The shocking heritage of antisemitism¹

Children’s author Roald Dahl rejected for coin image because of his unsavoury views

Proof, if it were needed, that it doesn’t pay to be anti-Semitic has come with the rejection of Roald Dahl’s image for British coins.

The Royal Mint, responsible for such decisions, has ruled him out for his virulent anti-Semitism, which should be taken as some consolation at a time when British society is rife with anti-Jewish sentiment – even a Kristallnacht 80^th anniversary vigil at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner was broken up by men shouting “Kill the Jews” in Arabic.¹

Dahl’s Dark Side

Dahl’s views on the subject were apparently not widely known in spite of the fact that the immensely successful children’s author made no secret of it.

But his dark side was brought to light with the Royal Mint’s decision against honouring his achievements by dedicating a British coin to him. As Tony Rennell put it in the Daily Mail,² the honour went instead to one William Shakespeare “whose caricature of a Jew, Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice fed anti-Semitism for centuries.”

I think that’s a little unfair as the Bard did not make a habit of such sentiment. Dahl, on the other hand, was quoted in The Independent newspaper as saying: “I’m certainly anti-Israel and I’ve become anti-Semitic.”³ And he told the New Statesman: “Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them [the Jews] for no reason.”

Dahl’s anti-Semitism might have had him arrested today.

Rennell lists several other nauseous instances of Dahl’s anti-Semitism that might have had him arrested today (he died in 1990, aged 74). And while acknowledging that he remains one of the greatest children’s storytellers of the 20^th Century, Rennell suggests that the dark side to many of Dahl’s tales is a fair commentary on his life, with much evidence of cruelty and unpleasantness. Yet not even Jewish Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, when he shot the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) film, had any idea of Dahl’s rank anti-Semitism.

What really bothers me is that there is so much that is dark and gloomy in today’s literature, especially for children, as well as in TV drama. In fact, it’s an absolute obsession, reflected by the way in which Halloween is rapidly challenging Christmas for our kids’ attention as an increasing number of homes are decorated with various aspects of occult paraphernalia.

There is surely an urgency as never before to point our children to the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

Choose Life!

Dahl’s rejection for our coins reminds me of how America’s famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, fell spectacularly from hero to zero as soon as his Nazi sympathies were made public on a national radio broadcast.⁴ He ended his life in relative obscurity and even a star-studded movie about his magnificent flying exploits was a flop at the box office.

In other words, he brought a curse on himself. For the word of God says of Abraham’s seed: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen 12:3).

Whatever anyone may think of the Jewish people, the Bible tells us quite plainly that they are God’s chosen people, with several references to them being his “treasured possession” (see, for example, Deut 7:6).

Whatever anyone may think of the Jewish people, the Bible tells us quite plainly that they are God’s chosen people.

Anti-Semitism is thus the evil end of the dark road of rebellion against our Creator. Hitler went all the way down that path, and not only destroyed himself, but also brought his country down with him, along with much of Europe.

A massive battle for the soul of our nation continues today – between good and evil, light and darkness, God and the devil.

Jesus warned: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt 7:13f).

Choose life!

Notes

1 The vigil was specifically held in honour of Jews murdered in Arab countries around the same time as Germany’s Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938, when 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed along with Jewish homes, hospitals, schools and synagogues, 91 Jews murdered and 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps. The London vigil was forcefully broken up by a group of men shouting: “Jews, remember Khaybar; the army of Muhammad is returning.” The cry relates to a 7^th Century atrocity when Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, located in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Jerusalem News Network, 12 November 2018, quoting INN. Thanks also to Christians United for Israel here and here, both 9 November 2018.

2 The Daily Mail, 8 November 2018.

3 Ibid.

4 See Bill Bryson’s One Summer – America 1927; also A Nation Reborn by Charles Gardner, Christian Publications International, p139.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Zionion’ by Steve Maltz (Saffron Planet, 2017).

This is a small book on a big theme: anti-Semitism in all its various forms. Its quirky title (pronounced ‘Zi-onion’) should not detract from the seriousness of its subject matter, nor should its size belittle the importance of its topic, which has been described as ‘the longest hatred’. As Maltz explains, he wrote this book “to expose the layers of hatred, as if peeling an onion, to shed light on the variety of aspects, scenarios and environments that this hatred has infiltrated” (p7).

So, now we know the reason for the title - the unusual conflation of Zion and onion - but what about the peeling process? How does Maltz go about exposing these layers?

The Multi-Headed Hydra

The answer lies in 16 short chapters, each of which outlines one particular area in which anti-Semitism is apparent, and which collectively build up the case that here we have something of major significance - something that is worldwide and endemic - an engineered hatred powered by generations of conditioning.

Maltz starts with the British Government and its post-Balfour failings, then moves on to the Palestinians, and the United Nations with its plethora of resolutions that condemn Israel (many more than those which condemn the rest of the world combined). Maltz concludes that either “Israel is the most evil rogue nation state in the World or there is a conspiracy of nations ‘out to get them’!” (p23).

In 16 short chapters, Maltz builds up the case that anti-Semitism is of major significance – a worldwide, engineered hatred that is endemic.

Later chapters include an examination of anti-Semitic attitudes found in the media, in academia and amongst activists and boycotters. Maltz demolishes the argument that Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ by demonstrating how Arabs have it better in Israel than they would elsewhere, something that a majority of Arabs admit to when surveyed. He also memorably coins the word ‘academonising’ to describe how those with impressive strings of qualifications often unite in their mutual hatred for the Jewish state.

