-Caveat Lector-
The Talmud is ironically one of the best confirmers of the historicity of
christianity-although in a negative light.
written between about 20ad-500AD it has very strong views on christ, none of
which is that he didnt exist.
I dont think that religion (except its use in social control and group
identity) should be a topic for this discussion list.
John
Between Isaac and Ishmael-Brooks Alexander overview
Westerners in the main are completely unaware of religious
persecution of Christians in Israel and Islamic lands--i Christians can face
enormous social consequences for their faith. The fact is. both ludaism and
Islam have altered the message and identity of Christ over the centuries,
distorting Jesus (and His gospel) in different ways. The result has been
that both have created a pervasive anti christian prejudice among their
followers, in a sense immunizing, them against the gospel of Christ.
Christians in the Middle East today are in particularly difficult
circumstances. Pressed hard from both sides, thy have essentially options:
(I) leave their ancestral homeland: (2) suffer in silence
anonymity. This situation also explains the difficulty and rarity of
Christian conversions in the Middle East. It helps explain the bill before
Israeli parliament to essentially ban all Christian activity in Israel. !
particuilarly, Christian converts from Islam face harsh physical reprisals
from their former co-religionists.
Christians in the West may occasionally experience mild public
opposition for an "offensive" view that is at odds with secularism,
political correctness, and so on. Indeed, adhering to Christ and the go has
social consequences for anyone who takes his faith seriously. In Jewish and
Islamic lands, Christians are in a far more precarious position-one in which
the opposition can be lethal.41
BETWEEN ISAAC AND ISHMAEL JEWISH AND ISLAMIC ANIMOSITY TOWARD CHRIST
Brooks Alexander
Imagine would happen if. Jesus returned to the land of His birth today?
What-would His reception be? That question has been asked (and answered) in
drama and speculative fiction. Authors who handle the theme usually assume
Jesus would be rejected a second time as well, and use the ironic twist as a
literary device.
But we don't have to resort to literary speculation to know how
Christ would be received today. Christ's brothers and sisters-believers in
the "Good News," Hi family of faith-are being received as He would be in the
Holy Land right now. To know how Christ would be treated, we have only to
look at the way Christians are being treated in the land where their faith
began.
Triangle of Anathema
The picture we see is disturbing. The plight of Christians in the
Middle East today is always difficult, often dangerous, and sometimes
desperate--caught as they are in the crossfire between
Arab/Moslem/Palestinian interests and Zionist/Jewish/Israeli interests.
Both the Moslem nations and the Jewish State pursue pollicies that
bring pressure to bear on Christians in the territories
under their control. And both the Moslem and Jewish cultures foster a
popular hostility toward Christianity that routinely produces social
discrimination and sporadically erupts into violence against believers.
The worst news is that this kind of dual pressure is having its
intended effect. The overt and covert purpose of all t discrimination is to
either ghettoize other religions or d them out completely. This serves to
"religiously cleanse" society so it can become a purer expression of either
"Jewish State" or the "Islamic State," depending on which is doing the
cleansing.
It is working. The double pincer of Moslem and Jewish pressure
against Christianity is driving Christians out of Holy Land at a rate that
can only be described as "mass flight
According to a survey conducted by Dr. Bernard Sabella' of Bethlehem
University, the great majority of Christian Palestinians have already left.
SabelIa's work shows that.. . there are now more Jerusalem-born Christians
living ir Sydney than in Jerusalem. . . . Most observers agree that if
emigration continues as at present it is only a matter of time' before
Christianity becomes extinct in the land of its birth."!
The prospect seems almost unthinkable-Christ
Christianity driven from the land of Christ! But the prospect is quite
thinkable to the extremists of both Judaism and Islam for whom the gospel is
equally an affront to their religious claims and an impediment to their
political aims.
Moslem extremists would like to see Jews and Christiansi simply gone
from the Middle East, and are ready to help it happen. Jewish extremists,
for their part, would like to aII Moslems and Christians gone, and are also
ready to push t process along. Unfortunately, both Moslem and Jewish
extremists not only inflame existing cultural attitudes, tb influence-and
sometimes determine-official policies
well.
The reality of power politics in the Middle East pits Israel against
the Islamic nations. Those who bear the name of christ are therefore caught
in the middle of a struggle between those who lay claim to Isaac's legacy
and those who to Ishmael as their ancestor. Unfortunately, Christians in the
Holy Land today stand where those overlapping bigotries converge.
Net only are Christians subject to double discrimination, they have
no place of refuge to which they can escape. The Muslims have their
countries and the Jews have their State, but Christians have no local nation
of their own. It is there-fore the Christians who are leaving the Holy Land
in droves, a their presence in the land of their heritage dwindles to the
vanishing point.
The persecution of Christians in Moslem countries is becoming
relatively well-known because of the media's atten-tion to the threat of
Islamic fundamentalism. Many people already know, for example, that Egypt's
Coptic Christians live in daily danger of terrorist attack from Moslem
extremists in that country. And many already know of the harsh
anti-con-version laws and the virtual ban on any form of Christianity in
Saudi Arabia. Operation Desert Storm brought that reality into our living
rooms by way of satellite on CNN. Some people even know of Muslims who have
converted to Christ and faced legal penalties as a result-up to and
including the death penalty.
