WHEN ISRAELIS BURNED BIBLES,
MOST CHRISTIANS WERE
SILENT
By Rev. Ted Pike
14 Sep 10
Two and a half years ago, in an incident evocative of the recent
threat by Florida pastor Rev. Terry Jones to burn copies of the
Qur'an, Jewish religious students in Israel burned Christian New Testaments – by
the hundreds.
AP: "Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies
of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian
missionaries in the Holy Land. Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon
said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly
religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of
New Testaments and missionary materials." Aharon said he "got
into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood,
urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students… the
books were dumped into a pile and set fire in a lot near a synagogue." Aharon
claimed it is "a commandment [in Talmudic Judaism] to burn materials
that urge Jews to convert.’” (Haaretz, "Orthodox
Jewish youths burn New Testaments in Or Yehuda,")
At that time, there were some reports in western, even Christian
media, of this outrage – yet nothing compared to the worldwide
indignation against the Florida pastor. No major leader or denomination
publically criticized the burning or the government of Israel, which
neither forcefully criticized nor did anything to punish the offenders.
Here we see the too familiar dichotomy: Last week an extremist Christian
pastor was held up to international contempt for his threatened desecration
and lack of “respect for diversity.” The floodgates of
international media poured forth unlimited copy, alerting the world
of what a Christian might do.
But do you remember significant protest by Christian media and leaders
in 2008 of the actual burning of a great religion's most sacred
text, as well as continuing persecution of the Messianic Jews in Israel
who distributed the offending New Testaments? Did Messianic Jew Jay
Sekulow's American Center for Law and Justice rail against that violation
of the human rights of his spiritual brethren? Did WorldNetDaily's
Joseph Farah write a fiery editorial accusing the government of Israel
of habitually doing nothing to oppose the persecution of some ten thousand
Messianic Christians by ultra-Orthodox Jews? Of course not.
We know well the reason for this double standard: If a public figure
or organization criticizes Israel, Jewish attack groups will smear
them as "anti-Semitic," effectively ruining their careers
or ministries. The Jewish media and “Holocaust industry” has
taught us for generations that Jews are the historic victims of Christianity
and that criticism of Jews could lead to more gas chambers.
It’s all right then, even fitting, that Christians be mocked,
persecuted, stripped of their religious symbols and holidays, because,
according to popular ADL-nurtured culture, Christianity needs to be
taken down a notch. The Jews, however, have demanded from respectable
society, and generally received, perpetual exemption from criticism.
As we have been seeing more frequently of late, if a public figure
criticizes matters Jewish, the Anti-Defamation League will force him
to grovel in apology, a rite of contrition an ADL-conditioned society
considers appropriate.
As a result, all it takes is the intolerance of one Christian pastor
to ignite international furor. But arousing righteous indignation against
the Jews in Israel who have demonstrated at least equal bigotry is
like trying to make rain-soaked kindling catch fire – almost
impossible.
ADL's Pro-Islam Strategy
Lurking in the wings of Rev. Jones' high drama is the Anti-Defamation
League, ever alert to ways that will stereotype evangelical Christians
as bigoted, possibly violent, haters. Here's how ADL is working to
protect Islam in America so that anti-Islamic Christian/conservatives
will appear narrow and mean spirited, potential "hate criminals."
As I point out in my video "Hate
Law Jihad" (available
at Truthtellers.org), while
very little appreciation of Islam exists in Israel, Israel's PR representative,
ADL, has chosen a vastly different strategy in the West. In order to
make right-wing critics of Islam into hate criminals, ADL is now promoting
Islamic rights, creating hate laws that harshly criminalize those who
publicly demean Islam. With Christians force-fed the Zionist lie that
militant Islam is the greatest threat to civilization, ADL knows that
members of the religious right, outspoken against it, are abundant
candidates to become offenders under ADL-inspired hate laws. Thus,
in ADL's hard line hate crimes nations, such as Canada, England, Holland,
France and Australia, the indigenous Islamic councils work closely
with ADL to mete out the harshest penalties against Christian “haters.”
