By Victor Rosenthal
The state of Israel has been in existence only for 73 years. The Zionist project has been around for somewhat longer, beginning in the 19th century. Since 1860, some 116,000 Jews and Arabs have lost their lives in wars, terrorism, and pogroms related to Arab-Jewish conflict in Eretz Yisrael. In the annals of recent human bloodshed, this doesn’t move the needle; in the Congo Wars of 1996-2001 and the genocides that immediately preceded and followed them, as many as 5.4 million were killed. The Syrian Civil War, still under way, has claimed 500-600,000 victims. And yet, more concentrated diplomatic and media activity surrounds our conflict than any other since the Cold War. Why are we special?
Israel is regularly accused of genocide. According to the UN, her alleged victims, the Arabs of Judea/Samaria/Gaza and eastern Jerusalem, who were about 1.1 million in 1970, now number at 5.2 million. Genocide? Even if this figure is exaggerated, the accusation is simply crazy.
Israel is regularly accused of apartheid, although Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens have equal rights, both de jure and de facto. There are no segregated facilities, no separate beaches, restrooms, or lunch counters (although Jews are forbidden to drink from water faucets on the Temple Mount). The Arabs in the disputed territories, by internationally recognized agreements, are citizens of the Palestinian Authority, and insofar as the PA holds elections, can vote in them. The historical phenomenon of apartheid bears no resemblance to anything found in Israel or the territories, despite the attempts of anti-Israel groups to torture definitions to make it so.
In the few decades of her existence the modern State of Israel has been attacked by soldiers of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia; other belligerents include Hezbollah, Hamas, the PLO and numerous other terrorist groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She has been bombarded by missiles, rockets, mortar shells, balloons, and drones from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Iraq. She has been infiltrated by terrorists countless times, including by means of rubber boats and hang gliders. She is currently the target of threats to annihilate her from Iran, which has provided large amounts of money and weapons to proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and which is developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Iranian leaders have referred to Israel as a “cancer” that must be eliminated from the world. I don’t think there is any other nation in recent history that has its very existence questioned in a similar way.
Hamas, which took control of Gaza in a coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007, two years after every last Israeli soldier or civilian left the strip, precipitates periodic wars against Israel while waging a continuous terror campaign against residents of southern Israel. Gaza receives millions in aid from the UN and the EU, along with large amounts of cash from Qatar, supposedly for humanitarian purposes. Hamas uses it to prepare for the next war, and to make its kleptocratic leaders fabulously rich, while the rest of the population suffers. But Israel is blamed for “occupying” Gaza and impoverishing its people.
Although the violent attacks have come from her regional enemies, European countries have been waging diplomatic and cognitive war against Israel since the first days of her existence. Britain trained and sent advisors to the Jordanian army, which invaded the brand-new state the day after the British left in 1948. European money supports international, Israeli, and Palestinian NGOs which work to subvert the State of Israel, to propagandize against her, and to engage in “lawfare,” such as attempts to arrest IDF soldiers and government officials for “war crimes” and to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court. But there is evidence from impartial observers that the IDF does far more to prevent collateral damage than Western armies do.
In the US, countless organizations dedicated to bringing about the end of the Jewish state exist, from the numerous campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, through professional propaganda outfits like the Foundation for Middle East Peace, to Jewish organizations like IfNotNow and “A Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP). Large foundations like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund finance numerous groups and initiatives working against the Jewish state around the world. The New Israel Fund provides millions of dollars to hundreds of Israeli “social justice” groups. Some are harmless, but others are subversive or even connected to terrorism.
The progressive Left in America is monolithically anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, despite the fact that the PLO and Hamas have shown themselves to be racist, misogynist, homophobic, and antisemitic. Organizations like the Movement for Black Lives and other “racial justice” groups consistently line up “for Palestine” and increasingly express explicitly antisemitic beliefs. The ridiculous and illogical proposition that Israel trains American police to abuse blacks (promoted by JVP) is widely accepted, and has encouraged anti-Jewish violence in US cities. Several members of the US Congress have made attacks on Israel – which often shade into antisemitism – their stock in trade.
