Why the World Hates Jews and Why That's Wrong

Why the World Hates Jews and Why That’s Wrong

Khen Lim

Image source: jewishpress.com

First came Vashti’s demise

Across 127 vast provinces, the fourth century BC was completely dominated by the powerful Persian Empire. Even the Jews were all entirely under its subjugation. In the days before Artaxerxes I in the line of Persian royalty, there was King Ahasuerus whom most scholars at first believed to be the same as Xerxes I of the Achaemenid Empire. There is also some agreement that the Hebrew ‘Ahasuerus’ is descended from the Persian name for (Arta)Xerxes.¹

Ezra 4:6 mentions Ahasuerus as the King of Persia to whom the enemies of the Jews despatched proxies to oppose the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem:

“Years later when Xerxes began his reign, the enemies of Judah wrote a letter of accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.” (Ez 4:6, NLT)

The Book of Esther mentions Ahasuerus’ first wife as Vashti, making her Queen of Persia. It was said that after display his wealth for 180 days, Ahasuerus threw a seven-day grand banquet in Susa (Shoushan) for all the nobility and servants while at the same time, she held one for the women. 

On the seventh day of the concurrently-running banquets, the inebriated king sent word via his seven chamberlains to instruct Vashti to make her presence before his guests, wearing her royal crown, to showcase her physical beauty (Es 1:11).

It was a command that, according to some Midrash interpretations, required her to appear unclothed. While this was customary for the dancers who provided the entertainment to the king’s guests, Persian tradition required that the Queen should not so easily avail herself to public gaze, much less appear without clothes. It was a command that was most unbecoming.

Although the Bible doesn’t say, it was probably this that made Vashti resistant to her king’s request and summarily, she refused to grace his guests with her lewd presence. Understandably, her refusal angered Ahasuerus, prompting him to ask his advisors what he should do to punish her (v.12). 

Vashti would have understand the possibly grave consequences of refusing the queen but she stood steadfast. That alone was enough for some to believe that his request was simply too morally unacceptable to her.

It was then that one of his advisors called Memucan who remarked that Vashti’s disobedience had not only wronged the king but had set an untoward precedence towards all the wives who may now take courage and disobey their Persian husbands (1:16-18). 

As such, he recommended to Ahasuerus to replace her with another queen. On taking up his advice, he decreed that all Persian men should dominate their households and subsequent sought to find a replacement for Vashti who would never again come before him.²

Queen Vashti’s banishment from her royal position opened the way for someone “who is better than she” (v.19) and thus, set the stage for the introduction of Esther, a most unlikely candidate since she was an orphaned Jewess.

Then entered Mordecai

Impression of Mordecai (Image source: Emmanuel Enid)

In his quest to find a new queen, King Ahasuerus organised a sort of beauty pageant where numerous beautiful maidens were brought before his presence for him to choose. Amongst the many, he would end up selecting Esther, an orphan daughter of a Benjamite by the name of Abihail (2:15) who originally named her Hadassah (to mean ‘myrtle’). All this while, she had been exiled among the Jews in Persia where she lived under the protection of her cousin Mordecai.

Hailing also from the tribe of Benjamin, Mordecai was hauled into captivity together with Jehoiachin, king of Judah, by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in or after 601BC. By seizing Jerusalem, the intention was to take the intellectually superior Judahite captives and assimilate them into Babylonian society. By 597BC, all 3,000 Jews including the royal household were fully exiled to Babylon.

Mordecai became Ahasuerus’ chief minister and lived in the Persian capital of Susa. It was he who adopted his orphaned cousin, who at that time, went by her Hebrew name of Hadassah (2:7). He summarily brought her up as if she were his own daughter. 

When the time came for ‘young virgins’ to be presented to King Ahasuerus, it was Mordecai who took the young Hadassah into his presence. There, she was presented as Esther, her Persian name. While the Bible doesn’t say, the decision to change her name might be to conceal her Jewish ancestry.

Ahasuerus would have been taken by Esther’s beauty because she was the one he finally chose. Mordecai was already by then quite close to the king, which was why he was referred to as the one who “sat in the king’s gate.” 

One day, while literally at the gate of the king’s palace, Mordecai overheard a conversation between two of Ahasuerus’ eunuch chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh. To his shock, both of them were plotting to have the king assassinated. Quickly he reported the conspiracy to the king via his cousin, Esther and ultimately, the two were duly executed, an event that was officially noted in the king’s royal diary.

Impression of Haman (Image source: themessianictorahobserver.org)

It was around this time that biblical history reveals the grand vizier by the name of Haman the Agagite. Haman was a descendant of the Amalekite tribe under the reign of King Agag whom the prophet Samuel had commanded King Saul to destroy because of their wickedness. 

However the Israelite king chose not to obey. Though Saul did destroy the Amalekites, he spared Agag (1 Sam 15:10-33), which was not what the prophet had instructed. From what remained of the survivors, arose Haman who, likely because of this event, hated the Jews.

Being the grand vizier was like being the prime minister in modern times or at least, a chief officer or minister of state. Haman had absolute power of attorney and, in principle, could only be dismissed by the king himself. Not surprisingly, given such powers, Haman demanded complete loyalty from Mordecai to the extent of expecting him to prostrate himself. We do not know why but it is possible that he was aware of Mordecai’s Jewish background.

However Mordecai had no bar of that, which likely angered the grand vizier. Given his anti-Semitism, it was little wonder that he resorted to badmouth the Jews to King Ahasuerus. He said the Jews were a useless lot, inclined to turbulence and disloyalty and therefore were not worthy to be kept alive.

Boldly, he promised the king that he’d pay into the royal coffers as much as 10,000 silver talents for his consent to plunder the Jews and ultimately exterminate all of them. Out of a lottery, Haman decided that the Jews would all die on the 13th of Adar. Having bought into the idea, Ahasuerus then issued an order to confiscate all Jewish property and then annihilate all of them within his empire.

When news of this proclamation reached Mordecai, he tore his robes in utter anguish and poured ash on to his head. Even as he grieved on hearing all this, Esther, being sheltered in the harem, was kept unaware that is, until he broke the news to her via Hathach, one of Ahasuerus’ eunuch chamberlains. Mordecai told Esther that just because she was within the palatial grounds did not mean that she could escape the wrath.

To that, she made a request to her cousin to commence a general fast among all the Jews in the metropolis of Susa for three straight days as a form of repentance and to pray to God for deliverance. It was evident that she had something in mind although no one was aware of what it might be.

And then Esther

Impression of Esther (Image source: Emmanuel Enid)

Esther knew that royal protocol prevented anyone from approaching the king short of being summoned by him. On the pain of death, it could be one risk too many. Moreover, because Ahasuerus had not called for her for the past thirty days, it was possible that she might have lost his favour to someone else in the harem. Yet time was running out for something to be done to halt the extermination programme.

And so by the end of the third day of fast, Esther decided to take the risk and went to seek the king’s presence. Dressed in her royal attire, Ahasuerus was pleased to see her. Perhaps he was reminded in his pleasure of her physical beauty. When the king asked her what it was that she needed from him, Esther decided that an invitation to a banquet was the best way to go. And for that, she sought not just the king’s audience but also Haman the grand vizier.

It was a brazenly bold move but after that banquet she had prepared, they again accepted her invitation to dine the following day. It was evident to Esther that everything was going according to plan. Haman was beside himself in joy, being completely carried away by all the attention that she had paid on him. 

Even so, none of the delights of the banquets stopped him from ordering the gallows to be erected. His aim was to hang Mordecai whom he hated with a vengeance not only because he stood up to his order of obeisance but very likely also because he was a Jew.

That particular night, Ahasuerus laid awake in bed. Seeing that he could not sleep a wink, he ordered that the chronicles of the nation be read to him. It was then that he recalled how he had not properly rewarded Mordecai for having saved his life by foiling the assassination plot. 

And so the next day, he sought Haman’s advice as to what constituted a suitable reward for someone “whom the king desired to honour.” Presuming that the king had him specifically in mind, he suggested that perhaps the use of the king’s apparel and insignia would be a good idea. And with all that, Ahasuerus took his suggestion and ordered them to be bestowed upon Mordecai.

Haman’s retribution

Image source: studiu-biblic.ro

At the next banquet, Esther finally showed her hand. With the king now suitably beguiled by her charming demeanour, she revealed her true identity as a Jew – all things considered, a huge risk – but she contextualised it by bringing Haman into the frame. 

With her admission as a Jew, Esther now openly pointed the finger at Haman, accusing him of his devious plot in wanting her and her people destroyed out of personal hate. Already captivated by his queen, Ahasuerus had no qualms in ordering Haman to be executed.

Since he had already erected the gallows (meant for Mordecai, of course), it was fitting for the king to have him hanged using his own apparatus. And in accordance to his own suggestion against the Jews, Ahasuerus commanded that Haman’s property be seized and given to his intended victim. After that, he appointed Mordecai to replace him as the prime minister before issuing a decree, authorising all Jews within his empire to defend themselves.

Quite ironically, on the 13th of Adar – the day Haman set aside to kill all the Jews, it was the Jews who mobilised and killed many of their enemies instead. On the following day, the 14th, they rested and celebrated. In the Persian capital city of Susa, they took one additional day to finish the job.

Defining Purim

3-sided hamentashen pastry eaten during Purim (Image source: Jewish Community of Louisville)

Contrary to popular belief, ‘Purim’ is not a Hebrew but an Akkadian (Persian) word to mean ‘lots.’ The word ‘Pur’ has obvious Persian origins and as written in the Book of Esther, it means a ‘lot.’ Purim is, in fact, the pluralised version of the word ‘pur,’ thus meaning ‘lots.’ The commemorative festival of Purim is henceforth called because of the lots cast by Haman.