Not many people know that Christians also live under threat and
pressure in Israel itself. For various reasons, the plight of Christians in
Israel is less publicized, though it is no less difficult for believers who
have to endure it. Anti-Chris-tian attitudes in the Jewish State (as in the
Moslem nations) are both official and unofficial. They include everything
from limits on where Christians may live, to laws against evange1i.se to
religiously incited and socially tolerated vigilante attacks on the person
and property of Christians themselves.
The legal, social, and cultural bias against Christianity in both
the Jewish State and the Moslem nations clearly reflects a deep religious
conflict. The plain and simple fact is that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
all make absolute claims for themselves, each of which invalidates the
claims of the other two. Mingled together in the same geography, they create
a unique "triangle of anathema." When you stir in the fact all three
profess to speak truly in the name of the same God and to be true heirs of
the same religious tradition, you k the recipe for a conflict more intense
than most people imagine.
The Koranic View of Jesus
Christianity and Islam have been refining their antagonistic
relationship for 1,400 years. The interesting thing at the conflict,
however, is that it has been largely political military in its historical
expression. It is not scriptually based in the same way the Jewish/Christian
conflict is. There is no
deep-seated aversion to Christ and Christians woven into (Moslem) Koran the
way it is woven into the (Jewish) Talmud for example.
The Koran speaks approvingly of Christians in most of 15 passages in
which they are mentioned directly.* Mohammed was greatly influenced in his
views by the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament), which he knew directly,
and by Christian teaching, which he knew indirectly. In general, the Koran
treats Christians as sincere believers in the one God who will be rewarded
for their faith at the last judgment, though lack the full knowledge of
Allah through his pro Mohammed.
The Koran does criticize Christians in some ways, its complaints are
mild. Mohammed finds fault with believers for their tendency to disagree
among the and to form warring sects around their points of contention, an
ironic judgment in view of Islam's later sectarian blood baths. The Koran
also criticizes the emerging institution of monasticism. The idea struck
Mohammed strange. He viewed the practice with distaste and its prationers
with suspicion.
1
Still, by the standards of religious rhetoric (especially these of
the day), the Koran's attitude toward both Christians and Jews is remarkably
generous. Mohammed's fiercest reli-gious fight was with the grossly
idolatrous Arab culture that s,,i-rounded him, and especially with the
militant paganism of its leaders. In that context, he looked at the other
two biblical religions as allies (or at least cobelligerents) in his
struggle against idol-worshiping superstition. Thus, the Koran exhibits a
high regard for the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.
On a personal level, Mohammed engaged in cordial dialogue at times
with Jews and, apparently, with Christians. Toward the end of his life,
however, he was more favorably dis-posed toward Christians than Jews, whom
he increasingly regarded as hard-hearted and reprobate."
There was hence a basis for mutual respect between Muslims and
Christians, not only in the Koran, but even in the life of Mohammed himself.
Nevertheless, the actual encounter between Christianity and Islam has been
marked by struggle and conflict. It was one thing for Mohammed to deal with
Christians as people who could believe in God without benefit of the
Prophet's (Mohammed's) message. It was another thing for Muslims to deal
with Christians who rejected the Prophet's message altogether-a common
response when they were pressed on the issue.
The problem is that while the Koran took a generous view Of
Christians, it also took a view of Jesus that no Christian could accept.
Mohammed lauded Jesus as a prophet of God, and respected His words
accordingly. He treated Jesus as one of history's greatest prophets. His
bottom-line view, however, Was that Jesus failed in His prophetic mission.
After the Jews finally rejected Him, Jesus simply disappeared from view and
Someone else was crucified in His place. In the wake of that spiritual
debacle, Mohammed was sent from God to fulfill the mission Jesus couldn't
accomplish.
The Koran never states how Jesus ended His days. A common
assumption of Islamic scholars is that God supernaturally took Him out of
the world. God "recalled" Him, as it were, one was obvious that His mission
had failed and His message ] been rejected. The Koran makes it clear that
Jesus did not as the Gospels describe, and was never resurrected.
Since the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ the heart of
Christianity, the Koran's denial of them rendered the rest of its "respect"
for Christianity irrelevent; Christians rightly saw Mohammed's message as a
direct contradiction of their own beliefs and a radical attack on foundation
of their faith. Islam's claim that Jesus Him had prophesied Mohammed's
coming didn't help either. Christianity is not prepared to accept such a den
tion of Christ's role and identity-and Islam is certainly not prepared to
accept the Christian rejoinder that Prophet was simply wrong. To whatever
extent either v point is insisted upon, the other is equally stirred to
resist by definition.
