A malignant threat rises yet again

On the morning of Oct. 7, as the sun rose in southern Israel, Hamas terrorists descended on Nahal Oz, a Kibbutz near the Gaza border. They forced a 17-year-old boy, Tomer Eliaz, to go door-to-door in his own neighborhood, summoning his friends and their parents to come out of their homes, where terrorists would then gun them down in cold blood. Then, they killed Eliaz.

That same morning, 12-year-old Ariel Zohar went for a jog, not knowing he’d never see his family again. While he ran, terrorists slaughtered his mother, father, and two sisters. On Oct. 18, dressed in black, he mourned, alone, the loss of his precious loved ones.

These are just two cruel snapshots of the horror that occurred in Israel in recent days. Forensic scientists are still digging through the scenes of the massacre, painstakingly identifying the charred remains of women, babies, and the elderly, including many Holocaust survivors. Lifelong, battle-hardened generals and veteran pathologists have said this is the worst thing they have ever seen. United States Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, who spent many years in the fight against ISIS, said these atrocities were worse. One journalist who toured a makeshift morgue set up in Southern Israel described the scene: “Everywhere I looked as I toured this morgue yesterday was a vision of hell. The sights are too distressing to describe and the putrid stench of death will stay with me for days. Many of the slaughtered innocents have gunshot wounds through their hands, as they tried in vain to defend themselves from the bullets.”

Yet the images of the bodies of families tied together and burned alive, the bags of headless baby corpses, and the blood-spattered walls of the homes of the innocent are juxtaposed against the inexplicable support for Hamas by the rising tide of anti-Semitism worldwide.

The blood of dead Jewish victims were still warm when masses began gathering in cities around the world, not mourning the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, but celebrating these acts of terror. Students on college campuses donned parachute symbols, as if dropping into a neighborhood of innocents and gunning down pregnant woman is somehow a badge of honor.

Ignorance on the part of young people indoctrinated by left-wing successor ideology is perhaps understandable, though indefensible. What is more disturbing is the impulse of some Christians to join them. Mere days after the attacks, a few social justice-leaning believers could find no words to condemn Hamas, but instead chose to condemn evangelicals who support Israel’s right to exist. Others reflexively ran with Hamas propaganda of supposed Israeli atrocities in Gaza, even when audio and video evidence and independent analysis proved these charges false. There is even a statement circulating, calling American evangelicals to repent of their support for Israel, a statement that makes no mention of the atrocities of Oct. 7. At this moment, some are naively calling for a ceasefire, as if those who casually behead babies and gun down Holocaust survivors would honor a piece of paper.

It’s flatly wrong to equate those standing against anti-Semitism and supporting Israel’s right to exist with wishing the demise of Palestinians, as if human dignity is a zero-sum game. Christian supporters of Israel care deeply for and minister to the needs of the Palestinian innocents in Gaza. We’ve never offered unchecked support for every action by the Israeli government, though we do support, based on Romans 13 and just war theory, limited but necessary action to punish evil and protect citizens. Our statements bear that out, and our actions on the ground prove it. The conditions in Palestine are deplorable, largely the fruit of corrupt governments unwilling to build a flourishing society for their people. But there is no moral equivalence between a nation-state opening up humanitarian corridors in a time of war and a ruthless death cult like Hamas, whose charter calls for annihilation.

It’s also disturbing that many evangelicals, with significant platforms, who typically weigh in on every trendy cause with a new Instagram square or a hashtag, have not yet found the words to condemn the mass slaughter of Jewish people. Somehow, they’ve allowed John Fetterman, Lebron James, and others to speak with more moral clarity. But social justice uninterested in the survival of Israel is all social and no justice. We’ve heard that “silence is violence,” but what if there is real violence and some are silent?

Standing against anti-Semitism doesn’t require a certain view of eschatology. It only requires an open Bible and a cursory knowledge of history. Since the days of Abraham, the Jewish people have been the target of those seeking their annihilation, from Haman to Hitler to Hamas. To side with those who seek to destroy Israel is not to stand on the side of justice, but instead reflects the spirit of anti-Christ, for Jesus is a Jewish man from Galilee.

American Christians can stand up for the survival of Israel without apology and stand with Palestinian innocents at the same time. To do any less, is to abandon the way of Christ.