In the international arena, the UN is shot through with bias against Israel. From the dozens of anti-Israel resolutions passed regularly by the General Assembly, the Human Rights Commission, and various agencies such as WHO and UNESCO, to the 2001 UN-sponsored World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and the annual “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” the UN seems to do little else than attack Israel.
The large “Human Rights” NGOs, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, falsely accuse Israel of apartheid, war crimes, and numerous acts of oppression; they defend terrorists, engage in lawfare against Israel, and employ many anti-Israel activists and individuals with connections to terrorist groups.
Finally, there is the almost universal contempt for Israel that is found throughout the academic world everywhere, even to a great extent in Israel. Pro-Israel students and faculty find themselves marginalized and punished if they express their beliefs. Some “scholars” and whole departments specialize in producing articles attacking Israel regardless of their actual area of expertise (if any).
Boycotts of Israel are found in every arena: athletes refuse to compete against Israelis, academics are disinvited from conferences, performers and writers who are Israeli or pro-Israel are canceled, Israeli products are boycotted. Ben and Jerry’s would prefer that Israelis don’t eat their ice cream (and not just in the territories). Israel disappears from maps and from the American passports of people born in Jerusalem. Even Israeli ham radio operators’ calls go unanswered. Perhaps they think that if they act as though we don’t exist, we will disappear.
Israel, like any modern state, isn’t perfect. But accusations of genocide, apartheid, oppression, and war crimes are not only false, they are absurd. In many cases they mirror what Israel’s enemies themselves have done, are doing, or would like to do, to Jews and their state. They constitute a Big Lie assault, in which massive repetition of outrageous falsehoods stuns the mind into accepting them.
The obsessive, extreme, and irrational hatred of Israel today is almost without precedent. In fact, there is only one historical phenomenon that can compare to it: the vile treatment of Jews throughout the millennia of recorded history. The persecutions, expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, boycotts, discrimination, and ultimately genocide that befell the Jewish people were no less obsessive, extreme, and irrational than today’s hatred of Israel.
This is not surprising, because the latter is nothing more than a mutation of the former. The State of Israel came about because Zionist thinkers realized that there was no other way for the weak, divided, Jewish people to survive in an increasingly unfriendly world than in a state of their own. In a kind of evolutionary response, Jew-hatred itself then had to become Israel-hatred to survive.
But there is an important difference: the weak, divided Jewish people had no way to fight back. Israel does.
“The real reason is, as stated by retired22, the proliferation of the odious replacement theology, which many believed had been firmly eradicated by the very existence of Israel.”
Thank you, Liz44, for promoting a rational discussion, in the face of the usual hotheads.
You are correct, in saying that The NT is not the root of the sufferings of the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, the one dishing out the greatest criticism of and punishment of the Jews has been the God of Israel — criticism and punishment that applies to Christians as well.
Reader definitely chooses NOT to accept that Jesus offered up his own life on his behalf. Should he be surprised, that he himself will then not be accepted by the God who raised Jesus from the dead? There is nothing surprising in any of this; and like the above, the answerable party is God Himself, not Jesus nor any of his followers. Reader, as Isaiah said about you,
“You don’t believe the report”.
Fine! Let matters stay there, and stop trying to blame others for your own decisions. WE are not throwing you into Gehenna; you are. Meanwhile, contrary to your lunatic ravings, the Christian community is not persecuting Israel. As Liz44 pointed out, we are Israel’s primary supporters, exceeding even the Jewish community in that support. This is probably the most obvious historical fact of the past 70 years.
@Tanna
“All the promises are to Israel not the Gentiles.”
Sure.
Except that as far as Christianity is concerned, “Israel” is now the New Israel, namely, those Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ, Jews are not Israel anymore since God allegedly abandoned them.
Denial of Judaism (and the Jews) is the core of Christianity, Christianity was created and exists “to spite the Jews”.
This is why the existence of the Jewish state stands in complete contradiction to the Christianity’s founding story which it continues to teach to its young children.
Just because there are (possibly many) Christians who don’t hate Jews doesn’t remove this core teaching and its consequences.
