“for he that touches you [Israel] touches the apple [pupil] of His [God’s] eye” — Zechariah 2:8.
Antisemitism– “American-Style”
The United States has become increasingly Antisemitic, “Anti-Jewish,” particularly since October 7, 2023. It has gotten so bad, in fact, that Jewish students are afraid to go to class, or even walk across campus, without some crowd of Pro-Palestinian students ganging up on them, intimidating and threatening them. They have even had to barricade themselves in their dorms due to the intimidation and fear. And where were the faculty and administrators, who are supposed to speak out against such action and protect their students? They are nowhere in sight, or perhaps they were just watching on the sidelines.
But this is not the first time we have seen Antisemitism raise its ugly head here in the United States. For example, we have seen the desecrated synagogues and Jewish graveyards, the painted Swastikas on buildings, doors, Jewish gravestones, and even Jewish homes. All intended as an act of violence and to cause fear among the Jewish people and those within the Jewish community.
Other Examples of American Racism
But most of the time, most Americans claim to believe in equality for all people, that all acts of discrimination is wrong, such as racism, sexism, and ageism are wrong. But do we really believe this? The evidence indicates a very different answer. Ask any Native American Indian about the reservation system, the government’s attempt at sterilizing Native women during the 1960s and 70s, or ask Japanese Americans about the internment camps during World War 2. And let’s not forget about the various acts of racism done to African Americans and Hispanics.
The U.S. and the “Yellow Stars”
After all of this and witnessing what has been happening here in the United States over the past few years, particularly since October 7, 2023, I have to wonder, “Will the U.S. be involved in the next Jewish Holocaust?” There are some I am sure who are quietly asking themselves the same question, whether they are Jews, Judaists, Messianics, and even some Christians. I am merely vocalizing what they are afraid to think or say out loud.
These elite college and university administrators and faculty apparently have not studied George Orwell’s 1984, nor have they studied the events leading up to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, because they are teaching and training our students that Socialism is a better system than American Democracy. So if we are going to become Socialists, then when will the U.S., like the Muslims, European Christians in Medieval and Modern Europe, including Nazi Germany, be requiring Jewish people here to wear “yellow stars”? Some people might think that I am exaggerating how bad it is getting, but Shabbos Kestenbaum has recently published an article in Newsweek magazine online about how he, a Harvard student, is suing Harvard University, because the Antisemitism there has gotten way “out of control” (“I’m Suing Harvard. Antisemitism is Out of Control”). Although for many people this question may bring to mind the horrific persecutions, tortures and murders that happened to the Jewish people over the centuries, such as during the Inquisition, the various pogroms, and the Holocaust, but in consideration of all the things that have happened to the Jewish people here in the U.S., particularly over the past four months, I have to ask the question.
Past Atrocities with Hamas
Because of the atrocities practiced by Hamas and many of the Palestinian people who applauded their hateful atrocities against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel on October 7, 2023, there has arisen within American college and university students and faculty those who have supported the evil and hateful atrocities of Hamas. This would have been reprehensible in past years. Can you imagine Americans applauding the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, or the destruction of the Twin Towers by Al Qaeda, killing thousands of American lives on September 11, 2001? The United States did not hesitate to retaliate by killing thousands of Japanese and Al Qaeda as a result, even thousands of civilians living among them. For example, when the U.S. dropped the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it killed mostly civilians in those two cities, 129,000 and 226,000 respectively. It is naive to believe that in a war that there is not going to be any civilians who will be maimed or killed. Why do we believe that the U.S. and other countries have the right to protect its civilians and kill their attackers, but the nation of Israel does not? By college and university students and faculty supporting Hamas, they have sided not with the innocent victims – but with their murderers, who were as evil as the Nazis and Al Qaeda when Hamas attacked the Jewish families in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Is Hamas Another Amalek?
