Taking Our Place in the Tsunami of Antisemitism

November 7, 2024

by: Donald James, Interim National Director, BFP Canada

 

The world has witnessed a different kind of tsunami in the 11 months since Hamas attacked the people of Israel on October 7. This is not a tsunami of ocean waves caused by an earthquake, but a tsunami of hatred—hatred of a nation, Israel and of a people group, the Jews.

Logically, we should have expected a tsunami of sympathy for Israel and the Jewish people, considering how heinous and evil the Hamas attack was. Some of the footage of that day, which the terrorists recorded with their own GoPro cameras, is so sickening that it has still not been shown to the world. That is shocking in itself, considering the unspeakable cruelty we have been shown. Naked women tied to trees for gang rape. Babies beheaded or burned alive while their mothers are brutalized. Fathers’ eyes gouged out. Children’s limbs chopped off. Terrorists sitting down to eat from their victims’ fridges in the midst of their bloody work.

There was sympathy for Israel for a brief moment. But even before the Israel Defense Forces had taken action, the world turned on the Jewish state at the mere thought that Israel would go after Hamas in Gaza to remove the threat. Soon, streets and college quadrangles filled with Hamas sympathizers shouting for the terror organization’s success in conquering Israel “from the river to the sea.”

Jewish synagogues, schools and neighborhoods around the world experienced a massive increase in expressions of hatred, from graffiti to gunfire. In Canada, an eight-year-old Jewish boy was surrounded by his classmates performing Nazi salutes. He was told that Hitler didn’t kill enough Jews. Watchdogs organizations in Germany documented a 320% increase in antisemitic incidents in the month after October 7. In the US, Jewish students feel unsafe on campuses and have reported harassment like being cursed, spat upon and even locked out of classrooms. Online hatred has increased exponentially, apparently fueled by Iranian bots.

The Bitter Root of the Bitter Fruit

Antisemitism, the hatred of Jews, is the world’s oldest, most persistent and most consequential hatred. The stated reasons for this hatred have morphed throughout the years. The Christian Church has hated the Jews for their religion, fueled by the clarion call, “You killed Christ.” The Nazis despised the Jews for their race, claiming, “You are defiling the Master Race.” Now, Arabs, Muslims and their sympathizers in the West have taken up that hatred, this time blaming the Jewish people for their return to their ancestral homeland.

Of course, countless Christians around the world have learned from the Church’s history of antisemitism and are seeking to make amends. How could we have turned on our spiritual forefathers and mothers, to whom we owe such a large spiritual debt? These Christians recognize the hatred of the Jewish people as a terrible inversion of how we should have treated our Jewish brothers and sisters. And today, these Christians are standing with Israel.

Antisemitic or Just Not a Fan of Zionism?

Zionism is simply the recognition that a small strip of land in the Middle East—from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—is the ancestral home of the Jewish people. The Jews are willing to share it with others who have also made it their home. Yet these facts are anathema to many, and the worldwide tsunami of Jew hatred is the result. Anti-Zionism is nothing but today’s incarnation of antisemitism.

According to the ancient Hebrew Scriptures—and ours too—God chose the Jews to bless the whole world, to be a light to the nations. Today, we are the beneficiaries of what is known as Judeo–Christian civilization. Among the forces that are working to destroy this civilization is the pernicious lie that the Jews are evil and must be destroyed. The choice before every individual and every nation is clear.

To those who do not look at the world through a religious lens, I would suggest that your choice is also clear. Take a look at the land of milk and honey where 2 million Arab Israelis thrive in relative prosperity with full human rights. Compare that to the two million Gazan Arabs who suffer under a regime that exists for the sole purpose of destroying the Jewish people and nation.

Though We Are Few

A distinguished US military expert on urban warfare, Colonel John Spencer, recently told a Canadian audience that Hamas not only uses its people as “human shields” but as “human sacrifices.” The more who die—while Hamas terrorists hide in tunnels—the more the world accuses Israel. Yet Spencer testified that Israel has done more to minimize civilian casualties than any army in the history of urban warfare.

In this tsunami of antisemitism, Israel has been falsely accused not only of targeting civilians but of deliberately starving them. Spencer testified that Hamas has stolen so much food from humanitarian convoys that it is running out of storage places. And that it has earned half a billion dollars in selling this donated food to the Gazans it governs mercilessly.

It’s time to stop demonizing Israel and the Jewish people around the world. It’s time to be grateful for their past and present contribution to our civilization. It’s time to search our hearts, to reject antisemitism and to stand with Israel and with our Jewish neighbors wherever we live.

Following Spencer’s address, my wife and I had the privilege of having our picture taken with him. I told him we were Christians standing with Israel. He responded quietly, “So am I.” May each one of us humbly take our place with confidence, in the midst of the current tsunami of antisemitism, in standing with Israel and the Jewish people. Though we are a minority today, we know God will have the victory and Israel will be exalted among the nations.

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.

The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give” (Isa. 62:1–2).

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