Interestingly as well, the word ‘pur’ is associated with the Hebrew word ‘porer,’ which means to dismantle or break or destroy or break into crumbs. The word ‘hefir’ comes from the verb ‘pur’ and has that foreboding sense of cancellation or cessation. It can also mean the breaking of something permanent as in the case of violating an alliance or breaking a strike.

Purim is commemorated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar, which is usually during late Winter or early Spring. It is this day in history that the Jews, having reversed their fate against Haman’s deadly decree, rested and celebrated. 

For this year 2018, Purim began on Wednesday night, February 28, and went on until Thursday, March 1. It is an annual event to remember the salvation of the Jewish people from Haman’s plot. It was his scheme to annihilate all Jews in the Persian Empire including the young and the old, men, women and infants, all in a single day. This historical event is best remembered in the Book of Esther or as the Jews refer to it as the Megillah.

Hating Israel is hating Jews

Image source: thedailybeast.com

At almost every Purim each year, many Jews ask the same perennial question – Why does the world hate Israel so much? It is a question that has been asked thousands of times since the days of the Psalmist:

“Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against His anointed One.” (Ps 2:1-2, NLT)

And since then, every Jew across the Diaspora perpetuate the question in search of an answer that appears all too elusive. In fact, hardly a few decades following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and after Hadrian sold the land to the Gentiles in 135AD, it was actually illegal in Cyprus for anyone to call himself a Jew. 

And if that was the case, where could any Jew go where they could be accepted? This was a relevant question because wherever they went, major strife would invariably follow them.

Before the Holocaust of the Second World War, such strife was already in place. A priest of Amiens, Peter the Hermit (1050-1115) – also known as Cucupeter or Little Peter – conducted a major slaughter of Jews in the Kingdom of Lorraine in Germany in what is known as the Rhineland Massacres (or German Crusade) of 1096. 

American historian David Nirenberg calls it “the first instance of an antisemitism that would henceforth never be forgotten and whose climax was the Holocaust.” In the thirteenth century, England expelled her Jews. In the next few hundred years, France outlawed them.

And throughout the twentieth century, as we know, just because a person was a Jew, the atrocities that befell him were indescribable. Infamously, Islam fundamentalist and Iran’s sixth president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once said, “Israel is destined for destruction and will soon disappear” and with that, emboldened Iranian clerics thereafter have incessantly called for the annihilation of the Jewish people. Of course, who could have known that he has Jewish roots!³

Persecuted and then destroyed for the crime of their origin, no other race or ethnic community in the world has suffered this much. Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ was the apex of modern antisemitism but even so, the world has not seen this hatred abating since. 

Just as Israel carries the hopes of all Jews around the world, deeply compromised organisations like the United Nations simply wish for them to just disappear off the face of this earth. If no one wants Jews around and if Israel did not or was not allowed to exist, exactly where would they go?

Had Esther failed in her task to convince Ahasuerus, Haman’s conspiracy would have succeeded. That would have meant a holocaust of unthinkable proportions at least at that time. Back then, he would have killed off all the Jews in the known world, meaning a huge geographical stretch from India to Ethiopia as Esther’s cousin Mordecai described:

“These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush.” (Es 1:1, NLT)

Haman’s plan would have wiped out enough Jews at that time to completely transform the modern world as we know it. At any rate, given credit to Haman for the origins of anti-Semitism isn’t correct. Hatred of the Jews goes back even further in time back to the days of Abraham when God made His covenant on the Promised Land.

The scholar Edward H. Flannery (1912-1998) who in 1965 wrote, ‘The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism’ calls this, “…the longest and deepest hatred of human history” and he’s absolutely right. But have the world always been plotting against the Jews? If so, why?

Hating Israel is hating God

Image source: Richard Millett 

Why does the world keep on plotting against the Jews? That’s not difficult to answer if you’ve been following the news for the past many decades. There is plenty of evidence around that points to a world that hates God. 

They hate anything to do with God and that means His Word, Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the Church, Christianity and of course, the Jews. Especially the Jews for God has them as His Chosen People. There apparently is nothing worse than to talk about the Jews as God’s Chosen. No matter how universal this truth has long been, it’s despised by the modern world.

And yet, let us consider all this hatred from the viewpoint of what the Jews had done exactly to the world:

History of world creation

The worldview of Creationism that the Jews offered is what the world hates because it means there is a Creator. The world doesn’t want a Creator. It does not believe it owes its existence to any such Creator.

Evidence of a worldwide flood

While Hollywood might find the story worthy of a deeply distorted Aronovsky-directed movie,⁴ much of the world disavows itself from the message it carries, which is that God’s judgement of man’s wickedness will ultimately lead to his destruction. 

Deeply tainted by liberalism, socialism and atheism, the world at large wants nothing to do with being judged especially by a God they despise and refuse to acknowledge.

A morality code unlike any others

The world refuses to accept that there are right (moral) and wrong (immoral) way of doing things in life. To have these codified spells too much authoritarianism that is far too vested in a single God whom they mock. Instead of morality, the world has turned its back on the Jewish concept and embraced whatever it is that people feel like feeling even if that means it is not immutable.

Of the righteous and the blessed

It was the Jews who recorded God’s message of blessing as opposed to cursing. Where those who are righteous, God will bless and wherein those who are disobedient to His Word, they will be cursed. This is not a concept that the world finds pleasing because people do not take kindly to anyone – including and especially God – to impinge on their lifestyles.  

God’s Chosen People

Just as Scripture says that the Jews are God’s Chosen People and through them, He passes His message to mankind, history inherently traces their lineage all the way back to Abraham with whom the Lord established His covenant with. Not only does the world not believe in God, it hates Him and it hates the very idea that He would consider only the Jews as His Chosen People. To them, God’s partiality is not sovereign but unkind.

Through the Jews comes the Son of God

The covenantal line from Abraham goes through the Jews who produce Jesus, God’s One and Begotten Son who is the only way and the truth and the life that no one comes to the Father except through Him. The world cannot accept that Jesus represents the only exclusive way to Salvation and eternal life. To them, they want all ways, ways they can define and ways that are on their own terms.

The establishment of the Christian Church

Through the Apostle Peter and the others – who were all Jews – the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ was founded. Needless to say, by way of association, all Christians – just like their Jewish brethren – are hated by the world.

Letters in the New Testament that defines life

Through the Apostle Paul, his letters to the New Testament churches describe what Christian life is, including what is excluded and included that God will find pleasing. Inevitably the world would find in many of these instructions opportunities for sexism, racism, chauvinism and homosexuality. It is the way of the world to deliberately distort the word of God and still believe they have a right to go to heaven.

The living testimony of a miraculous nation

The fact that the Jewish state of Israel stands accountable to God’s constant miracles that are faithfully and prophetically foretold in the Bible, is an anathema to the people who hate them. No other story in the world can attest to a people who were forced into exile from their own homeland for more than two millennia and then could find their way back. The very evidence of all this in living memory torments the world.

Image source: periodicodeibiza.es

The principle focus of hatred is God or to be more precise, the ‘Messiah.’ If you don’t know your Hebrew well, that’s a term to mean Christ. Revisiting the same Psalm but add a few more verses, we see the term ‘His anointed One’ and ‘My Chosen King’ in reference to Christ:

“Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against His anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they cry, ‘and free ourselves from slavery to God.’ But the One who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then in anger, He rebukes them, terrifying them with His fierce fury. For the Lord declares, ‘I have placed My Chosen King on the throne in Jerusalem, on My holy mountain. ” (Ps 2:1-6, NLT, my emphasis)

Much of the Book of Psalms identify David as the main psalmist. Back then, it was already obvious that there were many who “plot against the Lord and against His anointed One.” 

In fact, going further back to the times of Abraham, the Jews had chosen to worship the one True God but their neighbouring tribes did not, preferring their pagan beliefs that put them diametrically opposed to God’s Chosen People. And from that point onwards, it became a never-ending war centred on hatred against the One, which meant the obliteration of the Jews.

There is no question about it – the world does not want anything to do with “their chains.” They see the worship of God not as an act of adoration but of slavery. Therefore, hatred for God translates directly as hatred for Israel. But even more specifically, they hate Christ. As David said, the world schemes to destroy not just the Father but the Son even though Christ is the one the Father has chosen as the King on the throne in Jerusalem.

And so as Israel gathers herself in restoration from the Diaspora, this hatred gathers pace and magnitude. A restored Jewish State will simply be an even starker reminder to all godless nations that not only is there a God but that His prophetic word has come true and His covenant will be fully delivered through the ages. It will also remind them that God has installed Christ as His Chosen King on Zion’s holy mountain (Ps 2:6).

In the Psalm, God already calls Him, “His anointed One” and later, “My Chosen King.” In world affairs today, Israel is a stark and inconvenient reminder of who God is and what a sinful world we live in today. 

Surrounded by enemies everywhere, the Jewish State is a constant thorn for them because its existence echoes God’s rule and His laws simply because of its undeniable 4,000-year link to the Bible, the kind that people at large hate to be reminded of, which is why we’re seeing an amplification of antisemitism, which at its core, is all very anti-God, antichrist and anti-Bible. And with all of this, the Church becomes an even more obvious target of persecution than ever before.

Minus Israel, the rest of the world has clearly lost the plot and with that, it is doomed. And all of this had a long beginning, going all the way back to the days of the Greek philosophers. 

From that point through the centuries, worldly wisdom has been guided (or misguided) by an endless stream of godless philosophies trumpeted by those who had a clear disdain for God but nonetheless, their works were and still are celebrated. It’s not a stretch to consider that Hitler’s inspiration for the destruction of the Jews had actually come off the backs of such godless philosophies.

Today, the hedonism of the world is replete with complete folly. The ideologies that have been making their rounds and perforating the minds of headless liberally-blinded youths include humanism, nihilism, feminism, atheism, relativism, universalism, communism, transgenderism, anarchism, socialism, totalitarianism, Islamism, fascism and Nazism. 

