What Lies Beneath the Hatred of Israel? Melanie Phillips wrote a column asking, “What lies beneath the progressives’ favorite cause [Israel]?” Prior to that article, Phillips noted that best-selling Irish novelist Sally Rooney refused to have her book. As it turns out, Ireland is one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe.
Why oh why?
Melanie Phillips struggles with plausible reasons Israel draws so much animus from the likes of Rooney and Ireland (and the west). For example she notes that Ireland considers itself a victim of English colonialism, therefore, “identifies with the Palestinians’ false narrative of Jewish colonialism.”
She also notes that Sally Rooney is a confessed Marxist, with all the modern baggage that this brings. But she correctly notes that hatred against the Jews preceded Christianity and Islam. Why? She writes,
The point is that antisemitism isn’t just a form of prejudice or racism. Plenty of other people are victims of that. Antisemitism is qualitatively different – and ultimately mysterious.
In a previous article I linked to the Holocaust Encyclopedia,
Sometimes called “the longest hatred,” antisemitism has persisted in many forms for over two thousand years. The racial antisemitism of the National Socialists (Nazis) took hatred of Jews to a genocidal extreme, yet the Holocaust began with words and ideas: stereotypes, sinister cartoons, and the gradual spread of hate. (Emphasis mine)
The Secularist, the Christian and the Bible
I recall dining with friends – one was a Jew. The subject of the Holocaust came up and questions were raised as to reasons why. They didn’t have the answers. I noted that anti-Semitism preceded the Holocaust and satanic at its core. Of course, if one is an atheist or an agnostic, that response seems ridiculous.
Sadly, over the years, I’ve encountered Christians who throw out a bunch of reasons why societies have hated the Jews. They’ll tell you why they’re anti-Israel activists. Their excuses reek of rotten fish when examined closely.
The answers to Phillips’ (and others) questions are found in God’s Word. The problem is people don’t believe it. God addressed Israel in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, Curses on Disobedience.
The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods – wood and stone. And you shall become and astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you. (Verses 36-37)
A paradox
God punishes Israel yet His lovingkindness (to Israel) is everlasting. See Psalm 136. See also Leviticus 26:44-45; Ezekiel 36:19-28, 37:1-14 etc.
One point to note is that God is sovereign. He punishes Israel for disobedience. But when the prophet Habakkuk complained that God used a wicked nation to execute punishment, God told him that He would also punish the Babylonians.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. Zech 14:2-3
Maranatha!
Suggested reading:
The Danger of Replacing Israel
Israel in the Plan of God – David Baron (affiliate link)
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