entertainers have been fired for less than this. SNL used to be a funny satirical comedy show, but that ship sailed a long time ago.

March 2021: How Christian is Christian Antisemitism?
There is a recurring accusation, especially within Jewish circles, that the New Testament is antisemitic. The justification for such an accusation is found in 2,000 years of Jewish history that have been punctuated by a myriad of antisemitic acts–many of them apparently rooted in Christianity and its teachings. So, the question bears asking, how Christian is Christian antisemitism? Furthermore, is the New Testament antisemitic?

• The New Testament is a very Jewish Book
From the very first words of the first book in the New Testament, everything is Jewish as it records the genealogy of the Jewish Messiah: ” The record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:1-2). The audience is Jewish, the writers are Jewish (Luke being the possible exception). The context is Jewish, the culture is Jewish and much of the geography is Jewish. As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to fully understand the richness of the New Testament without reading it in its Jewish context. Most believers spend their whole life reading the Bible in “Black and White” until they look at the Jewish perspective and all of a sudden, the same story appears in “color and HD”. Don’t quote me wrong, reading our Bible is vital, even when it is not done with an understanding of its Jewish backdrop, but it is greatly enhanced once we look at the Word through Jewish eyes.
• The New Testament Uses Strong Language
How do we reconcile words like “the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9 3:9) or “your father the devil” (John 8:44) or even “you brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7)? They are indeed very strong words directed at Jewish people. Those accusatory words were definitely used in the New Testament to describe the hypocrisy and sin of some of the Jewish leaders contemporary of Yeshua. They were accurate words to be sure, but what has been missed and has led to so much damage is the fact that they were used to denounce people who happened to be disobedient sinners first and Jewish second. Their ethnicity didn’t play a role in their guilt. This is what we could call the “Great Christian Departure”. The Church started to attach the sins of early (Jewish) believers to their non-related Jewishness, and before long, being Jewish became a crime.
• The Old Testament Also Uses Strong Language
Why is it that when similar language is used to describe the disobedience of Israel in the Jewish Law and the Prophets, nobody–especially in the Jewish community–has a problem with it? In Deuteronomy 9:7, Moses calls the Jewish people “rebellious.” Is he antisemitic? In Deuteronomy 9:13, God calls the Jewish people “stubborn” and wants to kill them all. Is God antisemitic? Nonsense! Ezekiel calls Israel “stubborn and obstinate” (Ezekiel 3:7). The descriptions are perfectly in line with the actions of the children of Israel described all throughout the Tenach, and they are no different than those of the New Testament, except that they come from the Jewish Scriptures, prior to Yeshua’s first coming, and somehow, that makes them acceptable. Is there a double standard here?
• The Jews Didn’t Kill the Messiah
The most common accusation against the Jewish people that continues to this day, is that of deicide (the killing of God). Jews the world over continue to be called “Christ Killers” by Christians and non-Christians alike. There are two problems with that accusation. First, even if some Jewish people were guilty of the crucifixion of Yeshua (and they are not), it would never make sense to paint with broad strokes and render all Jews of all time guilty of the same crime. By the same logic, all Germans would be Nazis and all Muslims would-be terrorists. This is ludicrous! However, and more importantly, Yeshua gave His own life in obedience to the Father as we read in John 10:17-18, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” So, in reality, we are all sharing the guilt without exception.
• Context is Everything
The very fact that many early Christians took the Scriptures out of context and allegorized much of them doesn’t make the New Testament antisemitic, it simply makes it misinterpreted and misapplied. Can Christians be antisemitic? I think that history speaks clearly on that matter, yes, they can! But are they antisemitic because they follow the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth? Absolutely not! 2,000 years of Scripture twisting to accommodate and justify human behavior against the Jews have left a bloody stain on mankind in general and the Church in particular. But it is not based on anything taught in the Bible.

So, it is fair to say that Christian antisemitism is not Christian at all. If one takes the Bible literally, all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23 ). “All” means Jews and non-Jews alike with no exceptions. Christian antisemitism is simply antisemitism committed by Christians who read their Bible improperly and use it as an excuse to ostracize and demonize the Jewish people. The Christians who paint–with broad strokes– the Jewish people as a sub-human group are as guilty as the Jewish people who claim that all Christians are antisemitic and so is the New Testament. It is time to keep things in context and approach God’s word in context with humility and sincerity.

