On a spectacularly beautiful September morning in 2001, hijacked planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The bloodlust of radical Islam needlessly took the lives of thousands. And, briefly, America woke up.
That short-lived awakening was purchased at a terrible cost. But while it lasted, it was amazing. People from sea to shining sea realized again what it meant to be Americans. They didn’t suddenly become blind to the nation’s shortcomings, but they also saw what was rare and precious in the American spirit. Then the nation drifted back into slumber.
While the people slept, an ancient evil rose among them. At the beginning of this millennium, most people, including Jewish Americans, thought antisemitism had mostly been banished from the land. But after 9/11, against all reason, it started growing again. Today it manifests itself everywhere. Young people speak antisemitic slogans as a bizarre form of virtue signaling.
We can see it in the signs and hear it in the chants on campuses and in the streets. Young people, most born after 9/11/2001, today sing out the ideologies of our 2001 enemy — “Death to America!” … “There is only one Solution, Intifada. Revolution!” … “Long live Hamas!” … “Death to Jews!” They compare those who disagree with them to the Ku Klux Klan. But who would agree more with the chant, “Death to Jews!” than the KKK? These pitiful children have become the thing they decry.
They warn us of their intent, saying, “The 7th of October is going to be every day for you!” They often cry out, “We are Hamas!” If they are Hamas, it means they want to kill Jews and Christians. Their hate has nothing to do with so-called colonization. It is all about hatred for “people of the book” because they are Jews and Christians. By claiming to be Hamas, campus radicals are actually saying they want to murder your babies and burn your homes. They want to behead and mutilate. They want to rape, take hostages, and then keep on raping. That’s what October 7th was about and what they praise.
If they “are Hamas,” they want to replace democracy with a theocratic ruling elite. Hamas leaders have not held an election in Gaza since they came to power in 2006. Gaza’s Hamas overlords ended women’s rights, destroyed freedom of religion, criminalized freedom of speech, and have done their best to end freedom of thought. They murder homosexuals, a group whose cause most of these young people consider dear to their hearts. The control Hamas exercises over its subjects knows no limits. They tell women, for instance, exactly what clothes to wear.
Antisemitism is just one aspect of the ancient evil. It can be described more generally as open rebellion against God. God loves people, so the ancient evil hates people. God chose one people for the task of presenting Himself to the world through His words and the Word. So, the evil does everything it can to engender hatred against the chosen nation, and especially toward a Jew called Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate.
What is the answer? Be faithful. If you are a Christian, draw close to the Lord. Pray fervently. Study His Word. Stand as a friend to Israel. It is not that they can do no wrong. They can, and often do, make egregious errors. They have embraced many of the same sins and ungodly attitudes that are bringing about America’s moral freefall.
But in all that, remember God’s Word. Israel is what God says that it is.
