Part of the shame of the Christian era has been the periodic eruption of anti-Semitism. Throughout the past twenty centuries there has been the accusation that it was the Jews who condemned Jesus and were complicit in his death at the hands of Rome. The fourth gospel repeatedly appears to hold the Jews responsible. From time to time in the Christian world it has been the Jews who were accused of being sworn enemies of Christ and his church. While the popular opinion has viewed the Spanish Inquisition as a bloody campaign to punish Christian heretics, it developed as an effort to rid society of Jews, and continued outside Spain all the way to the Netherlands.
This seething distrust of Jews and their culture had been lodged just under the surface throughout Europe during long eras when Jews were prohibited from owning land, or entering the professions, and thus were forced to find a non-agrarian home in commerce, banking and related businesses. The volcanic anti-Semitic eruption in Germany beginning in the second decade of the 20th century was only the most dramatic in a series of episodes culminating in the “Shoah”—the Hebrew term for the English word “Holocaust.” Anti-Semitism was not confined to Germany during that period as witnessed by the “The America First” movement supported by Charles Lindbergh and others.
Since the Second World War anti-Semitism has occasionally broken through the surface most recently in the chant of the Charlottesville nationalists, “Jews will not replace us,” and in the murder by white nationalists of eleven Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Long before the Shoah, there was a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. In 1917 Lord Balfour, representing the British government, published the following letter: His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. Following Balfour’s letter, the UN partitioned Palestine land with 55% for Jews and 45% for Palestinians, but Palestinians who at that time owned 92% of the land rejected the partition.
The world-wide horror at the Shoah solidified this appeal and on May 15, 1948 the nation of Israel was established in Palestine, with the right to defend its borders. The guarantee was complicated by this new nation being set in the midst of the long-established Ottoman Empire. An Arab state in the adjacent area was to be part of the plan. A Jewish nation in the midst of the Arab and Moslem part of the world was a problem from the beginning. The difficulty was exacerbated as Israel became increasingly dominated by right wing political coalitions in which it occupied land beyond the original compact. These Jewish cities—originally called “settlements” –were established throughout Palestine, and the resident populations were held in virtual slavery under military occupation. The justification held that God had given the whole land of Palestine to the Hebrew tribes with absolute rights.
If a two-state solution was part of the long-range design, it was rejected by the declaration that God had long before ceded the whole territory to the people of his choice. Here was apartheid by virtue of a divine command, a term first suggested by Jimmy Carter and Rosemary Ruether.
Now comes the United States with its unalterable support of Israel backed by a powerful pro-Israeli lobby and a Christian evangelical constituency hoping to find a path leading to the last days and the second coming of Christ. Condemned was any criticism of Israel or its policies, calling these concerns anti-Semitic. But that is next week’s story.
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