Jihadists and neo-Nazis inevitably each get a chapter, but Maltz also illustrates that some Jews oppose the existence of Israel - usually for theological reasons - and that many Christians also still foster anti-Semitic sentiments, perhaps also for their own faulty theological reasons.

The overall conclusion is that “this multi-headed hydra of hatred against the Jews” (p77) is capable of emerging in many contexts. It is an ancient hostility that will not die. Jews remain hated and feared simply because they are Jews.

As Maltz admits, his book “has only skimmed the surface of the seas of animosity…[but the] objective has simply been to alert people to a massive injustice without laying it on too thickly” (p77).

Web Referencing

One interesting feature of the book is that the endnotes to each chapter consist largely of references to websites and webpages, most of which are independent news sources used to back up the points he makes. By following up each reference, the reader can expand his knowledge and understanding at each point. The book can thus be described as Tardis-like - much bigger on the inside that its outer size suggests.

It may seem tedious to have to keep going to the web to access this extra reading but all the links are also listed together on Maltz’s own website, Saltshakers, making clicking through much easier (though it must be said that some links no longer work).

The quirky title should not detract from the seriousness of the subject matter.

A Note on the Title

By the end, Maltz declares that “Our onion has been well and truly peeled” (p77). However, the onion analogy is not necessary to gain an appreciation of the book and the work Maltz has done in compiling it. It may have been inspirational and helpful for the author and his creative processes, but there is no sense that each layer (chapter) is getting smaller or heading towards a ‘centre’. The book stands on its own terms, and the reader will not be aware of any peeling process, though he may well be led to shed tears at each stage.

At first sight, the title is rather obscure and its pronunciation awkward to work out. Making up a new word for the title of a book can run into difficulty, but the subtitle (‘Why does the world obsess over Israel?’) is helpful in getting us past the cover – which as we know is never the best way to assess a book!

Excellent Value

Overall this slim volume is excellent value and easy to read. It could also be passed on to others whose views need challenging or whose understanding needs stretching. Maltz is an expert in providing assistance in both cases.

In some ways this is a slight diversion from the main themes of the author’s previous books (‘Hebraic Church’, ‘Livin’ The Life’) but these will be picked up again in his next book, Into the Lion’s Den, due out March 2018.

Zionion (80pp) is available from the publisher for £5.

Whilst there are usually other big world issues demanding our attention, anti-Semitism is never far from the front pages of our newspapers.

For the UK, the big issue for the coming months will be the EU referendum, but whilst responding to our personal and national priorities we must be careful not to lose a broader perspective. What else is going on that may bring balance to our understanding and prayers?

Terror Attacks in Paris

In January 2015, world attention was drawn to the terror attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Following this came the assault on a Jewish Kosher supermarket in the east of the city, where four Jews were killed and where the surrounding Jewish neighbourhood was shocked by this act of terror.

These may have seemed like two simultaneous but independent incidents, with Charlie Hebdo taking highest priority in the media. To gain a more balanced perspective, one had to look outside of this and make extra effort to search for other news that would shed biblical light on the overall picture.

Doing this, one would have discovered a growing unease in French Jewish communities. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, due to growing anti-Semitism about 7,000 French Jews had left the country during 2014 (many emigrating to Israel); double the figure for 2013.¹ The attack on the Paris market was connected to developing anti-Semitism across the nation and not an isolated incident to be sidelined by other news of the day.

Anti-Semitism is never far from the front pages of our newspapers – but it is easily obscured by other big world issues that demand our attention.

Other Recent CasesIsraeli IDs for new immigrants from France.

Anti-Semitic feeling² is erupting in many corners of society and in countries across the world. On Holocaust Memorial Day Martin Schulz, the German head of the European parliament, warned that anti-Semitism was prominent in the whole of Europe, with many European Jews living in fear and afraid to wear their religious garments on the streets of the continent's major cities.³

Anti-Semitism has become so bad in Malmo, the Swedish city where the popular television drama The Bridge is set, that it contributed to actor Kim Bodnia's decision to leave the show.⁴

Another incident in France occurred on Tuesday 12 January, when a Jewish politician was found stabbed and beaten to death at his home in the suburbs of Paris, prompting fears of yet another anti-Semitic attack.⁵

Recently the German head of the European parliament warned that anti-Semitism is rife across Europe, with many European Jews living in fear.

In Britain

Recently there have been anti-Semitic acts in British football.⁶ In London, there was an incident sparked by the sale of t-shirts with slogans designed to provoke Jewish fans of Tottenham. There has also been frequent anti-Semitic chanting from visiting supporters of rival teams.

Only last week an incident was highlighted when Oxford University was ordered by the government to investigate allegations of widespread anti-Semitism. The university's Jewish society had reported eight separate racism allegations levelled against the Oxford University Labour Club. This followed the resignation of co-chairman Alex Chalmers, who said a large proportion of members of OULC "have some kind of problem with Jews".⁷

This was also linked to concerns about trends in the Labour Party, whose leader Jeremy Corbyn has expressed strong sympathy for Hamas and Hezbollah. He failed to apologise for past links to these organisations in his first meeting with representatives of the Jewish community since becoming Labour leader.⁸ Is there a danger of growing anti-Semitism subtly infiltrating the ranks of one of the UK's main political parties?

The Bigger Picture

These examples of continuing anti-Semitism in the world should cause us to consider our world from a biblical perspective. It is so easy to get diverted into the politics of the day and forget what is happening behind the scenes.

Closer to home, anti-Semitic feeling has been noted recently in such diverse arenas as British football, universities and political parties.