April 2021: A New US Assistant Secretary of State with Ties to Hamas…What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Even though the current US administration vows that they seek Israel’s safety, they have shown no interest in dealing with the Middle East as a priority and have made Hady Amr the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs. He is the highest US ranking official for Middle East affairs, but the question is, “Does he have the credentials for such a task?”

• Hady Amr is a practicing Muslim: This isn’t an issue in and of itself, as freedom of religion is part of our constitution (rightfully so), but might not be the best choice for the person officially representing the US government in the Middle East.
• Hady Amr wrote that He was inspired by the Palestinian Intifada: The Intifada (meaning “uprising”), was organized unrest from Palestinians against Israel, based on the false premise that Israel is an occupier and colonizer and trying to push Palestinians out of their own ancestral land. There is no archeological, geographical or historical basis for such a claim.
• Hady Amr has repeatedly called for dealing with Hamas: Hamas is a terrorist organization with a charter calling for the complete destruction of Israel.
• Hady Amr has been instrumental in resuming US funding to the PA: One of the first items on his agenda has been to restore US funding to the Palestinian authority. US taxpayers are now forced to fund terrorism again.
• Hady Amr has strong ties to Qatar: He lived and worked there for years, establishing a branch of the Brookings Institute. Qatar is notorious for funding terrorism and supporting Hamas and having ties with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
• Hady Amr has accused Israel of murdering innocent children: He wrote: “Arabs will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents.”
• Hady Amr has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing: He continues to promote the false narrative that Israel has taken over Palestinian land and committed ethnic cleansing, when in fact, there are more Arabs in Israel today than there were prior to 1948.

May 2021: Do Jewish Lives Matter Only in Theory?
On April 4, 2017, 65-year-old Sarah Halimi, a retired doctor, was tortured by her neighbor Kobili Traoré, and then thrown to her death from the window of her third-floor apartment. Traoré committed this murder while reciting verses from the Qur’an and calling Sarah Halimi a “dirty Jew”. Upon throwing her through the window, Traoré shouted in Arabic that he had succeeded in killing an evil spirit or “killed the Satan”.

When questioned, Traoré declared that he felt “persecuted”, and after realizing that he was high on marijuana, the French justice system decided that he would not stand trial. That decision basically sent the message that anyone’s voluntary drug consumption exonerates them from any responsibility. Traoré was officially acquitted in April 2021 and is literally getting away with murder, while the global media – for the most part – completely ignored this story. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the Jewish community has his full support. What did he mean by that? Were these empty words to save face? It is not the first time that Jewish people have been killed in France in recent years. What about the multiple stabbing of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in 2018, left to die in her burning apartment? Of course, we all remember the kosher supermarket carnage of January 2015 when four Jewish shoppers were murdered. That was six years ago! The site of the tragedy–just a stone’s throw from the house I grew up in– continues to see flowers and photos brought in memory of the victims, that’s very thoughtful, but you cannot fight terrorism and antisemitism with flowers, photos and poems.

It would appear that the lives of Jewish people are not worth much. Incidentally, France is a country where people will get one year in prison if they throw their dog out the window. So, is the life of a dog worth more than the life of a Jewish person? It would appear so!

This can only encourage antisemites to perpetrate more crimes against Jews as they see that their actions if noticed AND if reported properly, might not even garner any punishment. Justice is usually served, but maybe not for Jews, after all. At least not for the foreseeable future in France. This is despicable and very scary for the Jewish community of France. That community already doesn’t report all antisemitic acts because very little if anything gets done when they do. Sometimes Jews even get accused of playing “the victim card” or calling any disagreement with the Jewish community “antisemitism.” There might have been some abuse in that area, but throwing a Jewish woman through her third-floor window screaming “Allahu Akbar” and “I have killed the Satan” is antisemitism without a doubt. So, do Jewish lives matter? Well, it certainly looks like they don’t in France.

In every situation, there are always going to be the perpetrators, the victims and the bystanders. In the case of Sarah Halimi (the victim) and Kolibi Traoré (the perpetrator), inevitably, there are some bystanders. People who are not Jewish, people who fear Islamic extremism’s repercussions and people guilty of “soft antisemitism” who wouldn’t kill Jewish people, but certainly don’t care if someone else does. If you don’t see the beginning wave of a repeat of history in Europe, you are not really paying attention. The last time a Jewish life was worth nothing, we let an evil man and his cohorts decimate six million Jews in the most horrific, systematic way possible.

Tune in next week for part 2 of my top ten list of Antisemitism 2021.

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