|
Contents
The slippery slope
by Thomas S. McCall, Th.D
|
ZOLA LEVITT
|
An elder of our messianic congregation,
Shalom, Shalom,*
submitted a church newsletter to our ministry this month.
Our senior theologian, who holds degrees from Talbot and
Dallas Theological Seminaries, deals with that important
letter below. Dr. McCall will continue his discussion of
Armageddon in the next issue.
|
Thomas McCall
|
Last month our newsletter
chronicled how once strong dispensational
seminaries and Bible schools have begun to shift away from their
moorings and move into the uncharted waters of a new doctrine called
Progressive Dispensationalism, which has been demonstrated to be
Scripturally erroneous by eminent theologians like Drs. Walvoord, Ryrie
and Ice. In spite of the declarations of the schools' doctrinal
statements that the dispensations must not be confused or intermingled,
the Progressive Dispensationalists are signing the doctrinal statements,
but they are teaching that Millennial events (such as Christ reigning on
the throne of David) are occurring now during the Church Age. Such
confusion is leading to a massive disinterest in the Rapture of the
Church, the future of Israel, and prophetic teaching in general among
the graduates now being turned out by these institutions whose former
exegetical glory is beginning to fade.
Now our attention has been drawn to yet another indication that these
very schools are showing other signs of sliding down the slippery slope
— and they are actually acting in concert with one another. The
newsletter of the Countryside Bible Church located near the Dallas-Fort
Worth Airport refers to an article in the Moody Student
last year stating that Moody President, Joseph Stowell, and Wheaton
President Duane Litfin met with Cardinal Francis George in the Chicago
area: "Stowell reported that there was agreement on social issues.
Litfin said he didn't know what the relationship with the Cardinal might
lead to, but it's better to have such a relationship than not to have
one."
In addition, the same Countryside church newsletter laments the
invitation of the Roman Catholic moralist Bill Bennet to speak at the
recent conference at Dallas Seminary entitled Standing Strong for
the Truth. Dr. Stowell of Moody Bible Institute was also a
featured speaker at this conference. Thus, Dallas Seminary, Moody Bible
Institute and Wheaton College have all made steps in concert with one
another toward cooperation with Roman Catholic leaders.
The Countryside church is particularly concerned with these developments
because many of its members are former Roman Catholics who have received
Christ as Savior. The church feels that these schools are pulling the
rug out from under them in their efforts to rescue people from the false
teaching of Roman Catholicism with the Gospel, when these theological
scholars openly consort with Catholic leaders. When we cooperate too
closely with Roman Catholicism, we may well compromise the doctrine of
Soteriology, the teaching of salvation by grace through faith alone, and
make evangelism among Catholics and in Catholic countries much harder to
accomplish. In a similar way, the teaching of Progressive
Dispensationalism blurs the distinctions between Israel and the Church,
greatly affecting the doctrine of Eschatology, and makes the ministry to
Israel and the Jewish people all the more difficult. One of the saddest
results of these developments in the formerly strong Bible schools and
seminaries is the dampening effect they have had on these efforts of
evangelism.
My esteemed professor, Dr. Charles Feinberg, Dean at Talbot Seminary
(before it went into Progressive Dispensationalism), often taught us
that Biblical theology is like a beautiful tapestry. On the one side is
the marvelous, colorful theme. On the other side are all the threads
showing that make up the artistic picture. If you start pulling on a
thread here and a thread there, it begins to distort the whole tapestry.
When you begin to disturb the delicate balance of Biblical theology and
the dispensational tapestry of the Scriptures by pulling on one doctrine
or another, it can have catastrophic results. The founders of the great
Bible schools and seminaries endeavored to safeguard the institutions
with doctrinal statements, but those who are changing things are finding
ways to get around the doctrinal statements and make dramatic shifts in
the teachings at the schools. As we see above, it is changing the
attitudes of the students toward the Church, Salvation, Roman
Catholicism and Israel. There are still some good teachers at these
schools who remain faithful to the Word and the convictions of the
founders, but their number and strength is decreasing with every passing
semester. It appears that only a miracle from the Lord besought by the
prayers of the saints can turn the tide.
* We meet at 7:30 each Friday evening at
the Biblical Arts Center
located at Park Lane and Boedeker in Dallas.
