One hundred days.
It’s been 100 days since terrorists invaded my homeland, the Jewish people’s only home, Israel.
It’s been 100 days since hundreds of Israelis were taken hostage.
It’s been 100 days of war and sorrow and uncertainty.
But after these 100 days, the one thing I am certain about—that I’ve always been certain about, and have seen more than ever in the days since Oct. 7—is that the Jewish state and the Jewish people have true friends in Christians around the world.
That’s why it has been so unsettling to see anti-Semitism being spread in the name of Christianity—by those on the fringes, and those in mainstream media. But you know who has not been fooled by these lies?
Israel has more than 700 million Christian friends worldwide. As people who value human life—in this fight against those who don’t hold life sacred, we all—Christians and Jews—must take a stand now, before it’s too late. The time to stand for Israel and the Jewish people in now, as hateful and dangerous anti-Semitism has risen by nearly 400 percent in the 100 days since Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish people.
Pro-Israeli supporters wave Israeli and pre-revolution Iranian flags as they gather for a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London on Jan. 14.
During these 100 days of war, I’ve been shocked to see centuries-old blood libels revived, which have always been intended to divide the Christian and Jewish communities and make them see one another as enemies: “The Jews killed Jesus…” (…no, the Romans did).
Over these past 100 days, I’ve also seen new anti-Semitic theories spread like wildfire, all of them, too, based on historical inaccuracies—including Munther Isaac in the New York Times and Father Edward Beck on CNN both saying that if Jesus were born today, he’d be a Palestinian (…no, Jesus was a Jew, born in what the Bible calls the Land of Israel, more than 100 years before Judea was named Palestine by the Romans).
As I’ve heard these dangerous, harmful, evil anti-Semitic tropes spewed, it makes me wonder why Jesus’ own people—the Jewish people—are being attacked in his name.
Because today, Jesus would be a Jewish citizen of the Jewish state—the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing, up 1.3 percent from the year before, with 187,900 Christians living in freedom. More than 20 percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish and enjoys full legal equality.
Jesus today, would be proud to be an Israeli.
Today, the Jewish Jesus certainly wouldn’t live in or even be allowed to visit biblical places like Gaza or Jericho or Bethlehem—these are places in which no Israelis are able to enter.
And like Israelis of all faiths—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—Jesus would be in the middle of this ongoing war. …
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