The Bible tells us in the last days, Israel will stand alone against the nations of the world. For years I assumed a localization of this prophecy. I thought surely the United States and other allies of Israel would never turn our collective backs on the Jewish state. Now, I’m starting to realize it’s not only possible but likely under a certain set of circumstances that Israel will, indeed, be left alone at some point in the near future with the world universally against her.
The United States in particular is the one nation that has stood by Israel through all of the turmoil. Granted, we had a brief falling out with Israel during President Obama’s terms in the White House, but these were minor spats and there was still enough support in Congress and across the nation to prevent him from fulfilling a full turning away from Israel as an ally. But things are changing. I’m not going to make predictions about the political fortunes of either the United States or Israel. As this is being recorded, Israel is on the verge of an important election while the United States is ramping up for the 2020 elections. There’s no way to know those outcomes and for the sake of understanding the topic at hand, those outcomes are not important. What’s important is acquiring an understanding of the underlying push from the political and religious left to do something I never thought possible until recently: normalizing antisemitism.
Before I go into how this is happening and what needs to be done to prevent it, it’s important that we understand how antisemitism is manifesting in today’s America, Europe, and other regions that have been historically opposed to the concept in the modern era. There is still plenty of hatred directed at the Jewish people. It often goes unreported as attacks on the streets of New York or the sidewalks of Los Angeles draw little interest from mainstream media. If anything, they not only don’t want to report it but willfully cover it up when they’re forced to report it. This isn’t new. Despite accounting for a very small portion of the American population, Jews experience the lion’s share of hate crimes, accounting for 58% of religious hate crimes in the United States in 2018.
But this is not the type of antisemitism the left is trying to normalize. Their focus is on the land of Israel itself. They view the Jewish state as illegally occupying the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights. They believe the nation unfairly treats Muslims in the country. They want the nation to be disbanded, replaced by a nation of Palestine that will finally anoint Islam as the universal regional religion of the Middle East.
To accomplish this goal, the new left has entrenched itself with organizations like the BDS movement, Nation of Islam, and CAIR in order to spread a unified message that Islam is good and Judaism is bad. They use colorful language to describe the alleged atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. When asked why the Palestinian people are dead set on taking over a nation the size of New Jersey instead of utilizing the exponentially greater amount of land controlled by Muslim-majority countries, they change the topic. Why? Because it’s better to deflect questions like these instead of competing against common sense.
Don’t get me wrong. The government of Israel is not perfect. They do make very poor decisions sometimes. But the difference between their poor decisions and the good decisions they make is that the poor decisions are broadcast to the world as examples of their fallacies while the good decisions they make are spun to make them appear like bad decisions. For example, in the last major conflict with Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, Israel would do something no other government would ever do in the middle of a military conflict. They used a technique called “roof knocking” in which they would alert those within a building that it was about to be leveled, allowing the enemies within to vacate the building before the big bomb hit it. Enemies of Israel would never do such a thing, but how did the leftist and pro-Palestinian press react to this tactic? They called it inhumane to terrify people before bringing death and destruction to them moments later.
This is how the antisemitic new left operates. If Israel does poorly, it’s magnified in the press. If they do well, it’s spun to make it appear they’re doing poorly. There is nothing Israel can ever do that the new left won’t claim to be pure evil.
You may have noticed my conspicuous use of the phrase “new left.” Those of us who have been paying attention to the political landscape for the last few years realize the Democratic Party as well as progressive activist groups have taken a sharp turn lately. Policies that once seemed too radical for even the Democrats to embrace have become normalized. Concepts like the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All, and outright socialism are no longer fringe ideas relegated to the Green Party. Today’s Democratic Party is starting to allow these ideas to creep into their mainstream thanks to the efforts of the new left. People like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, Ilhan Omar, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke are taking the Democratic establishment and making it as much their enemies as the Republican Party itself. They’re making accusations, pulling moderate Democrats either closer to them or pushing them away if they don’t embrace the untenable ideas they’re pushing.
One of those ideas happens to be antisemitism, the type I detailed before. Again, they’re not calling for attacks against American Jews, though one can argue their rhetoric still puts American Jews in danger. But their focus is on delegitimizing Israel and driving American sentiment away from supporting our best ally in the Middle East.
Ephesians 6:12 says:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
I have to believe this move to normalize antisemitism is a clear example of principalities and powers exerting their manipulative force to turn the world against the nation of Israel. They want Jerusalem to be isolated and vulnerable. The only way that can happen is if the United States turns it’s back on Israel.
Some will argue that since it’s prophesied, Bible-believing Christians should accept or even cheer on this development. To them I would say two things. First, it is not our place to predict prophetic fulfillment. Instead, we should keep our eyes open for its fulfillment and act accordingly when we see it. Second, prophesied evil events are evil nonetheless. Even if it is God’s will for these events to take place, that doesn’t mean we are called to support these events. We do not have power over God’s timetable. Therefore, it is not our place to try to speed it up. Instead, we must support a Biblical worldview and live based on the teachings of the Word.
If the events of the end times are clearly starting to happen, rejoice despite the turmoil that follows. If the events of the end times are still far off on our calendars, rejoice and continue spreading the Gospel. Prophecy is intended to guide us, not to make us insert our own interpretations in an effort to make it fit current events. When the end times events of Revelation and Daniel become evident, believers will not be wondering if the time has come. We’ll know.
Until the end comes, we must do everything we can to defend our only true ally in the Middle East. Antisemites will rise, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep fighting their message of hatred.
