FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - IS ANTISEMITISM THE GREATEST GIFT EVER TO THE STATE OF ISRAEL?

Rant Number 597 27 August 2014 Antisemitism & Israel Is antisemitism the greatest gift ever to the state of Israel? Does hatred of Jews reinforce, strengthen and maintain the Jewish State? Do antisemites actively foster Zionism? Subversive and crazy thoughts but…maybe not so crazy. In 1894 Theodor Herzl, the ‘spiritual father’ of the Jewish State, was a journalist in Paris, as the notorious Dreyfus Affaire shook France. Dreyfus, a Jewish Army officer, was accused and jailed as a German spy. The spectacle of French anti-Jewish sentiments convinced Herzl that his people could only be safe in a land of its own: Zionism was born. (Herzl himself was irreligious – even had his own children baptised – hardly a good Jew.) The 1948 declaration of establishment of the State of Israel is explicit. Among the reasons for restoring Eretz-Israel, the ancient homeland of the Jews, are the dark fruits of anti-Jewish persecution, such as ‘the massacres of millions of Jews’ and ‘the Nazi holocaust in Europe’. Thus the Zionist claim is that Jews can only be safe in Israel. A state of their own. A Jewish state, it is claimed, affords Jews the best protection and shelter against any future upsurge of horrid antisemitism. Alas, despite the existence of the state of Israel antisemitism is not dead. ‘Europe’s Jews are fleeing one again’ declares Newsweek. It fingers furious French demos against Israel, as well as many acts of vandalism. All fuelled by the disproportionate Israeli war on Gaza, with its hundreds of civilian killed, including children. Jewish Agency chairman Nathan Sharansky naturally considers this ‘very alarming’. But he also rejoices that 2600 Jews have migrated to Israel since the war started. ‘We had more immigrants than missiles’, he says. Mr Sharansky’s Jewish Agency encourages Jews worldwide to do Aliyah, moving to Israel. Motives for that range from idealism to suprematism, but from the dawning of Herzl’s movement the chief one has been to offer Jews a refuge against persecutions. Only… If Jews are happy and contented amongst Gentiles in the Diaspora, if they are not persecuted or discriminated against, why then move to a tough and risky life in Eretz Israel? The mindless yobs who scrawl swastikas on synagogues or insult innocent Jewish people in the street, the more virulent and violent varieties of antisemites in the Arab and Muslim world…does it cross their tiny minds they so actively foster and aid Zionism’s cause? I wonder… A paradox with many facets. The ruthless Israeli assault on Gaza has shocked and angered many morally sensitive people, including Jews. No question the war has resulted in a recrudescence of antisemitism. Here is a weird hypothesis: could it be that Netanyahu deliberately pursued his excessive attack on Hamas in order to stir up anti-Jewish feelings abroad? Indeed, calculating, banking on them? So that more Jews felt insecure, threatened, thus deciding to quit their homes for…Eretz Israel? It gets even murkier when you read that outrageous text, The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. By the eminent Jewish intellectual George Steiner. The writer has a team of Nazi hunters seizing a taciturn and morose old man in the Amazonian jungle. A.H. stands for Adolf Hitler. His captors wish to have him tried in Israel, like another Eichmann, but time is short so they judge him there and then. In a creepy diatribe the Fuhrer defends himself. Adolf’s barefaced contention is that he, not Herzl, is the Jewish state’s father. ‘You should honour me. Thanks to me. Zion’s millenarian dream has come true. You have got your ancient nation back!’ Crazy argument, crazy guy but…dig it? OK. Steiner was writing fiction. For astounding historical evidence of collusion - more, collaboration - between Zionists and Nazi leaders check out Lenni Brenner’s Zionism in the Age of the Dictators. A serious, carefully documented work. Wot! Zionists and Nazis in bed together! Extraordinary the lengths top figures of Zionism were willing to go in order to secure the setting up of the state of Israel. The priest himself could not believe it at first. Today Israel, like many prosperous Western societies, needs immigrants. Pity most of them will not be Jews. Largely, they will come from third world countries. To do lowly jobs Israelis can’t be bothered with. Besides, Professor Bernard Wasserstein’s thoughtful essay, ‘Israel and Palestine’, notes how Jews worldwide (about 12 millions) are not likely to migrate to Israel en masse to join Jews there (5.582.100). Why should they? Jews – forgive the cliché - are smart. The reality is that life in ‘Isra-Hell’, as my young Israeli friend Ronen once put it, holds little attraction. Despite scaremongering most Jews are happier where they are. No paradox could ever excuse or justify anti-Jewish acts and persecutions, however. Pace antisemites, the differences between Jews and non-Jews are minimal and morally irrelevant. More crucially, Christians share a sacred book in common with Judaism. Jesus Christ’s credentials as Messiah are wholly derived from spiritual expectations and prophecies grounded in the Old Testament. The Church always rejected heretics and fantasists like Marcion who sought to drive a wedge between the New and the Old Covenants. The Creator, the Father of Jesus Christ, is Lord of both. Yes, a section of Judaism did not recognise Jesus as the awaited Messiah. That much troubled St Paul. The Apostle debated this painful state of affairs throughout his writings but especially in the splendid Letter to the Romans, in chapters 9 to 11. Peruse that text. You will find in it the perfect formula for absolute reconciliation between Jews and Christians. ‘Has God rejected his people?’ Paul asks. ‘By no means!’ And he states, irrefragably: ‘All Israel will be saved.’ Revd Frank Julian Gelli ============================================================ ** follow on Twitter (Twitter Account not yet Authorized) | ** friend on Facebook (#) | ** forward to a friend (http://us7.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3ae40cde0c299583529f1448a&id=d793a2e6db&e=5707b9e8db) Copyright © Fr Frank Gelli