Learning from Another Era

I was privileged to be on the staff at the Bible College of Wales during its latter years, when Rev Samuel Howells was Director. I would talk with him in his study and he would tell me something of the war years, when he was part of the team led by his father Rees Howells. In their commitment to prayer through those years they saw clearly that underlying the intent of Hitler to bring in the Nazi regime to dominate both Europe and the world was a spiritual battle for the survival of the Jews.

The account of these years is set out in Rees Howells: Intercessor (2003, Lutterworth Press). Samuel told me of the time when his father came out of the prayer room, ashen faced, saying that the Lord had asked him to take responsibility for the Jews in the Nazi death camps – and he had accepted. The ministry of intercession deepened in the college from that time on, as the deeper issues of the war were understood.

After the war the UN was to vote on the partition plan for Palestine. Dr Kingsley Priddy was Rees Howells' deputy at the time and he told me that they had visions of angels around the UN building as the vote took place. Samuel also said to me once something I still try to understand. Speaking of the intercessory team, he said "We lost six million Jews in the war, but the nation of Israel was reborn." This is perhaps how someone who takes responsibility in intercession will describe the battle and its results.

Samuel also told me that his father, once a strong man, died at a relatively young age in 1950 - strained by those years of spiritual warfare. That indicates the depth of the issues that we will face in future struggles of a similar kind.

During WWII, Rees Howells and his intercessory team saw clearly that underlying Hitler's intent to dominate the world was a spiritual battle for the survival of the Jews.

Same Battle, Different Manifestation

Our spiritual adversary dragged the entire world into a physical conflict in Europe in 1939. There is, similarly, a spiritual dimension to the UK's relation to Europe in our day. The door is now open for us to untangle ourselves from the EU. After that we will have an opportunity to regroup as a nation under God, according to our constitutional position expressed most clearly in the Queen's Coronation Oath.

Now more than ever, we need to understand the spiritual nature of this battle, whilst remembering the central purposes of God's end-time covenant plan. We must take care not to become pre-occupied fighting on one front while neglecting central issues on other, seemingly peripheral fronts.

Growing anti-Semitism is a symptom of an important front of the spiritual battle today, just as it has been through the entire history of Israel. God has a plan for Israel that will be resisted by our spiritual adversary in many ways, erupting in diverse places in what we call anti-Semitism.

Now more than ever, we need to understand the spiritual dimension of the battles we face today, including the UK's relationship with Europe.

One day this battle will be clearer to discern, with an overt turning against Israel stirred up among the rising world coalitions. For now, it may seem a more peripheral issue, but those with understanding will perceive the danger signs and the priorities for our prayers.

Interested in learning more about anti-Semitic trends around the world, or catching up on the latest incidents? You might benefit from looking at the following secular websites:

• The Anti-Defamation League: The ADL has recently produced an index of world anti-Semitism, presented as a useful map. It also catalogues selected anti-Semitic events from 2015.
• The Co-ordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism: the CFCA publishes trend reports, articles and news items (see their website here).

Notes

1 Aliyah Hits Ten-Year High: Approximately 26,500 New Immigrants Arrived in Israel in 2014. Jewish Agency for Israel, 2 January 2015.

2 There are a number of attempts at a precise definition of the term anti-Semitism. This one is useful.

3 See, for example, Sanchez, R, Europe's Jews are 'living in fear', warns head of EU parliament. The Telegraph, 27 January 2016.

4 Danish TV star says anti-Semitism made him uncomfortable in Sweden. Jerusalem Post, 17 February 2016.

5 Samuel, H, Killing of Jewish politician near Paris prompts fears of anti-Semitic attacks. The Telegraph, 13 January 2016.

6 See, for example, Telegraph Sport, Chelsea crack down on sales of abusive Arsene Wenger and Harry Kane T-shirts. The Telegraph, 9 February 2016. 7 Ali, A, Oxford University Labour Club co-chair, Alex Chalmers, resigns amid anti-Semitism row. The Independent, 17 February 2016. 8 See, for example, Riley-Smith, B and McCann, K, Jeremy Corbyn fails to apologise for links to Hamas and Hezbollah in first meeting with Jewish leaders. The Telegraph, 9 February 2016.

Paul Luckraft reviews 'The Jews: Why Have Christians Hated Them?' by Gordon Pettie (2010, Everlasting Books and Music Ltd, 172 pages, £5. Available on request from the UK office of Revelation TV)

I would recommend this book for two reasons. First, if you have never read anything before on this topic, then it will open your eyes to a very important aspect of Christian history and the relationship between the Church and Israel today.

Second, if you are familiar with the failings of the Church regarding the Jewish people, then this book will fill in any gaps in your knowledge and provide a very good summary in concise form, though it is sufficiently complete to act as a thorough reference to the prolonged Christian mistreatment of the Jews.

The author is honest enough to admit that his work may not ultimately provide a satisfactory answer to the question in the title. 'Why?' is always a complex question. But he has recorded as much evidence as he can fit reasonably into one book to demonstrate that, whatever the reason or reasons, "layer upon layer of hatred by Christians to Jews has taken place" (ppvii-viii).

This book provides a concise but thorough reference that will open your eyes to the topic of Christian-Jewish relations through history.

Impetus for the Book

The initial impetus for the book arose from two visits Pettie made to Israel, the first in 2000 when he was asked to administrate a 10-day conference in Jerusalem. A few months later he travelled back to fulfil a similar role for a Repentance Conference, where Protestants repented for what had been done in their name against the Jewish people through the centuries. A new journey of discovery had begun through which the author not only gathered information, but also found his love increasing for Israel and God's people.