To put it simply, the message of the Prophet collided with the good
news of the Savior. Very soon thereafter, those religious worlds clashed
politically as well. After the death of Mohammed (A.D. 631), the religion
he founded swept v ward through North Africa, reaching Morocco and Atlantic
Ocean within 60 years. Islam's collective military might grew along with its
territorial conquests, and
gathered enough strength to invade Christian E Berber army crossed the
Straits of Gibraltar in A.D. easily routed the forces of King Roderick-the
last Visigothic rulers. The Islamic invaders conquered Spam amazing speed
and ease, and even pushed their way
France.
The wave of Moslem power finally crested, however, the growth of its
empire was arrested by the French u Charles Martel ("the Hammer") at the
Battle of Poitier 732. There followed over 700 years of slow Islamic retreat
Spain. Meanwhile, Christian militants tried to retake the of Christ's birth
from its new Moslem overlords. The seturies long battles of the Crusades
(10961270) ended with the situation essentially unchanged-that is, with
Muslims still in control of the Holy Land.
Facing a stalemate against Catholic Christianity in the West,
militant Islam struck north against the Byzantine empire. The Ottoman Turks
finally overthrew Constantinople in 1453. From there they threatened Eastern
Europe for another 230 years until the Ottoman army was driven off its siege
of Vienna in 1683 by Christian troops under John III of Poland.
For almost a millennium and a half, Muslims have faced religious
hostility and military belligerence from the Christian West. European
colonialism and the conduct of the Western powers in the Moslem conflict
with Israel have added deceit and betrayal to the list as well. History has
given the Prophet's followers ample reason to nurse their grievances and
plenty of time to simmer their resentments.
The legacy of that conflict still burdens both of its heirs today.
In the "apostate" Christian West, guilt about Christianity's part in the
religious wars of the past creates vacillation and compromise in the face of
Islam's modern missionary offensive-a bewilderment reinforced by the trendy
politically correct ideologies of "pluralism" and "diversity."
Islam's inheritance from that conflict is less diluted with
confusion. Whatever its other eficiencies may be, Islam understands its own
identity well enough to know that Chris-tianity is not only a competitor,
but a standing denial of the Prophet's claims. Therefore, a strong rejection
of Christianity and a deep hostility toward Christians remains an integral
part of popular culture throughout the Moslem world.
Position in Moslem Lands Today
Official policies toward Christianity vary to some degree among
Moslem nations, depending on their official commit-ment to Islam. But
popular attitudes toward Christianity vary very little. Several
illustrations can be given. Among the North African nations, Tunisia is the
most secular in its approach
religion. This is in contrast to Libya, which under quadaffi has tried to
wrestle itself into conformity with eighth-cent Koranic law. Despite those
official differences, on the popular level all hold to the unalterable
attitude that to be a North African is to be a Muslim. To become "Christian"
is under-stood to mean a traitorous abandonment of one's heritage, family
and nation. Almost nothing could bring greater disapproval.4
Official attitudes toward Islam also vary among the Arab nations and
elsewhere in the Middle East-from Syria's secular socialism to Iran's
reactionary fundamentalism. Regardless, the traditional Islamic bias against
Christianity re entrenched among the general population. Visible
Christians in Islamic cultures face social and economic isolation. lims who
convert to Christianity face ostracism at best murderous revenge (martyrdom)
at worst.
Moslem prejudice against Christians is not confind countries of
Islam's birth and early expansion. Islam ia an universa1 religion, and it
has carried its allergy to Christ it wherever it has traveled and taken
root, including Anti-Christian discrimination tends to exist wherever
predominate socially, and especially where they rule potentially. Islam's
spite against Christianity readily turns to irrational fury and even mob
action, including (some lethal) physical abuse.
In Malaysia's Pahang State legislators have legalized mandatory
whippings and imprisonment for Muslims who apostatsize or preach other
religions. In China's Sinkiang Province, eyewitnesses report that
apostates-in this case Christian converts from Islam-are tied to the ground
while soapy water is poured down their throats over a period of three days
to wash out evil spirits. They are then forced to endure a week-long
crash-course in the Qur'an after which they must recant their faith in
Christ or face possible exile or death.5
Statistics confirm a worldwide pattern of anti-Christian
discrimination in Islamic countries. In 1996, Open Doors (a Christian
ministry) examined and compared over 100 nations, assessing the level of
religious freedom they afforded Christianity. They published their findings
as The World Watch
list, an authoritative index of religious persecution. Of the ten countries
most active in persecuting Christians, all but two are Moslem dominated. The
top ten list (from the most oppressive to the less so) reads as follows:
Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Southern Sudan, Comoro Islands, Iran, Northern Sudan,
China, Morocco, North Korea, and Egypt6
Jesus and Judaism
Islamic persecution isn't the only thing driving Christians out of
the Holy Land. There is also pressure against Chris-tianity within Israel
itself-a pressure that is severe enough to make local Christians abandon
their ancestral homes in alarming numbers.
Christianity and Judaism have had a vexed relationship from the
beginning. The tortured history of that relationship has been well
publicized in recent years, and it doesn't need to be repeated here. What
does need to be emphasized is that the vexation has been bipolar from the
outset. The Judeo-Christian conflict, throughout its history, has been
mutual, conscious, and deliberate-on both sides.
