Antisemitism backfires on the perpetrators: Will the church ever learn?

Will the church ever learn? When it comes to Israel, it is debatable. First, the soon to stand-down-Archbishop of Canterbury effectively urged member states of the United Nations to back the call of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, the heart of their territory.

Now the Pope is calling for a genocide investigation about Israel’s military actions in Gaza. But is the investigation justified? Leading American and British military men think otherwise. (Ret.) Col Richard Kemp (UK) and Prof Geoffrey Corn (USA) are just some who after fact-finding missions to Gaza have publicly exonerated Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor.

Why this fixation on Israel? Not for the first time Jewish people have asked why the church is largely silent regarding the murder of Africa’s Christians, for instance. At the heart of the problem is the chosenness of Israel.

“The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors…” (Deuteronomy 7:6-9 NIV) The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob chose the Jewish people, and the rest of the nations apparently have difficulty accepting this.

“If there were no chosen people, there would be no war in the Middle East,” claimed a Canadian lecturer. Hitler has been credited with saying there was no room for two chosen peoples.

Chosenness, though, comes with a price. So does antisemitism. It backfires on the perpetrators. A case in point is the recent resignation of former Archbishop of Canterbury, albeit for a completely unrelated issue – the cover-up of the abuse scandal. Could this be in part the outworking of Scripture? “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse…” (Genesis 12:3 NIV)

And what about the Vatican? For Israel, already facing a war on seven fronts, a new danger from unexpected quarters has arisen. Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) “calls Pope Francis’ genocide comments a ‘possible eighth front against Israel’.”As Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, observed, it is a serious matter when senior Christian leaders in Europe take an official stance against Israel.

The God of Israel, whom both Jews and Christians worship, takes it seriously when we curse (treat lightly) his chosen people. Yet there are Christians who quibble about Israel being identified as the chosen people. Where does this leave the Jewish people? More vulnerable than ever.

The mood was sombre in the Darmstadt synagogue. The audience had come together to commemorate the November 9/10 pogrom regarded as the prelude to the Holocaust. Now, 86 years later, they recalled the pre-planned pogrom in Amsterdam only days earlier. On social media scenes reminiscent of Nazi terror showed Israeli fans fleeing their attackers. Visibly shaken, Daniel Neumann spoke candidly on behalf of the Jewish community. Antisemitism is escalating from year to year.

Now the hatred is directed towards Israel, which is portrayed as the greatest evil on this planet, the enemy of humankind, the land with the highest catalogue of sins. And why this hatred? Because Israel is the most visible symbol of collective Jewishness. Israel is the Jewish state. Israel is the Jew among the nations. Attacking Israel is socially acceptable. Demonstrations against Israel are held around the country. But why of all days on November 9 was a pro-Palestinian demonstration allowed in Darmstadt? (Darmstadt was a stronghold of Nazi ideology in Hitler Germany.)

Are we aware that Jews are seriously asking if they and their children have a future here in Germany and Europe? Are we aware that Jews are afraid to identify as Jews? Are we aware that their realm of existence is constantly narrowing? Are we aware that they can only occasionally raise their heads above the water to take a breath?

Everything the Allies fought for in World War II is at stake. It has been said that after World War II people, looking back, cursed the church in Germany. Will a future generation look back and curse today’s church worldwide?

Is there any hope for the Christian world? Yes, there are encouraging signs with the appointment of former Governor Mike Huckabee as the new Ambassador to Israel.

Sister Anastasia Kennedy hails from the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, an interdenominational, Lutheran-based religious order, founded in Germany in 1947, partly as apologists to the Jewish people. The order opened a guest house in Jerusalem in 1961 for Holocaust survivors, and are staunch Zionists. Sister Anastasia lives in the mother-house in Darmstadt. She has an immense love for the Jewish people and Israel.