The desire to commit to print what he was learning became a devotion and a full commitment. Not having written a book before this was a challenging prospect, but after a year and a half of research in which he studied little else, the book was ready. Its content is clearly disturbing but, as the author states, "For Christians to receive a wake-up call and start loving the Jews, they need to see what happened in the past. The evidence has to be examined, and some of it is not very nice!" (p8).

Denouncing Replacement Theology

The overall aim of the book is the denouncement of Replacement Theology and chapter two provides a very good discussion of this and how the early Church separated itself from its Jewish roots, amply illustrated by quotes from the early Church fathers.

The overall aim of the book is to denounce Replacement Theology, which it does through a very good discussion and with ample illustration.

It seems there is an unfortunate printing error on page 29 where the statement that "God is calling His Church to renounce the teaching of Repentance Theology" should presumably read "Replacement Theology". His next comment clarifies this as we are exhorted to "repent for the false doctrine that has arisen from it and re-establish the Jewish people to the right place that God has for them" (p29).

Chapter three focusses on Jerusalem and is followed by more details on how we have lost our Jewish heritage, including a helpful summary of the feasts and festivals. However, the heart of the book (nearly half the total number of pages) is devoted to a comprehensive chronological survey of Christian antagonism towards the Jews from Constantine to our own day. There is a special focus on Luther as one of the key moments in this immense catalogue of horrors, and a separate chapter entitled 'Christian support for Hitler's Holocaust'.

Practical Advice

However, this is not just a fact-finding book. The final chapter, entitled 'So what can be done?', contains practical advice on how to use what you have learnt in a meaningful way. The list of 14 suggestions include praying, study, offering practical help and speaking out – something for everyone!

This is more than just a fact-finding book. The final chapter contains practical advice on how to use what you have learnt in a meaningful way.

Here is a book that provides useful information but also stirs the heart. It is an excellent potted history and if readers want to find more details elsewhere there is a helpful list of recommended further reading. But there is enough here to help counter any remaining hostile attitudes and persuade us to show the Jewish people that we do not hate them. It goes some way to encouraging us to fulfil Paul's aim of showing Christ in such a way as to arouse the Jews to jealousy, so that they find in Jesus the Messiah they are longing for.

We have not learnt the lessons of the Holocaust: the Jewish community in the UK is more vulnerable than at any time since the Second World War.

We are launching Prophecy Today UK online on the first day of Passover, 4 April 2015. This date was chosen because Passover is foundational to biblical faith and prophetic understanding, and is an “appointed time” (in Hebrew, moed) in Scripture when God meets with his people.

Passover in 1945

Having chosen this date, we then realised its significance in European history. Seventy years ago on 4 April 1945, which also fell during ‘the Season of our Freedom’ (another name for Passover), the US Army liberated the Nazi death camp at Ohrdruf, Germany, part of the Buchenwald camp network.

Ohrdruf was the first concentration camp to be liberated by the US Army (Auschwitz in Poland having been liberated by the Russians on 27 January 1945). Among the American soldiers was 20-year-old Charlie Payne from Kansas, who later became the great uncle of President Barack Obama. Obama said that when his uncle returned home, "he just went up into the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months”.¹

Also overwhelmed was General Eisenhower, who wrote:

The things I saw beggar description…The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick…I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'²

The Allies realised the importance of documenting the German atrocities in film because they thought they would not be believed. As Churchill said, “no words can express the horror…of these frightful crimes”.³ Instead, the images captured by the Allied armies’ film units speak more loudly than words ever could.

In the 1945 film German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, produced by Sidney Bernstein (assisted by Alfred Hitchcock) for the British Ministry for Information, Richard Crossman’s elegiac script commented: “Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall. But by God’s grace, we who live will learn.”

“Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall. But by God’s grace, we who live will learn.” - German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, 1945

After the War, many Jews left the graveyard of Europe for the Promised Land. Shamefully, thousands were turned back by the British and were placed in camps in Cyprus and elsewhere. Others were returned to Germany to their horror.

There is speculation that the British government shelved Bernstein’s film so that pity for the Holocaust refugees would not fuel demand for a Jewish homeland in British-controlled territory.⁴ It took until January this year for Bernstein’s film to be shown in its entirety for the first time on British television.⁵ How different would government policy have been, had it been shown to a horrified public in 1945?

Have we learned the lessons of the Holocaust? Or, to echo Crossman’s haunting warning, is night falling? Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme last year, Sir Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler” who organised the Czech Kinderstransport, said "I don't think we've learned anything...the world today is in a more dangerous situation than it has ever been."⁶

The rise of anti-Semitism in the UK and Europe

Anti-Semitic incidents in the UK reached an all-time high and escalated around Europe during the Gaza conflict in July-August 2014.

In Germany, molotov cocktails were lobbed into the Bergische synagogue in Wuppertal, which was previously destroyed on Kristallnacht. A Berlin imam, Abu Bilal Ismail, called on Allah to "destroy the Zionist Jews…Count them and kill them, to the very last one."⁷ In France, eight synagogues were attacked and one, in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, was firebombed by a 400-strong mob.⁸

In the UK, the Jewish community’s watchdog for anti-Semitism, the Community Security Trust, recorded 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents in 2014, more than twice as many as 2013.⁹

In London, October 2014, “Five girls from a Jewish secondary school were approached by a man at a London underground station who said: ‘Being Jewish is wrong. You are going to die if you carry on being Jewish’ and ‘I will kill you all after school.’ He grabbed one of the girls by the wrist and said: ‘Come with me and be a Christian’. She kicked him and ran away.”¹⁰

In Norfolk, July 2014, “A leaflet found among Israeli produce in a supermarket featured an image of the Israeli flag with the title ‘The flag of Zionist racist scum’. It read: ‘Deny the Holocaust? Of course there was a holocaust. What a pity Adolf and Co didn’t manage to finish the job properly!’”¹¹

