The seeds of the Holocaust can be traced back centuries

To The Daily Sun,

Israel is an extremely sensitive issue worldwide. When someone criticizes Israeli domestic policy, epithets fly. However, the majority of criticism around the world comes from people who are critical of controversial Israeli policies. For instance, Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper (founded 1918) recently ran an opinion piece titled, “It’s Not anti-Semitism That Makes Defending Israel in America So Hard. It’s Netanyahu”.

Israel passed a law last summer that only worsens the situation in their society, declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel. Symbolic or not, Netanyahu stated afterward, “This is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel.” These are the moments that anti-Semites lie in wait for. Others, however, want Israel to change direction.

More examples of decent people critical of Israeli domestic policies can be found in Haaretz’s opinion pieces, “Netanyahu Now Endorses Jewish Fascism: U.S. Jews, Cut Your Ties With Him Now” and “Netanyahu to Make It Official: Fascism Is What We Are”. When Jews call Jewish politicians fascists, we had better listen.

American and European Jews are unhappy with Netanyahu’s drift to the right which meant forming alliances with unsavory elements like the extremist party Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) in order to win re-election. Its leaders have supported violence against Palestinians, the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, and banning intermarriage or sex between Jews and Arabs. Netanyahu’s relationship with ultra-orthodox fundamentalist elements also troubles Jews worldwide.

Regarding the website “The Religion of Peace” — It is a hate site with one goal: to demonize Islam and make life difficult for all Muslims. The statistics from this website are from sources like known Muslim-hater Robert Spencer. One recent letter demanded proof that the site’s statistics are false. That is not how it works in the real world. It is up to the claimant of something’s positive existence to provide evidence. Doubt is a logical default position against any claim until evidence arises to change that position. The detestable writers who use The Religion of Peace website have never even tried to bring corroborating evidence because they can’t. Don’t trust statistics from hate-motivated sites.

Have you ever wondered where the most poisonous seeds of the Holocaust were sown? The answer is the Christian Church. Beginning in the 4th century, church councils began to attack Jews. The Council of Elvira forbade a Christian girl from marrying a Jew. Just like a Nuremberg Law. Canon 50 states, “If any cleric or layperson eats with Jews, he or she shall be kept from communion as a way of correction.” No church for you! And don’t forget “Saint” John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, who stood on the streets and railed against Jews daily in the late 4th century. He also wrote a series of homilies called “Against the Jews.” Here is an excerpt:

“The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, rapacious, greedy. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them.”

Over a millennium later, Martin Luther was just as despicable. In his book “The Jews and Their Lies” he wrote, “Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously....” Luther even suggests, “First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.”

If you want to know where the seeds of the Nuremberg laws and the Holocaust were sown, study Christian history, especially their church council canons and the Emperors’ imperial decrees against Jews. One can clearly see the thread running from the earliest church councils to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 and into today.

James Veverka

Tilton