At the root of the word antisemitism is the word “Semite,” and the Semites were the descendants of Shem, one of Noah’s three sons. Genesis 6:10 tells us, “And Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” The Semites were the ancestors of both the Jews and the Arabs. If someone is of Semitic descent, it means that they have either Jewish or Arab lineage. It is worth to note that when the word is used as the compound word, “antisemitic,” it never includes the Arabs but just the Jews.
The definition that I have arrived at, after more than two decades in that field, is as follows:” Antisemitism is the irrational and demonic hatred of Israel and the Jewish people, characterized by thoughts, words, and/or deeds against them.” It was satisfactory to me for quite a long time until a few years ago, when I decided to add two words that have become critical to that definition: irrational and demonic.
In all the volumes I own on that topic (more than 400), I have found almost no scholar or theologian mentioning a spiritual component to antisemitism. I have learned much over the years about the history, geography, sociology, and morphing of the oldest hatred, but I extremely rarely see the spiritual aspect of it all being addressed. Yet, we have to recognize that antisemitism is very irrational, and that is because it is from Satan himself.
It is actually not that complicated. I believe that Satan adheres to the pre-tribulational, premillennial view of the end times. He knows the Bible better than most of us, and as a result, he is well aware that, at the end of the tribulation, when surviving Israel calls upon Yeshua, the Messiah returns with the Saints, who would’ve been raptured seven years prior, and this is pretty much the end of Satan’s career. Yes, my friend, Yeshua will not return until Israel calls upon him, according to Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn..“
As I have mentioned before, he really doesn’t care for his retirement plan. Simply put, Satan will do everything he can to prevent Yeshua from returning, and since he understands that it is hinging around Israel calling on the Messiah, Satan has worked overtime to destroy the Jews and turn the Church against them. It is fair to say that he has done a lot of damage toward that goal so far, but we would be naive to believe that antisemitism only affects Israel and the Jews.
Antisemitism is now crossing all borders. I believe that not only does antisemitism affect the Jewish people globally, but it is also becoming a threat to the friends and supporters of the Jewish people and of Israel.
It used to be that antisemitism affected Jewish people in Israel and abroad. In fact, prior to 1948, it only affected Jewish people in the Diaspora, but soon after the creation of the modern state of Israel, the actions of Israel became, by proxy, the actions of all Jews across the globe. Today, no Jew is exempt from the danger of global antisemitism, even though they might be removed from whatever Israel is accused of.
But it goes much deeper than a global hunt on the Jews. If you support Jewish people or display any visible sign of support for Israel, such as signs, flags, or written statements, you now become a target. In the eyes of the antisemites, you have chosen sides, and since you support the “oppressor,” you have become a guilty co-perpetrator of crimes against humanity, oppression, apartheid, occupation, and genocide. Incidentally, these accusations are the very actions of the enemies of Israel, and yet, Israel is being blamed for it all. How irrational and demonic is that? Jewish historian Bat Ye’Or writes: “Defamatory terms such as ‘settlers’, ‘occupiers’, ‘Nazis’ and ‘occupied Palestinian territories’ project a demonic character onto Israelis that evokes the anti-Jewish verbal violence of the Nazis.” We truly are in a repeat of the 1930s and 40s.
While I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I was corrected a few days ago when I found out what had happened at Cambridge University in England. A pro-Palestinian group slashed and spray-painted a century-old priceless painting of Lord Balfour. The red paint was supposed to be a symbol of the “genocide” committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza. Lord Balfour was the British statesman who penned the now-famous Balfour Declaration in 1917 while serving as foreign secretary, giving the momentum for the birth of the modern state of Israel. So, naturally, in the eyes of those who hate Israel and the Jews, the painting had to go!
So, this is how delusional antisemitism has become. You no longer need to be Jewish, Israeli, a Christian Zionist or a supporter of anything Jewish to be a target. Nobody cares about the artist who created the painting. P.A. De Laszlo was a British artist from Hungary who was famous for painting famous world leaders. Incidentally, he also painted a portrait of dictator Benito Mussolini, but apparently, that painting is safe because everybody knows that the crimes of Mussolini don’t even come close to those of Israel against the Palestinians, Right? Seriously, how much history needs to be rewritten before the world realizes that George Orwell’s 1984 novel is no longer fiction?
What will the destruction of art accomplish except to bring the world one step closer to a canceled culture and a revised history? When we allow people to sterilize any historical record they disagree with, we are giving more power to those who want to destroy the people they feel are in the way of their neo-aryan ideology. If you think that this is only related to Israel and the Jewish people, think again. If the Jewish people are indeed the canaries in the coal mine of civilization, the bird has died and no one is paying attention!