 Return to Index
Fountain of Life Church
April 16, 2000
6800 Denton Hwy.
Fort Worth, TX 76148
817-485-5433
Israel Tour
April 19 Through May 4
Shalom, Shalom Messianic Congregation
Every Friday Night 7:30 pm,
Biblical Arts Center,
7500 Park Lane at Boedeker,
Dallas, Texas 75225
214-691-4661
Return to Index
Editorial
The Arab Jihad Against Israel
By Jeff Jacoby
In a stucco building in Tel Aviv, standing under a dusty portrait of
Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel's declaration of
independence [52] years ago... It was a short document, just 19 brief
paragraphs, two of which were a plea for peace.
"We appeal... to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve
peace and participate in the building up of the state on the basis of
full and equal citizenship and representation in all its...
institutions."
"We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an
offer of peace and good will and appeal to them to establish bonds of
cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in
its own land."
The Arabs responded to that plea with all-out war. Within hours
of the ceremony in Tel Aviv, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,
Lebanon, and Iraq had crossed Israel's borders. "This will be a war of
extermination and a momentous massacre," exulted Azaam Pasha,
secretary-general of the Arab League, "which will be spoken of like the
Mongolian massacres and the Crusades!"
The territory of the new Jewish state had been determined by the United
Nations, which had voted to divide Palestine between its Jewish and Arab
inhabitants. The partition map was drawn so as to restrict the Jews to
those parts of Palestine in which they were a majority. It gave them
three separated blocks of land linked only at two narrow choke points.
Sixty percent of the Jews' portion was desert, and it excluded all the
historic Jewish sites in Jerusalem, in the Judean Hills, and around the
Sea of Galilee. It was far less than the Jews had hoped for.
But however modest and fragile, it represented the first chance in 1,900
years for a sovereign Jewish state. For that reason, the Zionist leaders
accepted the UN partition. The Arab leaders, for the same reason,
rejected it.
The Israeli-Arab dispute has never been about occupied territories or
settlements or Palestinian refugees. At the end of the day, it has
always been about one thing: the refusal of the Arab/Muslim world to
tolerate a Jewish neighbor. It doesn't matter that Israel is tiny. (It
takes up less space than Lake Michigan.) It doesn't matter that Israel
is outnumbered. (There are two dozen Arab/Muslim states, stretching from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayas.) It matters only that Israel is
Jewish and therefore intolerable.
Occupied territories? Israel no longer holds the Sinai Peninsula.
It has repeatedly offered to return the Golan Heights to Syria in
exchange for a peace treaty. The Gaza Strip has been handed over to
Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, along with every Arab population
center on the West Bank. More than 95 percent of Palestinian Arabs are
now ruled by Arafat, not Israel. All the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem
are under Islamic control. Benjamin Netanyahu has even floated schemes
for Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the narrow security belt it
patrols in southern Lebanon.
There is no more "occupation." On its [52nd] anniversary, Israel [will
be] more or less back to where it was before the Six Day War: namely,
inside skimpy borders, surrounded by nations that have always wished to
see it wiped out.
It can be difficult for Americans, who are not a race of haters, to
grasp the pervasiveness and intensity of the Arab world's hostility. But
it is not possible to make sense of Israel's first [52] years without
being aware of the deep anti-Semitism of its neighbors.
In the 1940s, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem urged Hitler to deal with
the "problem" of Palestine's Jews by the "same method that the question
is now being settled in the Axis countries." In the 1960s, Egyptian
ruler Gamal Nasser declared: "Our basic objective will be the
destruction of Israel." In the 1990s, Saddam Hussein swore to "burn half
of Israel with fire" and launched Scud missiles at Israeli apartment
buildings.
There are individuals in every Arab society who believe in tolerance
and understanding. But theirs is not the voice of the mainstream. In the
Palestinian Authority today, it is a crime punishable by death to sell
land to Jews. The unrepealed Palestine National Covenant still calls for
the "liberation" of Israel by violence. Little girls on Palestinian TV
sing songs glorifying suicide bombers. And the current mufti in
Jerusalem, an Arafat appointee, denounces Jews as the "sons of monkeys
and pigs."
