In an interview conducted at the beginning of this year, Dr. Stephen Sizer, one of Israel’s harshest critics, doesn’t even flinch at his interviewer’s outlandish suggestion. At 12:18 in the interview (see below), Hassan Alkatib asks Sizer, “Do you think, eh, Theodore Herzl was inspired, maybe, by the idea of, eh, Nazi Germany of having, you know, a country just for one race?”
Now, for those of you who may not know, Theodore Herzl is considered to be the father of modern-day Zionism—the movement that led to the birth of Israel. Just before the turn of the 20th century, as a response to Jewish persecution around the world, he wrote a book called The Jewish State stating that Jews would never be safe at the hands of other nations and therefore needed their own nation to survive. Hassan Alkatib suggests that this man was inspired by the Nazis!
Sizer’s response is even more shocking than the question. We would expect an honest historian and respected (in some circles) theologian like Dr. Sizer to 1) take off his mic and leave the interview, 2) scream, “What did you just say?” or 3) at least correct the interviewer on his sickening suggestion.
Instead, Sizer completely ignores the comments and continues to make his case against Israel and Christian Zionists. This is not shocking, as Sizer believes that Israel is the biggest deterrent to Arabs receiving the gospel. His passion is going to Muslims and sharing with them about the evils of Israel and deception of Christian Zionism in hopes that he can reach them. Islam is not the problem, but rather the Jews and the Christians who love them.
What is so ironic is that just about an hour after watching this interview, I read this article reporting that Syrian Christians in the northern city of Raqqa have been forced to sign a treaty with their new al-Qaida rulers or “face the sword.” Under the agreement:
“The Christians agreed to a list of conditions: to abstain from renovating churches or monasteries in Raqqa; not to display crosses or religious symbols in public or use loudspeakers in prayer; not to read scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims standing outside to hear; not to undertake subversive actions against Muslims; not to carry out any religious ceremonies outside the church; not to prevent any Christian wishing to convert to Islam from doing so; to respect Islam and Muslims and say nothing offensive about them; to pay the jizya tax … and to dress modestly.”
How is this the fault of the Zionists?
We could talk about the oppression of moderate Muslims and Christians by Hamas in Gaza or the murdering of scores of Egyptian (Coptic) Christians by Islamic fanatics. In Benghazi, Libya, Islamists recently went door to door asking people if they were Christian or Muslim. The Christians got a bullet in the head. Somehow, according to Sizer’s logic, this is not an Islamic but Israeli problem.
In my following of Sizer, I have never heard him even offer a critical word regarding Islam, the PLO or Hamas. But he will go to Iran as a Christian pastor and meet with Muslim radicals—leaders of one of the most oppressive regimes on earth—and spew out falsehoods regarding Israel and her Christian friends.
Nazis? Really?
Getting back to the comment Sizer refused to refute—that the father of the nation of Israel may have drawn inspiration from the Nazis to create the nation of Israel. He is saying that because Israel is a Jewish state for the Jewish people, it bears semblance to Hitler’s desire for an all-Aryan master race.
Indeed the U.N. agreed. In 1975 they declared that Zionism is a racist ideology. But just so the disturbing declaration doesn’t hang out there in cyberspace, let’s address it:
1. I am going to assume that Hassan is not a great student of history but is more influenced by Islamic rhetoric and propaganda. Nevertheless, he should know that Adolf Hitler was a mere tyke when Herzl began to formulate his ideas. Herzl presented his vision for a Jewish State in 1897, while the Nazi’s came to power in 1933.
2. It seems highly unlikely that the most anti-Semitic movement in the history of the world would have inspired the man who proposed the Jewish state because of anti-Semitism. It was the persecution of the Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus that pushed Herzl over the top, and he realized that there is no hope for the Jewish people in foreign nations. The Nazis were not an example of what he hoped to create, but the reason he hoped to create it!
3. Hitler was looking for a master race to rule the world. The Jews simply wanted to survive. All across Eastern Europe, Jews were being persecuted. While the creation of Israel was a fulfillment of prophecy, most of the founders were simply seeking survival.
4. Hitler’s land expansion was part of his plan to take over Europe. Israel’s land expansion has been part of her survival. If the Arab nations had signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1948 and lived up to it, Israel would still be at her (suicidal) pre-1967 borders. Arab aggression—not Israeli imperialism—has led to Israel’s present borders.
Trying to make a connection between Israel’s birth and the Nazi plan for Europe is possibly the most immoral, insensitive ideology, considering that Hitler’s Final Solution was to kill every Jew in Europe. But despite the fact that it has no intellectual merit in logic or history, Hassan Alkatib repeats the lie—that he has, no doubt, been taught in his mosque, while born-again Christian, Stephen Sizer remains silent in order to continue with his dishonest anti-Israel propaganda.
Ron Cantor is the director of Messiah’s Mandate International in Israel, a Messianic ministry dedicated to taking the message of Jesus from Israel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Cantor also travels internationally teaching on the Jewish roots of the New Testament. He serves on the pastoral team of Tiferet Yeshua, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Tel Aviv. His newest book, Identity Theft, was released April 16. Follow him at @RonSCantor on Twitter.
For the original article, visit messiahsmandate.com.
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