Image source: phillips.blogs.com

Let’s not forget the elephant in the room, that is, antisemitism. If you need a quick review of what these are, look at the following chart (in alphabetical sequence):

Anarchism – The belief that all governments and organisation of societies must be abolished on a voluntary and cooperative nature

Atheism – Absence of belief in the existence of God

Communism – A system of social communalism where all properties are communally owned and each person contributes and receives according to his ability and needs

Fascism – A form of radical authoritarian nationalism that is characterised by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of the political opposition and the absolute control of industry and commerce

Feminism – Advocacy of women’s rights on grounds of sexual equality but in reality, often at the expense of men’s rights

Humanism – Rationalist outlook that accords importance on human instead of divine (God) matters

Islamism – A political ideology that strives to derive legitimacy from Islam

Nazism – The ideology and practices as well as a set of political beliefs that are associated with the Nazi Party of Germany

Nihilism – Rejection of religious and moral principles, with the belief that life is meaningless

Relativism – Doctrines supporting the non-absolute nature of knowledge, truth and morality in relation to culture, society or history

Socialism – A socio-economic theory of social organisation that advocates the communally-owned and regulated means of production, distribution and exchange of goods and services in deference to capitalism and market competition

Totalitarianism – A system of government that is centralised and dictatorial, requiring a wholesale subservience to the state

Transgenderism – A condition in which a person’s identity does not conform unambiguously to the societal norm of what is male or female

Universalism – The belief that all mankind will invariably be saved regardless of whether or not they believe in God

 While the world is kept very busy with all these emerging – and re-emerging – movements, there is no room given to any thoughts of God. The psalmist already foresaw all this several millennia ago:

“The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead. Yet they succeed in everything they do. They do not see Your punishment awaiting them. They sneer at all their enemies. They think, ‘Nothing bad will ever happen to us! We will be free of trouble forever!’” (Ps 10:4-6, NLT)

Even though I spent more than two decades living in Australia, I cannot safely say that I understood what it was like to live in a so-called ‘Christian nation.’ While I can say that I grew up there from young, I was baptised as a Christian and that I embraced a strong sense of civic-mindedness, I did not feel the blessings of any national-level Christian heritage. Christianity in Australia from the Seventies to the Nineties (and likely beyond) might as well be absent because it was hardly ever evident.

Christmases might be huge events but the secularists have long claimed them for commercial expediencies and shopping frenzies. The yearly Christmas by Candlelight events were of course telecast live and millions participate in the revelry of them but not for the significance of the birth of Christ but for the familiar carols that many are wont to sing. 

What is left of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, for that matter, are nothing more than a nice long weekend by the lake with the prawns thrown in the barbeque. In other words, I never felt anything resembling a sense of Christian purpose through my life in Australia.

Unlike my experiences, many of my American friends are far more richly blessed by an evidently stronger Christian heritage. American history in fact is so deeply interwoven with God in its midst. Their Pilgrim forefathers weren’t just great Christians but they were also advocates for Zion and till today, the American conservatives remain Israel’s strongest and most loyal friends in the world. 

While this was hardly evident with the Obama administration and pretty much the entire Democratic Party, President Trump has largely reversed this, equipping America with the means and ardour to back our Jewish friends.

America’s relationship with Christ made it possible for Americans to open their arms in welcoming the world’s outcast Jews. And God has since blessed them immensely because of this with numerous scientific and medical inventions not to mention in the area of advanced technologies. However decades of great blessings were all in the past.

The America of recent years – at least pre-Trump – were hardly recognisable as political correctness and an appeasement of leftist politics meant abandoning God and His law, making a complete mockery of the nation’s official motto, ‘In God We Trust.’ 

Even that motto was under threat as at least one atheist doctor had decided in 2016 to drag God back to the federal courts, citing any mention of God a ‘burden.’ Thankfully, he wasn’t successful but that certainly won’t stop others of his ilk from pushing on.

America’s rampant charge of anti-God movements has produced terrible results. Children are no longer allowed to pray in school or use any of the school’s facilities to hold prayer meetings. Students who are Christians are frequently told to renounce their faith by lecturers in universities if they want to get through their years. There have been many attempts in removing Christ from all visages in schools, colleges and universities.

Even nativity scenes are scorned at during the Christmas season. Monuments – and even paintings – of the Ten Commandments have been forcibly removed from courthouses by order of the Supreme Court in many part of America. Truth be told, it obviously looks bad from the outside. It appears that America is rigorously backpedalling away from its Judeo-Christian roots, trying very hard to scrub away all traces of it in all aspects of society.

Of course, America – as well as Canada – isn’t the pioneer of the anti-God movement. Europe took earlier precedence. Once a fortress for Christ, Europe today is beyond decadence. In fact, Israel’s post-war existence couldn’t have existed were it not for England’s push arising from the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The English resonating love for biblical obeisance at that time was in harmony with many other parts of Europe through the previous two centuries but there is hardly any remaining evidence of this today. 

Of that era, we remember fondly Christian leaders like Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1801-1885), the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury whose signet ring he wore throughout his adult life was engraved with the words from Psalm 122:6, which says, “Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.”

And then there were also Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Britain’s first Jewish but Anglican-practising Prime Minister, David Lloyd George (1863-1945), another of Britain’s Prime Minister and then Lord Balfour who was England’s Prime Minister responsible for the epochal Balfour Declaration that opened the way for Israel to be re-created in 1948.

In losing its moral compass, Europe has turned its back on God but that isn’t all. It has become fertile ground for antisemitism and also gave easy passage to Islamisation via the unscreened mass refugee influx to finish what the Ottoman Empire couldn’t. Meanwhile Zionism in Europe collapsed, losing its moral compass and abandoning its biblical basis.

Today, Europeans in many parts of the continent continue to denounce the Jews with near-transparent support from none other than billionaire George Soros. As for the Russian Federation, LA Times journalist Maura Reynolds said in a 1998 article that “Anti-Semitism is as perennial in Russia as the snow. It tends to arrive in force during seasons of economic discontent and it lurks beneath the surface the rest of the time as stubbornly as permafrost.”

Even very shortly after the Second World War was over with the uncovering of the Holocaust in all its horrific details, Poles added to the six million murdered Jews by killing another 350 in the infamous Kielce Pogrom in July 1946, known as nothing more than a ruthless blood libel massacre of those who actually did survive the German extermination. 

With all of this history left behind and so many millions of Jews killed, an unrepentant Europe still hates Jews. It is against this backdrop that you should view Europe’s true colour against Israel today. While appearing on the surface to be seeking peace with and for the Jewish State, the European Union’s hatred against the Jews cannot be glossed over.

Hating Jews is unstoppable

Image source: jpost.com

There is nothing anywhere in the world to suggest that this hatred will diminish, let alone stop. From all four corners of the world, Christianity is either actively repressed through political correction or is constantly under serious persecution. 

In either case, Christians are under great pressure to denounce Israel via fake news coloured by liberal journalists who favour the Palestinian or Gazan position despite the misinformation. Countries with once-strong Christian underpinnings are slowly losing them, giving way to leftist movements that extol the merits of anti-God socialism.

Through so many years now, countries are finding it increasingly harder to support Israel one way or another. Those who do often find themselves alienated by others or under great pressure to accede as in the case in the United Nations. It just doesn’t make sense to lend any support to Israel and unless you have a strong moral sense of doing the right thing, you usually end up casting that ‘no confidence’ vote against them. 

Today, throughout the world, the only visible world power to stand behind Israel remains the United States. Virtually everyone else has turned their backs on Israel. In many ways, that’s akin to turning their backs on God.

While the world talks about the recent Syrian refugees that were forced out of their homes, hardly anyone in the media talks about the 850,000 Jews who were forced out of Arab and Muslim countries from 1948 to the early 1970s.⁵ 

Ron Prosor in the notoriously liberal Huffington Post wrote of the 2012 World Refugee Day that the United Nations promoted where millions converged to raise the plight of refugees across five continents with concerts from London to a film festival in Beirut and even a bike race in Ecuador.

And in all of these, no one talked about these 850,000 Jews who, through six decades, were exiled, leaving behind their property and wealth. Many around the world have remained deliberately silent and complicit as Arab governments sought to erase all memory of these events. For example, very few were aware that in Iraq, there were arrests made against Jewish leaders – with at least one publicly lynched – as well as bombings targeting Jewish institutions not to mention government orchestrated property seizures.

From Egypt to Syria to Libya and Yemen, the same persecutions took place. Innocent Jewish lives were killed. Ancient synagogues and Jewish cemeteries were destroyed. Jewish public worshipping was banned. Jewish identity cards were introduced. And of course properties and wealth were all confiscated including almost 40,000 square miles of land, which was around five times the size of Israel’s total geography. 

Beyond any shadow of doubt, these forced migrations owed their existence to persecution, antisemitism and political instabilities. While Zionist desires or better future prospects were also factors, they pale into significance where Jewish hatred is concerned.

And so while the United Nations happily talked about the struggles of the refugees, a revisionist history was widely taking place. Since then, refugees anywhere around the world have always exclusively been Muslims and they command an unthinkable level of attention and resources. 

Yet not in any of the U.N. resolutions on either the Middle East or the Palestinian refugees in particular ever mentioned a single note about the travesty concerning these Jews.

Antisemitism from the Jewish standpoint

Members of the Jewish community protest against Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (Image source: The Times of Israel)

According to the Midrash, the story of the patriarch Abraham is somewhat different from what the Bible tells us. The Jewish believe that at the age of 49, he had returned to his father’s house where he discovered much to his dismay many idols. On seeing them, Abram – as he was then still called – made a vow to God that he would destroy every single one of them within three days. And righteously, he did.

