On the Future of the Jews

From Barbara Lerner at NRO:


It's Holocaust Remembrance Day, and secular Europe is sick of it. Certain that they have long since been cleansed of any guilt for the sins of their fathers, Eurosecs see themselves as the very incarnation of postmodern virtue. Naturally, they reject the grotesque racist stereotypes their fathers embraced. They know today's Jews are their moral inferiors for an entirely different, entirely factual, reason: that Israel is a poisonous foreign element in the Middle East — a racist, colonial state whose 5 million Jews are oppressing the Palestinians, occupying their land, and preventing peace and progress in the 22 failed Arab states that surround them.

That's leftist anti-semitism.


Catholic Europe sees Jews differently. Even though the Holocaust was a product of secular Europe, the Church is not sick of it; it's sick about it. From the end of World War II to the present, a succession of remarkable European popes have struggled to come to grips with the Church's responsibility. Men like Giovanni Roncalli of Italy, Karol Wojtyla of Poland, and Josef Ratzinger of Germany zeroed in on the old Christian idea that, in refusing to accept Christ, Jews defy God's will and become God's enemies. These popes faced up to the fact that this idea makes Jews seem wicked and hatred of them righteous, and makes it easy for secular forces to single them out for persecution whenever secular failures call for a scapegoat. The post-war popes decided that this idea isn't just destructive, it's false. The truth, as Pope Benedict XVI proclaims it today, is that God has a purpose for the Jews, and by maintaining their fidelity to the 3,700-year-old religion of Abraham, they are not defying God's will but fulfilling it.


And now, rightist semitophilia?


Evangelical Christians share the Catholic understanding that God has a purpose for the Jews, and take it one step further by focusing on the role of the state of Israel in fulfilling that purpose. They know God promised the sliver of sacred land between the River Jordan and the sea to the Jewish people because the Bible tells them so, and millions believe He has chosen the Jews to see that His promise — not the U.N.'s or the EU's — is fulfilled.
If you are growing uncomfortable at this point, dear reader, it may be because the Biblical claim to the Holy Land is the great unmentionable in American foreign policy. Amerisecs join with Eurosecs, the U.N., and the Arab League in insisting with lockstep unanimity that religious claims have no legitimate place in our Middle East policy, and in demonizing and dismissing any Christian or Jew who dares suggest otherwise as a dangerous fanatic, hell-bent on undermining our secular Republic and turning it into a medieval theocracy.


Now, Francis, we are talking about the real end of history, for the Jews are a key part of Christian eschatology, whether they want to admit it or not. (And whether or not certain Christians want to admit it.) Will the chosen people recognize Him when He returns? I hope so, but only time will tell.