And In Europe Christians have held the upper hand socially politically, and
they have acted out their vexation with the Jews accordingly. In the early
days of the church, however, the situation was reversed. Jews held the upper
hand of power, and they expressed their vexation with Christianity in direct
and often brutal ways. One of the most shocking instances of anti-Christian
persecution by religious Jews was the stoning of deacon Stephen (Acts
623-15).
Almost two millennia later (1948), the State of Israel was reborn,
born in blood and controversy. The earliest believers fi themselves a
despised and beleaguered community, Judaism is imbued with a very deep
hatred toward
Now an exclusively jewish power domintes the holy land. The earliest
christians found themselves a despised and beleagured community. Has this
attichanged in the intervening 2000 years? More to the point,what has
remained the same?
Most commentators on the Middle East avoid dealing directly with the
question
Some Israeli Jews are attuned to the difficult plight of non-Jews in Israel
today. The socalled "secular left" has often complained about Israel's
treatment of its Moslem and Chri stians force. Their expressions have
changed to reflect the ways of citizens-as have some religious Jews. But few
of those
Dr. Israel Shahak is an exception. Shahak is a holocaust survivor
(Belsen camp), an emeritus professor of 04 chemistry at Hebrew University, a
resident of Israel since 1945, and a longtime human rights activist. A
seasoned d dent of Jewish scripture and tradition, Shahak candidly 4 cusses
the roots of the JudeoChristian conflict-from the Judaic side.
Shahak believes that the State of Israel's prevailing ethical and
religious discrimination is a threat to its own moral legitimacy and
ultimately to its very existence. He believes that Israel will inevitably
entangle itself in problems that are lil abated. Jewish extremists merely
extend and apply Jewish tradition in a particular way. We cannot understand
Jewish extremism, much less the influence it exerts in modern Israel, unless
we understand the pervasive anti-Christian attitude that runs throughout
Jewish religion and Jewish cultural lore. A visceral loathing for
Christianity is woven into Jewish scrip hire and is plainly displayed in
Jewish history.
Specifically, Shahak puts his challenge of conscience Israel in terms of two
historical questions: (1) "How do J scripture and Jewish tradition shape
current Jewish extremism?" and (2) "How does Jewish extremism shape rent
Israeli policy?"
Now an explicitly jewish power what from his studies that for Christians
living there today?
His answers are likely to unsettle the views many conservatives
Christians hold about Judaism in general and the State t Israel in
particular. He concludes
Judaism is imbued with a deep hatred of christianity,combined with
ignorance. This attitude was clearly aggravated by the christan
persecutions, but largely independent of it. In fact, it dates from the time
when Christianity was still weak and was persecuted
. Interestingly, it has taken Jews who had never been persecuted by
Christians, or who were even
helped by them.'
of the day was about the role of Jesus Himself. Was He God's promised
Messiah, as He had plainly claimed, or was He an impious impostor?
The choices were clear-and so were the consequences. If YOU thought
Jesus was an impostor, you aligned yourself with the ruling powers of the
day, including the Jewish religious
establishment. If you thought Jesus was God's Messiah, you were persectued
(Today, says Shahak, those same attitudes continue in vthe modern world,
but the religious distaste and cultural have added the weight of scholarly
knowledge to the resentment Judaism harbors toward Christianity
138
Jesus the Magician
The long-standing Jewish sense of revulsion toward Christianity
described by Shahak has its origins in a conflict that has existed between
them from the beginning. The main dispute between the first Jewish
Christians and the Jewish leadership
aligned yourself against them, and you could expect 1
harassed, jailed, chased out of town-or maybe just kill& the spot.
The clash between Jew and Christian was as inevitable asthe clash
between Jew and Muslim, but it happened faster was more fundamental. The
Judeo-Christian conflict more immediate and more intense on both sides bet
Christianity emerged, not outside of Jewish religion, but within it. Thus
the tension between them was instantaneous. Ctianity's claim that Jesus is
God's promised Messiah 4 challenged the legitimacy of rabbinic Judaism far
more than anything Mohammed said or did.
Islam was an external threat; Christianity was an immediate danger.
For that reason, Christ and Christianity have been gled out for special
rejection in Jewish scripture and sp revulsion in Jewish tradition.
Rabbinic nullification of the gospel was quickly institutionalized.
Jewish religious authorities reacted swiftly to Jesus affair," and began to
teach about Christ in ways desie to harden the Jewish people against
Christianity. The rabbis circulated demeaning tales about Jesus Himself
described Christians as creatures so low on the scale hence that no Jew
would ever think of becoming one.
anti-Christian teachings were eventually written down Jewish scripture known
as the Talmud-the sprawling compendium of rules, interpretations of rules,
and generic commentary on life that has guided the belief and behavior
religious Jews for thousands of years.