Cornered by what Abram had done, Terah solicited the help of Nimrod whose anger terrified him into telling lies to save himself. Apparently, Terah had led Nimrod to believe that he had killed him (Abram) as a child. Seeing him well and alive almost 50 years later, Terah knew he had to lie further to save his life. And so he accused his other son, Haran for hatching the substitution idea.

As a result, Nimrod threw both Abram and Haran into a fiery furnace while everyone else in the land looked forth. While Haran died instantly, Abram miraculously walked amidst the licking flames before everyone’s eyes. He was removed from the furnace three days later to much adulation. 

In his quest to honour God by ridding the world of idol worship, the Lord in turn saved his life so that he may emerge unscathed. But He said nothing about whether or not he and his clan would endure more persecution at the hands of the local kings and rulers who followed them and their offspring all their lives wherever they went. And hence began the Jewish view of the underpinnings of antisemitism.

In the Torah, the Jews are referred to as ‘עם קדוש, ממלכת כוהנים,’ which means a holy people or a kingdom of priests. The prophet Bila’am (Balaam) said the Jews are ‘עם שוכן לבדד’ or in other words, “the Nation that dwells alone and not be reckoned among the nations” (Bamidbar 23:9). 

The age-old antisemitism and Israel’s pariah status could be seen as an affirmation of the prophet’s words. It is, in some ways, a formative statement of how the world relates to Israel and vice-versa. It is an evidence that the destiny of the Jews is to be apart from the rest of the world. However there might be another way to see all this.

Perhaps we may use Bila’am’s words to argue quite the opposite. We could say that the Jews are, by comparison, far more involved in humanity than any other race. In fact, Judaism’s contributions to and impact on the world cannot be underestimated. God’s Chosen People constantly lead in the development of humanity. This is evidenced by the unparalleled number of Jewish Nobel Prize winners as well as the unprecedented number of Jews in political and cultural leaderships.

Given all this indisputable evidence, how does the Eternal Nation help everyone else around the world internalise that they have always been and will always be one of the prime pillars of world civilisation? 

In fact, how does the world rationalise the fact that they have profited handsomely and abundantly from the innumerable sacrifices and efforts the Jews have made for the sake of advancing humanity? After all, if you look at Bila’am’s words, they can be a blessing to the Jews or they can put into motion a destiny that served as a plague.

The Jews have always been told to be a holy nation and to follow the ways of God as in ‘כי אני קדוש’ (tr. because I’m Holy). They’re also told never to be ‘like’ the nations of the world, which puts the ‘dwell alone’ notion in a sharper relief because it doesn’t alone mean eating their own food and engaging in their own customs but also in being obedient to God and eschewing all forms of idol worship.

Every time the Jews strayed from these simple but divine ideals in history, it seems inevitable that the nations of the world would ‘remind’ them of their Jewishness. Such reminders haven’t always been of a friendly nature. 

Many Jews remember how their Hellenist forefathers were massacred for attempting to bring down the Jewish morality code and way of life in ancient Greece. This in turn caused their national identity to erode thus leading to the emergence of an alien faith and the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans.

Through the Middle Ages, whenever the Jews tried to disavow themselves from their traditions, something awful would occur be it crushing pogroms or crusades. Invariably when there was a Jewish call to reform and even move away from traditional Judaism to the extent of even calling Berlin the ‘New Jerusalem,’ the backlash was too hard to cope – 6 million Jews died in the coldest form of systematic extermination, which there is now one word – Holocaust – to describe and remind themselves.

Since then, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge. The State of Israel has gained sovereignty and the Jews have begun their return home to the Chosen Land. But even so, we have all seen not only antisemitism but also anti-Zionism. With the broadside coming from political correctness, antisemitism might not be so hot these days but the world seems to have moved on to a more explosive narrative centring on the support for freedom for Palestine.

Using political influence, agitators against Israel are now railing against the Jewish State’s so-called ‘civil rights abuse.’ In light of the massive human rights crisis around the world – North Korea, Venezuela, China, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Mali and many others – where people are being indiscriminately tortured and starved to death, the United Nations and many other world bodies have chosen to aim at Israel. 

If this isn’t madness, maybe the world should consider how the UN Security Council can comprise countries that are listed above but choose to leave out Israel.

Still, we go full circle back to the perennially frustrating question – how can a nation with fewer than one quarter of 1 percent of the world’s population become such a heinous villain of humanity when it has been for so long its vanguard? How is it even possible that countries with not even a single Jew in their populace become so vehemently anti-Semitic?

Elie Wiesel (Image source: The Canadian Jewish News)

If the mind boggles, that’s understandable because so many have simply given up answering. In describing antisemitism as a mystery that has endured beyond reason, Nobel Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) once described it as an “irrational disease.” To him, it is hard to understand how “the world has changed in the last 2,000 years and only antisemitism has remained. … The only disease that has not found its cure is antisemitism.”

Going back to around 1897 when the Zionist movement is said to have begun, the Jews had their ‘lightbulb moment’ – they thought finally they had found the answer to that perplexing question. Its founder, Theodor Herzl believed that Jews are hated throughout the world because they had no land to call their own. 

Being stateless, Jews become natural victims of their own circumstances. It is because of this cultural abnormality that Jews were relegated to being worldwide pariahs. But with Zionism, Jews would no longer be homeless but would find acceptance and be embraced by the world all over. Universal respect would naturally come.

Not true though no doubt, every Jew had hoped it would be. It’s hard to say whether Jews were better off in the Diaspora or have a country to call their own. Separated and on their own, Jews would continue to be vulnerable to abuse and victimisation but the State of Israel has long since been known for facing up to endless streams of global hostilities, condemnation, threats of sanctions, terrorism and even countless rocket attacks. 

In fact, as ridiculous as it sounds, Israel has the ignominious distinction of being the only member state of the United Nations who’s right to exist is forever challenged if not threatened and whose annihilation is an avid objective of some of its other member states. Even North Korea doesn’t get anywhere near that despite its constant threats of ballistic nuclear attacks.

Other than Wiesel and Herzl, the rabbis of the Talmud have a different take on the question of antisemitism. They point to the very mountain where God handed over the Ten Commandments to Moses. That mountain is called ‘Sinai’ in Hebrew, which ironically is fairly identical to the word ‘sinah,’ which actually means ‘hatred.’ 

They have put this together, explaining that by the Jews accepting God’s higher law of morality and ethics, they have also chosen to bear the responsibility of the world’s hatred towards them. To that, there is no argument – the Jews were indeed the first to spread and teach the message of the Ten Commandments and in that message, morality, worship of God and respect for humanity were all codified for the very first time.

Being the host religion to Christianity and the other distant Abrahamic cousin, Islam, Judaism spearheaded the concept of acting in accordance to divine law as an ideal pursuit of all that is holy and human. Yet antisemitism drives a wedge that separates the Jews from the very notion of civilisation. 

Grounded in antisemitism, the world detests and deplores the Jews because they stand for the very thing they hated – conscience of humanity – and the fact that they are God’s entrusted giver of moral law and ethical behaviour.

That is why, as justification for the extermination of the Chosen People, Adolf Hitler had the gall to say, “Conscience is a Jewish invention like circumcision. My task is to free men from the dirty and degrading ideas of conscience and morality.”⁶ 

Hitler’s inspirer of antisemitism, Alfred Rosenberg said, “the Old Testament as a book of religious instruction must be abolished once and for all. With it will end the unsuccessful attempts of the last one-and-a-half millennia to make us all spiritual Jews.”⁷

Prophecies foretell Jew hatred

"After the Pogrom" by Maurycy Minkowski, 1910 at the Jewish Museum (Image source: My Jewish Learning)

The wave of Jewish migration to Israel continues today to the extent that Israel has now taken up the moniker of the ‘world’s Jew.’ Soon enough, the idea of antisemitism and anti-Israel has become too homogenous with the two sharing almost the same thing. 

And with that, the concept of anti-God is also synonymous. Not surprisingly, there will come a day when all Jews will eventually find their way back home to Israel, which will ultimately amplify the world’s ire against Jews.

The Bible speaks very clearly about this being a strong sign of the End Times. There are, accordingly, ten progressive and miraculous signs to look for. At this point in time, it is obvious that all ten prophesied have been fulfilled:

1. Creating the Diaspora

Indian Jews form part of the Jewish Diaspora (Image source: hubpages.com)

Bible prophesy on the diaspora is clear. The prophet Hosea talks about this:

“This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests or even idols! But afterward, the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendants, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of His goodness.” (Hos 3:4-5, NLT)

An even stronger affirmation about the diaspora comes three chapters later:

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces; now He will heal us. He has injured us; now He will bandage our wounds. In just a short time, He will restore us, so that we may live in His presence.” (Hos 6:1-2, NLT)

The Nation of Israel will be torn asunder and will be scattered across the world beyond the Promised Land. It would be awhile before the return was possible but God would make that happen eventually. 

These biblical predictions were stunningly correct – they were not just precise but they also fleshed out the Nation’s supernatural return in our age. In many ways, 1948 signalled the modern miracle that all of us could believe in and God had predicted it. After more than 1,900 years of wilderness, a dispersed Nation would return.

2. The Return

In 1948, Operation Wings of Eagle brought Yemenite Jews to Israel (Image source: The Jerusalem Post)

The prophet Ezekiel had said:

“…I will reach out with My strong hand and powerful arm and I will bring you back from the lands where you are scattered. I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations and there I will judge you face to face. I will judge you there just as I did your ancestors in the wilderness after bringing them out of Egypt, says the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezek 20:34-36, NLT)

There are in fact numerous passages in the Bible that talk very vividly about the return of the Nation of Israel. Other than Ezekiel, Isaiah is another:

“In that day, the Lord will reach out His hand a second time to bring back the remnant of His people – those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia and Elam; in Babylonia, Hamath and all the distant coastlands. He will raise a flag among the nations and assemble the exiles of Israel. He will gather the scattered people in Judah from the ends of the earth.” (Isa 11:11-12, NLT)

It doesn’t get any much clearer than Isaiah’s words. God used many people – non-Jews – to do the work of repatriating His people back to the land that He had long given them to call their own. Firstly, He laid waste to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. 