In order to promulgate this teaching, the Jewish Scripture was completely reinterpreted and its translation and stories distorted (I am not making this up, I saw several examples of it).
So it is not enough to understand that there was a mistake made a couple of thousand years ago – the teaching of the distorted texts and untrue stories must stop.
However, if it does, what will be left of the Christianity’s founding story?
A man who 2,000 years ago claimed that he was the Son of God and came to save everyone’s sins as long as they believed in him?
That’s why I am convinced that this is the root of the worldwide “anti-Israelism” – if you look at the situation objectively, it is as if the whole world thought that, let’s say, New Jersey is the biggest obstacle to world’s peace – it is laughable.
Therefore, there is a much greater and more important reason for it, and it has nothing to do with the “poor, suffering Palestinians” but with a severe affront to the beliefs in which billions of people were brought up.
@ Reader
The problem as I see it, is with the teaching of the Gentile Roman church that took over the early group of believers in the work and teaching of Jesus(Yeshua). From all the history, writings and evidence I have seen the original followers where in a different place then Christians 300 years after J.C.’s death. If one projects back onto history, the understanding we have today then history becomes completely distorted. History must be read in context.
So yes, I would agree with your opening paragraph, but there are built in assumptions that distorts the true history. What you state is a distorted, complete misunderstanding of the beginning and grow of Christianity. It is the Christian version of history, but it is a gentile pagan version that on it’s face, if it where true would make God, the Almighty out to be the liar. Now let that sink in!!!!
The original group was taken over by the gentiles and the Jews of the day separated themselves and went their on way. Israel, Jews, the Hebrew people have lived apart from rest of the world(Nations)to a large extinct. Just like their God said they would. Christianity today has by and large never came to the conclusion that the bible is a Jewish book. All the promises are to Israel not the Gentiles. The only way a Gentile can have salvation is to look to the Jew. Christians by and large have never come to terms with God’s promise to Abraham. It’s not on Abraham or his descendants to bring it to pass, it’s on God himself, when he could swear by none greater. Let me repeat, It’s all about the Son!
But, this is all part of Gods plan and in the future Isaiah 11 will happen. Both Jews of today and the ten tribes of yesterday will be reunited.
Reader said:
IF they let Israel exist in peace in its Biblical borders with the Jews of the Diaspora continuing to make aliyah, all of the above will be shown to be, if you don’t like the word “lie”), the greatest error of the last 2,000 years.
A “lie” is a good word for it. The church’s problem is the same as always for all people- A theological misunderstanding of what God is trying to reveal to mankind. Once the theology changes, the expectations of the future will soon follow. Christianity has been one of the greatest errors of the last 2000 yrs. But Christianity is just like the Covid virus. It’s a big distorted lie and propaganda tool. Has any good come from “Christianity”? Yes along with much blood and lots of evil actions. Has Covid produce some good? Yes, but evil actions and distorted truth is being pushed to further an evil agenda. How much good will come from the last 18 months? We do not know yet, lets talk about it in 500 years. But God is in control and it plan will be accomplished
.
Reader said:
“IF this happens, Christianity will need to cease preaching at least some of the Gospels and studying and believing what the Church Fathers taught.
Do you think this is possible?”
I agree, it’s not, in my opinion so much that Christianity will cease preaching the N.T. or the Gospel’s, it’s that Christianity is going to have to understand them from a different world view. The church fathers, where to far removed from the year 50 c.e. to understand. If they did, understand they where just like the world political leaders of today. On such a power trip, they distorted everything to further their on ego’s.
I am skeptical somewhat also. I come form a Christian background. It’s taken me 40 years of hard work and study to dig myself out as far as I have come. Most people, do not, and will not put in the work. But, each generation dies in it’s own sin and another comes on. They move higher or repeat the sin’s of their fathers. This thing we call life is a long hard slough.
Reader said:
“No one likes admitting his errors, especially if the error is this huge and if almost 2.5 billion people think it is THE TRUTH.”