Shahak has studied the Talmud critically, and regards it as a
defining document of the JudeoChristian conflict. within the Talmud
two major strands of bigotry against christians and Christianity. The first
strand consists of "hatred malicious slanders against Jesus" Himself; the
second in Christianity as a form of idolatry and accuses Christian of
being idolators.8
To say that the Talmud reviles and despises Jesus would be an
understatement. It depicts Jesus as a bastard, a black magician,and a
blasphemer. The Talmudic judgment on Jesus can be summed up in a
litany of scandalous accusations: He was the illegitimate son of a Jewish
whore (Mary) by a Roman sol-dier named Pandira.g Jesus learned sorcery and
black magic,
'O and by their means deceived many." He falsely claimed to be the Messiah
promised by God, and thereby led His followers to spiritual destruction.
"According to the Talmud, Jesus was executed by a proper rabbinical
court for idolatry, inciting other Jews to idolatry and contempt of
rabbinical authority."'* ln punishment for His blasphemy, His eternal fate
is to be immersed in boiling excrement forever.13
The very name jesus" was for Jews a symbol of all that is
abominable, and this popular tradition still persists. The Gospels are
equally detested, and they are not allowed to be quoted (let alone taught)
even in modern Israeli schools.14
The Talmud reinforces its negative view of Christ with an equally
negative view of Christians. The charge of idolatry the rabbis brought
against the early Christians is more serious than it sounds to us today.
Idolatry is the ultimate spiritual crime in Talmudic terms, and the
accusation meant that Christians were relegated to a special class of
spiritual outlaws-renegades who had forfeited their basic rights as human
beings before both God and man. The Talmud's atti-tude toward Christians
effectively assigned them the judg-ment God meted out to Cain (who was made
an outcast and alien because of his high crime of murder), while denying
them the protective "mark of Cain" (that whoever took vengeance on Cain
would suffer God's punishment seven fold-see Genesis 4:l l-l 5).
Just as Christians were viewed with disgust and treated with
derision, their Scriptures were viewed with a burning hatred. Pious Jews
were forbidden to handle, read from, or listen to the Christian Scriptures,
and the New Testament was to be publicly burned whenever it was possible to
do so.
The Talmud's appraisal of other religions in general isr exactly
"friendly," but its assessment of Jesus and His followers is uniquely
hostile. When we look at Judaism's history , treating Muslims and Christians
respectively, it becornes obvious that a special category of malice has been
reserved fc
Christianity. Comparatively speaking, Judaism's attitude towards Islam is
relatively mild. Although the stock epithet given to Mohammed is "madman"
(meshugga), this was not nearly as offensive as it may sound now, and in any
case it pales before the abusive terms applied to Jesus. Similarly, the
Koran-unlike the New Testament-is not con-demned to burning. It is not
honored in the same way as Islamic law honors the Jewish sacred scrolls, but
it is treated as an ordinary book . . .Therefore the Halakha (the legal
system of classical Judaism) decrees that Muslims should not be treated by
Jews any worse than "ordinary" Gentiles.*5
Christians, on the other hand, definitely were to "treated worse by
Jews than 'ordinary' Gentiles." As offlcial designated idolators, the
followers of Christ were put beyond even the minimal regard that the Talmud
extends to non-Je who accept the "Noahide precepts"-the seven biblical la
considered by the Talmud to be addressed to Gentiles. Sin the Noahide laws
feature a ban on idolatry, Christians we deemed to be in violation of its
standards by definition. In t Talmudic scheme of things, then, Christians
were rank even lower than Gentiles in general, and Jews were taught revile
them accordingly.
The Talmud's command to burn copies of the Christian Scriptures that
come to hand is still observed in Israel, both principle and in practice.
Public burnings of the New Tea ment are carried out today with the direct
blessing of Jew religious authorities and the indirect blessing of the Jew
State.
Thus on 23 March 1980 hundreds of copies of the New Testament were
publicly and ceremonially burnt in Jerusalem under the auspices of Yad
Le'akhim, a Jewish reli-gious organization subsidized by the Israeli
Ministry of Relgions.i6
The Talmud and the Jewish State
The Talmud's view of Christ as a spiritual criminal and Christians
as spiritual outlaws has shaped the view of classical Judaism toward
Christianity for the last 2000 years. And, as we can see in the case of
Scripture-burning, it continues to do so today.
In Israel, Jewish religious attitudes have secular implications. The
outside world needs to know in what other ways Talmudic teachings affect the
policies of the Jewish State. In particular, as Christians, we need to know
how TaImudic atti-tudes affect the treatment of Christians and other
non-Jews who live under Israel's rule today.
Those are straightforward questions, but their answers won't be
found by polling Jews on what they think about the Talmud. Most modern Jews
don't think about the Talmud at all. Today, only Orthodox (and
"Ultra-Orthodox") Jews study the Talmud directly and attempt to follow it.
Conservative Jews know it mostly by reputation, and Reform Jews ignore it
almost completely. Secular Jews, for the most part, are igno-rant of the
Talmud; those who do know something about it are often critical of it.