The reasons why so many Arabs despise Israel are complex. In part,
it is that Islam portrays Jews as infidels and the enemies of Allah. In
part, it is the feeling of inferiority brought on by the long centuries
of Arab decline. In part, it is the need for a unifying passion-hatred
of Israel helps hold together Arabs who so often hate each other.
But what a pity. The Arab world has been so busy assaulting and
anathematizing the Jewish state when it could have benefited richly from
a neighbor with so much to offer. In their own back yard occurred one of
history's astonishments—the return of the Jewish people to its
never-forgotten homeland. What the prophets foretold millennia ago, the
Arabs were privileged to witness up close. Secure in their numbers, in
their vast territory, in their petro-wealth, they could have opened
their arms in welcome. Some, like the courageous Anwar Sadat, eventually
turned to peace. For his pains, he was assassinated.
On Israel's 50th anniversary, its neighbors seem as lost in
bitterness and backwardness as ever. Perhaps, before the next 50 years
slip by, they will finally grasp the hand of friendship they were
offered in 1948.
Return to Index
Zola's Bulletin Board
Fund Raising
Why did our February Levitt Letter's bulletin board say
that year-end contributions had stabilized this ministry while our
Tell It on the Mountains TV rerun appealed for funds? First
of all, we maintain minimal reserves deliberately so that we won't get
caught with too many unsown seeds should the Lord return. Secondly, we
always seek to increase the percentage of viewers who share in bearing
our burden. The February bulletin board announcement gratefully called
off a yellow alert that we had given to our most loyal supporters in the
face of a primetime special and a two-year financial deficit. The
February TV appeal sought to recruit new contributors. Ninety-seven
percent of our viewers never help the three percent who support us, and
we will always try to improve this ratio in a manner that glorifies God.
Passover Conference Review
Our mid-March Passover Conference was rated by many as the best
conference they had ever attended. Unsurpassed praise & worship,
inspired teaching plus freebies that included box lunches and The
Biblical Arts Center's Celebration performance made this one of the best
values we have ever offered. In terms of blessings per hour, Zola's
conferences rate right up there with our Institute of Jewish-Christian
Studies and our Israel tours.
Cyber Broadcasters
How does a small ministry like ours manage to broadcast
our TV program on the Internet? The answer lies in the
blessings and efforts of Pat and Claudia Rutherford,
who founded Praise Broadcasting Network and WRN. Thanks
to them, anyone in the world with Internet access and
a modem that is 28.8k or faster can watch half a dozen
of Zola's programs any hour of the day for free! Just go
to www.levitt.com, click on
"Zola on Internet TV" and
follow the directions. If other ministries you support wish
to reach Internet surfers who need Christ (millions & millions),
then we know of no better way than
contacting WRN at
www.worshipradio.com/brates.htm.
Airing Updates
The Christian Channel in Great Britain airs Zola Levitt
Presents on Friday afternoons at 2:30. On May 14, the Christian
TV Network of NY will begin airing Zola on Sunday afternoons at 2:00.
KVTN-25, in Little Rock, AR, now carries our program at 4:00 PM on
Saturdays. After the preemptions on April 7 and 9, INSP and TBN will
resume normal broadcasting:
TBN: Sundays, 2:30 PM ET, 1:30 CT, 12:30 MT, 11:30 PT
INSP: Friday evenings, 10:00 PM ET, 9:00 CT, 8:00 MT, 7:00 PT
As you may know, our largest network, FAM (formerly CBN), airs Zola on
Friday at 6:30 AM ET, 5:30 CT, 4:30 (or 7:30) MT, 6:30 PT. Yes, thanks
to their dual feed, FAM broadcasts our program at 6:30 Friday mornings
on both coasts.
For a free copy of our National
Airing Schedule, please write to our P.O. Box or visit
www.levitt.com.
Holy Land Dig
How about vacationing at a kibbutz, a cooperative farm in Israel? Our
Kibbutz Tour, June 7 - 16, lower priced than our standard tours, will
give you a chance to experience digging for archaeological treasures
(tools provided). If you are as much a historian as a tourist, then this
could be your cup of tea. For those who want to experience Israel's high
holidays of 2000, there will be no better opportunity than our Fall
Festival Tours, departing September 6 and 11. To determine which is
better for you, please request your color tour folder from Diana at
(214) 696-9760, during office hours, or1-800-WONDERS anytime.
