Antisemitism

[Fenris]

It never goes away, does it? Sometimes it's dormant and then it comes back. What's going on in the world right now is the worst it's been in my lifetime.

Mobs calling for genocide in major cities around the world. In out of the way places and in NYC, home to the world's largest Jewish population outside Israel. Chicago. Toronto. London. Berlin. Istanbul.

Rallies on college campuses preaching hatred of Jews. My daughter's friend along with other Jewish students had to be locked in the college library to be kept safe from a mob at Cooper Union in downtown Manhattan. Cornell University Jews received death threats on the college message boards.

I see a violent mob in Russia attacked a plane coming from Israel.

And what set this off? Hamas murdered over 1400 Jews on a Jewish holiday. Butchered them. Burned them alive. I just found out they baked a baby to death in an oven. They raped women so hard that they broke their pelvic bones. They took over 200 hostages back to the hellhole they created on Gaza.

I don't even know what to feel anymore.

[ProDeo]

Never.

And following a still unfulfilled OT prophecy it will only get worse.

Zach 12:1 - The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 

Not sure how you see that.

[RabbiKnife]

It never goes away, does it? Sometimes it's dormant and then it comes back. What's going on in the world right now is the worst it's been in my lifetime.

Mobs calling for genocide in major cities around the world. In out of the way places and in NYC, home to the world's largest Jewish population outside Israel. Chicago. Toronto. London. Berlin. Istanbul.

Rallies on college campuses preaching hatred of Jews. My daughter's friend along with other Jewish students had to be locked in the college library to be kept safe from a mob at Cooper Union in downtown Manhattan. Cornell University Jews received death threats on the college message boards.

I see a violent mob in Russia attacked a plane coming from Israel.

And what set this off? Hamas murdered over 1400 Jews on a Jewish holiday. Butchered them. Burned them alive. I just found out they baked a baby to death in an oven. They raped women so hard that they broke their pelvic bones. They took over 200 hostages back to the hellhole they created on Gaza.

I don't even know what to feel anymore.

Feel what God feels.

[Fenris]

Feel what God feels.

I don't know what God feels. I only know what I feel.

Psalm 79 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.

[Fenris]

Never.

And following a still unfulfilled OT prophecy it will only get worse.

Zach 12:1 -

Nah, that chapter is consolation.

On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them.  On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Which still doesn't make me feel better about what's going on in the world. Honestly, everybody should be feeling bad about it.

[Fenris]

Jewish homes and businesses in Paris are being marked with a star of David.

[RabbiKnife]

So tragic

Some things never change

[Rebecca]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kEjqeYYMTtw

[Fenris]

...

100% correct. And yet, people still find ways to blame Israel and Jews. That's antisemitism.

[Fenris]

An amazing thought by Polish literary critic Konstanty Jeleński, in 1968:

Poles have never come out against Jews “because they are Jews” but because Jews are dirty, greedy, mendacious, because they wear earlocks, speak jargon, do not want to assimilate, and also because they do assimilate, cease using their jargon, are nattily dressed, and want to be regarded as Poles. Because they lack culture and because they are overly cultured. Because they are superstitious, backward and ignorant, and because they are damnably capable, progressive and ambitious. Because they have long, hooked noses, and because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from “pure Poles.” Because they crucified Christ and practice ritual murder and pore over the Talmud, and because they disdain their own religion and are atheists. Because they look wretched and sickly, and because they are tough and have their own fighting units and are full of khutspah. Because they are bankers and capitalists and because they are Communists and agitators. But in no case because they are Jews.

The last sentence is obviously sarcastic. People hate Jews because they are Jews. They invent the reason afterwards.

Max Nordau made a similar observation at the First Zionist Congress in 1897:

"If you have to drown a dog," says the proverb, "you must first declare him to be mad." All kinds of vices are falsely attributed to the Jews, because one wishes to convince himself that he has a right to detest them. But the pre-existing sentiment is the detestation of the Jews.

[Rebecca]

spit it out tell us what you really think.

[Fenris]

spit it out tell us what you really think.

Why is Israel held to a standard that no other country in the world is? Because it's the world's only Jewish state.

The following observation was made back in 1968, and it holds true now.

Israel's Peculiar Position
By Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/1968)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russian did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.

Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.

Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.

No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.

The Swedes, who are ready to break of diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.

[Sojourner]

No other group of people in human history has been as reviled by so many or targeted for mayhem and destruction as the Jews have been. And for the most part, they are vilified simply for being Jewish. An infinitesimal percentage of the population, Jews keep to themselves and don't bother anyone, holding to a 'live and let live' worldview. So why are they the most hated and persecuted people? An argument can be made that mankind's inhumanity to man is sufficient to explain the hatred, but that doesn't explain why Jews are singled out above all others for such a disproportionate level of hate.

Why would Hitler attempt to systematically exterminate European Jews like vermin? That transcends even the most malicious human mind. It's one thing to dislike a group for whatever reason, but attempting to wipe them from the face of the earth is another matter. Such a level of unreasoning malice goes beyond human capacity for malevolence, and speaks to a dark power operating behind the scenes.

Jews traditionally view Satan as an angelic being simply serving in the role of God's accuser/adversary--just doing what he was designed to do. The Christian perspective of course, sees him as a malevolent, fallen angel bent on opposing God's plans and wreaking havoc in the lives of His people. I believe the latter view offers a good explanation for the gratuitous enmity directed towards Jews throughout their history.

As the descendants of Abraham, the Jews represent the genetic line through which God ultimately sent His messiah--whom Christians believe to be Jesus. Through His resurrection, Jesus conquered the power of death and hell, and wrested dominion of the earth away from Satan. We need only understand how the Devil sees Jews to understand the hate he has for them: as the people that produced the one who will vanquish him and consign him to the fires of eternal torment. He despises them because they facilitated his downfall and sealed his fate. Failing in his attempt to lead a rebellion against God, Satan must now content himself with disrupting what God is carrying out through His people, and taking as many souls to judgment with him as he can.

[Fenris]

The Christian perspective of course, sees him as a malevolent, fallen angel bent on opposing God's plans and wreaking havoc in the lives of His people. I believe the latter view offers a good explanation for the gratuitous enmity directed towards Jews throughout their history.

I don't love this particular piece of theology. "Jesus was Jewish, so Satan hates Jews"? It also lets people off the hook too easily. People hate Jews, not Satan.

There's a simpler answer.

In Numbers 10, we have the following passage-

When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O Lord! May Your enemies be scattered, and may Your foes flee before you.

Medieval Jewish commentator Rashi asks the question, why does it say "Your enemies" and "Your foes"? Shouldn't it say "our enemies"? And he answers his own question by saying that Israel's enemies are also God's enemies.

Is an accident or a coincidence that Israel's enemies are God's enemies? No. It's a central point. God says of the Jewish people, "You are my witnesses, and my servant whom I have chosen..." (Is 43). We are God's stake in this world.

Bad people do not want to be told that God exists, and that He has expectations of moral behavior from His creations. Bad people thus hate God. But they can't harm God. But they can harm His people.  And so they hate the Jews.

Mind you, this also explains hate against devout Christians who live their values and are also by extension "God's servants."

[Sojourner]

I didn't expect you to agree, my friend. And I wasn't saying Satan hates Jews because Jesus was Jewish, but because they produced the messiah. It's still my opinion that there's a spirit behind the unrelenting, senseless enmity almost universally directed at Jews--which of course, is contingent on a Christian perspective.