In the book of Shemot (Exodus) in the written Torah, we read how Amalekites came and attacked the children of Israel. In chapter 17 of this book, we learn how Mosheh (Moses) chooses Y’hoshua (Joshua) to pick some men from the children of Israel to go battle against the Amalekites. In verses 10-14, we read the following account,
Joshua did as Moses told him ad fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword. Then the LORD said this to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!…The LORD will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” [Shemot (Exodus) 17:10-14, 16, JPS]
So “Amalek” in these last days is in the form of Hamas, and indeed, just as in the days of Mosheh (Moses) and Y’hoshua (Joshua), Israel is at war with them. And just as the Holy One of Israel has used the Israel to defeat their past enemies, so He will use them again today to defeat Hamas and the other enemies of Israel.
The Horrible Past of World Jewry
War is never pleasant, but the Nazis tried their hand at trying to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe, and they were only successful in in killing six million Jewish men, women, and children. And since then there have been other Muslim terrorist groups that have tried to exterminate those Jews who have returned to their homeland of Israel, including Hamas. Although there have been many groups – Middle-Eastern powers, such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, and also Europeans, such as the Greeks and Romans, and Christians, as well as Muslims from the surrounding countries – who have tried, but none of them have been completely successful. Sure, they have murdered a large number of Jews, but they have never succeeded in completely exterminating them.
The Eternal Promise
The “Great I Am,” Creator, the God and King of Israel, has promised Abraham, the Patriarch of Israel, and his seed forever,
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you;
and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you. (Genesis 12:2-3, JPS)
And those who have blessed Israel and the Jewish people have been blessed, and those who have sought to curse Israel and the Jewish people by persecuting, torturing, and killing them, God has cursed. Many times this “cursing” comes in the murder and annihilation of those who attacked and killed the Jewish people. Although many may point out that Hamas or the Palestinian terrorist groups have not been annihilated, they are still here. But like the Amorites of old, God has also numbered their days before their time of judgment actually arrives (Genesis 15: 16, JPS).
Another version of this Eternal Promise can be seen at the end of the book of Yesheyahu (Isaiah):
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. [Yesheyahu (Isaiah) 66: 22, JPS]
Who is the LORD speaking to here? Israel. Although many shall try to kill and exterminate the Jewish people from off of the face of this planet, God has promised them that their seed and name shall remain. That is His Eternal Promise.
The History of the “Yellow Stars”
Anti-Semitism did not begin with Hamas, but it can traced all the way back to biblical times, but it was actively practiced in the Middle Ages and Modern times by the Muslims and the European Christians, including Socialist Nazi Germany, prior to and including World War 2. All of these groups have discriminated and persecuted against the Jewish people by having them wear “yellow stars” to distinguish them from the rest of the population. The Muslims had them wear the “yellow stars” to distinguish them from the other Muslims in the land. It was first done by the Caliph Omar 2 (717-20 C.E.). Non-Muslims were required to be killed or to pay a special tax, and there needed to be a way so that the non-Muslims could be easily distinguished from the Muslims. So Caliph Omar 2 ordered that every non-Muslim, the dhimmi, should wear clothing that distinguished them from Muslims. These distinctions were called giyar, or “distinguishing marks,” of “a different color for each minority group.” This practice was then practiced again by Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-61 C.E.), and this practice has “remained in force over the centuries,” with few exceptions.
Christian Persecutions
This practice was also practiced by those within Christian Europe. There are accounts of Christians burning down synagogues, Torah scrolls, chasing Jews out of town, and even locking them all in their own synagogue and then burning them alive after setting it on fire. There is even accounts of Catholics holding down pregnant Jewish women, cutting them open and killing their child in front of them, and then holding them down as they sew a live cat inside of the woman and then watching it claw its way out of her from the inside out. Of course, all of this was done in the name of Jesus Christ. So much of what Hitler did and taught came from the Catholic’s long history of persecuting the Jews, including much of the insidious phrases and teachings came from the teachings and writings of Martin Luther, particularly his publication, On the Jews and Their Lies, published just 26 years after he began the Protestant Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517.