Prejudice in the UK public

We cannot dismiss these incidents as the actions of extremists because prejudice against Jews is alive and well among the general public. The government’s Campaign Against Antisemitism found that nearly half of Britons thought at least one anti‑Semitic view presented to them was ‘definitely or probably true’.¹²

In its Annual Antisemitism Barometer 2015, published a week after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, it concludes:

Britain is at a tipping point: unless antisemitism is met with zero tolerance, it will continue to grow and British Jews may increasingly question their place in their own country.¹³

It also reported that:

Well over half of British Jews (58%) believe Jews may have no long-term future in Europe and "The Mayor of London’s office revealed that in July 2014, when fighting between Israel and Hamas peaked, the Metropolitan Police Service recorded its worst ever month for hate crime in London, 95% of which was antisemitic hate crime directly related to fighting between Israel and Hamas."¹⁴

In the media, Jews in Europe are consistently identified with and blamed for Israel’s actions. Reports describing Palestinians and “Jews” rather than Palestinians and “Israelis” in coverage of events in Israel have reinforced this perception. The Jewish people’s unique dual religious and ethnic identity crosses national boundaries and so anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are inextricably linked.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressing the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) commented on how anti-Semitism has been dressed in new clothes:

...in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society. People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.

He also said that while criticism of Israeli government policy is not anti-Semitic, criticism that targets only Israel while ignoring violence and oppression in its neighbours is unacceptable.¹⁵

This 'New Anti-semitism', as it is called, based on hatred of Israel’s nationhood (rather than religion or race), has been identified by a number of commentators from the 1960s onwards, including historian Leon Poliakov, who published From Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism (1969), and Holocaust survivor Jacques Givet, who used the term 'neo-antisemitism' about the Left’s anti-Zionism. Much has been written since about this phenomenon.^{16, 17}

The Church has fallen broadly into two camps: Christian Zionists (and supporters of Israel of various hues who dislike the term 'Christian Zionist'), and those who question Israel’s right to exist and are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.

Paul Charles Merkley in Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel¹⁸ says that Christian anti Zionism is in part due to the history of missions to the Middle East:

Beginning in the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries from the West – Protestant, Catholic and evangelical – sought the conversion of the Jews of Palestine for about a century, with only the most modest results. On the other hand, missionary efforts among the Arabs did win substantial conversions in the latter half of the nineteenth century and a modest number since. Not unreasonably, Church organizations have been much more open to the political aspirations of their clients than to those of their clients’ adversaries.

He also points out that anti-Zionism “provides respectable camouflage for hostility towards Jews and Judaism that cannot be admitted to oneself or others.” It allows Christians a platform among liberal and fashionable thinkers who condemn Israel as 'apartheid' and 'racist'. It also looks good for the Church to be seen as a champion of 'the oppressed'.¹⁹

Attacks on the increase since Paris and Copenhagen murders

The recent spike in anti-Semitic attacks has continued in the wake of the Paris and Copenhagen attacks, which have spawned a rash of UK incidents.

In Radio 4’s programme Anti-Semitism in the UK: Is it Growing?,²⁰ Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, the national lead on Jewish communities for the Association of Chief Police officers, said that in January 2014 there were 28 anti-Semitic crimes, but this January there were 100. The increase was due to events in Paris inspiring copycat behaviour but also a greater desire to report such incidents.

Also interviewed on the programme was Mehmood Naqshbandi, who visits mosques around the country and advises government and police on Muslim matters. Asked how common Muslim animosity is towards Jewish communities, he said:

It’s a problem which is endemic in the Muslim community. It’s widespread; it covers generations. It is taken for granted when Muslims are talking to other Muslims, people don’t feel any obligation to hold back from expressing the kind of casual racist views about Jews and about the Jewish community that fits the nasty stereotypes of caricatures of Jewish behaviour, expectations of Jewish conduct and so on. It’s a deep-rooted problem, a problem which is not challenged.²¹

Conflicting analysis of Charlie Hebdo attack and other Islamist terror attacks

The Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015, including the related attack on a Jewish supermarket, has been blamed on the disaffection of French Muslim youth. If they were more integrated, better off, less marginalised in French society, these things would not happen.

Similarly, after an Islamist terror plot to kill Belgian police was foiled, Professor Peter Neumann of Kings College London (interviewed on Channel 4 news) said the cause was socio-economic. Disenfranchised young men on the margins of society were the problem with Belgium having the highest number of European fighters going to Syria and Iraq. Channel Four News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy responded that this was a naive view and that there were also men involved in terror from well-off backgrounds.²²

The debate in the European Parliament on security in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting was no more illuminating. More heat than light was shed, with opinions sharply dividing over Muslim immigration.²³

The roots of anti-Semitism

Pundits and politicians do not know how to tackle Islamist terror because they do not fully understand its roots.

As well as the fierce jealousy for Muhammad which motivated the Charlie Hebdo massacre, anti-Zionism is a key reason for Islamist terror. Beneath that (often ill-concealed) is anti-Semitism. Journalists and politicians insist that you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic, but the line is frequently crossed. What is certain is that Jews around the world are being identified with Israel and are consequently suffering prejudice and violence, in other words anti-Semitism.

Academics have debated the roots and causes of anti-Semitism to find a unifying factor: is it economic, social, religious, political? Today, Israel’s political actions are blamed. However, that cannot be the cause of anti-Semitism pre-1948 (the year the modern state of Israel was formed).