Return to Index
A Note From Zola
Dear Friends,
Among our letter responses to the criticism of the seminaries in the
past two Levitt Letters were questions on whether we were
going to stop this at some point and "get back to important issues."
Frankly, I don't know what could be a more important issue than the
teaching of erroneous doctrines by Dallas Seminary, Moody Bible
Institute, Talbot Seminary, Biola College, and any number of other
formerly fine and trustworthy Bible schools. Please know that we will
never stop chronicling their errors, if they make them, and that I
regard this as an essential part of our ministry. In view of the fact
that we have a very large audience of Bible-reading Christians, we feel
a responsibility to report to that audience good news and bad about
what's going on in our Christian community. We will not take space to
criticize liberal seminaries or any other of those obviously in error
for years, but with the deterioration of some of the finest and most
trusted schools, we don't intend to let up.
We should remember that Harvard and Yale, among others, were Bible
schools when they began, and they awarded meaningful divinity degrees.
Today, those schools are laughably out of touch with Scripture and off
into their own world of modernity. I appeared once on a television talk
show with a panel that included the president of the Yale Divinity
School of the time. He was a handsome, well-spoken gentleman, as are all
seminary presidents these days, but he seemed a bit vague on Scripture.
At one point in the discussion, I looked him straight in the eye and
quoted several verses. He looked back at me blankly, indicating that he
had no idea of the source of my quotations.
I'm convinced that if someone had chronicled the deterioration of Yale
and the others at the time that they fell out of step with correct
Scriptural teaching, then the deterioration might have been slowed or
even arrested altogether. As it is now, those fine universities have
nothing whatever to contribute to Bible study in our time.
In Dr. McCall's excellent article on the new ecumenism of the seminaries
— the meetings with Roman Catholic officials — we see the
liberalizing of our schools. Once doctrine is compromised, then it
becomes easier to talk to those to whom correct Biblical doctrine is of
lesser importance. And so it goes.
On a happier note, Passover and Resurrection Sunday are coming up.
Please watch our programs on Passover and First Fruits (you won't likely
learn much about these important festivals in any seminary). Passover,
the most basic Bible study of them all and the occasion when the Lord
instituted the Last Supper, is almost like secret information to be
passed on by Messianic Jews to the Christian community. I remember when
Dallas Baptist University, in days when they cared more about accurate
Bible teaching, asked me to do a Passover demonstration. The president
at that time was so fascinated that he immediately appointed me to teach
a course called "Christ in the Old Testament," and I did that for two
years. I can promise you that there are several classrooms full of
students out there in the world somewhere who know their seven feasts,
their tabernacle types, and are capable of demonstrating a full Passover
in all its glory. What witnesses they must be compared to the
politically correct and woefully unknowledgeable graduates of today.
You may notice that I do not use the term "Easter" in reference to
Resurrection Sunday. That term is just incorrect and doesn't accurately
appear in Scripture at all. Easter is the name of Ishtar, the Babylonian
goddess of fertility. The Babylonians held a fertility festival every
spring, putting on new outfits as the trees were budding and worshipping
the things in nature that represented fertility: the rabbit, the egg,
etc. They played with eggs and painted them, I presume. When we think
about it, what we call an egg hunt is actually an attempt at pregnancy!
How all this pagan foolishness got mixed up with our Lord's resurrection
is one of the amazing calamities of incorrect doctrine. Fertility and
resurrection are entirely different, of course. Every plant and every
cockroach is fertile, but one obtains resurrection only from belief in
Jesus Christ.
First Fruits is the Biblical name of Resurrection Sunday, and we
should use it. It reminds us that if there is a first, then there
must be a succession of numbers in the resurrection, and indeed, 1
Corinthians 15:23 states, "...every man in his own order: Christ the
first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Evidently
we all have a number in the upcoming resurrection at the time of the
Rapture: "The dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 Thes. 4:16).
Obviously, they have lower numbers.
The above lesson is part of the Passover and seven feasts studies, which
are obtainable through this ministry,
Jews for Jesus and a few
others, and usually not at Christian seminaries. The knowledge, however,
is valuable. Its basis is in Israel, of course, where it has been
commonly understood for thousands of years. There's something about that
place that really increases one's comprehension of spiritual things.
