When Helen Thomas, long (long) time White House correspondent, told a rabbi that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine," we saw again the raging hatred of Jews that lies just beneath the surface of every culture.
By JIM FLETCHER
When Helen Thomas, long (long) time White House correspondent, told a rabbi that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine," we saw again the raging hatred of Jews that lies just beneath the surface of every culture.America, long a refuge for the Jews, is now becoming what all fading civilizations have become: an enemy of the people who "dwell alone." A culture's demise begins the moment it allows the clammering anti-Semites to spew their venom without consequences.You'll understand of course that I'm fully aware of the great support Israel still enjoys among the American people. My assertion that America is turning its back on Israel is directed at the official, governmental level, which is clearly anti-Israel.Many called for Thomas, who seemingly has covered every president since Washington, to lose her job. She has since resigned. However, before doing so she issued an apology, claiming her comments didn't reflect her true views.An astonishing lie. Brazen. Of course her comments reflected her true feelings, and in those comments we learn much. Thomas believes the Palestinians are "occupied." She believes the Israelis should go "back" to countries they lived in during the Diaspora. Grotesquely, she suggested they go back to Poland and Germany. A correspondent as experienced as Thomas understands the implications of her comments.Germany hatched the serpent, Hitler. Poland was the killing ground, the host nation for the ghastly death camps.Jew hatred is almost as old as the oldest human civilizations. It is documented in Scripture, and in fact the Bible is clear in its predictions of where it will conclude. Zechariah the prophet predicted that "all" the nations of the world would finally come against Israel, and in particular Jerusalem.When the Jews began to return to their ancestral land, in the late 19th century (by 1889, they constituted a majority in Jerusalem, about 25,000 souls), anti-Semitism in Europe was heating up. At about the time Theodor Herzl was trail-blazing for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland - he and others like Zev Jabotinsky saw the coming of the destruction of European Jewry - bigots like Houston Stewart Chamberlain were penning anti-Semitic books and sowing the seeds for Hitler (who was influenced by Chamberlain's writings, which used pseudo-science to advocate for racial superiority).It became popular for these bigots to allege that biblical figures like King David (and even Jesus!) were not Jews, but had a Germanic origin. This insanity can only be described and understood in the context of Scripture, which tells us clearly, as early as Genesis 3, that enmity would be the hallmark of the struggle between good and evil.We see this enmity today, in stark outlines. I will tell you very clearly that I see a direct link in thinking not only between bigots like Chamberlain and Thomas, but also in American Christian leadership, which is plunging headlong into opposition of Israel.
When Christian representatives like Lynne Hybels (wife of Willowcreek founder Bill Hybels) and Darrell Bock, of Dallas Theological Seminary, appear at the gatherings of the Sabeel Center - directed by anti-Israel Palestinians - one understands that something is afoot.Others, like Preterists, minimize the Jewish connection to the land, insisting for the most part that modern Israelis are not linked to the ancient Israelites (does anyone claim that the Chinese of 2010 are not related to the Chinese of the first millennium B.C.?).All this marginalizing of the Jews and Israel is the common denominator linking a diverse international group: certain American Christians, European nationalists, Palestinian Muslims/Marxists, Asian dictatorships, even one-time Christian allies. The pressure, one presumes, is so great to placate the Arabs and the international community that people are now "giving up" the Jews to a new generation of Hitlers and Himmlers.I will not.Helen Thomas shared her true views with us last week, regarding the Jews. It is important for pro-Israel Christians to settle in their minds and articulate their own views on the subject.The Lord of History has been quite clear in Scripture that as humancivilizations reaches its conclusion, He will watch as the nations ofthe world gather against His people. He declares that He will thenfight for them, as He fought in the days of old.I thoroughly believe that, and I also believe that the Jews are notgoing to their destruction again. Israel's glory is ahead of her.That's why prophecy matters.jim@prophecymatters.com