Sadly, it is pretty normal for human beings to get tribal. As soon as there is a shortage of a resource, we team up with our perceived clan and fight other clans for their resources. It has been that way from almost the beginning. As such, other groups besides the Jews have been or are being persecuted. Still, it seems like the Jews have been the target of more hatred than most people groups of which I am aware. Why?
Full disclosure, I am not Jewish in any part to my knowledge. While there is an extended Jewish family that shares my surname, we are not related. If anything, being Lutheran might link me historically to anti-semitic feelings. I generally admire Martin Luther as a theologian, but in his copious writing he said some pretty dumb stuff. His pamphlet on the Jews tops my list. I am trying to address this topic as objectively and dispassionately as possible.
Let’s start with the current situation. The struggle between the Palestinians and the Jews is like a violent form of the game musical chairs. Somebody ends up without a chair. Since their expulsion from Palestine by the Roman Empire, it has been the Jews. They did not assimilate well in any of the places that they went. Following their own religious law, they remained easily identifiable as different. The haircut of an Orthodox man is what it is to be distinctive. Who would normally want hair like that? They wanted to be separate and maintain their cultural and religious identity, which is fine, but it makes you easy to scapegoat. For 1800 years and change the Jews were a people without a land. Hitler didn’t invent antisemitism. Violent anti-Jewish pogroms are found in many lands over this whole period. Hitler took anti-Jewish violence to a new level. We had to coin a new word to describe it–genocide.
This lead many Jews to feel that they could not fit anywhere. It is understandable that they would filter back to Palestine, which was under British rule at the time. Eventually, through some terroristic actions of their own. Israel became a state. This displaced many people who had been living in Palestine. They were now without a chair. Please realize that there are Palestinians who live in Israel and not just Gaza or the West Bank. These areas along with refugee camps in Lebanon became the equivalent of Palestinian reservations (Like native Americans). Assimilation of the Jews and the Palestinians does not seem destined to happen on a large scale. There are elements in each group who want the other out.
People outside of the immediate conflict are taking sides. Some back the Jews having been scandalized by the heinous brutality of the terror attack by Hamas. Some back the Palestinians feeling empathy for the deaths of innocent civilians especially children and feeling that the Jewish state could have done more to find the Palestinians “a chair”.
There is more to it than a struggle for land. Powerful religious forces are also in play. Islam, especially the leaders of Iran, see the Jews as an infidel to be destroyed. The Quran initially sees the Jews in a favorable light. But as the Jews resisted Mohammed as a true prophet the tune would change. Some Christians also followed this path. While we view the Jewish forefathers as being a part of our cultural and religious ancestry, the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah created a divide. Keep in mind, that harsh words about the Jews in the New Testament were written by former Jews specifically about Jewish leadership. It is not generally antisemitic. Still, stupid people don’t get that subtlety, and they use the excuse that the Jews were a part of the death of Jesus as a reason to hate. Anybody whose theology is worthwhile knows that everybody, not just Jews and Romans, caused Jesus’ death. He died to take the punishment of sin for us all. It was God’s plan–not the Jews.
This almost brings me full circle to root of antisemitism. Jesus’ victory on the cross robbed Satan of the ability to use God’s own Law as leverage. If God moved against Satan, by Law, He would have to move against humans–which He did not wish to do. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of God’s Law for humans, and God moved against Satan.
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Revelation 12:7-9 (ESV)
This expulsion of Satan was made possible by Jesus. Satan wasn’t happy.
But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Revelation 12:12b (ESV)
This created a reaction.
17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman (the Jews) and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Christians).
Revelation 12:17 (ESV)
Is this article just a long-winded version of “the devil made me do it”? I am saying that the unique history of the Jewish people as the chosen people of humanity’s creator has led to an extraordinary history of being hated by many, because a very powerful being uses his power to make it so. Satan isn’t capable of everything. But he is excellent at spreading lies and breeding hate. Humans don’t have to fall for those lies, but it often suits us. The ugliness gets very ugly and it doesn’t stop.
How will it ever end? It will end at Judgment Day. Is there any hope for some sort of peace before that? Haters are going to hate. Don’t add to it. Don’t make Satan’s work easier. The haters within both groups, the Jews and the Palestinians, need to be rejected by the majority. The goal has to become peace, co-existence, and mutual provision. Satan will continue to make that tough.
Giving Christ 