From their defeat, He moved the British to assume control of Palestine and then in November 1917, the British government issued the now-famous Balfour Declaration in order to facilitate the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

After what seemed like an eternity away from home, God opened the opportunity for their return on May 14 1948, the day Israel was re-created.

3. Buying back the land

Jews working on land bought exorbitantly from the Arabs (Image source: United with Israel)

It was the prophet Jeremiah who prophesied this. He said:

“This is what the Lord says:  Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them. Fields will again be bought and sold in this land about which you now say, ‘It has been ravaged by the Babylonians, a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.’ Yes, fields will once again be bought and sold – deeds signed and sealed and witnessed – in the land of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the hill country, in the foothills of Judah and in the Negev, too. For someday, I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken.” (Jer 32:42-44, NLT)

That was around 600BC. Just as the nation of Judah was being obliterated and the people captured and brought to the land of Babylon, Jeremiah spoke of a day when Jews would once more be able to purchase land within the ancient territory.

These Jewish land purchases in Palestine bore reference to the 1840s until Israel was re-established in 1948. At that time, very rarely did people inhabit the lands and that in itself offered great opportunities for the Jews to be able to buy and avoid displacing the Arabs. In the main, therefore, the Jews were looking for land that was essentially what others – particularly the Arabs – had no desire for, meaning uncultivated, swampy, sandy and untenable. 

In fact that was what David Ben-Gurion said in 1920: “…the most important asset of the native population…under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them.” By ‘fellahs,’ Ben-Gurion was referring to the Arab fellaheen, a local term for peasants. He laid the condition that only if these peasants were to abandon their settlements could Jews purchase such land albeit “at an appropriate price.”

But of course, it was far from simple. When British Member of Parliament Sir John Hope Simpson visited Palestine in May 1930, he discovered that the Arabs were selling land to the Jews at outrageous prices. In his report, he wrote, “They [Jews] paid high prices for the land and in addition, they paid to certain of the occupants of those lands a considerable amount of money, which they were not legally bound to pay.”

The Peel Commission that came out seven years later in 1937 revealed that Arab complaints concerning Jewish land acquisitions were groundless. Instead, it said that, “much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamp and uncultivated when it was purchased.” It also said that the previous owners – meaning the Arabs – lacked the resources or know-how to have developed the land.

The Commission also realised that land shortage was “due less to the amount of land acquired by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population.” Even from King Abdullah of Transjordan’s autobiography entitled ‘My Memoirs Completed,’ it was also clear that the Arabs were “as prodigal in selling their land as they are in useless wailing and weeping.”

Despite the escalating violence, Arabs were still seen charging Jews exorbitant prices in exchange for what appeared to be nothing but slivers of arid land. Moshe Aumann wrote in 1976 in ‘Land Ownership in Palestine 1880-1948’ that, “In 1944, Jews paid between $1,000 and $1,100 per acre in Palestine, mostly for arid or semiarid land; in the same year, rich black soil in Iowa was selling for about $110 per acre.”

Even so, Arabs believed that from the cutthroat business, they were profiteering at the huge expense of the hapless Jews, not realising that they were inevitably pawns in a large scheme of business conducted by God for the repatriation of His own Chosen People.

4. A rebirthed Israel

The re-creation of modern Israel (Image source: The Jewish Chronicle)

And so, the stage was all set for May 14 1948 when Israel, long almost forgotten for nearly 2,500 years, re-emerged as a sovereign nation by an act of the United Nations. But the day did not go peacefully. As Jews tearfully celebrate the long-awaited return of their homeland, Israel, the rumbling of gunfire in the distance laid proof that their future would not be one without great concern arising from its rowdy, angry and vengeful neighbours.

Inevitably even on such an auspicious day, fighting broke out between the Jews and Arabs, escalating once the British Army withdrew the following day. Egypt send fighter planes to attack Israel the evening after their founding. But there was no stopping the rebirth of Israel especially once word came through that America had recognised the Jewish State and upon the termination of the British Mandate in Palestine at midnight, there emerged officially the State of Israel.

The prophet Isaiah said:

“Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day? Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment? But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin, her children will be born.” (Isa 66:8, NLT)

Amazingly prophetic.

5. The order of the return

Image source: Breaking Israel News

This part has to do with the Hebrew word ‘Aliyah,’ which literally means ‘going up’ or ‘elevation.’ The word itself carries two different meanings in Jewish tradition. One of them refers to the act of being called forth to read the Torah in the synagogue but the other one is more relevant to this part of the prophecy. It is a reference to a Jewish person’s endeavour to move to the land of Israel. 

In this respect, the idea is founded on Genesis 50:13 where following Jacob’s death, his sons carried his body out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan where he was buried as requested. The Talmud tells us that the land of Israel is ‘higher’ than all others not from a physical elevation point of view but as in terms of it being the most prominent place to connect with God. 

Therefore, to move to Israel is to make ‘Aliyah’ as in to ascend or to move up in the world.

All in all, the official Aliyahs were as follows:

Aliyah	Coverage years	Number of Jews	Source areas
First Aliyah	1882 – 1903	35,000	Romania, Russia, Yemen
Second Aliyah	1904 – 1914	40,000	Russia, Yemen
Third Aliyah	1919 – 1923	40,000	Russia, Eastern Europe
Fourth Aliyah	1924 – 1929	82,000	Poland, parts of Eastern Europe, Yemen
Fifth Aliyah	1929 – 1939	300,000	Poland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Yemen
Aliyah Bet	1939 – 1948	110,000	Europe, Middle East

By the time Israel was declared independent and sovereign in 1948, there were some 600,000 Jews in the country. By the time the key battles and major skirmishes had finally subsided towards the end of that year, some 110,000 immigrants arrived although 6,000 Jews were killed defending the new Jewish State’s survival. 

Counting the 100,000 Arabs within, Israel’s total population was in the region of 800,000 to 850,000. By the end of 1952, another additional 738,891 immigrants arrived (including the 110,000 who came in the second half of 1948).

From 1948 onwards, the number of immigrants looks something like this from the following respective donor countries:

Russia/Ukraine 8 1,231,003	Morocco, Algeria 10 354,852	Romania 276,586	Poland 173,591	Iraq 131,138
United States 101,592	Ethiopia 92,730	France 81,885	Iran 76,934	Argentina 66,916
Turkey 62,837	Yemen 50,731	Bulgaria 44,372	Egypt, Sudan 37,763	Libya 35,844
United Kingdom 35,164	Hungary 32,022	India 28,702	Czechoslovakia 9 24,468	South Africa 20,038
Germany 19,905	Yugoslavia 9 10,768	Syria 9,547

When Christ returns to Earth to rule and reign in the Millennial Kingdom, He made the promise to bring about the ultimate Aliyah. This will be when He finally gathers all the Jewish people to their homeland. Prior to Jesus, quite a number of prophets had long predicted this Aliyah. For example, Jeremiah said:

“I will certainly bring My People back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in My fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety. They will be My People and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship Me forever for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.” (Jer 32:37-39, NLT)

The prophet Isaiah said:

“In that day, the Lord will reach out His hand a second time to bring back the remnant of His people – those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia and Elam; in Babylonia, Hamath and all the distant coastlands. He will raise a flag among the nations and assemble the exiles of Israel. He will gather the scattered people of Judah from the ends of the earth.” (Isa 11:11-12, NLT)

Beginning from Europe, the Aliyahs came forth from northern Russia before Ethiopia brought on the last one via Operations Moses and Joshua in a bold move that involved the setting up of a tourism resort by the Red Sea in the middle of nowhere. 

Thousands of Ethiopian Jews airlifted to Israel in an operation masterminded by Mossad (Image source: 24/6 Magazine)

Mossad agents went to Khartoum in Sudan to meet groups of Ethiopian Jews and had them smuggled out of refugee camps before ferrying them to a spot on the beach near to the resort. There, covert Israeli navy forces picked them up in boats and transported them swiftly to a waiting naval vessel that took them to Israel.

This incredible sequence of Aliyahs was accurately prophesied by Isaiah who said:

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you and your children from east and west. I will say to the north and south, ‘Bring My sons and daughters back to Israel from the distant corners of the earth.” (Isa 43:5-6, NLT, my emphasis)

From east and west, Isaiah bore reference to Eastern Europe including Russia and later, Central and Western Europe such as Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Jews then came from northern Russia and from the south was Ethiopia. Very interesting, the exact same narrative can be found in the Book of Psalms:

“Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others He has redeemed you from your enemies. For He has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south.” (Ps 107:2-3, NLT)

6. Reviving the language

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, father of modern Hebrew (Image source: Wikimedia)

With the re-creation of Israel as a true sovereign nation, the prophet Zephaniah prophesied that revival of ancient Hebrew as its official language to replace the impure Yiddish, which was a language the Jews had adopted in central and eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust. 

Yiddish in many ways was a hybrid combination of a dialect of German with a mix of Hebrew and other modern languages thrown in. Still, today there are still some remaining 200,000 speakers in America, Russia and even Israel.

