In yesterday’s edition of Israel Today online a headline read; “ANALYSIS: How the Media is Fuelling Anti-Semitism.” Part of the article stated; “Israel came to a standstill on Thursday morning 10 AM in commemoration of the Holocaust during World War II. The annual memorial of six million Jews who were brutally murdered by the Nazis came after a shocking anti-Semitic event involving the world’s largest newspaper The New York Times. The paper came under fire after the publication of an outright anti-Semitic cartoon which was first published by a relative small magazine in Lisbon, Portugal. The Der Stürmer-like cartoon depicted a blind US President Donald Trump with a yarmulke on his head who was led by a dachshund with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu who wore a collar with the Star of David. The message was clear: The Israeli PM was controlling the White House and Trump’s policies just as the Nazis falsely claimed Jews were controlling Germany before and during the Holocaust.”
The article went on to state that while the New York times attempted an apology it cannot deny the fact that it has a long history of bias reporting against the Jewish people. According to israel Today it further stated, “The Anti-Defamation League in the US just published its annual report on anti-Semitic incidents in the US and found that the number of physical attacks against Jews in 2018 more than doubled compared to 2017.The same phenomenon is visible in France, The United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands and even Finland, countries who continue to protect the only country in the world which threatens to carry out a new Holocaust, the Islamic Republic of Iran… A report published by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the European Jewish Congress (EJC) about anti-Semitic attacks worldwide showed a staggering 12 percent increase in these attacks compared to 2017.”
King Solomon wrote: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) After Adolph Hitler and his Nazi henchmen came to power in Germany in 1933 he started a massive media campaign against the Jewish people. He understood how powerful and influential the media could be in swaying the feelings and the minds of the masses in Germany. He wrote in his book Mein Kampf; “Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people… Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea.” *
Anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda spewed forth in the shape of hate speeches, actions, music, theatre, movies, radio, publications, education and art. One of the chief jobs of Hitler’s propaganda machine was to convince those Germans who were not anti-Semitic. His main man to head up this operation was his Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. While Hitler understood the power of propaganda, it was Goebbels who was to use it to the greatest effect.*
The Nazis used five things in the media…
- Posters denigrating the Jews; by making use of stark imagery and blunt racial messages, this media penetrated all sections of German society, literally painting Jews as outsiders and sinister enemies of ‘ordinary’ people. This is happening again today in many media outlets across the globe.*
- Comics in pro-Nazi newspapers; especially Der Stürmer (‘The Attacker’), This publication frequently ran comics or cartoons depicting Jews as dangerous and subhuman. The use of these kinds of hate-stirring comics even extended to their inclusion in children’s books.*
- Articles and Essays; such as written materials in periodicals and pamphlets took on a more argumentative form, which lent ‘weight’ to the simplistic slogans and caricatures of posters and cartoons. Essays like Kurt Hilmar Eitzen’s 1936 piece ‘Ten Responses to Jewish Lackeys’ were hardly subtle or philosophical, but they provided all manner of reasons to mistrust and hate the Jew, from economic and religious arguments to appeals for national pride.*
- Movie films; Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’ projects included anti-Semitic films such as Jud Süss, based on a popular 1925 historical novel, which was actually written by Lion Feuchtwanger, a successful author who was himself a Jew. Director Veit Harlan turned Feuchtwanger’s philosophical story, as well as previous interpretations for film and theatre, on its head. Victim becomes villain and an oppressive justice system is instead portrayed as righteous. Harlan’s Jud Süss is an inflammatory piece of film propaganda, which was successful at the box office as well as shown at indoctrination events by the SS and Hitler Youth.*
- Art exhibitions; ‘The Eternal Jew’ exhibition took place in Munich’s German Museum library in 1937-38, followed by runs in Vienna and Berlin in 1938-39. Though the Nazi Party line was anti-modern art, the pieces shown at ‘The Eternal Jew’ were distinctly avant-garde in nature, the point being to invite the public to them. Termed by the Nazis as ‘degenerate’, modern art was shown at other free exhibitions in a number of cities. Though the purpose of these propaganda exhibits was to discredit the art they displayed, the long running ‘The Eternal Jew’ and other shows proved to be very popular, despite the Nazis associating the art with Jews and Communists.*
Adolph Hitler was by his religion a Lutheran and greatly influenced by Martin Luther who, in his latter days, became rabidly ant-Jewish and wrote a book titled; “The Jews and their lies.” Many believe that Luther’s anti-Semitic writings influenced Hitler to persecute and murder the Jews. Luther started out well in the beginning but in the end he became an enemy of the Jewish people. He relied heavily upon Augustine theology in regards to replacement theology and to this day what Luther propagated concerning the Church having replaced Israel still remains in reformed theological circles today and is now spreading throughout wider Christendom.
