In our war
with the Arabs, the Jewish Achilles heel is personified by the neurotic need
for gentile friends, and the desire to create such friends where there are
none. In a world where too many Jews ignore the timeless truism, “Esau hates Jacob” we should ask
ourselves the following: Who are our true gentile friends? Perhaps a better
question would be: can Jews truly have friends whose views are contrary to Torah
and the ideal values of a Jewish Israel? All too often, Jew label others as
friends, even when these same groups have ulterior motives. Here are a few of
my thoughts on such friendships and how to discern the validity of a
friendship.
#1: True friends don’t have agendas.
That’s the litmus test to determine if one has a true friend. True friends gain
and benefit from the friendship itself, and require nothing in return. The
friendship isn’t a forum for their own causes and agendas, or a platform to
define their vision for Israel on our behalf. Nor is it a vehicle to profit and fund-raise for themselves. If a supposed friend is creating a false association to
perpetuate an agenda, he may not be a friend. Not every person has the most nefarious
motives. Oftentimes self-interest alone defines the supposed friend. An
important note. A true friend has no interest in molding you, patronizing you,
or defining you.
#2: Friends don’t have ulterior
motives. Certainly not theological ones. The Jew has few if any real gentile
friends in the world. I say few because there are gentiles who support Israel
without dark motives. Yet the evangelical is not one of them, despite the millions
of dollars pouring into Israel, and the sea of Christian pilgrims happy to take
a dip in the Yardenit. The definition of evangelism precludes this possibility.
One who desires to see Jews embrace Jesus can never be a friend. The Jew in
Israel thinks he has a friend in the evangelical. The evangelical would not
give a shekel (or a half shekel!) to Israel if his shekel didn’t earn him
entrance. The millions thrown at Israel come with a heavy price. A foothold in
the land. Without the latter, they would abandon Israel for other targets. If Israel’s
missionary laws had any teeth, the evangelicals would love us from afar.
#3: True friends don’t associate with missionaries. Friends don’t align with those who openly declare
their intent to convert Jews. And friends don’t ignore a telling honest website
because of a smiling face, and the pastor’s ability to discuss the NBA, or a
shared appreciation for American conservative values. The first and second
degrees of separation are telling enough. “Woe
to the wicked, woe to his neighbor.” Associations define us. If your parve evangelical friend has ties to
missionaries, it means you didn’t heed Rule #2.
This
should be obvious to any self-respecting person, but the lure of cash and
benefits is enticing for many Jews. True friends aren’t interested in land
deals or real estate in Israel. True friends don’t desire Israeli citizenship
or long-term visas. Certainly, they have no interest in building missionary
centers in Jerusalem. Those Jews who think evangelicals are our friends betray
their ignorance of what it means to be evangelical.
The most
dangerous missionaries in Israel today are not the coarse street missionaries (dangerous
as they are) whose aggressive tactics are apparent. The clever
ones are far more dangerous because they have a foothold and respectability.
They are in our communities. They are even in our vineyards praising “The
Father.” Torah Jews need to open
their eyes. Stop fixating solely on the lightning rod of “Jews for Jesus.” The
subtle ones are more dangerous.
We have enough problems in Israel with a skewed law of
return, and the complicated problem of proper conversions. Our missionary laws
are toothless, and yet they are the only tools to stop the predators. The
spiritual dangers facing Am Yisrael
threaten our spiritual integrity, and ultimately our physical survival as a
Divine consequence, as surely as the Arab Amalekites who want to slaughter us.
The evangelicals
have gotten Rabbis to declare that their presence is a sign of prophetic
fulfillment. Social Media is inundated with more than a few Jews defending “Christian
Zionists” and accusing those of us who oppose them as hateful, liars. The
evangelical has learned that he can get away with murder if he tempers his word
and his exuberance, and is quick to remove the occasional problematic video
that an overzealous pilgrim posted. If he learns to constantly change the lingo
for more parve semantics, he can go
very far. Don’t say Jesus. Say “the Father”. Don’t talk about the new covenant.
Say “Restoration".
The
evidence is all around us in Israel, in every park with a CUFI plaque, and
every interfaith-conference and prayer service comprised of Christian and Jew. Today, there are evangelicals living in
Israel in a prominent Torah community, all with the collusion of religious Jews
& rabbis. The few Jews who opposed them were cast out of the community. The
hope of 2000 years? This is a veritable nightmare.
And the repercussions of these harmful unions are not
monolithic. Those of us who are privy to the problem recognize that the
infection will spread in unforeseeable ways. The day will come when Israel gives hundreds and
perhaps thousands of evangelicals’ honorary citizenship as righteous gentiles.
Jews will shake their heads and kvetch when the issue becomes a problem. They
will say “you cannot do anything today; they should have done something then”.
Today is tomorrow’s “then”.
There is still time to rectify the mistakes.
However, we need to get aggressive in exposing this multifaceted threat. As
long as Likud leadership cozies up to evangelical money, then we have no
recourse via the government. And as long as kipah wearing Jews shill for these
predators, and Rabbis are blinded by a modern form of false messianism, things
will only get worse.
The
Heartland of Israel is riddled with missionaries who want Israel to retain
every inch of our liberated land for a theological agenda. Jews who turns to
Esau to fight Ishmael, has simply exchanged the armed crusader for the olive
branch of evangelism. This is no victory.
I’ve heard more than a few of these Jewish enablers denying
the danger of these groups, and assuring the public that neither they nor these
groups have any association with missionaries. A proper search of the web
reveals that these same individuals have on many occasion been caught on camera
with overt missionaries. And their “parve” friends aren’t shy either when it
comes to associating with the crudest missionaries. These self-appointed Jewish
leaders recognize no boundaries. In truth, they are a byproduct of the
collective rabbinic silence and reticence to discuss what they often bemoan in
private.
In truth,
the Jew has few genuine friends who come in the name of religion. The Bnai
Noach represent the lone gentile community that can genuinely call himself a
friend, since they desire the sanctification of Hashem’s name in
the framework of the Torah. Of course, gentiles identified as Bnai Noach are
hard to find, small in number, and they aren’t as well financed.
Choosing the hand of Esau to defeat the sword of Ishmael is suicide.
The scourge of missionizing both classical and clever, and Heaven forbid the
eventual likelihood of Jewish apostasy, idolatrous admixtures, deceptive
conversions, and even Christian Jewish unions resulting from such poison
alliances, will ensure Divine punishment. In the war with Amalek, we don’t arm
ourselves with idolatry.
If we ignore the problem, and Jews today are ignoring the
problem, our children and grandchildren will pay the price. And it will be a
heavy price for the Jewish people. If we learn anything from the zealous Maccabees,
it is that we Jews never traded Jewish blood for the Jewish soul. We fight for
the latter with our dying breathe.
#withfriendssuchasthese
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