Where are the hunters and what do they look like?

Last month, we looked at why God needed the hunters, and why would God employ hunters to get His people home to Eretz Israel. In a Jerusalem Post Op-ed dated December 8th, Arno Klarsfeld puts it this way:

“We have learned from the past that massive aliyah only occurs in times of disastrous economic upheaval or after extraordinary persecution. “ (emphasis added)

Those who won’t answer the call of the fisher will run from the horn of the hunter.

Two questions arise. Where are the hunters? What do the hunters look like?”

What do the hunters look like?

12”For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12

[NKJV]

Just as God operates on earth through people, so too our adversary operates through human agents in this world. It is important for us to remember that, when we see the hunters, we look past the person to the spiritual force behind them.

That said, here’s the scary part…The hunters can look like anybody! It’s not just the obvious ones – the neo-Nazis, Skinheads, and radical Muslims. Anyone who harbors hatred or animosity in their heart towards the Jewish people has the potential to be a hunter.

The smallest seed, when fed and nurtured, can grow into a full-blown weed. A single ember can become an inferno given the right conditions. Anti-Semitism and persecution against the Jewish people always starts out small. A taunt, a jibe, a passing insult can soon grow into assault, beating, and murder. Graffiti, a brick through a window and knocking over of tombstones can quickly become arson, firebombing, or worse.

Signs of the hunters

Persecution of the Jewish people comes in waves, growing in intensity and frequency. Propaganda and scapegoating are the heralds of the hunters. We need only look to our recent past to see this.

Persecution of the Jews in Germany began slowly through scapegoating and anti-Jewish propaganda. This was followed by legal segregation and identification. From there it progressed to violence, incarceration, and extermination.

Sixty odd years later, a familiar pattern emerges once again – the scapegoating of the Jewish people as the cause of the world’s problems.

In the past few months, we have heard from the former Prime Minister of Malaysia that, “Jews control the world”. In newly liberated Baghdad, which has a grand total of 24 Jewish people, a local newspaper blamed the countries inflation on, “Jews, thieves, and immigrants.”1

Ancient charges and propaganda are again coming to the forefront. One of the oldest is the “blood libel”, or charge that the Jewish people sacrifice Christian children and use their blood to make their Passover Matzo and Purim pastries. Today, however, this ancient libel has a new spin. Now Muslim children are replacing Christian children.

The hunters today

In a December 10th op-ed piece in the Jerusalem Post, Middle East expert Daniel Pipes wrote the following:

“Anti-Semitism in Europe was for nearly two millennia a Christian phenomenon; now it is basically a Muslim one.”

A report recently released by the European Union made the following statement:

“…it can be concluded that the anti-Semitic incidents in the monitoring period were committed above all either by right-wing extremists or radical Islamists or young Muslims mostly of Arab descent, who are often themselves potential victims of exclusion and racism; but also that anti-Semitic statements came from pro-Palestinian groups…” Physical attacks on Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues were acts often committed by young Muslim perpetrators in the monitoring period. Many of these attacks occurred either during or after pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which were also used by radical Islamists for hurling verbal abuse. In addition, radical Islamist circles were responsible for placing anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet and in Arab-language media. – (EUMC Report – Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in the European Union)

In the 1930s and 40s, the primary agent of the Enemy to destroy the Jewish people was Hitler and his followers. Today, it is Islam. Is this to say that all Muslims are anti-Semitic? No. However, Islam is at the forefront of the current wave of anti-Semitism, but its followers are not the only ones responsible. Many of the traditional agents of anti-Semitism are alive and well. They are also multiplying.

A distinction

I need to make a distinction between attacks against the Jewish people living in Israel and attacks against the Jewish people living in the Diaspora. The distinction is in purpose.

35Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): 36”If these ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever”. 37Thus says the Lord: “If the heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done says the Lord.” – Jeremiah 31:35-37 [NKJV]

Satan is waging a war against God’s promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) on two fronts – the Jewish people as a whole, and the nation of Israel.

As I said last month:

“If just one of God’s promises fails to come to pass, God is proved fallible. God would cease to be “Almighty” and be just “part-mighty.” “

This is Satan’s ultimate goal; but what the Enemy would mean for evil, God will turn around for good.

20”But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” – Genesis 50:20 [NKJV]

The spiritual irony here is that the hunters don’t realize they are serving the purposes of God. They just think they are destroying the Jewish people; just like the forces of the Enemy didn’t realize what they were doing when they crucified Yeshua.

God in His infinite wisdom and mercy will use the demonic inspired hatred of His covenant people to get them home where He wants them. The purpose of the hunters is to motivate or compel the Jewish people to return home to Israel. The purpose of attacks against Israel and the Jewish people living there are aimed at the destruction of Israel as a nation and to discourage the Jews of the Diaspora from returning home. Here, too, God will use the Enemy’s plan to destroy Israel for His own purposes and to bring glory to His name. Ezekiel writes the following in reference to the destruction of Gog and Magog:

7”So I will make My Holy name know in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” – Ezekiel 39:7 [NKJV]

Where are the hunters?

Hunters go where the prey is. You want to find the hunters? Find the prey. In this case, the “prey” is the Jewish people dispersed throughout the world.

There are still millions of Jews living in various places around the globe. The greatest concentration of Jewish people not living in Israel is in the United States, at over 5 million. 2003 was the first year that the Jewish population of Israel exceeded the Jewish population of the United States. Today, as in the past, the hunters are currently focused in Europe. Every time you hear about an anti-Semitic attack or incident you are seeing the work of the hunters.

Again, the purpose of the hunters is to motivate the Jewish people to make Aliyah.