Still, it was not good enough. The return to language purity was important enough for Zephaniah to prophesy God’s intentions with the rejuvenation of the Hebrew language:

“‘Therefore, be patient,’ says the Lord. ‘Soon I will stand and accuse these evil nations. For I have decided to gather the kingdoms of the earth and pour out my fiercest anger and fury on them. All the earth will be devoured by the fire of My jealousy. ‘Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together. My scattered people who live beyond the rivers of Ethiopia will come to present their offerings.” (Zeph 3:8-10, NLT)

Born Eliezer Yitzhak Perelman in Luzhky in 1858, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda learned Hebrew from very young, thanks to a very traditional Jewish upbringing. Although he had original thoughts of a Talmudic life in a yeshiva, he was drawn to a secular education, trading it for a Russian gymnasium. 

Around that time in 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire to help free their fellow Slavs, the Bulgarians, from the Turks. Ben-Yehuda was captivated with the idea of restoring Bulgarian nationalism, reviving their culture and rights.

Ben-Yehuda was suitably inspired by the Greeks and the Italians who enjoyed a form of renaissance themselves in 1849. Influenced by the romance of nationalistic fulfilment, he felt strongly that his fellow Jews should enjoy the same; that they should aspire to a sovereignty of their own as heirs of ancient Jerusalem.

Eretz-Israel, though a land of the Jews already at that time, had a written but not a spoken tongue in Hebrew. Even so, whatever the obstacles that might be in the way, he felt challenged to do something about it. After all, if the Jews were to leave the Diaspora and yearn for the return to Zion, then they must be able to speak back their own language.

With these ideas firmly in his vision, Ben-Yehuda decided to make plans to go to Palestine but before he could get there, he embarked for Paris first in 1878 where in studying medicine, he felt he could be of better use to the Jewish community on arrival. That plan was scuttled when his health problems forced him to stop his studies but even so, he remained resolved to help revive the Hebrew language.

In 1881, he arrived in Palestine and settled in Jerusalem where he began by adopting a three-fold strategy that focused on ‘Hebrew in the Home,’ ‘Hebrew in the School’ and ‘Words, Words, Words.’ 

He began teaching at the Alliance Israelite Universelle school and later set out to redevelop Hebrew to replace the impure Yiddish and other surrounding local dialects as a means of daily communication between all Jews who had arrived on different Aliyahs from different parts of the world.

Hemda Ben-Yehuda, centre (Image source: zionistarchives.org.il)

To help him in his task, Ben-Yehuda’s second wife Hemda (renamed from Paula) helped him in the completion of the Hebrew dictionary especially in the decades after his death. He raised his son Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda (better known as Itamar Ben-Avi) entirely in Hebrew, giving him no exposure whatsoever to any other languages throughout his childhood. 

Ben-Zion grew up to become the first native speaker of modern Hebrew not just in Israel but also in the world. Today, after not having been spoken as a mother tongue since the second century AD, Hebrew became Israel’s official language.

In 2014, a ceremony honouring Ben-Yehuda was held in the presence of Israeli dignitaries in a Belarussian town of Limmud where as a child, he learned Jewish studies. There, a statue of the father of modern Hebrew has stood since 2010.

7. Reinstating the shekel

Ancient Israel Shekel during the first year of the Jewish Revolt against Rome sells for US$1.1 million (Image source: The Times of Israel)

Just like the Hebrew language, over 2,000 years had passed before the ancient Shekel was reinstated as the common monetary unit in Israel. Again, this was predicted by the prophet Ezekiel:

“The standard unit for weight will be the silver shekel. One shekel will consist of twenty gerahs and sixty shekels will be equal to one mina. You must give this tax to the prince: one bushel of wheat or barley for every sixty you harvest, one percent of your olive oil and one sheep or goat for every two-hundred in your flocks in Israel. These will be the grain offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings that will make atonement for the people who bring them, says the Sovereign Lord. All the people of Israel must join in bringing these offerings to the prince.” (Ezek 45:12-16, NLT)

Since Israel’s re-creation in 1948, the standard currency has undergone various iterations. The current new shekel – known also as the Israeli Shekel – has only been in use since January 1986, replacing the old shekel. 

Well before all of this, the original currency from 1948 to 1952 was the Palestine Pound issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank, which was pegged to the British Pound. By 1952, following the change of the bank name to National Bank of Israel (Bank Leumi Le-Yisrael), the currency name was also changed to Israeli Pound, which continued to 1980 when it was then supplanted by the Shekel.

Now referred to as the Old Shekel, this was Israel’s official currency for only five short years, till 1985 when it experienced unprecedented hyperinflation. There were also frequent devaluations set against foreign currencies through the Sixties and Seventies. After inflation was successfully contained with the 1985 Economic Stabilisation Plan, Israel introduced the new Shekel in September 1985 and in the process, removed three zeroes from the old notes.

8. Identifying the cities

Jericho in Israel today (Image source: David Padfield)

Notably, many cities in Israel today reverted to their ancient Jewish names that bear their biblical significance. Other than Jerusalem, they include Acre, Cana, Nazareth, Jericho, Nain, Bethany as well as Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza and others. 

Once again, we are reminded by the prophet Ezekiel back to the time as ancient Israel was about to be devastated, he prophesied that many of its cities would be reinhabited and resettled in their exact geographic locations:

“See, I care about you and I will pay attention to you. Your ground will be ploughed and your crops planted. I will greatly increase the population of Israel and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people. I will increase not only the people but also your animals. I will make you even more prosperous than you were before. Then you will know that I am the Lord… For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.” (Ezek 36:9-11, 24, NLT, my emphasis)

In another translation, the last passage reads, “I will make you inhabited as in your earlier times and I will make it better than it was at your beginning.” It’s a verse that contains God’s promise that as the Children of Israel return to the Chosen Land, He will do more good to the Land and continue to bestow blessings upon it. It’s a promise being realised before our eyes with communities growing on the ancient foundations of our forefathers here in Israel.

Consider the physical landscape of Palestine in 1948 and then look at it today – from arid barren desert then to the gardens of today. That is what God said; that the land will attain its originally intended purpose. In other words, there is a spiritual connection between Israel and God of which the land is a physical manifestation or witness thereof.

It is a prophecy that has unfolded – and will still unfold in the years to come.

9. Excepted cities remembered

The ruins of Bethsaida (Image source: Wikimedia)

While the above talk about cities in ancient Israel that will be resettled, there will also be those that never will be. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew that He has pronounced a curse on at least three such cities:

“Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where He had done so many of His miracles because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God. ‘What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their head to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgement day than you. And you people of Capernaum, will you be honoured in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgement day than you.’” (Mt 11:20-24, NLT)

These three cities – Bethsaida, Korazin (sometimes spelt Korazim or Chorazin) and Capernaum – were the largest and most important along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee during Jesus’ days. Bethsaida (tr. ‘house of fishing’) was understood to be the most populous of the Galilean cities. 

With almost 25 acres of land, it was inhabited by both Jews and non-Jews with each group maintaining their own lifestyles. In fact, the Book of John tells us that when Jesus went to Galilee where His most active early ministry years were, He found Philip who hailed from Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter (1:43-44).

In Bethsaida, no one till today has yet to find a synagogue such as those found in Korazin and Capernaum and yet the city was inextricably linked to Jesus’ early ministry. Yet following fifteen years of archaeological excavation, all they discovered were remains of a pagan Roman temple. 

While this is yet to be confirmed, the remains show no hint of the foundational wall structure that all synagogues featured and therefore no provision for the typical seats that such a wall of that period would have been associated with. 

Instead there is reason to believe that it could be a Roman temple built to idolise Livia Julia, the wife of Caesar Augustus and mother of Tiberius. It may well be that for the lack of a synagogue as well as the well-documented lack of repentance that goes some way to explain why Jesus cursed Bethsaida.

The almost-forgotten Korazin (Image source: seetheholyland.net)

Korazin is the only one of the three mentioned that is not situated on the Sea of Galilee. Instead, it is located on the northern side of Capernaum about some 2½ miles off. As to its reputation, the Babylonian Talmud Menahot 85a remembers it as a place where high-quality wheat was grown. 

Like Bethsaida, it covers an area of about 25 acres divided into five different quarters or zones of which the largest and most significant was the central quarter. This is the part that contained various homes adorned with a paved courtyard and where much of its stonework featured the use of black basalt, a common natural mineral of that area.

Next to the central court in the western and southerly direction towards Jerusalem laid an ancient synagogue. Although Korazin developed expansively southwards, there really was no real growth for at least two to three hundred years. 

By the time there was some development, the synagogue was in real need for repairs and renovation work and while these were brought into effect by the 13th to 15th century, many people had already abandoned the city.

The accursed Capernaum (Image source: Trip Advisor)

Capernaum, in Hebrew, is referred to as ‘kefar nahum,’ meaning ‘city of Nahum’ because it was considered the traditional home of the prophet Nahum. Later, it was also the home of Jesus also. Although Capernaum featured quite richly in the Gospels, the city has been laid to waste for about 1,000 years. 

Today, two-thirds of its present-day ruins actually belong to the Franciscan monks who purchased it from the Bedouins in 1894. The remaining one-third is in the ownership of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate. When American scholar Edward Robinson visited for the first time what was left of Capernaum in 1838, he found it “desolate and mournful.”

10. The promise of productivity

Remarkable forest restoration in Israel (Image source: his-Israel)

From destruction to desolation, Israel was laid to abject waste, neglected but never forgotten. For more than 2,000 years, Jews in the Diaspora kept alive that desire to yearn for Zion. And then came the productivity, a clear sign of God’s redemptive work to redeem His people back to the Chosen Land. 

By this stage, an Israel in restoration saw the revitalisation of its agriculture and of the reforestation with millions of trees planted in what were arid barren deserts left dead by its previous Arab occupants.

To think that hardly 75 years ago, God’s Chosen Land was nothing more than a completely forsaken waste, filled with malaria-infested swamps and useless deserts. 

Today, Israel’s reforestation efforts have reaped a remarkable miracle. These replanted forests are today flourishing and the Jewish State’s agricultural prowess is for the world to deeply admire. 