Anti-Semitism has morphed into different expressions through the ages, but always with one aim: the destruction of the Jewish people. Edward Flannery, in his classic study of anti-Semitism, The Anguish of the Jews,²⁴ concludes that the only unifying aspect of anti-Semitism is its spiritual nature.

Both the religious anti-Judaism of the Christian Church and modern racial anti-Semitism, epitomised by the Nazis, share a spiritual root: an unacknowledged hatred of Christ.

Flannery comments that scholars “have varyingly perceived in the hatred of the Jew an unconscious hatred of Christ, a rebellion against the Christian ‘yoke’ no longer found sweet (Matt 11:30); in a word, a Christophobia.”²⁵ Freud recognised it and said: “In its depths anti-Judaism is anti-Christianity.”²⁶

A number of prominent Nazis were brought up as Catholics: Himmler, Goebbels, Hoess and Hitler. In order to pursue their dream of unfettered German power, they had to throw off moral restraint and embrace a pagan view of man as master of his destiny. Christ and Christianity could serve the Reich but they had to be purged of their Jewish root: the Nazis sought to throw off the shackles of Judeo-Christian morality and return to a mythically powerful Aryan pagan past.

Flannery writes:

His [Hitler’s] genocidal decision against the Jewish people represented, again symbolically, the annihilation of his moral (Jewish-Christian) conscience, which stood in the way of his grandiose dream of a Thousand Year Reich founded on an apotheosis of the German Volk and of himself as its Fuehrer and Saviour.²⁷

In other words, the Nazis did not want simply to destroy the Jews; they wanted to be the Jews. They wanted to be the chosen people, to usurp their place. This usurping spirit is found in scripture. God’s Adversary is described in Isaiah 14:14 as one whose declared aim is, “I will make myself like the Most High.” This is the spirit of Anti-Christ:

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:4)

"The Nazis did not want simply to destroy the Jews; they wanted to be the Jews."

Flannery asserts that “anti-Semitism is at its deepest root a unified phenomenon and from all angles an anti-religious one”²⁸ which resides “in the deepest chambers of the spirit.”²⁹

The rebellion behind anti-Semitism

Nazism was a perfect storm combination of the legacy of Christian anti-Semitism and modern racial anti-Semitism.

It highlighted that not only Christophobia but nomophobia (from nomos, Greek for law), or fear of law (specifically God’s moral law epitomised in the Torah), are hallmarks of anti-Semitism. It was a revolt against the word and the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

In pre-war Germany, Nazi-sympathising theologians were keen to reposition the Bible and theology to accommodate National Socialist ideology, specifically by undermining the place of the Old Testament. In 1939, a group of German theologians established The Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life, aiming to de-Judaize the New Testament and present an Aryan Jesus.³⁰

This ultimate expression of replacement theology was fuelled by anti-Semitism, but rooted in the rebellion of men’s souls against their Creator and his established order. It was satanically inspired: the one who wishes to overthrow and usurp God’s throne is the one who wishes to destroy the Jewish people because by doing so, he will destroy the hope of the world, the Redeemer, who comes from Israel and to Israel.

"When we reject God’s people, we are rejecting God himself."

Rejection of God’s light and truth

A political satire from the 1960s has been revived in the West End. In The Ruling Class³¹ Jack, a fictional earl and paranoid schizophrenic, firstly imagines he is Christ and then Jack the Ripper. As Jesus, his message of peace and love is rejected as insanity. As Jack the Ripper, he takes his seat in the House of Lords with a fiery speech in favour of capital and corporal punishment. His colleagues applaud wildly (completely unaware the speech is the ranting of a lunatic), in contrast to society's reaction when he believed he was Christ.

The play was intended as an indictment of the establishment, but it also testifies that people are more comfortable with the darkness of sin, condemnation and punishment than with the light of Christ’s love, peace and grace. Man’s rebellious nature is so corrupt that it sees evil in good and good in evil.

The temptation for Adam and Eve was to become the arbiters of good and evil, to dethrone God’s judgement and become their own judges. The Torah, as God’s wisdom, is a “tree of life” to man (Prov 3:18), but it also is the means of our judgement and the harbinger of death to those who reject it (Rom 3:20 and 7:7-9).

We seek to destroy that which exposes and accuses us; Israel as the bearer and enacter of God's Law has paid the price for exposing it to the world and, by its light, exposing the world’s darkness.

The Torah was also the means of keeping Israel separate from other nations: a holy people (Ex 19:6). It prevented them from being assimilated. They had to remain separate in order to be worshippers of God, not idol-worshippers like every other nation, so they could be prepared to receive God himself.

This is why in Israel’s history the Adversary (in Hebrew, Satan) sought alternately either to undermine the Torah by enticing Israel away from God and his Word to make them like all the other nations, or to destroy Israel in order to prevent the coming of the Messiah. If your enemies cannot be assimilated, they must be annihilated and from the Amalekites to Haman, from Herod to Hitler, this murderous desire persists.

The Adversary did not succeed in destroying the Jewish people before the first advent of the Messiah – but he persists because that is only part one of the salvation story.
We await the second coming: Jesus’ promised return in power and glory to reign from Jerusalem over all the earth: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Jerusalem is fought over because it is the City to which Messiah will return. He will not find it empty or still being “trampled down by the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24). Instead, he will return to re-gathered Israel:

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people. (Isa 11:10-11a)

He will redeem Israel and all who have joined with them by faith from among the Gentiles (Eph 2:11-22).

Anti-Semitism and the anti-Christ spirit

The world continually rejects Israel and the Jewish people because they reject God’s call to be joined with them through the Messiah. Through Israel’s particularity, the ‘narrow way’ of the kingdom (Matt 7:14), we are called to become “one new humanity” (Eph 2:15) in spiritual unity (not uniformity) which is the only true peace available to mankind.

