Summer of Chaos - Shocking Anti-Semitism Sweeps Europe | 🇮🇱 Israel Matters | Episode 17 with Stephen Briggs
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In this episode, Stephen Briggs discusses the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, highlighting various incidents that reflect a growing hostility towards Jews and Israelis. He emphasizes the urgent need for the church to take a stand against this hatred, drawing parallels to historical events and urging listeners to confront anti-Semitism with moral clarity and active faith. The conversation delves into the spiritual roots of anti-Semitism and the church's responsibility in combating it, ultimately calling for remembrance and action in the face of rising discrimination. They also do a deep dive on the Hebrew word for "Remembrance"
#antiSemitism #jewishhistory #community #church #discrimination #spiritualconflict #risinghostility #historicalcontext #moralclarity
00:00 Rising Anti-Semitism in Europe
07:08 The Church's Role in Combating Anti-Semitism
14:52 Recent Incidents of Anti-Semitism
21:56 Understanding the Spiritual Roots of Anti-Semitism
35:03 The Call to Action for Christians
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
beachgoer had his ear bitten off in Greece.
Dozens of children without their parents were forced off of a Spanish flight for singingin Hebrew.
Aggressive messaging was found on kosher meals and by air traffic controllers.
There is a no Zionist option on a dating app and Israeli musicians have been kicked out ofa restaurant in Vienna for the crime.
(00:24):
Speaking Hebrew.
No, I'm not reading the news report from Europe of 1938.
Rather, it is the shameful Summer 2025 report.
And this is an urgent wake-up call to the church to rise up and take standing with ourJewish brethren seriously.
I'm Stephen Briggs and this is Israel Matters.
(00:59):
Well, summertime in Europe, it should be a time of fun, relaxation and enjoyment.
But instead, a troubling wave of anti-Semitic incidents have been sweeping the West.
Combating anti-Semitism reports, an Israeli tourist was seriously injured at a popularbeach near Athens in a suspected anti-Semitic assault at the end of July, intensifying
(01:22):
concerns for the safety of Israelis and Jews in Greece as anti-Semitic hostility continuesto grow across the country.
Staff Ben Shushan was visiting the Bolivar beach bar with his wife and friends when a manapproached the group shouting, free Palestine and I am Hamas while filming them.
After beach security removed the man, he returned and ambushed Ben Shushan while he wasswimming, biting off part of his ear.
(01:50):
Ben Shushan was hospitalized for treatment of his wounds.
Greek police arrested the suspected attacker
reportedly a Syrian migrant.
In a disturbing twist, police also briefly detained Ben Shoshan after the assailant fileda counter-complaint accusing him of racism.
Israeli officials confirmed they were in contact with Greek authorities and were assistingthe victim.
(02:16):
According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, the attack was preceded by verbal harassment froma group that had identified the tourists as Israeli, underscoring
the targeted nature of the assault.
This violent incident is part of a broader pattern of rising anti-Israel aggression inGreece.
(02:36):
Just days earlier, Israeli teenagers were assaulted by Turkish tourists on the island ofRhodes.
The same week, a pro-Palestinian mob prevented the Israeli-owned MS Crown Iris fromdocking on the island of Seiros, one of the Greek islands, forcing the cruise ship and its
1,600 passengers
to re-route to Cyprus.
(02:58):
The attack in Athens also reflects a wider European trend of antisemitic violencemasquerading as political protest.
In Portugal, Israeli PhD student Bar Haurel was subjected to a relentless campaign of hateafter publishing a report on campus antisemitism at the University of Coimbra.
(03:20):
In an interview with Combat Antisemitism Movement, CAM for short,
He described being doxed, assaulted and threatened with death while the university policeand government failed to act.
Anti-Semitic stickers, including one reading Zionists should carry a certificate to provethey're human, remain plastered across university buildings.
(03:44):
Similar hate-filled slogans have appeared throughout Greece.
In Athens, visitors have reported graffiti and stickers equating Zionism and Nazism.
and branding Israeli soldiers as war criminals, rapists and murderers.
Combined with mounting street-level aggression, these messages have created a climate offear for Israeli and Jewish visitors.
(04:07):
Anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence escalates across Europe.
Attacks like the one in Athens offer a stark reminder.
Hatred of Jews and Israelis is not just growing, it is becoming brazen,
normalized and increasingly dangerous.
Here is another example from a recent week where three professional Israeli musicians inVienna were kicked out of a restaurant for speaking Hebrew before a concert.
(04:36):
Here is cellist Amit Palad describing the experience on I-24.
(06:41):
Friends, this should make us all pause and give thought now to what we will do if we areeyewitnesses to a similar incident.
We must not be bystanders like so much of the church was in the 1930s.
