Israelis on the Run

In Genesis 12, we find that God appeared to a man named Abram, later renamed Abraham, and made an important promise to Him, later confirmed through a covenant agreement that still stands today. We can find these words:
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Violence erupted recently in the Netherlands at a soccer match, as Jews were attacked by pro- Palestinian protestors.  Now, a warning has been issued to Israelis in France by government officials from Israel, according to Worthy Christian News, which reported:

Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has urged Israeli soccer fans not to attend the match between France and Israel in Paris on Thursday after Jews were hunted in the streets of Amsterdam in scenes resembling the 1930s and World War Two.

The NSC, the Israeli government’s central security body, made the call after the antisemitic violence in the Dutch capital on Thursday following a match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amsterdam’s Ajax teams.

The city has announced that security will heightened at the event. 

Meanwhile, according to the article, "...in Amsterdam, police said they detained over 50 people during a pro-Palestine protest on Dam Square on Sunday. 'Also, 340 people were relocated,' the Amsterdam police said."  It added: "Pro-Palestinian groups wanted to rally on Sunday despite a protest ban in Amsterdam under an emergency decree imposed after the attacks against Jews shocked the nation."

The violence erupted on Thursday in Amsterdam at the soccer stadium.  Another Worthy News article noted:

Israel rushed to evacuate Jews from the Netherlands after the country’s worst antisemitic attacks since World War Two rocked Amsterdam following a soccer match between the Dutch capital’s Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv teams.

Numerous Jews were hunted and injured in assaults in central Amsterdam by what they said were pro-Palestine “Arabs” whom authorities diplomatically described as “scooter youths.”

Some viewed the violence as the second “Kristallnacht” or the “Night of Broken Glass,” a pogrom against Jews carried out by German Nazis and allies throughout Germany on November 9-10, 1938.

Monday's Worthy News article reported:

Police said two investigations are underway, including one focusing on the perpetrators and one into a possible central plan behind the antisemitic hit-and-run attacks.

“These perpetrators of Arab descent do not always have a criminal record, which means we cannot properly determine what kind of person we are dealing with. It is partly the same group that misbehaves at fairs or in the nightlife,” a riot police officer stressed.

“We have also warned management in recent months that this will get out of hand at some point. Unfortunately, Jewish people are now the victims. This clearly crosses a line. This street terror must no longer be tolerated,” he added.

Police also denied suggestions by the Palestinian Authority and several Dutch media that Israeli soccer fans provoked the violence. They are “still shocked” by what happened on Thursday night in the capital of the Netherlands. “We have seen the ferocity of the attacks but also the cowardice to beat up groups of defenseless people in dark alleys and streets. It was disgusting.”

It is tragic to see that those who side with the Palestinian people, and by extension, Hamas, are purveyors of violence.  The hatred for Israelis that provoked the October 7 attacks is being carried around the world by perpetrators who intend to do harm.  And, ultimately, opposition to Israelis are an assault on the God of Israel.  Harbinger's Daily reported:

Tiauna Lodewyk, an intern with the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry whose family ran a safe house in Holland during World War II, reacted to the violence in Amsterdam by pro-Palestinian rioters.

“Seeing the tragic and alarming events against the Jewish people transpiring in Amsterdam has further proved the inextricable link between Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism,” Lodewyk told Harbinger’s Daily.

“While I was in Poland this past spring, I witnessed a Palestinian ‘protest’ outside of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Why would a Palestinian protest take place outside a location of the greatest manifestation of Antisemitism—where over one million Jews were horrifically murdered simply for being Jewish? What does the death of Jews have to do with ‘freeing Palestine’?”

“Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism are one and the same,” she stressed. “They both share the same spiritual root.”

“The Lord said that those who come against His chosen people (the Jewish people) and His land (Israel) are essentially coming against God Himself,” Lodewyk described. “The violent intent to harm the Jewish people, as seen not only in Amsterdam but around the world, is rooted in the spiritual reality of Satan’s pursuit to annihilate the Jewish people—thereby rendering God’s promises void by whatever means necessary.”

It is important to see the spiritual implications behind hostility toward Jews. As Jeff Myers of Summit Ministries writes, "...regardless of the personal spiritual state of any given Jewish person, the attacks on Jews have nothing to do with how religious they are. Every anti-God movement from Haman in the Old Testament to the Bolsheviks to the Nazis all sought to destroy the Jewish people because they are a people, regardless of their level of religious practice. Secular Jews are as likely as religious Jews to be targeted."

The Church should continue to stand with Israel and continue to speak out against anti-semitism. We can, as the Bible exhorts us, pray for the "peace of Jerusalem," and decry assaults against those who are part of God's chosen people since the time of Abraham - people who are in a covenant relationship with a God who continues to keep His promises.