Antisemitism represents the most violent and irrational hatred towards Jews. That hatred drags down all those who love the Jewish people and Israel and in the end it makes no distinction. When a terrorist places a bomb anywhere in the world in a Jewish institution, he does not care whether a Christian, a Hindu or someone who has no religious affiliation is passing by at that moment.
The anti-Semitic movement is violent and also seeks to intimidate those non-Jews who have sympathy and love for the Jewish people and Israel. We see it clearly in the violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations whose level of hatred and aggressiveness are exposed. They are not demonstrations in search of peace or coexistence between two peoples but pure anti-Semitism.
This anti-Semitism that spreads like a virus penetrates the written and digital press, radio, television and any public and private organization.
How are the Christian world responding to this wave of hatred towards Jews and Israel?
I know that there are Christians for and against the people of Israel, it is not my intention in this article to enter into the ancient theological debates that divide Christian churches in relation to their support or resistance to the state of Israel and the Jewish people.
As a Jew and Israeli and as a tour guide who has guided in recent years hundreds of Christians who love Israel, whom I consider almost like brothers, I admit that I feel sad. I feel that there is an apathy or a certain dangerous indifference in some sectors of the Christian world.
I am concerned about a series of questions to those Christians who are affectionate with Israel and also to those who are Christians and do not love Israel, (which is something difficult for me to understand).
Do you know or are you informed of the number of Christian communities that existed in the past and were exterminated in the Middle East over the centuries when the Islamic empire advanced its conquests?
Do you believe that if Israel disappeared, Hashem forbid, Christians would not be the next target of Islamic extremism?
Do you really believe that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is only territorial or something much deeper spiritual that shakes all monotheistic religions?
What should Christians do at this time?
Is silence and prayer the only response to this wave of anti-Semitism?
How should a Christian position himself?
Are Christians being properly informed about the conflict or are they just getting carried away by the press and images that only try to show Israel in a diabolical way?
Are the leaders of their churches preparing and correctly teaching their followers about the dimension of this conflict in all the areas it covers, including: modern and contemporary ancient history of Israel, Bible, Middle Eastern geopolitics, geography, Judaism , Islam, terrorism, in addition to the New Testament?
What is the direct source of information from Israel that Christians have that is not influenced by a journalist who does not live in Israel and who only receives reports from Gaza whose only press authorized to work is the one on the side of Hamas?
Do you have contact with a friend, family member or acquaintance who lives in Israel?
Are you preparing and educating yourself for the possibility of receiving verbal attacks from those who do not understand the conflict or hate Israel?
Are you equipping yourself with non-biblical arguments about the reason for this conflict?
Are you making the intellectual effort to study the conflict and prepare yourself with direct sources from Israel that are not generally shown in the press in your countries?
Are you allowing yourself to be intimidated by some government in power in your respective country, or by family members or perhaps friends who may be anti-Israel and therefore it is better to remain silent?
Are the churches organizing events or programs to help Israel or have they already forgotten about the massacre that occurred on October 7th here and that started the current war?
Do your church leaders take the initiative to try to communicate with Israelis to listen and convey what is happening here from the Israeli point of view?
How should you collaborate with Israel?
How would you act if you had an extremist barbaric Islamic ideology like that of Hamas next to your neighborhoods, towns or cities, when your children, family or friends are being massacred?
Imagine for a moment if in your neighborhoods, towns or cities in your countries, on October 7, an extremist Islamic group with a barbaric ideology called Hamas began to kill more than 1,200 people in a few hours, kidnapping more than 240 people among them also children and the elderly, burned babies, raped women, destroyed their populations and escaped having committed an unprecedented massacre and then retired to celebrate with his people and place photos on their digital media as if it were an feat. How would you act against them?
Many questions to think, analyze and reflect.
Some of these questions are also valid for those who are not Christians, secular or of any faith and who are part of the civilized world.
Anti-Semites hate everything Jewish. Jesus was a Jew and lived in the land that is now Israel.
In the New Testament there is a biblical passage from the book of John 4:22
”You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know; because salvation comes from the Jews.”
There is a famous saying that also catches my attention that is attributed to a German Pastor Martin Niemoller during the Nazi period:
First they came for the socialists, and I remained silent because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the union members, and I didn’t speak because I wasn’t a union member.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t Jewish.
Then they came for me, and by then there was no one left to speak on my behalf.
Author
Adiel Wajsman
Licensed Tour Guide
December 17, 2023