My Encounters with Anti-Semitism
By Dennis McLeod
My first encounter with anti-Semitism was before we lived in Israel, here in New Zealand, from a visiting minister of a church stationed in Jerusalem. The words he spoke, I didn’t fully understand at that time; he was clearly trying to relay to the audience that the Jewish people should not be in Israel. A few years later, while serving in Bethlehem, anti-Semitism was very clear among several of the ex-pats working in the area. Once, an ex-pat American lady verbally attacked me for learning Hebrew while living in an Arab area. This lady also openly confessed that there should be no Jews in this area, to which my Penny replied that there would be no Jews in this area if they hadn’t tried to get them out of that area. The lady stopped talking.
After leaving Bethlehem, we joined a ministry called Christian Friends of Israel and looked forward to serving the Lord in this new capacity with a smile and joy. A Christian Arab friend in a Bible college, or someone I classed as a friend, said I had to tell them to change their name; in other words, Christians shouldn’t be friends of Israel. Something many Hamas-supporting Christians would agree with today. I have been cursed at and told I am unsaved by such people for supporting the Jewish people.
The first question I was asked at our new position with Christian Friends of Israel was, ‘Why does New Zealand always vote against Israel at the UN?’ Something I was very ignorant of, as this was 1994, just the start of our thirty-year journey of education on the ‘subject’ of Israel and its situation in the history of the Middle East.
We have been asked on several occasions, "What are you doing for the Arabs, both in Israel and here in my home country?". During the 18 months we were working for the Arabs in Bethlehem, no one ever asked us, ‘what are you doing for the Jews’? Back in NZ, we met a Jewish lady, who in the 1920s, as an 8-year-old, was called a Christ killer; she had to ask her mother what was meant by what was said. In NZ, I encountered two men I knew and found to be Jewish, but they would not open up to me before knowing what we had been doing in Israel.
While we were in Bethlehem, there was no security barrier at that time, Jewish rubbish collectors stopped entering the area because of the attacks; a Jewish truck driver delivering petrol was shot dead, Jewish guards on work sites were killed, in Jerusalem, a man was killed waiting for a bus, and girls were attacked in a schoolyard; and Christians were attacked in Bethlehem. Shortly after we moved into Jerusalem, the bus bombings started. First in Tel Aviv, then Jerusalem, and attacks on people around the country, on people waiting for a bus.
In restaurants and pizza parlors, celebrations were bombed, and men, women, and children were killed or maimed for life. The list goes on, and this does not cover what has taken place over the last 100 years, long before Israel became re-established in their ancestral land. Especially since our time working with and for the Jewish people in Jerusalem.
First, the Arabs used terror as an attempt to prevent the Jewish people from returning to Israel, then war and intifadas; this all failed to remove the Jewish people from the land. A new tactic was required to claim the land for themselves. During the 6-day war and the 1973 war, it became clear to Arafat that he could not win on the battlefield, so he went to the media. Here, he claimed and published that he and his people were the true inhabitants of the land.
With this, he played on the fact that very few people knew, or still do, that few protesters, or church members, understand the history of the land, its name, and how and when the ‘West Bank’ came about. That’s another paper. This move has been very successful over the years. Today, we see the same tactic being used in different arenas.
Hamas attacked with the plan to destroy Israel, the plots of Iran to use Hamas, Hizballah, the Houthis, and others failed. Once more, they have turned to the hearts and minds and ignorance of the public, through the media. First, it was genocide, but with the massive population increase since Hamas took control of Gaza and with no evidence of such an act during this war, once more, they have to employ something else to play on the anti-Semitism boiling just under the surface of society.
They have the final ace up their sleeve, the hunger card. Convince the world it’s Israel’s fault that the people of Gaza are starving, with false pictures and false narratives, hiding the fact that they themselves are preventing the food distribution with the help of the UN, which evidence is now showing they have been, and it’s working. Why? Because when anti-Semitism is hovering just below the surface, it takes little shaking of the heartstrings to bring it to the surface. They have learnt well from history, where we are in the same old mindset of, It’s happening, it’s bad, Jews are involved, they must be at fault.
Since October 7th, the anti-Semitism displayed in New Zealand has been appalling, from the person in the street all the way up to the Prime Minister. Witch hunts of the Jewish people have been openly called for, with the silence of the government deafening. In 1947, the then-prime minister, Peter Fraser, voted yes to the UN partition plan because he saw the need of the people. Whereas Holland, the leader of the opposition, would have voted no, as he was influenced by commerce with the Arab nations.
Today, our government is following the lead of Holland because of the international trade in the Middle East. Being totally blinded by trade deals, which are being exploited by Arab nations, through lies and false information given out by Hamas. Governments are blinded by their feelings towards the Jewish people and have no idea about how negotiations work in the region or the fact that Islam can lie to infidels, especially in times of war.
It must be remembered what has been said by Arafat in the past, Hamas, and others now: ‘First the Saturday people and then the Sunday people.’ They have also stated they will fly their flag over every synagogue and church in Jerusalem. Arafat also stated that the Oslo Accords were a temporary action until their strength increased. They themselves have warned us and continue to warn us of their plans for Israel and the world.
Having witnessed the events in Bethlehem during that time, I saw the victory celebrations, which brought together adults and children alike. What they said and their actions about peace treaties—nothing signed means peace, simply a lull to regroup for the next stage of invasion, as demonstrated by Hamas since they came to power in Gaza. Islamic leaders have stated. Give it five years or fifty years; time is on our side, and we will take over. I would advise all leaders to pay very much attention to their rhetoric, for what they say they mean.
Nothing the PLO, Hamas, or any other group has signed in the last fifty years has been honoured. Israel has made several peace offers, but all they have received in return is destruction. When will it end? A question that has been asked by many. Maybe when Hamas lays down its arms and releases the hostages, or when Israel lays down its arms. However, the results of the latter option have been demonstrated by Hamas, when Israel, believing things were quiet on the border, stepped back, believing a peace could be settled in the area.
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There is no doubt that many people are going through tremendous difficulty, trial and excruciating processing. In fact, the last decade has been more than difficult for many of Gods children than all of the previous years combined. Over the last ten years I have heard stories of adversity that would make the hair on the back of your neck curl. I can relate with the stories of many of these wonderful people, and feel for them deeply. The challenges my wife and I have faced have been more mentally than physically, nevertheless they are real and they are not without purpose.