But ADL also wants to make criticism of Islam a federal offense in
America. To that end, ADL is orchestrating a coalition of Muslim, Jewish,
and Christian groups to advocate for mosque-building rights in America
and take measures against those who are "intolerant" in opposition. “Working
under the sponsorship of the Anti-Defamation League, which initiated
the concept, ICOM [The Interfaith Coalition on Mosques] will carefully
monitor incidents of mosque discrimination around the country, gather
facts and analyze the information, and speak out when appropriate to
help Muslim communities who are encountering prejudice.” (adl.org,
"Interfaith
Coalition to Assist American Muslim Communities Facing Opposition to
Building Mosques,")
ADL: Not Really Afraid of Islam
You may ask: “But doesn’t ADL/Zionism fear that by encouraging
Islam it is creating a potent rival to its own dream of world domination?” Actually,
until the advent of Zionism a little more than a century ago, Jews
and Muslims got along very well. Both religions, largely founded on
the Old Testament, are strictly monotheistic, abhorring the Christian
Trinitarian claim that the Godhead is three in one. Since Islam does
not teach Jesus was crucified, it has never laid the charge of “Christ
killers” upon the Jews. This has made Jews much more secure,
especially in medieval times in Muslim lands. But now ADL is relatively
comfortable with encouragement of Islam in the West because Zionism
has demonstrated over the past century that, even though their former
friends have become enemies, the Jews will probably always be able
to outwit, frustrate, and contain the Muslim/Arab world.
The Jews have shown themselves as organized as the Muslims are disorganized.
Even before the Balfour Declaration and subsequent Sykes-Picot Treaty
supplanted Arab rights to Palestine, Jewish brains and capital, deeply
entrenched in the nations and governments of the west, rendered Arab
resistance virtually impotent. Yes, Islam wants to conquer the world
through its high birth rate, proliferation of mosques, and imposition
of Sharia and ADL-inspired hate crimes laws everywhere. Yet
looming much more powerfully than possible Islamic expansion is the
established, formidable reality of Jewish control of international
finance, governments, big media, Congress, and even the popular evangelical
movement. In short, the Jews will always be able to handle the Muslims,
and for this reason ADL sees alliance with Islam in America as a powerful
tool.
Despite a century of infatuation with Israel among evangelical Christians,
the truth is that authentic, New Testament Christianity (if it is ever
widely re-discovered) still poses the greatest threat to Jewish supremacism.
The New Testament is filled not only with adverse commentary upon Rabbinic
(pharisaic) Judaism, exhorting believers to be suspicious of it and
deny its spiritual validity, but is an ever-indicting testimony that
the Jews had Christ killed.
Just as rankling to Judaism are the commands of Jesus to convert
Jews to their true Messiah. Add to this the fact that in “Christian” America
at least half of young Jewish men are marrying Gentile brides. Jewish
leaders see Christian-encouraged proselytization, as well as assimilation,
as tantamount to potential spiritual and genetic genocide of the Jewish
people.
ADL’s Strategy Becomes Clear
With this in mind, we can understand why ADL is now aligning itself
with Islam in America and western nations and why Jewish big media
has been publicizing, and vilifying, the bigotry of an obscure Christian
pastor.
How do Christians/conservatives counter such manipulation against
them? By recognizing that Jewish supremacism poses a vastly greater
threat to civilization than does Islam. They should speak out against
it without fear of being called “anti-Semitic” or being
cursed by God for criticizing His chosen people. Christians can also
bring themselves and others into reality by simply doing what Christ
taught – not showing special respect to some (the Jews) but instead
responding with simple compassion to the sufferings of their Messianic
brethren in Israel. Reports continue to come out of Israel that the
ultra-Orthodox “Haredim” only increase in their militant
discrimination and harassment against Messianic Christians, assisted
by an Israeli government that looks the other way.
No longer should Christians also look the other way when they hear of
Israel's state-permitted persecution of Christians. No longer should
they allow millions of dollars to be sent by Pastor John Hagee to fund
the ultra-Orthodox persecutors of their Messianic brethren. (See, Hagee:
Tea-Partyin’ American Heretic) Now, as never before,
Christians must be responsive to the question put to them by the apostle
John: "But whoever… beholds
his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love
of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17)
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog organization.
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