Come and see it for yourself! Our
Kibbutz Tour, June 7- 16, is
perfectly timed for students and teachers on summer holiday. It is also
ideal for the budget-minded pilgrim, as it is our most economical tour.
We will stay in comfortable, cooperative farm guesthouses in the forests
and mountains of Israel. It offers the same itinerary as our Deluxe
Tours, but we have an exciting addition —we are going on an actual
archaeological dig. We will visit all the major Biblical sites as well
as enjoy other spiritually enriching and educational experiences.
This fall, we are offering the
Ultra Grand Tour
(September 6-24)
for the first time ever. You can cruise the incredibly beautiful Greek
islands of Mykonos, Patmos, and Rhodes aboard a luxury liner, visit the
Parthenon and the Acropolis in Athens, see Mars Hill and Corinth and
Ephesus, Turkey. Then you will tour Israel with the
Deluxe Tour
(September 11-21), before joining the
Grand Tour (September 11-24) for
the extension to the resort city of Eilat and the rose-red city of Petra
in Jordan. You can choose from any or all of these options. For a
full-color brochure, call 1-800-WONDERS any time, or call Diana or Becky
at 214-696-9760 during office hours for further information.
[or click here for an online form]
Let us know how you like our "This Is Israel!" series.
And please remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
— Your messenger,
Return to Index
Dear Zola, Dear Brother Zola and fellow workers, staff, etc.,
Carry on! It has always been and will be until the Lord comes! Anyone
standing in the gap will always be "shot at!" You're doing the right
thing to name those schools that aren't teaching the whole counsel of
God. I have to wonder where other schools stand on this issue —such
as Grace Theological Seminary. This school has been in the past okay,
but when one hears of schools such as Talbot and Moody, it casts other
schools into question—where do the ones not mentioned stand?
Keep up the good work, we "lesser lights" are praying for
you and Dr. McCall and your staff. I appreciate your
Sunday 3:30 program over on Cornerstone TV. I would
like to receive your free monthly letter if that's possible.
Sincerely in Christ,
G.L.J.
Dear GLJ,
Test any school with Dr. McCall's DIET,
— Zola
Dear Zola and Sandra,
Ever since I read in your newsletter about the
Shalom, Shalom
services, I had dreams of one day being able to
attend. It was wonderful to be there and especially to
see and hear you, Zola, teach in person. Since K. and I
traveled in Israel last May, she especially enjoyed the
teachings. We enjoy your TV program. It is beautifully
done and touches my heart every time. Thanks again for
including us for dinner. It was delicious and very special
to share the evening with all of you.
My prayers for your ministry will continue with greater
significance. I thank God that He has allowed me to
experience Israel and lift the veil from my face to understand
His plan for Israel and the Jewish people. I look
forward to keeping in touch with you.
I will keep you informed about the pearl ring and God's
provisions for K.'s and my trip to Israel. It is a precious
story and has God's fingerprints all over it. We are so
excited to experience what God has planned for us. We
pray that we can be of service in organizing a BSF [Bible
Study Fellowship] prayer group in Israel.
Shalom, for Zion's sake,
C.A.
Dear Zola,
Your New Year's Eve program was just what the world needs today.
May we have ears to hear — and then do.
This 77-year-old brain has a hard time keeping abreast, but I'm thankful
for my VCR* — you were put on the "menu" as soon as I received word
you were moving (plus New Year's Eve).
Your programs are such a blessing!!
Am I wrong or is there an awakening to our Jewish roots? To me it seems
people are becoming more aware of the need to recognize them; but then,
there is the hard element that accuse you of being legalistic if you try
to bring Israel up.
You are so right about God instilling a love for His Chosen when He
saves you. I know He did me. People say they marvel about the way I feel
about them. Going on your "pilgrimage" in 1993 made even a deeper
hunger. How thankful I am my husband got to go. You were so considerate.
I lost him the following March after 50 years of marriage, but he's with
His Lord, so I'm happy.
May He bless your ministry. Enclosed is my love offering.
—C.S.
|
* Not only do we recommend VCR recording of Zola Levitt Presents,
we encourage you to share the tapes. You are welcome to copy
our materials, not to sell, but only to give away free. —Zola
|
Dear Zola,
I am 92 years old. I looked all my life for the truth of
God. Thank you, thank you. Love and God bless you.
