Antisemitism has deep historical roots.
The three Abrahamic faiths, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim Abraham as one of their forebears. Abraham’s Judaic and Christian families stem from their son Isaac, but the Islamic families stem from Abraham’s earlier surrogacy with his wife Sarah’s Egyptian handmaid Hagar, who gave birth to Ishmael some 14 years prior to Isaac’s birth.
Ishmael grew up apparently as a “wild donkey of a man” – a life lived malevolently against everyone.
The hatred between Isaac’s and Ishmael’s progeny now occupies some 3500 years of history. Today, large sections of the Arab world simply want to destroy Israel; this was evidenced in the 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars, where Israel was attacked by vastly larger Arab armies, and miraculously not only survived, but defeated their enemies. I personally saw the burned-out Jordanian tanks and military trucks in the Westbank and Negev when I visited Israel some years ago.
The thin slice of disputed land in the centre of the Middle East is democratic Israel. It is surrounded by enemies on all sides, notably by the terrorist organisations of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, all seeking Israel’s annihilation. Their stated manifesto is the destruction of Israel and to kill every Jew; the state sponsor of this terrorism is Iran.
More recently, following the Nova festival attack in Israel on 7 October 2023 and the two ensuing years of heightened drama, war, bloodshed and perpetuated false narrative, we again see the tentacles of antisemitism reach our own shores at Bondi Beach in Sydney this week, with 15 Jews celebrating Hanukkah shot to death by two Islamic militants.
How could this happen on our own shores?
This long-perpetuated hatred of just .02% of the world’s population is on some levels hard to understand. This is because we in the West largely exist by the multicultural mantra of “live and let live.” But many other countries don’t think as we do. When parents teach their children that Jews are dogs and worthy of death; when schools and mosques perpetuate this ancient hatred, we have and endless supply of jihadist combatants ready to perpetuate their hatred wherever they can.
Students of history will also recognise Christianity’s own antisemitism “skeletons in the cupboard” history. Past generations labelled Jews as “Jesus killers.” Did you also know that it was largely antisemitism in the third century that fuelled the changed day of worship for Christians from Saturday to Sunday? The Roman emperor, together with various councils, declared that people must not Judaise by resting on the Saturday Sabbath, but rather worship and rest on the first day of the week, Sunday. The theological arguments for the change to Sunday worship pale into insignificance when compared to the political expediency of rife antisemitism. Historians note that for the first two centuries, over 90 percent of practising Christians still celebrated Saturday Sabbath!
The historical rise of Islam as a religious and political entity, together with its tenets, laws and objectives, such as “convert or die,” are completely incompatible with western multicultural ideals.
Internationally, Israel’s current troubles are really a wake-up call for all of us. As one political commentator put it, “Israel is the canary in the coal mine for all of us.” The war they’re fighting will one day be our war for survival. What is surprising in Israel’s defence, is that last year, when Iran fired some 1000 projectiles consisting of intercontinental missiles and radar evading drones, Israel shot them all out of the sky using their Iron Dome and David Sling defensive missiles. War analysists still wonder how this was possible!
How can we end this antisemitism? Politicians, of course, are busy trying to placate an uneasy public. Australian gun laws and immigrations policies are currently in the limelight, but they’ll do little while we allow mass demonstrations featuring hateful chants, fuelled by fiery, hate-filled sermons by Imams. Even if we were to in the interim deal with these dangerous ideologies, according to the Bible, these will make little difference to the brewing hatred that has existed for millennia.
The prophecies surrounding Jerusalem, and the Middle East in general, foretell a time of world war, with all nations gathering around Israel for battle. Antisemitism will have reached international fever pitch, and as the prophet Zechariah once conveyed, “Jerusalem will become a cup of staggering for all nations.”
When Western nations are fast losing their original Judeo-Christian ethos, in favour of an identity crisis that often focusses on race and gender, then we allow history to again turn our former rise to glory into the sands of yet another vanquished and enslaved civilisation.
This lingering antisemitic hatred doesn’t look good, either now or into the future.
The antidote is in Jesus’ words: “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who malign you.”
The opposite of hate is love, and this is manifested in kindness, compassion, courage and care. As a nation, our identity must return to our Christian roots. Any other platform or identity is automatically doomed to failure, attested to by the recent bloodshed on our own iconic Australian beachfront.
