Thursday 19 November, 2009

World
UK
Middle East

An old Jew in Jerusalem

By Charles Gardner

As the BBC hosted a discussion on the growing anti-Semitism in Britain, it was interesting that even in the studio there was strong antipathy towards Israel.

This became clear when everyone clapped at the mention of “what Israel is doing in Gaza”, and yet no-one talks of what Gaza is doing to Israel.

The former was a reference to charges of ‘war crimes’ against Israel for apparently targeting civilians as well as a so-called disproportionate response to constant attacks from Gaza simply because Israelis lost fewer soldiers than their counterparts in the recent conflict.

But it is never mentioned that the Israeli Defence Force did something virtually unknown in warfare by dropping leaflets to residents warning of the impending attack to give them time to escape.

Meanwhile cemeteries have been desecrated as attacks against Britain’s Jewish community have more than doubled in the past year, with victims even accosted in the streets and a scout group in Essex said to have shouted ‘Kill the Jews’ to Jewish veterans at the time of the Remembrance Day parades.

The BBC were hosting this debate – on their Big Questions Sunday morning TV programme – only days before the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary accused them of being biased in favour of Israel.

In fact many pro-Israel groups would take the view that the opposite was the case, but it may well be true that the Beeb have mended their ways somewhat since being told off by the media watchdog for their bias against the Jewish state.

What was clear from the television debate was that no-one, including Jews themselves, seemed to know why they are being persecuted since presenter Nicky Campbell kept asking the question to no avail.

I can answer that, perhaps too succinctly and simplistically for some, by stating that is because they are God’s chosen people – both a biblical fact as well as an observational one, with Jews having contributed so much to the world far out of proportion to their numbers.
Christians are also persecuted because they follow Jesus, the Jew, whom they believe to be a fulfilment of the Old Testament law and prophets.

Sadly the Jewish perception of Christians was seriously compromised by the Nazi era when some of those sending them to the gas chambers called themselves Christians. And one participant in the BBC programme said the war-time British Government had placed rescued Jewish children with evangelical Christians who would ‘force’ them to convert.

I couldn’t imagine even Churchill’s government acting in this way, but I do understand how this conclusion has been reached. The fact is evangelical Christians would probably have led the way in offering to adopt Jewish children out of sheer compassion borne out of their faith along with a concern to obey the biblical command to care for God’s chosen people. And yes, all who have found Jesus as their Saviour would also want to encourage their Jewish brothers to see him as their true Messiah, but would never ‘force’ them to accept him.

Meanwhile the Channel 4 Dispatches slot concluded that the BBC has capitulated to the Israeli lobby. It sounds like a joke, but they were apparently serious.
Though admitting that they had found no conspiracy, they were clearly unhappy with the influence of lobbies such as the Conservative Friends of Israel (and its Labour equivalent) in deciding foreign policy.

And Conservative leader David Cameron was quoted as saying that Israel would be a friend upon whom he would never turn his back as Prime Minister. One simply hopes this is not as empty a claim as that of his being a Christian who only says his prayers when he goes to church (as he told Songs of Praise)!

Because standing with Israel is of paramount importance when their very existence is threatened on all sides.
Iran keeps threatening to carry out its intention of “wiping Israel off the map” and, with a nuclear capability fast developing, this is far from unrealistic, while Syrian President Bashar Assad talks of the resistance that might be used to ‘return’ the Golan Heights, no doubt alluding to movements such as Hezbollah.

But the Golan Heights are the biblical Bashan, of which God said to Moses that he had “handed over the land…into your hand.”
And the truth is that the much-pushed two-state solution of dividing ancient Israel – ‘giving up territory for peace’– will not succeed as every previous attempt in this direction has only sparked more terrorism against the tiny state.

The prophet Joel said God would judge those who scattered his people among the nations and divided up their land.
Yes, the Israelis are getting weary of finding solace with the Zionist dream, and it’s understandable that they do not see Jesus in a good light because of the history of the so-called Church. Kristallnacht – when Jewish businesses were attacked in Germany – occurred on the birthday of the great Protestant reformer Martin Luther.

Yet the New Covenant spoken of by the Jewish prophet Jeremiah related to the Houses of Israel and Judah. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

And the prophet Zechariah spoke of a time when Israel would “look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child…”

Gentiles who have already found Christ as Saviour know about his beauty and majesty, but a time is coming when those still looking for their Messiah would at last realise that he has been there all the time.

For the prophet Ezekiel foretold that after they were restored to their own land from all the countries of the earth, he would remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. And they would live in the land of their forefathers.
Jesus was a fulfilment of the Jewish scriptures and, if we love Jesus, we should love the Jews!

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