Anti-Semitism Revives!

“Synagogues are burning in Europe again, 57 years after the war.” So declared a bewildered Jewish woman from Frankfurt as the latest wave of anti-Semitism swept across Europe—in the wake of the biased television footage of the most recent violence in Israel.

That she hailed from Germany and her words were reported in one of the principle daily newspapers of that country held extra poignancy for any reader with a concept of history.

The same report highlighted the fact that it was not only the recent attacks on synagogues which is disturbing German Jews. “They are also uneasy about other Germans, their fellow German citizens, whether Christians or atheists” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 22).

And well they might be, given the history of both, in relation to the sad saga of anti-Semitism that has permeated Europe, Germany in particular, over the centuries.

Priests and Politicians

The term anti-Semite has come to denote one whose mind is set against the Jews; too often, in reality, a Jew-hater—most particularly those who have sought to work against, even deny, the right of the Jewish people to their own independent state.

Yet, anti-Semitism was not born with the establishment of this modern Jewish state in 1948. It has a long history. It has surfaced continuously in priestly and political circles, within, especially, the Roman Catholic Church and the murky corridors of political power in Europe—from the time of the first Roman Empire to the current European Union.

It was a militarized Catholic Church that mounted the Crusades of the Middle Ages and slaughtered countless non-Christians in the name of religion. In fact, some maintain that these Crusades had their genesis much earlier, in a.d. 614, when the church fought the Persians and Jews. Suffering defeat and the loss of possession of Jerusalem left the Catholics extremely bitter against the Jews. Thus, anti-Semitism in Vatican circles has a history extending at least 1,380 years.

In the 14th century, the Vatican blamed the Jews for the great plague which swept Europe, claiming they had poisoned the wells. Since then, many paranoid delusions have heaped a blood libel on the Jewish people, blaming them for all sorts of phenomena, from the “threat” of corrupting national bloodlines to the failure of national economies. Some of the most venerated saints of the Catholic Church were among its most vociferous Jew-haters. Indeed, as historian Robert S. Wistrich states, “Nazi anti-Semitism could never have aroused the response it did had it not been planted in groundwater poisoned by Christian theology … and in satanization of the Jews over many centuries” (Commentary, April 2001).

Thus Wistrich links the priesthood with the politicians. “The emergence of political anti-Semitism in parts of Europe in the late 19th century afforded many Catholics yet another opportunity to revive the church’s declining fortunes” (ibid.). All this hatred of the Jew consummated in the engulfing of millions of them in the gas chambers of the great Holocaust during World War ii. A plethora of documentation now exists linking church and state with this horrifying slaughter, by either benign neglect or outright complicity.

One would think that both priest and politician would be eternally repentant for this massive blot on the history of man. But no! That would require a memory of past events, and that is what is, too often and too quickly, disappearing from the public conscience.

One-Sided View

Why is this so? One of the major reasons is that political opinion in Europe is so one-sided on the Mideast conflict.

“Members of the Norwegian Nobel committee have publicly called for the withdrawal of the peace prize from the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, but not from his co-winner, Yasser Arafat. The European Parliament voted to urge member governments to impose trade sanctions on Israel but urged no action against the Palestinian Authority. Historically, the far right and far left have not agreed on much. These days they seem united in their contempt for the Jewish state” (International Herald Tribune, emphasis mine.).

But such contempt for Jews has spread like a rash around the globe. It is startling to read of last year’s 100 percent increase in anti-Jew attacks in such a far-away place as Australia! Anti-Semitism’s revival became glaringly apparent during last year’s sham international conference against racism, held in South Africa, which simply turned out to be a celebration of hatred of Israel. The very legitimacy of the Jewish state came under repeated attack, with speaker after speaker equating Zionism (the movement to consolidate a national home for Jews) with racism!

There is more to this dramatic rise of anti-Semitism in Europe than meets the eye. “Guilt over the Holocaust may be salved with the thought that Jews, too, can act with cruelty. And given U.S. sponsorship of Israel, being fashionably anti-American can easily mean being anti-Israel” (ibid.).

Not only this, but, as an Australian daily newspaper opined, “Discrimination against Israel is possible because the Holocaust is being forgotten. … Memory of guilt fades and the Europeans are now tired of the diplomatic effort required to legitimize Israel against more committed opponents” (Canberra Times, April 22).

Failure of memory and guilt fatigue are having disastrous results on the efforts of any who would seek objectivity in the argument over anti-Semitism. But, as this same article points out, objectivity is not the motive behind press coverage of matters involving Jews. “In the news media, prejudice is more subtly delivered in half-truths” (ibid.).

This writer, Gregory Rose, an associate professor of law at an Australian university, declares, “Do any understand the burden of fending off constant diplomatic offensives by 57 countries, intermittent military attacks by seven, and regular waves of terrorist strikes? It is obvious to Jews that a Holocaust is intended for Israel” (ibid.). But, on this story, the media is largely silent.

Thus it is that both the papal and political mind-control that has conditioned the minds of generations to hate the Jews finds its voice in a global media collective. This bizarre relationship between the right-wing anti-Semites and the politically left-wing press results in an apparent, tacit agreement that Palestinians must be seen as victims and Israelis as the bloodthirsty aggressors.

Why Anti-Semitism?

There is a force for evil extant in this world. It is more real than just a metaphysical musing. It is a fact that what we see today, the boiling hatreds and grave inhumanity, is inspired by powers unseen (Eph. 6:12). Something deeper inspires this surge in anti-Semitism.

Something is stirring in the European mind that springs from the same source behind the rise of a Catholic-Germanizing European Union. Bible prophecy reveals that source.

Revelation likens this great end-time religio-political trading and future military bloc to a ferocious beast (Rev. 13:1). But that beast is inspired to exert its power by a particular mind: “… the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority” (v. 2).

You need to identify the power behind hateful anti-Semitism before it reaches out to impact not only the Jews, as it does today, but also to powerfully impact the lives of the descendants of millions of other Shemites: the Anglo-American peoples of the world! Write for your free copy of our booklet The Key of David. Its message is startling and timely. It explains in vivid detail the real reason for the anti-Semitism that will increasingly dominate world news.