However, by placing the Church centre stage in salvation history and declaring that she has superseded Israel in God’s plans and purposes, the majority of believers have failed to understand that the Church is not the main player on the stage of history.

Israel, both people and land, is still the subject of the salvation story because all God’s salvation promises were made to Israel and to those Gentiles who join with her, through her Messiah by faith.

Sadly, before Christian theology was re-assessed in the light of the Holocaust, the Church was the main instrument of Jewish persecution. However, Christians still remain largely unaware of the bleak history of Christian anti-Semitism and how the teaching that the Church has replaced Israel has contributed to it.

Inspiring 'Replacement theology' or supersessionism, the teaching that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plans and purposes, is the same jealous, usurping spirit, the spirit of Anti-Christ, which aims to overthrow God's end-time plans (for a more in-depth analysis of Replacement theology, click here).

The same spirit is at work in Islamic teaching, which claims that Mohammed’s teachings supersede Judaism and Christianity. Rejected Ishmael jealously insists he was chosen, not his half-brother Isaac: my promises, my land!³² It is a triumphalist theology, unwilling to tolerate difference unless in submission to its rule.

Wherever the Holy Spirit is at work, the anti-Christ spirit, hallmarked by jealousy in man, is also at work. People of all faiths and all religious backgrounds have expressed it. Peace and harmony for mankind, but intolerance and jealousy of the Jewish people are hallmarks of religion of all kinds, including New Age spirituality (one of the main protagonists of the New Age movement, Alice Bailey (a former evangelical Christian³³), equated Judaism with “an evil cosmic energy called ‘The Jewish Force’, which must be eliminated in order for the Age of Aquarius to arrive fully”³⁴).

"Wherever the Holy Spirit is at work, the anti-Christ spirit, hallmarked by jealousy in man, is also at work."

The Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus were said to be jealous of him and that is why they handed him over to Pilate (Mark 15:10). This jealousy continued to be vented against his Jewish followers. In Acts 5:17-18:

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

In militant Islam, this jealous, usurping spirit finds violent, implacable expression. It is fuelled by an irrational spiritual jealousy that cannot be appeased (Prov 27:4). Only the Holy Spirit can withstand and conquer the spirit of anti-Christ and in turn counter it with a godly jealousy that cannot be withstood: “I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion” (Zech 1:14).

It is the God of Israel’s land, his city, the place where he has set his name:

In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. (2 Chron 33:7)

I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land. (Joel 3:2)

The Church’s response

After 9/11, there was much talk of the ‘clash of civilizations’ between Islam and western secularism. This is not a battle of civilizations; it is a spiritual war. It must be fought with spiritual weapons.³⁵

Ordinary Muslims are shocked and outraged by extremists and many will be seeking answers; the Church must be prepared to explain, challenge and comfort. We must demonstrate that Christianity is an Eastern religion, which speaks to all peoples, and forms the lost and dwindling heritage of the peoples of the Middle East. We also need to show that Christianity is not a religion for the individual but for the community. Western enlightenment thinking is unappealing to Muslims with its focus on individual rights, because Middle Eastern cultures focus on community cohesion.

However, the Church has its own challenge: anti-Semitism is infecting the Church in the form of Christian anti-Zionism and it must also be addressed. In pre-war Germany, theologians were ready to distance themselves from the Old Testament and from a Jewish Jesus so that they could comfortably reject and persecute the Jewish people.

"Today's Church has appropriated God's promises to Israel and denied its role and place in God's end-time plan."

Today’s Church is dangerously misaligned too. We have appropriated God’s promises to Israel and denied the people and land of Israel their role and place in God’s end-time plan. This means we can comfortably distance ourselves from anti-Semitism because we can claim it is bound up with anti-Zionism. Jews have always been blamed for their own misfortunes and the fight for survival in their own nation is cited as the legitimate cause for Islamic violence.

However, land and people are inextricably linked in God’s schema: “I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth…say to Zion, 'You are my people.'" (Isa 51:16). Zion- land and people -are conflated in this verse illustrating that their destinies are linked: salvation for the Jewish people is connected to the land of promise. It is this very link between land and people that is expressed in the final form of anti-Semitism that is increasing and intensifying today: anti-Zionism.

If we say that Israel has no right to the land God promised them, that those rights were superseded, we are setting ourselves against God’s end time plans. It is his land and by his sovereign choice he has restored his people to it.

We are also denying God’s covenant faithfulness if we say that he has finished with Israel as a nation:

'Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will Israel ever cease being a nation before me. Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel’ declares the LORD. (Jer 31:36-37)

In that same chapter, Jeremiah 31, God promises the New Covenant to Israel, including a Jerusalem that will never be uprooted or demolished (Jer 31:40). This is not a promise to the Church but to Israel. We are the adopted children, the invited guests, but we have arrogantly overrun the party.

Many are sleep-walking in the end times, accepting unquestioningly the world's political narrative that the conflict between Israel and Palestinians concerns a land which is no longer spiritually significant. This is not to say that Christians should uncritically support the Israeli state’s government and policies, but we must view them through the lens of Scripture, not the other way around. We must also still unstintingly love those who persecute us and God’s people Israel: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44).

"We must also still unstintingly love those who persecute us and God’s people Israel: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44)."

