The New "Soft" Anti-Semitism

 

Senator Ted Cruz, arguably the smartest and most dedicated Christian in politics has repeatedly warned that a new Antisemitism is developing in conservative circles. LINK. Respected conservative figures such as Tucker Carlson have resurrected the traditional WASP antisemitism of previous generations. Some young Turks in the conservative movement are getting on the bandwagon. A new “soft” Antisemitism is becoming fashionable even in some Christian circles as well. It often sounds like this, “Oh, I’m not Anti-Semitic but I can’t condone them …..” Theologically that is dangerous ground. It is also bad politics and bad foreign policy.

Theologically, God has reserved special rights concerning Israel. He alone judges her. And He has judged her severely. But, the Abrahamic Covenant has never been revoked. History proves it. The pages of history are littered with the accounts of long extinct nations and peoples who have cursed and opposed Israel. God may use human instruments to judge Israel but they always pay a horrible price for it. Blessing Israel should be the default position for anyone who fears God.

Right now, much of this new Antisemitism centers around sympathy for the so called Palestinians. To understand this properly from a biblical and historical perspective Abraham’s curse on Ishmael, Noah’s curse on Canaan and God’s orders to Joshua concerning Canaan, the borders of Israel and the disposition of the Canaanite people all need to be taken into account. These people have been at war with the Jews since Genesis and nothing is going to change that until the Lord decides to end it. At any rate, there was no such state as Palestine until the British created it out of thin air to appease the Arabs and assure that the Jews would never have a real homeland. Antisemitism has always run deep in British culture especially among the elites. The British literally made war on the Jews after WWII to prevent them from establishing a homeland in the Middle East and thus endangering both British political control and their oil rich relationships with the Arab states.

From a practical standpoint, Americans and the rest of world show monumental presumption when they criticize Israel. Israel has been in a constant state of war either hot or cold since 1949. Every able bodied Israeli, men and women, still have to serve in the military and stay in the reserve until they age out. Their weapons and ammunition are in their homes ready for instant call up. Israeli school children can’t go outside their protected school campuses without military escort of some sort. There is constant violence on their borders and in the heart of the nation itself. Artillery and missiles fall on the nation regularly. Westerners and particularly Americans are incapable of grasping the implications of that.

The Israelis live a hard life and have a hard job surviving. They are hard people. And at times a difficult people. Most Americans can’t think from their frame of reference and delude themselves by trying to apply Western values to the Middle East. Those people were at war long before there was Western Civilization and we are incredibly naive’ if we think we will change that. If Israel drops its guard those poor suffering Palestinians would murder them all in a heartbeat and then praise Allah for the blood in the streets. All over the world they danced in the streets and handed out sweets as Americans were burning to death in the Twin Towers.

There is also a strategic military consideration. Israel is the one actor that keeps the Arabs in check. The Arabs hate them but they also fear them. Israel has been doing our dirty work in the Middle East since the 1960’s, doing a darn good job of it and paying a high price for it. They are ruthless, make unpopular moves and take the heat for it while the West and particularly the US benefit. Make no mistake the US is a whole lot safer every time the Israeli’s strike. If the Palestinians choose to make their headquarters or store their weapons in schools, occupied apartment buildings or hospitals using their own people as human shields and propaganda tools what is Israel supposed to do, let it pass and endanger their own people?

The Israelis are fighting their own war but they are also fighting OUR war on THEIR soil so that it doesn’t come here. This is hard fact that most politicians won’t admit and most Americans haven’t a clue about. Much of the Pax Americana is bought and paid for by other people around the world fighting our battles for us. They are not clean wars and the actors can’t play by our rules and survive. Make no mistake, if they weren’t fighting there we would be fighting here. That’s why we supply them, train them and then often betray them when they are no longer useful or become too embarrassing. Make no mistake, two generations of spoiled Americans have never been compelled to serve in the military or heard a shot fired in anger because, aside from a few American “advisors” and “contractors,” little yellow men in Asia, little brown men in Latin America, persecuted tribesmen in the Middle East and Africa and yes the Israelis are all doing our dirty work for us.

It is easy to say that countries like Israel are US “client states.” Israel is an exception. Israel is not our client state but rather we are theirs. There is no mention of the US in prophecy. We are useful in the ultimate historical context only so long as we bless Israel. If we ever stop we will wind up like the UK … Britain-istan. The West and particularly the US needs to remember who we are … the grafted branch, the adopted sons. Israel is the focus of both history and prophecy.

Again, for those who fear the Lord blessing Israel should always be the default and judging Israel should be left to God.

Have We Earned The Right ....

This blog has been silent for four years.  The last time I posted here was shortly after the still highly questioned election of Joe Biden.  I stopped posting because I had been de-platformed several times.  Every mass email to promote events was a constant shuffle between servers and screen names.  After the last de-platforming I called it quits.  I left this blog silent because I wanted its content to stay up.

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Many years ago, I was speaking at a local church. My message was controversial. The gist of it was that it was time to quit worshiping the idol of politics and instead begin practicing true, active, confrontational, contra mundum, Christianity at every level of life and culture no matter the cost and then let politics follow our faith rather than letting our faith (and practice) follow politics and the culture.

At the end, as the audience was applauding, the pastor of the church stood up, silencing the crowd and astoundingly asked who I had voted for in the last election. I refused to answer. He became more aggressive in his questioning as the crowd went silent. At the end of the exchange, he told me that I hadn’t earned the right to say those things because I did not support Donald Trump or the GOP.

I was tempted to put the man in his place. He had bulldozed his way into a battle of wits unarmed.

I wanted to tell him that I began earning the right by giving eight years of my life in various levels of military service along with half an inch of one leg.

I wanted to tell him that I earned the right by spending three years on the lines in front of abortion clinics, getting assaulted by bought off policeman and earning a more or less permanent person of interest status by various agencies.

I wanted to tell him that I earned the right by serving two years as president of the Christian Legal Society on a virulently secular law school campus where open discrimination against Christians and Christian students was standard policy.

I wanted to tell him that I earned the right by spending fifteen years taking legal cases that nobody else would touch, even the well known national Christian organizations, because they were too messy and had poor PR value … and in the process made myself extremely unpopular with local judicial system who really wanted “those people” to just shut up, go away and not clutter their dockets with cases where the verdict was a foregone conclusion if they wanted to stay on the bench. 

But I didn’t say those things because I was a guest in that man’s pulpit and I wouldn’t do to him what he was trying to do me.

Charlie Kirk earned the right to speak on that college campus the day he was shot. He earned it by his courage, going right into the mouth of the lion again and again and proclaiming the truth, engaging the enemy on his own ground and pulling minds out of the quagmire. Just like Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose pulpit and pen openly opposed the evils of National Socialism right up until the hours before he was executed, Charlie Kirk exhibited the same kind of courage.

Charlie Kirk took his Christianity out of the “Christian Ghetto” of evangelical culture and put it on display right in the middle of the enemy’s home ground. In a time where these issues are not even discussed from the relative safety of the pulpit, he debated them openly in the public square.

I continually ask myself and am now proposing this same question to my readers, “Have we even earned the right to have an opinion the Charlie Kirk tragedy? Where are we in the culture war, on the front lines or hiding behind our church walls?

The Charlie Kirk’s and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s of Christendom are our canaries in the mine shaft. So long as they are singing there is still hope. But when their voices go silent evil has triumphed.

Nations that kill their prophets do not long escape God’s judgment.