Correct Reader! Have you ever entertained the thought what will happen to the Jewish world when the True Messiah stands up and he happens to be Yeshua of the first century? I’m just asking? The Jews might hit the floor first, but then all the Christians hit the floor….. when they realize he is not what the church has lied about for 2000 yrs. As in most things, there is much good in Christianity in all its different flavors. But there are things not so very good also.
But I would say the God fearing Christians are not your enemy and they are not Israel the Nations enemies. The real enemy is the the “mixed multitude” and the Philistines of both yesterday, today and forever.
@Tanna
My point was that (as I stated previously) peaceful existence of the Jewish state in its Biblical borders is anathema to Christian teachings which taught for 2,000 years that Jews are the people forever cursed and condemned to wandering the world for committing deicide, and that the Jews have nothing in common with either Hebrews or Israelites, that God abandoned the Jewish people and scattered them and chose whoever believes in His Son (from a mortal woman) instead, and that Christianity is the only true religion, and that the Jewish prophets talked about the coming of Jesus and the total failure of the Jews as the Chosen People.
IF they let Israel exist in peace in its Biblical borders with the Jews of the Diaspora continuing to make aliyah, all of the above will be shown to be, if you don’t like the word “lie”), the greatest error of the last 2,000 years.
IF this happens, Christianity will need to cease preaching at least some of the Gospels and studying and believing what the Church Fathers taught.
Do you think this is possible?
I am skeptical.
No one likes admitting his errors, especially if the error is this huge and if almost 2.5 billion people think it is THE TRUTH.
If I may add my two cents worth. From my perspective all of you thus far are correct as far as each of you go. But, lets be weary of painting with a broad brush. Yes, “replacement theology” is the core/at the root of the Christian view we see and live with today. This was probably NOT the case 2,000 years ago. Yes, the Christian countries have been some of the most strongest supports of Israel—– but they are also some of Israel worst behind the drapes enemies’…… hiding in the shadow, ready to plunger the knife into the heart, throat of Israel.
I don’t believe Christianity will be proven to be a lie any more then Judaism will be proven to be a lie…. IF when Messiah shows up he is the man from Nazareth who lived and was killed by Pilate 2000 years ago. And if he is not this person referred to as Jesus. Then the whole world has some learning to do. And NO!!!! if it is not Yeshua, the son of Joseph and Mary, this will not prove that Judaism is 1000% correct in everything they do and say. Both Judaism and Christianity have gotten some things wrong in the last 2,000 years and they both will have to make some adjustments in the future! As Rabbi Saul(Paul) said, all Israel is not Israel!!! But I say unto you, All Christians are not Christians!!!!
truth is absolute if your the Almighty, however it seems with man that it comes in degrees and then it is lost just a little bit faster then it was gained. This up and down cycle is the whole of the book of Joshua, in the bible. It has been said, that if one where to add up all the time Israel severed God in the Book of Joshua and added up all the time they served the other God’s and where rebellious in the book of Joshua what one would see is the same thing today…… man at best can only serve God about 2 to 3 days a week.
A righteous man or women wants to and they practice trying to follow what they understand God wants of them. However, and unrighteous man or women works at poking their finger in God’s eyes and defying him and his will for the human race. But the unrighteous, cannot poke God, so the only alternative is to poke his son which they have been do since Balak and Balaam Go read Numbers 23-26 for the roots of the insanity know as Anti-Semitism. And unless you make a giant mistaken theological leap…….. Hashem told MOSHE, What? Go get my son!
One thing about evil, it gets smarter and slicker with every passing generation. What evil did that was once repulsive to the average man/women in the street is today….. not given a second thought. Evil has been dressed up to look like a million dollar hooker, but she is still the 2 dollar crack whore she always was. We can only hope that the “Baldwin effect” will soon kick in and the whole world will be able to see the evil for what it is.
Remember, everything is building to a climax and it’s not about you. It’s all about Israel! But in the future True Israel will be teaching all the nations as they come to the temple 3 times a year and the True Christians will somehow be learning and living and loving the Torah as it is taught to the nations under the True Messiah. May he come speedily in our days!