Of course, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit in the moment to have wisdom anddiscernment, but we should also have courage and plan to stand up for and to stand up with
(07:04):
Jewish people who are being mistreated.
What will you do?
if a waiter is trying to force someone to leave because of their language or ethnicity.
Don't be caught off guard.
Start praying and thinking about this now, friends.
I've heard it said that if a line is going to be drawn around the Jewish people, let it bedrawn around Jews and Christians together.
(07:26):
We must not leave the Jewish people alone.
We must learn from history and not repeat its mistakes.
This next story makes me
So upset as a parent, a large group of Israeli children were kicked off of a flight inItaly for singing a Hebrew song.
Yes, that's right.
They were singing, enjoy a song in their native tongue.
(07:47):
And the JNS reported more than 50 French Jewish youths were removed from a Viewling flightin Valencia, Spain on the 23rd of July, allegedly following their singing in Hebrew.
Viewling claimed that the teenagers were being disruptive.
Amichai Chikli, Israel's minister for Diaspora Affairs and combating anti-Semitism,accused the Spanish airline in a post on X of being responsible for one of the most
(08:14):
serious, severe anti-Semitic incidents seen recently.
Chikli was commenting on a video that shows a young woman lying face down on what appearsto be a boarding bridge, as one Spanish police officer handcuffs her and another instructs
the person filming to move away.
Let's watch the clip here of the 21 year old leader of the group being forced to theground, reportedly because she was insisting that the airline did not have a right to take
(08:41):
the children's mobile phones from them.
(09:09):
Shocking to see right, Chikli identified the woman as an instructor of the Kinneret Club,a summer camp operated for Jewish families by the Matanah Charitable Association.
The I-24 News television channel reported that the members of the group of 52 youths wereaged 13 to 15 years old.
And for that age group, Kinneret Club arranged a summer camp that ended on Wednesday inSant Calles de la Rapita, a coastal resort city situated between Valencia and Barcelona.
(09:36):
Valencia and Barcelona for those that don't speak Spanish.
Viewing in a statement on X said that the teenagers were taken off the flight due tohighly disruptive behaviour, claiming members of the group mishandled emergency equipment
and so the crew decided to have the group disembark to prioritise the safety of the restof the passengers.
This, is a shocking anti-Semitic incident of discrimination against minors.
(10:00):
Sasha Roitman, chief executive director of the Combat Anti-Semitic Movement, told JNS.
It is outrageous that we have reached a situation where singing in Hebrew by teenagersconstitutes grounds for removing them from a flight using violence and unreasonable force
and demonstrating excessive hostility towards them simply because they are Jews andIsraelis," said Reutemann.
(10:23):
A mother of one of the vacationers, Karine Lamy, told I-24 that the children sang inHebrew in the airplane until the flight crew told them to stop and threatened to call the
police if they persisted.
The children stopped, but the police arrested the instructor and told them to exit theairplane.
And in a separate airline related incident, Cam reported a Jewish passenger flying fromBuenos Aires to Madrid on Iberia Airlines last week was shocked to discover the phrase,
(10:53):
Palestine, handwritten on the packaging of his kosher meal.
A targeted political message, a targeted political message,
scrawled across a religious food order.
The incident, which occurred on flight IB 102, was reported by Salvador Odey, who alsonoted that several other unopened kosher meals bore the initials FP written in the same
(11:19):
pen.
The flight's final destination was reportedly Israel.
Odey promptly alerted the flight crew, I reported the incident to the head flightattendant who took down the complaint, took photos, etc.
They tried to apologise in every possible way, he told Visavi, an Argentinian Jewishnewspaper.
While Odey believes the message did not come from the crew, he raised concerns that it mayhave been written by an employee of the airline's food supplier.
(11:46):
Apparently it wasn't any of the crew members.
So if it came from outside, I'd imagine that Iberia will conduct an internal investigationof its supplies and procedures, he said.
That's precisely why I reported it, so that it doesn't get forgotten.
I'm sure.
The Jewish pass...
I'm sure the Jewish passengers did not feel comfortable eating those meals, not knowingwho had tampered with them.
(12:12):
And if that isn't enough to make you lose respect for modern air travel in Europe, theYnet reports a French air traffic controller at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport told an LL
flight crew, three Palestine over the radio shortly after takeoff on Monday night.
prompting the pilots to report the incident to the airline's management.
(12:34):
El Al condemned the exchange as unprofessional and inappropriate, saying it was workingwith Israeli authorities who were in contact with their French counterparts.
The airline vowed to continue flying proudly with the Israeli flag on our aircraft tails,maintaining professionalism and ensuring the safety and security of passengers and crew.