— A.S.
Dear Zola,
Dr. Erwin Lutzer [of Moody Church] had a wonderful sermon
today on prophecy and clearly spoke of the validity
of God's promise to Abraham with regard to Israel. Of
course, I realize there may be teachers at Moody Seminary
who don't agree, and I'm thrilled when you point it out.
But you must also mention that Moody Church is on the
side of God's Biblical statements.
I was dismayed when I heard you say that Moody and
Dallas Theological Seminaries were teaching that the
church has replaced Israel. So I was thrilled to hear Dr.
Lutzer speak today.
Your ministry is daily in my prayers,
L.S.
Dear L.S.,
We didn't say that the seminaries are teaching actual
Replacement Theology, but that they are heading in that
direction. And we realize that different professors teach
different things. But there are seminaries where one doesn't
have to worry about what professor one gets or where
he went to college. Seminaries are spoiled by small steps
away from the Scripture by part of the faculty. If you check
universities like Harvard and Yale, they started as divinity
schools, and now they would laugh at the Bible.
Giving credit where it's due, I for one would avoid schools
that are on that broad path toward liberalism.
Zola
Dear Zola,
I am the project officer for a small church library. I am
very concerned about the errancy of many of the books
out there I could possibly put in it. Do you have any type
of list of books that either dabble in revisionist history or
in progressive dispensationalism? We've been watching
the show and receiving the Levitt Letters for awhile now
and really appreciate the ministry. I have, over the past
11/2 years or so, become more and more interested in
the roots of my relationship with the Lord and have
come to understand Israel with a new love and respect.
Thank you,
S.E.
Dear S.E.,
Thank you for your compliments. We have not studied all
the books out there, which truly run from woefully incorrect
to terrific. Book publishers are profit-making organizations
and tend toward emphasizing sales rather than
accuracy of teaching. Zondervan, for example, was one
of the most careful publishers when I wrote for them in
the early '70s, but they became the publishers of Gundry's
awful textbook. Moody press, with whom Dr. McCall and
I published a number of bestsellers, is a publishing house
I would not deal with today for several reasons.
I think you'll have to check the books out for yourself. One
collection I can recommend 100% is on this ministry's
book list.
Zola
Return to Index
Editorial
...and the persecution of Christians worldwide
By Paul Liben
The Washington Times
As this century draws to a close, a fundamental human right is still
being withheld from much of the world's people. That right is the
freedom to practice one's religion according to the dictates of one's
conscience.
Across much of the globe, membership in a religious minority has long
meant exposure to a host of potential abuses ranging from harassment to
murder. To be a Hah'I in Iran, a Jew in certain Arab countries, a Muslim
within Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's reach, or a Hindu in
Pakistan has often been challenging at best and a threat to life and
limb at worst.
Clearly, every minority has suffered religious persecution, but in our
time, the lion's share has been borne by those naming Christ as the Lord
and Savior of their lives. In this century, more Christians have been
martyred than in all the prior centuries combined, and Christian martyrs
have greatly outnumbered those of all other faiths.
Perhaps the world's most ferocious abuser of religious freedom is the
government of Sudan, Africa's largest country geographically. Since
1983, at least 2 million southern Sudanese, largely Christians, have
been killed, and at least 5 million made homeless in an escalating jihad
waged by its radical Islamic rulers in the north. It is now indisputable
that the regime in Khartoum has been behind the mass kidnapping of
southern Sudanese women and children, thousands of whom have been
subsequently sold into slavery and/or compelled to renounce their faith
and convert to Islam. Crucifixion is also practiced, as priests and
other Christian clergy have been targeted in an effort to terrorize
their flocks.
To the north of Sudan, the Coptic Christians, who have had a presence in
Egypt for at least 16 centuries, live in fear for their lives, thanks to
an upsurge of activity by radical groups that see them as threats to the
Islamic purity of the nation. Rapes, beatings and murder have resulted,
and the evidence points to the complicity of local police and other
security officials, who at best do nothing and at worst aid and abet the
perpetrators, according to human rights groups.
