During an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur explained that antisemitism is more than stereotyping or insulting Jewish people. It’s “an ancient idea . . . that the Jews stand in the way of the redemption of the world.”
In the first half of the 20th century, a smear campaign victimized the Jewish people. Not only did Nazi propaganda blame them for Germany’s financial and social problems, but it also portrayed them as the root cause of global suffering.
According to this twisted ideology, so-called Jewish greed and deceit had ignited two world wars. Eastern Europeans simultaneously believed Jewish people embedded themselves within European societies and accused the Jews of undermining those same nations.
Eastern European antisemitism extended beyond religious discrimination to encompass a racial and genetic narrative. Antisemites depicted Jewish people as a parasitic race whose DNA marked them as “anti-human.” Many believed that by ridding humanity of the Jewish people, Hitler and the Nazis would save the world.
A Nazi propaganda cartoon displayed at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, features a parasite with a grotesquely exaggerated nose (a Jewish stereotype) suffocating the world. One eye of the parasite bears a Marxist symbol and the other a dollar sign. The message is clear: To Nazis, Jewish people prevented global redemption.
Iran and its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis intend to eradicate the State of Israel. Since 2007, Hamas has controlled Gaza, diverting untold resources and funds designated to benefit the Palestinian people to the eradication of the Jewish state. To Iran and its proxies, Israel’s existence hinders the Muslim redemption of the world.
Israel repeatedly has offered Palestinians the opportunity to build their own sovereign state, dating back to the original 1947 United Nations Partition Plan. Instead of accepting the proposal, they sought to destroy Israel and to elevate Islam to power to redeem the world.
Today, chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” ring from prestigious North American and European university campuses. Speaking with campus protesters, Gur found that many of them believe resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can solve all global injustices. From domestic police violence to the ills of capitalism, “Every ideological peccadillo all converges on Palestine,” he said. Progressive campus protesters, like the Iranians and their proxies, see Jewish people as the barrier to worldwide redemption.
Despite Gur’s compelling explanation of antisemitism, this sin transcends ancient bigotry; it constitutes a spiritual prejudice that goes back to the day God called Abraham (Gen. 12). Satanic deception fuels the notion that Jewish people stand in the way of the world’s redemption. Satan wants to convince humanity to hate Israel and the Jewish people as an imperative, righteous mission to save the world from Jewish influence.
But God’s Word teaches the opposite. Jewish people are not an obstacle to global redemption; they are the chosen bearers of God’s promise of salvation for the world. God’s covenant with Abraham declares, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 3). Global redemption flows through the Jewish people.
Satan’s hatred of the Jewish people stems from the fact that God’s plan for redemption is still bound to Israel’s chosen status, specifically to the moment when the Jewish people place their trust in their Messiah, Jesus (Rom. 11:13–15). Satan continues to cast the Jewish people as the roadblock to universal redemption, seeking to thwart God’s salvific plan for humanity. But, we know the battle belongs to the Lord; and He will sustain His Chosen People.