Modern Judaism is anything but monolithic, and modern Jewry as a
whole is even less so. There are religious Jews who strictly follow the Old
Testament rules of living; there are sec-ular Jews who ignore their religion
altogether; and there are atheistic Jews who attack their religion outright.
Yet all are considered to be Jews by the State of Israel.
Ironically, the very breadth and diversity of modem Jewry
illustrates how basic the Talmud is to the identity of Israel as a Jewish
State. Israel's inclusive view of Jewishness embodies a Talmudic view that
is rigidly exclusive of one particular kind of Jew. The Talmud absolutely
excludes Christians
Israel's 1950 "Law of Return" guarantee wide automatic entry into
the country as
"national" (that is, firstclass) citizenship on anteed are all manner of
material support-from free kits and Hebrew language lessons all the way up
to h and financial subsidies-as a matter of right, because they
Jms. All stripes of Jewish belief and unbelief are accepted entry and
enrolled for benefits based on those guarantees,
Jews who profess Jesus as their Messiah, however, have such rights.
They are automatically classified as non-Jews Israeli Law and Israeli
courts.
Messianic Jews ask, "Why is it that a Jew may embrace atheism,
agnosticism, or even practice an eastern religion and still be regarded as
Jewish, while only those who believe in Jesus are seen as having abandoned
their heritage?""
The simple answer to their query is that Christian Jews all are
singled out as Jewish traitors because of the indirect effect Talmudic
thinking-conveyed through Zionism-on the c cial conduct of the State of
Israel. It is probably safe to say r the majority of Jews in Israel,
including those involved in politics, know little or nothing of the Talmud
per se. But the History of Jewish cultural history means that the Talmud's
view gentiles-and especially its view of Christians-still guides Isael
uneven-handed treatment of the people under its rule today
The persistent attitudes of classical Judaism toward non-Jews
strongly influence its followers, Orthodox Jews and those who can be
regarded as its continuators, Zionists. Through the latter it also
influences the policies of the state of Israel. Since 1967, as Israel
becomes more and more,
"Jewish," so its policies are influenced more by Jewish ideb logical
considerations. . . .This ideological influence is not usually perceived by
foreign experts, who tend to ignore Or downplay the influence of the Jewish
religion on Israeli
Talmudism shapes Zionism, and Zionism in turn sets the agenda for
Israel as a "Jewish State." By official self-definition, the State of Israel
"belongs" to the Jewish people (that is, to all Jews, whether they have ever
set foot in Israel or not) and t0 them alone. By direct implication, then,
Israel does not and cannot in any sense "belong" to a non-Jew, though his
family may have lived there for a thousand years.
Defining Israel as a Jewish State defines the non-Jew as a literal
"foreign body"-an alien who may be accepted temporarily for reasons of
necessity, but who is inherently under pressure to remove his non-Jewish
presence and go away. Thus the normal concept of who is a "native" and who
is an "alien" gets turned upside down. By decree, all Jews are made natives
of a land to which many of them are strangers, while non-Jewish natives are
declared to be strangers in their own land.
That same Talmudic-Zionist attitude shapes many Israeli policies,
domestic as well as foreign. Non-Jews within Israel face a labyrinth of
official discrimination and bureaucratic harassment that works to oppress
them and ultimately to vex them into leaving-or if they can't leave,
simply to vex and
oppress them. Gentiles (and especially Christians) who live in Israel awaken
every day to the fact that they are unwelcome among their Jewish neighbors.
They arise every morning with the certain knowledge that their unwelcomeness
will be made clear to them in numerous personal and official acts com-mitted
during the course of the day.
Almost every morning, Palestinian merchants find fresh Hebrew
graffiti spray-painted on their doors with messages like "Arabs Out!" and
"Jerusalem is for Us!"
"What can we do?" shrugged one shop owner after he translated the
bright red Hebrew characters on his door for me early one morning. "If
we cover it, it's always back; and besides, they all have guns. They do what
they want here."'9
Dr. Shahak identifies the Talmud as the source of that persecution.
Whatever its roots, however, you don't have Talmudic scholar to recognize
its results. In 1992 a U.S. St; Department report on human rights drew a
clear picture of Israel's rule over non-Jews in the "occupied territories."
In effect, said the report, there is a dual system of law. Jewish s tlers in
the territories are subject to Israeli law, while the r( dent non-Jews live
under the much harsher standards d military occupation law. As the Christian
Science Monitmnote( the system creates a two-tiered society with a favored
minority and a majority that is essentially an I underclass and suffers
legally instituted and sanctioned discrimination of various sorts. The State
Department's report' described the actual conditions in the occupied
territories:' *Sentences given to Israelis for killing Palestinians are'
generally much lighter than sentences handed down to jews
Palestinians convicted of killing either Israelis or Palestinians.",
Israeli settlers are immune from many other forms of punishments
and restrictions to which the Palestinians are jews subject, including
restriction on movement and travel, detention without charge or trial,
closure of schools and universitties, and many others. In brief, as the
State Department's
report puts it, there is a "dual system of governance applied to
Palestinians and Israelis" in the occupied territories so
The Dual System in Israel
America's dual system between blacks and whites called "Jim
Crow"-and America underwent a social rev tion to get rid of it. The South
African system of dual etl classification was known as "apartheid"-and the
world ( demned South Africa because of it. South Africa accepted
world's chastisement, and now struggles with a social rev tion of its own.