In more ways than one, Israel’s agricultural production and technologies are among the greatest wonders of the modern world. For a country with 1 percent of one-tenth of the world’s entire population, it exports quality produce throughout the world.

Again, we turn to the great prophet Isaiah who said:

“The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit!” (Isa 27:6, NLT)

Furthermore:

“Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the Lord will display His glory, the splendour of our God.” (35:1-2, NLT)

He couldn’t be any closer to the truth. Imagine if he were alive today and see his prophecy take such remarkable shape. But it isn’t just in agriculture that Israel displayed world-leading prowess. 

In April 2013, Rabbi Baruch HaLevi wrote in his blog an article called ‘Israel is Exceptional’ and in it, he lists the exceptionalism of the Jewish State considering that it’s only been in existence for 65 short years as the 150th smallest country in the world with 1/1000th of the global population and constantly under serious threat by her neighbouring enemies, antisemitism and worldwide critics.

Here are the brief takes:

-        Israel is the only country anywhere in the world where even after more than two millennia of forced absence and living in the Diaspora, its native population has actually chosen to return home.

-        While there are thirteen countries (including nine in Europe) that are officially Christian, two that embrace Buddhism as their state religion, another three that are Hindu majorities plus no less than fifty that covet Islam, Israel remains the only one Jewish State in the world.

-        Israel has absorbed more migrants than any other nation in the world, constituting no less than 350 percent of its population.

-        Israel has taken an ancient but lost tongue for 2,500 years, revived it and then called Hebrew their preferred national language.

-        Israel has pocketed more Nobel Prize winners per capita than any other country in the world (other than Sweden) and even as you combine China with Mexico and Spain, there are more laureates in actual real numbers who are Jews living in Israel.

-        Relegating the British and Americans into the distance, people who live in Israel enjoy the eighth longest life expectancy.

-        Despite being 60 percent desert, Israel not only has a net gain in tree growth but in absolute real terms, its deserts are actually shrinking!

-        Capitalising on what others might call disadvantages, 90 percent of Israel’s homes make full use of solar power to heat their water.

-        Despite its size and miniscule population, Israel enjoys technological leadership with her bodies of sciences ranking third in the world and second in aeronautics and aviation as well as producing significantly more research papers (per capita) than literally any other country elsewhere by a huge margin and an undisputed leader in medically related patents.

-        In empowering women, Israel leads the world with the third highest rate of female entrepreneurs, not to mention an exceptional influx of women jet fighter pilots and front-line soldiers in the Israel Defence Force (IDF).

-        With the exception of the United States, Israel garners more venture capital investment than any other country at a scale that is thirty times larger than the whole of Europe combined while enjoying more of its companies listed in the NASDAQ than any other country, exceeding even the whole of Europe, India and China combined.

-        Again with the exception of the United States, no other country has more start-up companies in the world than Israel.

Israel dominates the world in cyber security (Image source: Fortune)

There’s no better place to witness widespread antisemitism than at the United Nations itself. Despite occupying less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population, Israel is a constant conversation piece in these hallowed halls, occupying one-third of the United Nations’ debates, which mostly are redressed condemnations, criticisms and caustic remarks, all of which are largely unfounded (lies, in other words) or exaggerated.

Till today, this failed global organisation continues to legislate thirty anti-Israel resolutions on an annual basis. Such is the gloriously failed opportunity that a body like the United Nations could have taken in advancing the cause of justice and fairness. 

Instead, it has consistently been a voice organ for Israel’s varied enemies of whom the Arabs including most if not all Muslim-sympathiser nations dominate the anti-Semitic narrative.

If you need reminding, think of the time when Israel decided to flush out the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) terrorists from Lebanon in 1982, they found to their horror that the UN’s own facility was actually being used as a terrorist training base. 

And that wasn’t an aberration – in fact this has happened many other times. Recently, a United Nations member even filmed the event in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation using none other than UN vehicles.

For the haters, the ending is bad

'The Great Day of His Wrath,' 1851-53 by John Martin (1789-1854) (Image source: Theology in Perspective)

If we all think this hatred for Israel is so morally repugnant, the next big wave would be the worst ever possible. In fact, it is going to be so bad that no words are available to describe something the extent of which we have no idea of. Although the Bible speaks very clearly of the annihilation to come, it is still hard to wrap our minds around it.

This will be a time when all the countries in the world will converge in a ‘Final Solution’ – and I use this term advisedly – to resolve Israel. This will be the ‘final ending’ to the Israel problem. After 4,000 years of hatred, no one can imagine it will ever end well. It will surely be the war of all wars, the one that will decide once and for all if evil will triumph over good.

In the Book of Revelation, John tells us that the spirits of deception will emerge from the Middle East to bait the nations to wage the most definitive war against Israel:

“And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgement day of God the Almighty.” (Rev 16:13-14, NLT, my emphasis)

And also here:

“And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, ‘It is finished!’ Then the thunder crashed and rolled and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck – the worst since people were placed on the earth. The great city of Babylon split into three sections and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble.” (vv16-19, NLT)

While it all looks like the doing of the devil, it is not. The real truth is that God will now do the drawing. He will draw the evilness of all these nations, bind them together and head into destruction. The prophet Joel says this:

“‘At the time of those events,’ says the Lord, ‘when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming My people, My special possession, for scattering My people among the nations and for dividing up My land.” (Jo 3:1-2, NLT, my emphasis)

Artist's impression of the Battle of Armageddon (Image source: Logos Apologia)

This is the one last great war that man will see on earth. It will be the one to end the age. The main battle will largely be fought in the beautiful Jezreel Valley near the ancient hill called har Meggido (tr. Mount Meggido), which is where the name ‘Armageddon’ finds its derivation (Rev 16:16).

The irony about Jezreel Valley is that Saul was killed there in the Battle of Gilboa by the Philistines together with his beloved son Jonathan as well as two other sons. He died by his own sword, a victim of his own doing (1 Sam 31). 

Though anointed by God to be Israel’s first king, he soon fell out of favour and found himself at complete odds with a reedy-looking boy who was his armour bearer. When David got the better of Goliath, Saul was delighted but not for long. With the outpouring of great adulation for David for his victory over the Philistines, Saul went from being annoyed to jealous outrage.

Despite all that David did to placate him, the only thing in Saul’s mind was to kill him. And there were countless attempts to do so.¹¹ None worked because God preserved David whose covenant line led all the way to the birth of the Messiah. 

But of course the most significant issue here was the both Saul and David were God’s anointed and being so, one should not be out trying to kill the other. The fact that Saul was in a perpetual mood to kill David did not bode well for him although it is correct to say that he had already fallen out of favour with God before then.

Saul’s death in Jezreel Valley and David’s ascension to the throne of Israel might tell us a thing or two as to why the final resolution on Israel would take place there as well. Not one wishing to commit unnecessary eisegesis, perhaps this is the place where God makes His decision to elevate Israel against His enemies. 

And of course, the point is not lost that Jezreel Valley is within striking distance of Mount Megiddo, the location where the nations of the world will gather to destroy God’s Chosen Place.

For all intents and purposes, Mount Megiddo is a strategic location for Israel’s enemies. It’s an easy place to reach because they could access it easily from Haifa Port, which is nearby. Scripture then tells us that the invasion by the nations would be nothing short of a bloodbath. The prophet Zechariah painted a horrific picture:

“I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.” (Zech 1:2, NLT)

But just as everything looks to be going completely downhill, Christ turns the table on the nations against Israel:

“Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations as He has fought in times past. On that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.” (Zech 1:3-4, NLT)

Verse 5 tells us that He will be accompanied by “all His holy ones” to destroy His enemies. These would be His armies from heaven. The Antichrist and all the myriad nations doing his bidding will be completely destroyed by the brightness of His coming and the words of His mouth:

“For this lawlessness is already at work secretly and it will remain secret until the One who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and destroy Him by the splendour of His Coming.” (2 Thes 2:7-8, NLT, my emphasis)

The ending won’t be a pretty sight. For all those nations who have long persecuted, condemned, attacked and terrorised Israel, the day of reckoning will come in a shocking fashion. 

Christ will return (Image source: Ken Raggio)

Returning to the Book of Zechariah, chapter 14 offers a very grim picture filled with misery and mercilessness for the enemies of Israel. God’s vengeance is paid in unthinkable ways. Once Jerusalem is safe and “never again to be cursed and destroyed” (Zech 14:11, NLT), this is what will take place:

“…the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On that day, they will be terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight their neighbours hand to hand. Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighbouring nations will be captured – great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys and all the other animals in the enemy camps.

“In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. Any nation in the world that refused to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish them with the same plague that He sends on the other nations who refuse to go. Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.” (Zech 14:9-19, NLT)

And with all of this, the world will enter a new and very different age. This will be a reign of peace in which God’s law will emanate from Israel to regulate the affairs of earth:

“This is a vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all – the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There, He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; His word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Isa 2:1-5, NLT)

The above passages from Isaiah tells us of a generation unlike anything we have ever experienced. Without wars, there will be no need for weapons of destruction. Nations that were once at war with Israel will not only make peace but will pay their respects and walk in the ways of God. 

The Lord’s dictates will run everything among all other nations and He will be the one to resolve everything on His terms. His presence will be so complete all over the world that no nation can ignore or neglect:

“The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to Him. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him. For royal power belongs to the Lord. He rules all the nations.” (Ps 22:27-28, NLT).

In fact millions from all over the world will come to Jerusalem and pay homage to the One True God. For those who even challenge the existence of God, despise Him or mock Him today, this message is a foreboding one. For those who have wrought persecution and wickedness upon any Jew or the nation of Israel will not escape this moment of reckoning. God has never and will not forget every evil that His people had to suffer under. All those people will pay heftily.

