Messianics Respond to Charge "Their Children Are Genociddal"

Messianics Respond: They Call My Children Genocidal

Monday, August 18, 2014 |  David Lazarus

The following emotional open letter from Pastor David Lazarus is the second in a short series of responses by Israeli Messianic Jewish leaders to a problematic videoproduced by Bethlehem Bible College regarding this summer’s Gaza war.

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I thought the brothers at the Bethlehem Bible College were my good friends. That was until they began spreading rumors that my two sons are indiscriminately killing women, children and the elderly. I can hardly believe my ears and my heart is broken.

My dear Christian brothers, whom I have loved and walked together with for the past 30 years, why are you promoting a devious hate campaign against my children, encouraging people to say that my beautiful and amazing young Messianic Jewish boys are committing genocide? I am at a loss for words.

Your Bible College (I can call it that no longer) has embarked on a devious propaganda campaign that is stirring up more Arab hatred towards the Jewish nation and towards my boys now serving in the IDF.

Instead of praying for my sons, and the many other young men and women now fighting to save Israel and your beloved Palestinian people from the blood thirsty Hamas terrorists, you use the name of Christ to spread the Muslim libel that the IDF wants to murder innocent people?

Shame on you!

You call yourselves a Christian institution? How are you serving Christ by encouraging your people to vent their anger, hatred and violence towards Israel? Have your people not suffered enough? Why do you not comfort the poor Palestinians and teach them to look to Jesus for relief from their pain, as your Bible teaches? Instead, you add to their anger towards Jews and Israel by your hate campaign? Did Christ teach his disciples to stir up rage with slander and propaganda?

You ask the world to pressure Israel to give in to the demands of Hamas, a terror organization that is teaching your people to hate and kill. And you do this in the name of Christ? What part of the Bible do you use when you train your students to spread the same lies and propaganda against Israel that is being used by the Islamic rulers of Gaza?

You told me that you understand that the only way to bring any kind of peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict is to teach both sides to forgive. You said that we need to teach our children that it is wrong to hold grudges that lead to more conflict.

So, why do you now encourage Palestinians to continue to blame Israel for all of your problems? What you are doing will only result in more suicide bombers.

Some of your people tell me, “You don’t understand the grievances of Hamas. If we would listen to them and make life better for them there would be less terror in the world.”

Are these terrorists the only ones with grievances? In the last century alone, our world has endured two world wars, murderous civil wars, Hiroshima, untold massacres, pogroms and a holocaust. Is there any other religion in the world that teaches its people to continue taking revenge by killing innocent people? Did you ever see a survivor of Hiroshima or the Holocaust blow up a hospital, a school or a hotel? Do they not also have grievances?

What you should teach your people is that there is no grievance, suffering or pain that can justify the kind of terrorism practiced by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. None. Never. Jesus warned you that your unchecked anger will lead to murder.

However, you continue to reinforce the devious justification of hatred, anger and murder propagated by the likes of Hamas. The values of an entire generation have become so white-washed that you are blinded to this clear manifestation of evil. By identifying with the hate ideology of these groups you are promoting their terror and are responsible for the outcome of your hate campaign.

You have become an institution of politically-motivated agitators, a pro-Palestinian propaganda media outlet. You told me to my face that you intend to adversely influence uninformed Evangelicals and incite international opinion against Israel.

I told you that my government has warned us about you. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a warning that you are “using religion for the purpose of incitement.” You are misusing Christian teachings to inflame anti-Israeli passions. Your blame Israel campaign encourages violence and stirs up even more radical Islamic terror. I call you my friends no longer. May God protect all our sons and daughters from this present evil.