For whatever reason, Israel's dual system has escaped widespread
condemnation. Israel openly enforces a two-tier system ofjustice that is
openly based upon ethnic standards but only its victims stand up to
complain.
Israel's enemies have always found it easy to make unjust
comparisons with the old South Africa. But it gets easier when you read that
the government is preparing plans to corral Israeli Arabs in Galilee into
blocks of flats to prevent them from having a majority of the land . . . and
when you witness the casual contempt with which Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem
deal with Palestinians.*l
The "enemies of Israel," however, are not the only ones to
make such comparisons. Some of the strongest criticisms come from within
Israel itself, and are uttered by Israelis who are plainly committed to
Israel's validity and existence. Shahak speaks eloquently for many of them.
He describes Israel's regime in terms that few Western journalists would
dare to use. He calls the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the occupied
territories "in some respects worse than that of South Africa's apartheid
regime at its worst."**
Worse comes to worse when it is realized that Israel's dual system
of government is not confined to the occupied territories, with their
special "security problems." Even within Israel itself, there is a
two-tiered system of administering the law that makes it easy for Jews to
move through the bureaucratic maze, and difficult for everyone else.
Popular Persecution
Another example of the dual system within Israel is selective way
the state enforces its own laws against racism i racist incitement. Israeli
laws proscribe public expressions of racism and utterances hurtful to human
dignity . . . [but] they are almost always applied against the Arabs and
hardly ever against the Jews. . . . Racist and inciteful pronouncements of
Jews against non-Jews, especially against Arabs, abound in the State of
Israel. Yet I do not recall a single instance of a Jew being convicted for
such an offense, although many Arabs have been convicted for incitement
against the JewsFg
The public burning of New Testaments also plainly violates those
laws. Yet such acts are subsidized by the Israeli government. In Israel,
Jewish extremists know they can light the fires of religious spite with
impunity-and so does everyone else. In Israel, everyone understands that
fact of life because everyone sees it happen on a daily basis. Christians,
as always, are special objects of that spite. They are the targets of a
com-prehensive cultural hostility against which the Jewish State of Israel
provides no real protection and no effective recourse.
That double standard is the most dangerous one of all, because it
endorses the second-class status of non-Jews and validates the traditional
Jewish (Talmudic) prejudice against them. Extremist Jews are thus encouraged
to ventilate their exaggerated scorn against gentiles (especially
Christians) in public ways-while the objects of their scorn are constrained
from responding in word or deed. It doesn't take a social sci-entist to
figure out what the results of that imbalance will be.
Inflammatory words kindle inflamed behavior. When the popular bias
against gentiles and Christians is affirmed by the structure of law and
reinforced by a pattern of bureaucratic
discrimination, Jewish extremists feel free to act out fantasies of anathema
drawn from the most regressive elements of Tal-mudic tradition.
The standard expression of anathema is profaning and desecrating the
holy things of your religious opposition. The Talmud clearly identifies its
religious enemies, and declares it the religious dub of pious Jews to
profane the enemy's holy things. In Israel today, one can read quite
freely-and Jewish children are actually taught-passages such as that which
commands every Jew, whenever passing near a cemetery, to utter a bIessing if
the cemetery is Jewish, but to curse the mothers of the dead if it
is non-Jewish.
One consequence of this "real social fact" is that Christtians in
Palestine have had their cemeteries, churches, sites, places of pilgrimage,
and places of worship rot& vandalized and desecrated over the years since
Israels founding. The desecrations are normally performed by i-d vidual Jews
and groups of Jews, acting on their own or ur,, the direct inspiration of
their extremist rabbis. In a number cases, however, they have been carried
out by units of tl Israeli army, acting under the indirect influence of the
sari extremist ideology.
The pattern of profaning Christian sites began early in the history
of Israel, and has continued to the present day. Oy rageous incidents of
anti-Christian desecration have led : official protests-in some cases
by the UN, in some cases other countries, and sometimes by interdenomination
Christian bodies. The Christian Union of Palestine (CUP) Ir the way in 1948
by issuing a statement denouncing " destruction and desecration of Christian
holy places that tot place as a part of the war to establish the State of
Israel. In ti preamble to their statement, the CUP said:
Because of this dreadful situation, We, the representa-tives of the
Christian Communities, deem it our solemn duty to raise our voice of protest
against the violation of the sanctity of our Churches, convents and
institutions.31
The report that followed detailed 26 of the work that had occurred
during the course of the war. As it pointed out, that was only the
beginning. Since then, incidents Christian vandalism have increased rather
than diminished Many reports and objections have been filed by van
churches and church groups over the years, but they do] appear to have had
any lasting effect. The UN has passed number of resolutions deploring
Israel's treatment of its minorities, but has never effectively enforced
them.