Despite all this, Israel will be God’s bastion of grace and mercy, which is just as well as because “the descendants of your tormentors will come and bow before you. Those who despised you will kiss your feet. They will call you the City of the Lord, and Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isa 60:14, NLT). Isaiah tells us that “He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem in the sight of all the leaders of His people” (24:23, NLT).

What a great reversal it will all be. Nations will come calling not to persecute or banish the Jews but to actually cling to them. It would be an incredible sight to behold and to see, for the very first time in the history of the world, the vanquishing of antisemitism from the face of the earth. Perhaps God puts it best:

“In those days, ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zech 8:23, NLT)

Footnotes

¹ There have been and still is considerable debate over whether Ahasuerus was Xerxes I or Artaxerxes II of Persia. The name equivalence between Ahasuerus and Xerxes merely adds to the confusion. This then led to problems identifying who his actual queen was. Take note that Artaxerxes II was said to have harboured as many as 350 wives. Just as scholars have been struggling with associating Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes or Xerxes, there are also issues with who his wife ultimately was. Vashti, which the Bible describes, could well be the cruel Amestris as mentioned by Herodotus. But then there are also those who believe that she was identical to a wife of Artaxerxes mentioned by Plutarch instead, named Stateira. The problems with all this is that Amestris remained in power well into the reign of her son, Artaxerxes I. And once later-day scholars rejected the association of Ahasuerus with Xerxes, they also debunked any similarities between Stateira and Vashti because the latter was an early wife who was murdered by Artaxerxes II’s mother while the events of Purim occurred late in his reign. If all this sounds very convoluted, that’s because it is. For the purpose of this article, we will just mention Vashti without any known associations with either Stateira or Amestris.

² Some articles assumed that Vashti was executed but many scholars don’t actually believe that to be true. Esther 1:19 was fairly clear about this, saying, “Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus,” which doesn’t have to be construed as having met her death. Some suggest that although she wasn’t likely executed, she could have been exiled, which means she was forced to abandon the city or worse, the country. What may be likelier is that she could have been banished to the royal harem where she was allowed to live out the rest of her life.

³ McElroy, Damien and Vahdat, Ahmad (Oct 2009)

⁴ Noah (2014 film) directed by Darren Aronovsky was supposedly based on the biblical story of Noah’s Ark but is so poorly understood and grossly inaccurate. It was very quickly dismissed by the Christian community as deceptive and completely uninspiring. For some samples of exceptionally poor reviews, go here, here, here, here or even here.

⁵ The last of the major migrations was in 1979-1980 in Iran resulting from the Islamic Revolution.

⁶ According to Waite (The Psychopathic God, 1993), this statement is understood to have originated with Hermann Rauschning, one of Hitler’s confidantes who later left the Nazi Party to become his outspoken critic. Therefore, it might not be very accurate.

7 Nirenberg (Anti-Judaism, 2013)

⁸ Refers to Russia and Ukraine today

⁹ Former countries now no longer in existence

¹⁰ Including Tunisia

¹¹ Scripture records many such incidents that can be found in 1 Sam 18:11, 19:1-10, 15-16, 17-20, 20:24-26, 27-30, 23:8-13, 14-18, 19-24 and 25-29.

Suggested further reading sources

Alroey, Gur (2004) Galveston and Palestine: Immigration and Ideology in the Early Twentieth Century in Zola, Gary P. and Krome, Frederic and Reekers, Phil (2004) American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume 56, Numbers 1 and 2 (Cincinnati, OH: The Jacob Rader Marcus Centre), pp.128-150. Accessible at http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/2004_56_01_02.pdf

Aumann, Moshe (1976) Land Ownership in Palestine 1880-1948 (Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Academic Committee on the Middle East). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Ownership-Palestine-1880-1948-Moshe-Aumann/dp/B000QB853M

Balint, Benjamin (Nov 2008) Confessions of a Polyglot (Jerusalem, Israel: Haaretz). Accessible at https://www.haaretz.com/1.5063931

Belovski, Harvey (Spring 2015) Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred (Jerusalem, Israel: Jewish Action). Accessible at https://jewishaction.com/religion/jewish-thought/anti-semitism-longest-hatred/

Berg, Raffi (Apr 2018) The Holiday Village Run by Spies (Tel Aviv, Israel: BBC News). Accessible at https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43702764

Blizzard, Roy B. (Feb 2017) The Cities Jesus Cursed (Bible Scholars Question the Answers). Accessible at http://www.biblescholars.org/2017/02/the-cities-jesus-cursed.html

Cort, Andrew (Feb 2012) The Legend of Abraham and the Furnace of Fire (Interfaith Awakening). Accessible at http://spirituality-and-religion.com/legend-of-abraham-and-furnace-of-fire/

Crawford, Sidnie White (nd) Esther in Dunn, James D. G. and Rogerson, John William (editors) (Feb 2004) Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing). Available at https://www.amazon.de/Eerdmans-Commentary-Bible-James-Dunn/dp/0802837115 (link in German)

Didier, Michael (Jul 2014) Abram in Nimrod’s Furnace (Smithfield, NC: We Are Israel). Accessible at http://weareisrael.org/2014/07/21/abram-nimrods-furnace/

Ekroni, Dr Aviv and Banai, Rafi () The Source and the Meaning of the Term (The Jewish Agency for Israel). Originally sourced from “Hetz,” Journal of the former Department of Jewish Education and Culture in the Diaspora. Accessible at http://www.jewishagency.org/purim/content/24388

“Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Father of Modern Hebrew, Honoured in Belarus” (Haaretz, June 2018). Accessible at https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/belarus-town-honors-ben-yehuda-1.5264344

Engel, David (1998) Patterns of Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1944-1946 (Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem Shoah Resource Centre, The International School for Holocaust Studies). Accessible at https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203128.pdf

Flannery, Edward H. (Nov 2004) The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism; Studies in Judaism and Christianity (New York: Paulist Press, 2nd Edition). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Anguish-Jews-Twenty-Three-Centuries-Antisemitism/dp/0809143240

Gerrish, Jim (Nov 1998) Why Do the Nations Hate Israel? (Jerusalem, Israel: The Jerusalem Post). Reproduced and accessible at http://www.churchisraelforum.com/nations-hate-israel/

Great Britain Colonial Office (1946) Palestine Royal Commission Report Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty July 1937 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, Second Edition). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Commission-Presented-Secretary-Parliament/dp/B000UJL7I0 

Gross, Jan T. (2006) Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz – An Essay in Historical Interpretation (New York: Random House). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Anti-Semitism-Poland-After-Auschwitz/dp/0812967461

HaLevi, Rabbi Baruch (Apr 2013) Israel is Exceptional (New York City: Huffington Post). Accessible at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-baruch-halevi/israel-is-exceptional_b_3068759.html

Hope Simpson, Sir John (1939) The Refugee Question: Report of a Survey (London: Oxford University Press, Second Edition). Available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/refugee-problem-report-survey-Simpson/dp/B002F9HL9W

Jamieson, R. (Feb 1999) Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Jamieson-Fausset-Browns-Commentary-Whole/dp/0310265703

Kark, Ruth and Oren-Nordheim, Michal (Aug 2001) Jerusalem and Its Environs: Quarters, Neighbourhoods, Villages, 1800-1948 (Israel Studies in Historical Geography) (Jerusalem, Israel: Magnes Press, First Edition). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Its-Environs-Neighborhoods-Historical/dp/0814329098

King of Jordan, Abdallah (Aug 1978) My Memoirs Completed (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Press). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Completed-King-Jordan-Abdallah/dp/0582780829

Klier, John Doyle and Shlomo, Lambroza, editors (Feb 2004) Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russia History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Pogroms-Anti-Jewish-Violence-Russian-History/dp/0521528518

McElroy, Damien and Vahdat, Ahmad (Oct 2009) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Revealed to have Jewish Past (London, UK: The Telegraph). Accessible at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6256173/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-revealed-to-have-Jewish-past.html

Moss, Candida (Jan 2016) ‘In God We Trust’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does (New York City: Daily Beast). Accessible at https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-god-we-trust-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does?ref=scroll

Nagen, Rabbi Yakov (nd) Parshat Balak: A Nation that Dwells Alone? (Jerusalem, Israel: Orthodox Union). Accessible at https://www.ou.org/torah/parsha/spirituality-in-the-parsha/parshat_balak_a_nation_that_dwells_alone/

Nirenberg, David (nd) Chapter 13: The Rhineland Massacres of Jews in the First Crusade in Althoff, Gerd and Fried, Johannes and Geary, Patrick G., editors (Feb 2002) Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press). Available at https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Concepts-Past-Historiography-Publications/dp/0521780667

Nirenberg, David (Aug 2015) Anti-Judaism: The History of a Way of Thinking (London, UK: Head of Zeus).* Available at https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Judaism-David-Nirenberg/dp/1781852952

* In some markets, the title may also be known as Anti-Judaism: The History of a Prejudice or Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition

Orleansky, Irene (Aug 2015) The Secret Jews of Ethiopia (Jerusalem, Israel: Jerusalem Post). Accessible at https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-secret-Jews-of-Ethiopia-they-go-to-Church-on-Sunday-and-to-hidden-synagogues-on-Saturday-412040

Prosor, Ron (Jul 2012) The Middle East’s Greatest Untold Story (New York: Huffington Post). Accessible at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-prosor/the-middle-easts-greatest-untold-story_b_1652777.html

Reynolds, Maura (Nov 1998) Economic Ills Give Rise to Anti-Semitism in Russia (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times). Accessible at http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/22/news/mn-46608

Rezakhani, Khodadad (nd) History of Iran (Park IV: Achaemenid Empire, Chapter V: Temporary Relief). Accessible at https://web.archive.org/web/20070727010654/http://www.iranologie.com/history/Achaemenid/chapter%20V.html

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