Why Anitsemitism?

 Why do so many people hate the Jews?  What causes antisemitism?  I have wondered that for years.  The Jewish population of the United States is a mere 5.8 million people out of a total population of some 330 million or 1.75%.  On the other hand they have had an outsized influence on science, music, and the arts, so shouldn't we celebrate that? Instead, so many seem to be jealous.

Molly Slag yesterday at the American Thinker also asked the question in a post entitled The October 7 massacre in Israel raises important questions for America. Her answer, that it's because Islam demands it, is true enough as far as it goes. But it begs the question of why does Islam demand it. There are far more Arabs in the Middle East, and the average person there could easily go about his day without thinking even once of the Jews. Here is Slag:

Question #1: Why Do Muslims hate Jews?

This question has been simmering for a long time. We have probably all known the answer for years, but a recent flurry of internet postings on this very question makes it very clear that the reason Muslims hate Jews is because Islam mandates it, and all Muslims are taught it from infancy.

Hating and killing Jews is a religious obligation of Islam! That means this is a problem that has no solution.

Our American constitutional right to freedom of religion did not envision a religion of mandatory murder. Jews and Judaism are protected under American law. Can Islam be protected also? Can a Muslim claim First Amendment constitutional religious liberty as a defense in court to a charge of murdering a Jew? How do we deal with this?

I included the second part of her question because it is important to the United States in particluar, although not to the question of why antisemitism. Back when the United States still included sane people, we refused to admit Utah because the Mormon religion sanctioned polygamy. As a Christian nation, we did not. Therefore, we recognized then that there were certain things that fell outside the First Amendments religious freedom clause, no matter that some people might claimed them as their religious right. But put that aside for now.  We will take that up in another post.

The question remains, why does Islam in particular, but even more puzzling, why do so many people hate the Jews. The hatred is deep, passionate, and seemingly inexplicable. The other day, I saw a brief exchange between a "Palestinian journalist" and Radm John Kirby in which the "journalist" claimed 160 relatives had been killed by the Israelis. The "journalist" attempted to ask a question about the defeat by the Israelites of the Amalekites but was the rest of his question was lost. The defeat of the Amalekites takes place in the book of Exodus, chapter 17, placing it approximately 3500-4000 years ago. The Bible records other battles with the Amalekites, but the one thing to note about them is that they were the offspring of Esau, the brother of Isaac. And Issac was the father of Israel, not Esau.  Aha!

Stay with me here, there is a reason I bring all this up. In Genesis is a story relating to the building of a ziggurat at a place called Babel. In the story of the Tower of Babel, the Most High God, Yahweh, notices that the people have one language and that nothing they set out to do was beyond them. Thus, again we have the sin of Eden, where men at the urging of the serpent Lucifer, sought to set themselves in God's seat. Therefore, he scattered the people and confounded their language. Again, this is a theological story, not a literal one. In essence he washed his hands of mankind. He then apportioned the nations of the earth to the different members of his Heavenly Host to manage.  Meanwhile He took the land of Caanan for himself. Shortly thereafter he calls Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees and makes a covenant with him to father the people of Yahweh. Abram became Abraham, and fathered Esau and Isaac.

The reasons are better explained in the book The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser, but if we understand that man is constantly tempted by Lucifer or Satan, or by a hundred other names, though the Father of Lies may be out best description, we come to the reason for hatred of the Jews. The Muslims hate the Jews because as they are the offspring of the one from whom the Promise was stolen, they naturally want to get even. (They could, of course, accept Christ as their savior, but have consciously chosen not to.)  More importantly, all men want to set themselves on the throne of Yahweh. It is the original sin. We are constantly tempted by the Father of Lies, which explains the natural animosity to God, and thus the Jews

The good news is that God has reconciled mankind to Himself through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We have nothing to do with it, indeed we could not do it. God had to do it for us. Our "job" is to be grateful.