@liz44
If by “Christian Zionists” you mean the Evangelical Christians, the reason for their support is simple – they have a theory that in order for the Second Coming of Christ to happen, all the Jews must first move to the Holy Land.
Then, after the Second Coming, all the Jews who still won’t accept Christ will die.
The replacement theology is alive and well, this is the core of Christianity.
As far as antisemitism, I think antisemitism created Christianity, and now they kind of perpetuate each other.
@Michael S
The country who set the Palestinian Arabs against the Jews was Christian (Great Britain), the countries (the US, GB, Canada, and many others) who locked the Jews in Europe to be slaughtered by their German (Christian) proxies were Christian.
All the countries who slaughtered the Jews in WWII, served as the biggest killing field for the European Jews (Poland), and deported them to their deaths (exceptions: Denmark and Sweden) were Christian.
The US (arms embargo) and Great Britain (led the Jordanian Legion) as well as other European countries were firmly on the side of the Arabs when Israel was attacked in 1948.
France’s (“the favorite daughter of the Catholic Church”) De Gaulle
was so freaked out by the results (quite unexpected) of the Six Day War that he called a pan-European conference which started Europe on the path of “friendship and cooperation” with the Arab countries.
All or most of the Christian countries accuse Israel of all sorts of crimes, question its right to exist, finance and train its enemies, and try to push it into the sea by imposing a “peace/piece” process by forcing Israel to make “painful concessions for the sake of peace”, financing the Arab settlement of Judea and Samaria and stopping the Jews from settling it which is bound to result in Israel’s annihilation (“the Final Solution”) and the annihilation of the Diaspora (and the US, in particular, has been aware of it since the 1960s).
I could go on and on but I don’t want to write a dissertation here.
It is not what they say but what they do that counts.
As far as the alleged enmity between Muslims and Christians: Muhammad’s wife was a Catholic, the Popes constantly express their support for the Arab cause, e.g., inviting Yasir Arafat to the Vatican, etc. Pope Francis even publicly washed the feet of several Muslims.
Now, what could be the reason for their continued interest in perpetuating the conflict in the ME, setting 500 million Arabs (their alleged Muslim enemiies) against 7 million Jews who live in a country the size of New Jersey, half of which is desert?
At this point, I think, if all the planet’s Jews were to move to Mars, all the Christian countries would vote, to a man, to blow up Mars without regard to the consequences.
The real reason is, as stated by retired22, the proliferation of the odious replacement theology, which many believed had been firmly eradicated by the very existence of Israel. The reason for that theory’s popularity is the anti-Semitism that sadly pervades so much of Western society today. As for the Muslims, their hatred of Israel and Jews is so vitriolic and seemingly intractable that it is tempting to abandon the idea of changing it. Yet their textbooks could be rewritten and all foreign or government aid to Muslim schools and organizations made conditional upon the Muslims’ revoking the anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic narrative. As for the idea that Christianity would be proved a lie if Israel succeeds, that is nonsense. Christian Zionists are among the most ardent supporters of Israel today, while Catholics believe that Christianity and Judaism are two valid paths to G-d, and can exist side by side in friendship and mutual respect.
Reader: You said,
“That’s why they want Israel destroyed.”
Who are the “they” that want Israel destroyed? As I recall, the majority of countries supporting independence for Israel were Christian; and the countries who oppose Israel’s existence, to the present day, are Christian-hating Muslims.
Also, when Israel is attacked in the UN, the Communists, Buddhists, Hindus and Pagans genreally attack Israel with one voice. Only Christian countries such as the US, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Australia and Canada have supported the Jewish state.
You may hold whatever prejudices you want; but please try to jibe them at least a little with present-day reality.
Christianity hardly faded.
There are almost 2.5 billion Christians in the world.
If the Jews succeed, Christianity will be proven to be a 2,000 year lie.
That’s why they want Israel destroyed.
The real answer?
The modern secular & cultural variety of ‘Replacement Theology’ among the elite establishments of western Europe.
Religious hatred of Jews in Western Europe has faded as religion there has also faded.
But the idea is baked into the European secular societies from many previous centuries!