Here is a partial list of attacks this year directed at Jewish people and property in Europe:

Belgium

June 13 – A 32-year-old man of Moroccan descent attempted to explode a vehicle loaded with gas canisters in front of a synagogue in Charleroi. He was arrested by police shortly after the incident. The man reportedly set his own car on fire, but it did not explode. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt condemned the attempted attack but said he saw no need to raise security around Jewish buildings and institutions. In April 2002, the same synagogue, situated on the edge of the city, was hit by gunfire from unknown assailants2

France

December 2 – An 11-year old Jewish boy was beaten up repeatedly by some of his Muslim classmates at a secondary school in an exclusive area of Paris. The attackers reportedly yelled “we’ll finish Hitler’s job” while attacking the boy. Other students at the school have decided to remove their Chai and Magen David necklaces to avoid similar attacks. 3

November 19 – A 23-year old Paris DJ is brutally murdered, his throat is slit twice, face mutilated, and his eyes are gouged out. That same evening a 53-year old woman was stabbed 27 times in the chest and neck in her Paris shoe store. The woman’s 10-year old daughter and her friend hid in a storeroom behind the shop, hearing the entire attack. 4

November 15 – Arsonists attack a Jewish secondary school in the Paris suburb of Gagny. 5

October 17 – A rabbi was verbally attacked and physically assaulted in a Paris suburb. On the way to the synagogue, several men pushed the rabbi and punched him in the face. 6 July 25 – A synagogue in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis was ransacked and desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti. Prayer books were scattered on the floor, the Torah scrolls opened and money was stolen. “Juif=mort” (Jew = death) was scrawled on an outside wall.7

Poland

December 10 – Sixteen tombstones were destroyed at the Jewish cemetery in Auschwitz. Days earlier two large swastikas had been painted on the cemetery walls.8

Germany

December 7 – Four gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Achim, 20 km east of Bremen, were painted in red with swastikas, “SS” marks, and Nazi slogans.9

October 11-12 – 42 headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Gundensberg received similar treatment.10

August 15 – 56 graves are vandalized in Kassel. Some headstones were overturned while others weighing over 2000 lbs were toppled onto the graves.11

June 27 – A 14-year-old Berlin girl wearing a Star of David necklace was attacked by a group of teenage girls on a bus. 12

May 14– A 19-year-old Orthodox Jew from the U.S. was beaten by a group of youths in the capital city of Berlin.13

May 11– Also in Berlin, a man wearing a Star of David pendant was attacked by a group of teenagers who spat at him, kicked him in the face and shouted anti-Semitic slurs. The 56-year old man, told police he was not Jewish.14

Russia

September 2 – An object resembling a bomb with an anti-Semitic slogan attached was found at a local synagogue in Novgorod, 400 miles northwest from Moscow. The “bomb” was determined to be a fake when no explosives were found.15

June 28 – On the last weekend in June, a Jewish cemetery in the town of Pyatigorsk, in the North Caucasus, was desecrated. Vandals smashed 10 tombstones, including those of Russian World War II soldiers. It is the only Jewish cemetery in the multi-ethnic Stavropol Region.16

Ukraine

December 1 – The Babi Yar memorial is overturned and partially broken. The memorial was erected to commemorate the Babi Yar Massacre. In September 1941 33,000 Jews were killed in the first few days of a Nazi slaughter the would result in 100,000 to 200,000 total deaths.17

North America is not immune either. In November a Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute Indiana was a victim of arson. Anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism has been found in various cities including Beverly Hills, California and New York City.

This month in Texas an ADVO holiday shopping flier advertising Hanukkah items was defaced by one of its employees with “CC Hates The Jews”. The alterations were not noticed before the ads were sent to numerous households in northern Texas. The company is investigating the incident.18

B’nai Brith Canada reported that anti-Semitic incidents in 2002 increased 60.48% over the previous year.19

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL),anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 8% in 2002 overall with a 24% rise on college campuses.20

College campuses across the United States and Canada continue to be hotbeds of anti-Semitism and violence directed at Jewish people.

For the purposes of the ADL and B’nai Brith surveys, an “incident” covers anything from harassment (including verbal, written, and electronic), to vandalism, and violence. With the vast majority of incidents resulting from harassment. However, violent attacks are increasing.

So, what do we do about all of this? We’ll tackle that question in the January issue of Mishpochah in Messiah. In the meantime, I would like to leave you with a couple of scriptures to ponder.

13Then Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:13-14 [NKJV]

16But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also if anything by death parts you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17 [NKJV]

Notes:
1, Gutman, Matthew, “Baghdad Jews fear Wahabi terrorism”, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071115224276, 12/12/03

2, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. “Selected Anti-Semitic Incidents Around the World in 2003”, Anti-Defamation League, http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/anti-semitism_global_incidents_2003.asp, 11/13/03

3. Zlotowski, Michel, “Paris Jewish pupil beaten up by Muslims”, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1070259995265, 12/02/03

4. Lappen, Alyssa A, “Ritual Murders of Jews in Paris”, FrontPage Magazine, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=11062, 12/11/03

5. Zlotowski, Michel, “Arsonists torch Jewish school near Paris”, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1068880713054, 11/15/03

8, 9, 10, 11. Hazan, Jenny and Mizroch, Amir, “Jewish cemetery at Auschwitz vandalized”, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071029336628, 12/10/03

17. Hazan, Jenny, “Sharansky condemns Babi Yar desecration”, The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1070775781593, 12/07/03

18. ICEJ News Service From Jerusalem, email to author, 12/12/03

19. 2002 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents – FINDINGS OF THE AUDIT, B’nai Brith Canada, http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit2002/audit2002-02.html, 12/13/03

20. “ADL Releases New Figures on Anti-Semitic Incidents: More Than 1,500 Acts Reported Across U.S. in 2002. Campus Figures Up 24 Percent”, Anti-Defamation League, http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4243_12, 12/13/03