Another longtime persecutor of Christians is the world's largest
country, the People's Republic of China. Its Marxist rulers fear that
the rapid growth of converts to Christianity poses a clear threat to
their continued rule over one-fifth of the world's population. Vowing
that the church will not do to them what it did to communism in Eastern
Europe, they have allowed only government- controlled churches to
operate legally; the price these churches pay is a virtual inability to
share their faith with the bold freedom that the Gospel envisions.
Return to Index
Editorial
From The Washington Post
Charles Krauthammer
Peace of the Anti-Semites
On Jan. 4, Israel signed an agreement giving up yet another block of
West Bank territory to the Palestinian Authority. A week earlier, the
official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al Hayat
Al-Jadida, ran [a] cartoon [in which the] old man is labeled "the
20th century," the young man "the 21st century." The dwarf standing
between them and wearing a Jewish skullcap and a Star of David is
labeled "the disease of the century."
Blessed are the peacemakers.
On the other "peace" front, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with
the Syrian foreign minister in Shepherdstown, W.Va., to negotiate
Israel's giving up the Golan Heights, which protect Israel's northern
frontier from Syrian tanks. Just a few weeks earlier, in the Damascus
weekly of the Syria Arab writers' association (Al-'Usbu'
Al-Adabi), the following appeared:
"The Talmud's instructions, soaked in hatred and hostility towards
humanity, are [stamped] in the Jewish soul. Throughout history, the
world has known more than one Shylock. . . more than one Toma as a
victim of these Talmudic instructions and this hatred."
Peace be with you.
Toma is the Capuchin missionary, Father Thomas, who was murdered in
Damascus in 1840. The Jews of Damascus were accused of having killed him
to use his blood in Passover matzohs.
This blood libel is one of the oldest and most insane medieval fantasies
about Jews. Centuries ago it was believed enough that many Jews were
murdered on its account. In our era, those who continue to purvey it are
either lunatics or Syrians. It is not just their writers. In 1984, a
book called The Matzoh of Zion was published in
Damascus—with a preface defending the 1840 blood libel as truth,
written by Mustafa Tlass, Syria's minister of defense! In 1991, the
Syrian delegate to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights urged the
commission to read the book in order to learn the "historical reality of
Zionist racism."
When in the United States, Syrian spokesmen don't bring up blood libels.
(It was the Middle East Media and Research Institute that discovered the
revival of the Father Thomas incident.) They speak soothingly instead of
their deep desire for "the peace of the brave." Looking at what their
leaders tell their own people about Jews, however, one gets the distinct
impression that their ultimate goal is the peace of the grave.
These campaigns of anti-Semitism—not anti-Zionism, as some pretend,
but raw, brute anti-Jewish calumnies— are commonplace in the Arab
world, particularly in the state-controlled Palestinian, Syrian and
Egyptian press. Americans got an accidental glimpse of the virulence of
this hatred during Hillary Clinton's visit to Israel last November when
Suha Arafat accused Israel of causing cancer in Palestinian women and
children by means of poison gas.
Media attention focused on Clinton's lack of response. The real story,
however, was this glimpse at the savagery of the Arab elite's
commonplace discourse regarding Jews and Israelis. This, after all, was
not some ignorant functionary speaking, but the first lady of Palestine.
And it raises a very acute question: What type of peace do such
people—who call Jews the disease of the 20th century, who claim
that Judaism commands the slaughter of Gentiles for the ritual purpose
of eating of their blood—really have in mind?
The optimists, or call them fantasists, led by the Clinton
administration, simply ignore these manifestations of pathological
bigotry. They insist that the peace that Arafat and Assad want to make
with the perfidious Jews would be a permanent one.
Ehud Barak, no fantasist, is quite familiar with the press of his
neighbors and what it preaches about Jews, which is why he is trying to
obtain a peace, both with Syria and the Palestinians, that will leave
Israel with enough territory, enough strategic depth, enough defensible
positions to be able to withstand a renewed war in case the Arabs find
their hatred for Jews not quite fully assuaged by paper agreements.
Bill Clinton is another matter, however. He is in desperate search of a
legacy. And that for him means an agreement—any agreement—that
he can trumpet on the White House lawn. He doesn't really care about its
shape and content. He wants the ceremony.