In the time of Hitler, by and large, the German churches remained silent concerning the persecution of the Jews. Many churches undoubtedly supported Hitler in the satanically inspired Euphoria of German nationalism and pride that had gripped the minds and hearts and the emotions of the German people. Now it needs to be said that in these last days God has a purpose in this growing global persecution of the Jews we see on the rise again. God wants His people back in Israel and the only way He can get this to happen is through applied pressure.
Firstly; because of His covenant made with Abraham and with his descendants through Isaac, not Ishmael, to give the Jewish people the Land of Israel to be for them; “an everlasting possession.” Secondly; God will have a Holy people separated to Himself and will bring this about through the Time of Trouble for Jacob where God will purify His people in the furnace of affliction to remove their impurities. Israel will go into this time of great tribulation and affliction but be saved out of it as a nation (Jeremiah 30:1-10)
As the prophet Malachi writes; “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap. And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.” (Malachi 3:2-4)
In that day Israel will be Holy to the LORD. As the prophet Zechariah writes; “On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 14:20-21)
By and large Israel today are a secular nation and a nation filled with idolatry and hedonistic lifestyles. While many Jews in Israel are coming to faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus the bulk of the people are still estranged from their maker and their God. This is all going to change. The rising anti-Semitism we see is most certainly from Satan as it has always been. However, God has used pagan nations in the past to bring His people to the place of repentance and spiritual restoration and since 1948 with the rebirth of Israel as a nation, He is using nations again but after these nations have served their purpose he will get rid of them.
After all of Israel has been saved He will establish the Messianic Kingdom on earth when He installs His King our Lord Jesus the Messiah on Mt Zion in the original City of David. As it is written in the psalms; “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One: “Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords.” The One enthroned in the heavens laughs; the Lord taunts them. Then He rebukes them in His anger, and terrifies them in His fury: “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy hill.” (Psalm 2:1-6)
When the Lord Jesus came the first time spiritually speaking God His Father in heaven installed His Son as the king in the original City of David to bring men and women into the Kingdom of God spiritually. When the Lord Jesus comes back the second time God will literally install Him on Mt Zion in the Old City of David and from there in His millennial, Messianic glory and splendour He will rule the nations with a Rod of iron and receive their worship. (Psalm 2:9) (Zechariah 14:16-21)
The most recent anti-Semitic cartoon published by the New York Times is indicative of how Satan is using the Media today to turn people against the Jews as he did in the time of the Nazis. In the Bible Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” and the word used for “air” in the Greek text of the Bible describes the atmosphere just above the surface of the earth where the radio and television waves circumnavigate the globe.
Thirdly, and most importantly, God wants the Jews back in Israel, because God wants them to have an encounter with the Messiah our Lord Jesus. This is an appointment they cannot avoid. According to scripture this spiritual encounter will happen in the land of Israel. (Zechariah 12:10-14) For the faithful remnant in Israel already foreknown to God, in that day it will be for His elect people “Life from the Dead!” Why? because “the gifts and call of God are irrevocable!” (Romans 11:29)
To sum up then, King Solomon has written “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” With rampant anti-Semitism rapidly transversing the earth and in the light of its past history one may well ask the question; “Is there nothing new under the sun?” However when the Lord Jesus comes back and all Israel has been saved everything will change! Everything will be different and ultimately “everything under the sun will be new!” We have the Lord Jesus’ word on that score! He, who said to His bondslave the Apostle John; “And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
Some parts* of this post have been taken from an article written by Graham Land, 13 August 2018 on the website History Hit.