We must, though, reject the subtle Christian anti-Semitism which seeks to sever the link between the biblical land of Israel and its current prophetic significance.
Giulio Meotti writes:

The Presbyterian Church USA is considering banning the word “Israel” from its prayers. That anti-Semitic resolution was meant to ‘distinguish between the biblical terms that refer to the ancient land of Israel and the modern political State of Israel’.³⁶

It is imperative that Bible-believing Christians reject this replacement narrative and align with Israel and the Jewish community because the spiritual battle lines are already drawn.

The need for solidarity

A friend doing door-to-door outreach met a Jewish lady who thanked her for calling and commented that the time is coming when Jews and Christians will need to stand together.

That time is now.

The Jewish Chronicle launched a campaign for the government to pay for synagogue security.³⁷ Why should Christian volunteers not show their solidarity with the Jewish community by volunteering to guard synagogues during Saturday services?

After the shooting of a synagogue guard in Denmark, around 1,000 Muslims (5% of the Muslim population) in Norway formed a 'ring of peace' around a synagogue in Oslo.³⁸

Where are the Christian demonstrations of solidarity? We cannot retreat into our safe churches and relax because it is not us at risk. Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous words, written after being imprisoned by the Nazis, still resonate:

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Dan Hodges in The Telegraph: “…as the Paris attacks proved, they are still coming for the Jews. In reality, they have never stopped coming for the Jews.”³⁹

The lesson from the Middle Eastern nations under Islamic State control is that since the Jews had already left, the Christians are next in their sights. If we withdraw from the Jewish community when they need our support, how can we dare pray for our own protection?

After the Paris terror attacks, some London schools cancelled Holocaust education trips to synagogues. Two rabbis from a Kingston synagogue commented that although the schools felt they were acting in the children’s interests:

...it marginalises the Jewish community to be the pariah within our society, not through active discrimination but through neglect…For us this marks a tipping point, not when Jews are concerned for their own safety but when others are scared of mere connection to our community.⁴⁰

It is time for the Church to stand unequivocally with the Jewish people in the name of their Messiah. The battle surrounding Israel is going to intensify and we cannot again stand by watching from a distance while the Jewish people are persecuted.

We cannot be people who, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, withdraw to a "the sanctuary of private virtuousness. Such people neither steal, nor murder, nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. But in voluntarily renouncing public life, these people know exactly how to observe the permitted boundaries that shield them from conflict. They must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them.”⁴¹

The rise of anti-Semitism in Europe indicates that we have not learned from history and the rise of Islamist terror as the frontline jihad of raging anti-Semitism masked as anti-Zionism suggests that night is falling.

As the day darkens, as night falls, we must shine ever more brightly with the light of Christ until the daystar dawns (2 Pet 1:19).

References

1 Medoff, R. Death camp liberated Pesach 1945, Israel National News, 31 March 2010

2 Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, Wikipedia.

3 Speech in the House of Commons, 17 April 1945. Churchill, W (grandson), 2003. Never Give In!: Winston Churchill’s Speeches, London: Bloomsbury.

4 Lynette Singer (writer) on ‘Holocaust: Night Will Fall’, documentary broadcast on Channel 4, 29 January 2015.

5 Ibid.

6 Sir Nicholas Winton: I've made a difference. BBC Radio 4, broadcast 28 October 2014.

7 Henley, J. Antisemitism on rise across Europe 'in worst times since the Nazis’, The Guardian, 7 August 2014.

8 Ibid.

9 Booth, R. Antisemitic attacks in UK at highest level ever recorded, The Guardian, 15 February 2015.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Annual Antisemitism Barometer 2015

13 Ibid, p2.

14 Ibid, p5.

15 Goodman, L, PM Harper warns of new age of anti-Semitism in speech to Knesset, The Record, 20 January 2014.

16 Eg Wistrich, R, 2010. A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad, Random House, New York.

17 Kahn-Harris, K, Gidley, B, 2010. Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today, Bloomsbury Publishing, p139.

18 Merkley, P C, 2001. Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kinston, p215-216.

19 Ibid.

20 Anti-Semitism in the UK: is it growing?, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 5 March 2015.

21 Ibid.

22 Channel 4 News, 16 January 2015.

23 European Parliament debate, 11 February 2015.

24 Flannery, EH, 1985. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, New Jersey: Paulist Press, revised 2004.

25 Ibid, p292.

26 Ibid, p292, quoting S. Freud, Moses and Monotheism, New York: Vantage Books, 1955, pp116-117.

27 Ibid, p292.

28 Ibid, p293-4.

29 Ibid, p295.

30 Heschel, S, 2010. The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, Princeton University Press.

31 By Peter Barnes.

32 See Genesis 16-18, 21.

33  Joseph E, 2004. Krotona of Old Hollywood, Vol. II, El Montecito Oaks Press, p. 340. See also Wikipedia on Alice Bailey-Ross.

34 Harradine, K. New Agers fall for Anti-Semitism, The Jewish Chronicle, 17 September 2013. Also Newman, H, 2005. 'Aquarius, Age of', entry in Levy et al (eds) Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Vol 1, p30.

35 Ephesians 6:10-18

36 Meotti, G. To Anti-Semitic Christians, Israel is an Usurper, 5 January 2015.

37 Jewish Chronicle Online, Secure our shuls, 19 February 2015.

38 Stone, J. Hundreds of Norwegian Muslims form human shield to protect Jewish synagogue in Oslo, The Independent, 22 February 2015.

39 Hodges, D. They are still coming for the Jews. So why is nobody speaking out?, The Telegraph, 19 January 2015

40 Bingham, J. London schools cancel synagogue trips citing security fears after Paris terror attacks, The Telegraph, 6 February 2015.

41 Bonhoeffer, D. Ethics, DBWE 6, 80. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Center, University of Bamberg.