The problem of aggressive religious spite in Israel (or any-where
else) is intractable through bureaucratic fiat and moralistic resolutions
because its momentum comes from the weight of fallen human nature. Until the
connection between the Talmud's anti-gentile prejudice, Israel's
anti-gentile dis-crimination, and the extremists' anti-gentile violence is
addressed-on some level-within Israel itself, the situation will not change.
Jewish extremism that compulsively dese-crates another faith perpetuates the
most regressive elements of Talmudic tradition. Shahak puts the matter with
character-istic brutal candor:
Dishonoring Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in
Judaism. Spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and spitting
when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for
pious Jews. . . .This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for
Christian symbols has increased in IsraeLs2
It is not a surprise that inter-religious hatred continues to exist
in the modern world. No one who understands fallen human nature will be
baffled by the persistence of pogroms and persecutions. The fallen human
tendency to divide our-selves from and despise one another is an ancient
problem that will never be overcome entirely until the Lord returns.
Meanwhile, however, it can be constrained and corrected to some
degree-provided it is acknowledged and identified as a problem.
That is exactly why Christians in Palestine regard their future with
such a sense of grim despair. Their difficult status is not acknowledged or
identified. It is little noted in Israel itself, even less so in the Western
press, and hardly at all in America. One example of this is that after the
Christian ceme-tery on Mount Zion had been desecrated for the eighth time in
a row during the span of a few years, one Western reporter finally visited
the scene. He was shocked at what he found his description, the tombstones
had almost all been shattered, metal crosses lay twisted in their sockets,
and the sepulchers had been broken open; the one standing mausoleum was
riddled with bullet-holes. "Had we been Jews and our churches been
synagogues, desecration like this would have caused an inter-national
outcry," said the monk at the Martyrion. "But because we are Christians, no
one seems to care.
Persecution and Indifference
It is difficult for most of us to imagine what it is like to under
such conditions-in which pervasive discriminati continual hostility, and an
ever-looming sense of danger dc inate one's moment-by-moment attention.
Among Christians in Palestine, however, the real temptation to despair
exodus) is the fact that almost everyone agrees that problem will get worse
instead of better.
There are things that could be done to help-but 6 won't be.
Experience has shown that political and econol pressure from other nations
would help relieve the kinc persecution that Christians are undergoing in
the Mid East, whether in Israel or in Moslem countries. But no s pressure is
forthcoming.
The clash of Arab and Israeli agendas sends tren throughout the
international community. But the persecuted of Christians doesn't register
to anyone as a matter affect their national interests.
Christians are caught in the collision between two massive power
blocs. Since they are overshadowed by the content forces that swirl around
them, the condition of Christian Palestine has been and continues to be a
non issue for most of the world. Therefore no serious action will soon be
taken their behalf. Israel and the Moslem countries are occasionaly
"reminded" by the U.S. State Department or the UN that thq policies are not
entirely approved of. But rarely is actually done. The Christians of
Palestine already know that the most they can hope for from the "world
community"
(including the United States) is empty rhetoric and occa-sional empty
gestures.
In the absence of any significant protest from the rest of the
world, the double pincer of Moslem and Jewish hostility continues to
tighten, and the Christians who actually live under it know what that means
for their future. The Jewish side of the pincer pinches the most at the
moment because it is the less recognized of the two. Ironically, though
discrimination against Christians is (almost) publicly unknown out-side of
Israel, it is publicly flaunted within Israel itself.
The prejudice against Christians in the Holy Land suggests an
unpleasant answer to the question of how Christ would be received if He
returned for a visit today. The short answer is that He would get the same
treatment He got on His first visitation.
In His time on earth, Christ was beset and plotted by His enemies and
abandoned in His hour of need by j friends and disciples. Today on earth,
the Body of Chris replaying that same role in the same part of the world. I
only are the Christians in Palestine beset by religious extremists from both
sides, their suffering is largely ignored by tl brothers and sisters around
the world.
"Because we are Christians, no one seems to care." It is the all too
familiar cry. Those Christians who are able to leave doing so, because they
can only see worsening conflict ahead. Experts estimate that at the present
rate of emigration Christianity will have essentially vanished from its
birthplace by sometime in the early twenty-first century-if the world lasts
that long.
Things have changed since Jesus first came among US. ! Christ there
was no room at the inn (Luke 27). For His followers today, it seems, there
is not even room in the manger
For more on the talmuds view of christianity see
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/gentiles.htm
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/nojavasite/FAQ/FAQ-Q12.html
In Islam the people of the book were accorded some respect.(they were taxed
for their religion) However people without a book were offered the option,
conversion to islam of death. What is the 'book' for the humanist?
For a darwinian view of the culture clash see -separation and its
discontents-Prof Kevin Mac Donald.
My final point is that there is no religion(including the secular ones) or
race that has not in its history comitted some pretty horrible things. We
should be looking for ways to understand the world, build the correct
barriers were friction is inevitable and build tolerance otherwise.
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