Many times Christians will say that those people who did those horrible things were not truly Christian, but if that were the case, then many of the Church Fathers, including the Father of the Reformation, Martin Luther himself, were not Christians either. So what are we to conclude – that all of Christianity’s basic teachings, including the beginning of Protestantism, were all started by non-Christian heathen men? I am afraid that argument that “they were not really Christians” just does not hold true. You cannot have them “saved” one moment and then “not saved” the next, unless these groups also admit that “Christians can lose their salvation” and that the teaching “once saved – always saved” is a false teaching. However, I am not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Antisemitism leads to “Yellow Stars” and Jewish Ghettos
But it was after the enforcement of this policy of having Jewish people wear the “yellow stars” when the Nazis removed the Jewish people from the general population and placed them within restricted ghettos, and then It was after this, that the Jewish people were forced into cattle cars on trains and sent to the various renown death camps, like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Treblinka, and Sobibor, where they were murdered in mass. We already have in the U.S. a growing hatred for the Jewish people here, as well as other places around the world. So then, when is all of this racial hatred for the Jewish people going to result in the U.S. ordering the Jewish people to wear “yellow stars”?
The Horrendous Truth – Hamas is to Blame!
But the horrible truth is that the ones who should be blamed for the starvation and deaths of the Palestinians are not the Jewish people – but Hamas. In a recent article, written by Bassem Eid, called “My Fellow Palestinians: Stop Blaming the Jews – Hamas is Starving Our Brothers and Sisters in Gaza,” in the Opinion Column of Newsweek magazine online, she writes,
The chaos and desperation that led to this tragedy are direct outcomes of Hamas’s governance, which prioritizes violence ad killing Jews over the welfare of its population. The stampede, occurring during a aid distribution, tragically underscores the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Driven by sheer desperation, people found themselves in a deadly crush, a situation that should never occur.
To pave he way for peace and stability for my brothers and sisters in Gaza, it is essential to acknowledge the root causes of their suffering. Hamas’s diversion of resources, suppression of dissent, and neglect of civilian needs must end.
So are the Jewish people, or even Zionism, to blame for the starvation and deaths of the Palestinian people as we are told by the American Press and multimedia? No, as this Palestinian woman writer has pointed out, the true cause of this suffering is the Palestinian government, Hamas.
So What Are We Going To Do?
So what are we going to do? Are we going to allow the liberal culture and press push us to repeat the atrocities committed by Medieval and Modern Muslims and Christians, including Nazi Germany, by beginning to order the Jewish people to wear “yellow stars” like their ancestors, or are we going to wake up and begin to listen to Palestinian People from Gaza, like Bassem Eid? It is our choice to make as a nation. There’s even an article published by the Human Rights Watch (hrw.org) that discusses that assert that the videos of Hamas-led attacks have, in fact, been verified, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has mandated to probe attacks as “War Crimes” (“Israel/Palestine: Videos of Hamas-Led Attacks Verified”, Oct. 18, 2023). But if this was verified way back in October, four months ago, then why is it that we have not heard a word about this in the American press?
So apparently, the United States government has decided to ignore the facts and to chase their own Socialistic agenda. So if we are going to play “blame the innocent victim,” particularly those of the Jewish people, as the Socialists among the traditional elite colleges and universities, like Harvard, and those in the American press, has done, then I think we need to ask the question: If we are going to repeat history here in the U.S. and be like the Medieval Muslims and Christians, including pre-World War 2 Germany, then it seems only fair to ask, “When will the the U.S. begin handing out its own ‘yellow stars’ as these other countries have done, so I can know when to expect to stand in line with the other Jews, Judaists, Messianics, Netzarim, and maybe even some Christians to receive a “yellow star” of my own?”
Works Cited
Eid, Bassem. “My Fellow Palestinians: Stop Blaming the Jews – Hamas Is Starving Our Brothers and Sisters in Gaza.” Newsweek. March 5, 2024.
Human Rights Watch. “Israel/Palestine: Videos of Hamas – Led Attacks Verified.” October 18, 2023. http://www.hrw.org/node/386242/printable/print.
JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1999.
Kestenbaum, Shabbos. “I’m Suing Harvard. Antisemitism is Out of Control.” Newsweek. March 5, 2024.
followingmessiah.org 