There is a hatred that traces back throughout recorded history. It is hostility to the Jewish people, which in modern times has come to be called Anti-Semitism. Since the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s, this term has become “politically incorrect” and has been re-labelled Anti-Zionism since the founding of the State of Israel.
Much has been written about the visceral rejection of religious teaching and/or cultural peoplehood. There has been a consistent pattern of political efforts to isolate, oppress, injure and negatively stereotype the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Surely, the stories of deliverance from Egypt, successful military exploits and miracles were spread throughout the Middle East. This likely confirmed a choseness by God.
The usual reiteration of the ugly events related to this bigotry, mostly fails to plumb the depths of the human heart to offer an explanation as to the root cause. Consider the base emotion of pride and envy as the unconscious root of this problem, although on less than a conscious level, it has produced much scapegoating.
From the times of Old Testament Bible until the Roman Empire, Jewish people were often criticized and sometimes punished for their efforts to remain a separate social and religious group. Stubbornly, Jews refused to adopt the values and way of life of the non-Jewish societies in which they lived.
It is estimated that 2000 years ago the civilized world population was about 170 million people. At the time, Judaism was a proselytizing religion and around 10% of this figure were or had become Jewish. Thus, many thought the one God concept was superior to what other religions were espousing. Envy is when we want to be someone else, whereas jealousy wants what others have. Many simply became Jews.
Unfortunately, the rise of Christianity greatly increased the hatred of Jewish people. Now, they were not only seen as outsiders, but as the killers of Christ, (despite the Roman authorities order to carry out and execute the sentence).
Exclusion and persecution caused the creation of ghettos. During this period of the Middle Ages (the 11th-14th centuries), it was common for the general population to believe the blood libel of Jews abducting and killing children to obtain blood to drink with the Passover Matzah.
It was such an absurd slander, wholly without witness, that it might be concluded that it’s what people wanted to believe. To avoid death, torture, expulsions and the like, forced conversions were practiced.
Could it be that non-Jews somehow considered “the chosen people” “one up” and wanted them put down or better yet obliterated?
In the 18th Century, as the influence of Christianity lessened during the Enlightenment, there came a new “racial science”, which was an attempt to “prove” the supremacy of the non-Jewish whites. Now, Jews were considered a race and not merely a religion and were deemed to be biologically inferior.
Such bias in pseudoscience flowered fully during the Nazi mass exterminations of World War II during 1939-1945. The argument that espoused that not only were Jews sub-human, but that “Aryans” or German whites were superior. The prominent slander and libel asserted Jews destroyed societies and worked secretly together to gain control of the world. After all, it was explained that the Jews already controlled world finance, media, entertainment and Communism.
There is a psychological theory that suggests that inordinate pride stems from an inward compensation for feelings or fears of inferiority. The poverty stricken and shamed nation of Germany was ripe for such feelings and the Jews seemed like a perfect scape goat.
Since World War II, Western nations have officially condemned Anti-Semitism. However, it continued for some decades in the former Soviet Union. The life of such official adverse policies lingered on for decades in the former Soviet Union. Currently, the wayward attitude is not usually socially acceptable except in Arab and Islamic countries.
The change from the term Anti-Semitism to Anti-Zionism is so slight and the intent is so similar, it is a wonder any European would be caught agreeing to be against the Jewish State of Israel.
Despite all, the Jewish people continue to survive and flourish. For those who question the validity of the Holy Scriptures, they need only observe the continual testimony of God’s enduring promises. Among them is the stated prophetic promise in Jeremiah’s 31st chapter, predicting that so long as the sun, the moon and the stars are fixed in their ordinance, there will always be a Jewish people.
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