But there is another legacy at stake in these negotiations. And that is
the legacy of the 5 million Jews who live in Israel, who in turn carry
the legacy of the 6 million who died in the Holocaust, and of the
countless others martyred over the millennia.
Their legacy is to bequeath to future generations a reborn Jewish state
that can defend itself. When push comes to shove in the negotiations,
their desire for a secure future will come into conflict with Clinton's
desire for an ostentatious diplomatic success. The question for Clinton
is whether he will have the statesmanship to subordinate his personal
political needs to the more enduring needs of an enduring peace.
Return to Index
Editorial
From The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
What Price Peace?
Money doesn't buy love. It doesn't buy happiness. But it just might help
Bill Clinton live down impeachment by buying him a Nobel Peace Prize.
Not Mr. Clinton's own money, of course, but the tens of billions of
dollars he will be asking American taxpayers to cough up to purchase
agreements between Israel, Syria and the Palestinian Authority. If peace
in the Mideast were really within reach, we have no doubt that the
American public would hardly balk at being asked to foot the bill. But
we wonder what the reaction will be once it dawns on people that the
money is an inducement for governments on both sides to sign on to
agreements they might not otherwise be inclined to accept.
During the... Israeli-Syrian talks in West Virginia, a figure of $18
billion has been bandied about for U.S. obligations to Israel alone. But
that's only to cover some of the costs of a Syrian deal. As Ze'ev Schiff
reported in... the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel is considering
asking the U.S. for a total of $65 billion-$70 billion to finance both
the Syrian and Palestinian agreements. That's a far more realistic
figure, given the $100 billion that the U.S. has given Israel and Egypt
since the Camp David accords.
Israel's figure amounts to nearly 100% of its annual GDP, and it doesn't
even cover the expenses of a possible indefinite American military
presence on the Golan Heights. Interestingly enough, Haaretz also
reports that in the event of a Golan agreement, Israel will reduce its
period of mandatory military service by six months. To put it mildly,
the perception that foreign soldiers and taxpayers are being asked to
give young Israelis more time on the beach in Tel Aviv won't exactly be
good for Israel's long-term relationship with Uncle Sam.
An even more interesting exercise might be to compare the Iraq that
remains the subject of United Nations sanctions and the Syria the
Clinton Administration now wants to shower with international largesse.
Both countries are run by vulnerable dictators who rule in the name of a
secular pan-Arab movement called Baathism, but who keep power only by
liquidating internal opponents with Stalinist frequency. Both have
justified invasions of neighboring countries (Iraq, Kuwait and Syria,
Lebanon and Israel) on fatuous grounds of historical rights to the land.
Both regimes have committed mass murder against their own people (Iraq
against the Kurds, while Syrian dictator Hafez Assad killed as many as
25,000 in a 1982 attack on the city of Hama). Both are inveterate
supporters of international terrorism. About the only difference is that
Syria gets along with Iran, and Iraq doesn't.
That last point brings us to the unspoken assumption that is surely a
decisive factor in the U.S. and Israel's desire to negotiate with Syria.
That Assad is to be propped up because the alternative is an Islamic
theocracy in Syria, too. The trouble with this line of reasoning is that
no amount of aid can significantly diminish the all too real likelihood
of a coup when Assad's son Bashar tries to assume power. The West might
very well find the new and improved military machine they construct for
Syria falling into the hands of Muslim fanatics, as happened in Iran
itself in 1979.
None of this is meant to suggest that we are opposed to Israel's ever
giving the Golan to Syria. But it should be done only when Syria has a
government stable and friendly enough to obviate the need for overly
burdensome foreign guarantees. If done, moreover, it ought also to be
recognized as a historic act of Israeli magnanimity. Indeed, it is hard
to take seriously a Syrian claim to the land based at once on the
complaint that Israel is a "colonial" presence in the region and the
insistence on borders drawn up by colonial powers France and Britain in
1923.
Let us hope that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who not long ago was
insisting that Israel should never relinquish the Golan, will not be
seduced by Clinton promises that may not pass the U.S. Congress or
survive a new administration. Let us hope, too, that Congress will not
let itself be demagogued into supporting a dangerous agreement. Real
peace is worth paying for. A dubious Clinton legacy is not.
Return to Index
Return to Levitt Letter Archive Index
Return to Home Page
|