Obviously, an air traffic controller
(12:57):
has the lives of the whole flight crew and all the passengers in their hands.
And they need to be trustworthy and respectful, not trying to intimidate or belittle thosewhom they are paid to look after.
This indeed is seriously troubling.
LL staff have also been having serious trouble with visa renewals in France, and the LLoffices in Paris have been vandalised with red graffiti made to look like blood that says
(13:22):
LL Genocide Airline this last week.
And in a violent anti-Semitic incident in Greece, an Israeli tourist was attacked inAthens in June by a violent mob after he was heard speaking Hebrew in public.
And in a disturbing turn of events, police initially responded by handcuffing the victim.
(13:43):
Medad Jose, 35 years old, was using Google Maps while walking to a gym when the app'sHebrew voice command drew the attention of nearby passersby.
One man stopped him and asked,
Are you from Israel?
And Jose replied, Yes, that was all it took.
He began cursing me and went into a frenzy, Jose told the Israeli news outlet Ma'ariv.
(14:08):
A group of people joined in.
They started yelling, hitting me.
I ran into the middle of the road to escape, hoping cars would shield me, but they chasedme even through the traffic.
As the mob closed in, Jose tried to document the assault with his phone.
He ultimately found refuge inside a restaurant where he locked himself in the bathroom.
The crowd, growing in number and aggression, surrounded the building.
(14:31):
They tried to break down the door.
One of them even said, Let's get an axe.
Jose said, I called the person I was staying with and he called the police.
It took them 20 minutes to arrive.
But when police finally reached the scene.
They did not arrest the attackers.
They took Jose out in handcuffs after one of the assailants filed a complaint against him.
(14:52):
Outside, Palestinian flags waved and demonstrators continued shouting in the streets.
Nobody helped me, Jose said.
Jose was eventually released after police reviewed video evidence showing that he had beenthe target, not the assailant.
The only provocation?
A Jewish Israeli dared to speak his native language on a public street in a Europeancapital.
(15:18):
This wasn't a misunderstanding.
It was a lynch mob.
I'll put the link in the description to the video where you can see part of this attack.
Although I won't play it here because of the profanities that the attackers are yelling atthe Israeli man.
They say over and over again, you are not welcome here, Zionist.
Anti-Semitism is even sweeping online dating apps.
(15:42):
The J-Post reports Grindr, a popular LGBT dating app, confirmed in a statement to OutMagazine last week.
that they had decided to reverse a ban on the term No Zionists on user profiles.
Grindr said that the policy change was implemented following user escalations around itspotentially inflammatory nature.
(16:04):
However, a spokesperson confirmed that the company recently decided to reverse this oneupon review.
These are not the only stories that tell of a violent hateful summer towards Israelis andJews.
There are many more I could highlight here, incidents and attacks and hate on the streetsof London, Montreal and even in the United States.
(16:25):
I came across this video yesterday and I think it sums up the situation so well.
Supporting Palestine and opposing Israel has become not just a trend, but in fact, areligion.
(19:02):
while delivering nothing but destruction.
is a shocking video, but one that does really sum up the situation so well.
He is very astute in how he's portrayed it.
And I think there are things that we could go back and relisten to it and take notes fromthat because as followers of Jesus, we may find ourselves asking, why does antisemitism,
(19:28):
this ancient and pervasive hatred, the oldest hatred,
continue to resurface in our modern world.
Though it takes new forms in each generation, its underlying nature remains unchanged.
So how should Christians respond to the growing wave of hostility against the Jewishpeople today?
(19:49):
It's important to understand that antisemitism is not simply a bias against Jews or thestate of Israel.
At its core, it is a spiritual conflict, one rooted ultimately
in opposition to God, His people, and His promises.
This struggle dates all the way back to Genesis 3 verse 15, where God declared that therewould be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
(20:17):
From that moment, a spiritual battle has raged between God's redemptive plan and theforces that are set against it.
God in His sovereignty chose Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, and through them,
established the Jewish people as the vehicle for His covenant and the coming of theMessiah, ultimately for world redemption.
(20:38):
The enemy has opposed this plan at every turn and that opposition continues today throughhostility aimed at the Jewish people.
To confront anti-Semitism rightly, we must first recognise its spiritual roots.
It is ultimately stirred by demonic forces seeking to undermine
(20:58):
God's redemptive purposes.
In 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 and 4, apostle reminds us, though we walk in the flesh, we donot war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling downstrongholds.
This war is not fought with human strategies.
(21:20):
It is fought in the spiritual realm with spiritual weapons.
Whether we are ready for it or not,
We are engaged in a battle that will continue until Messiah returns.
It's not just a conflict of ideology or politics, but a spiritual war against darkness.
To stand firm, we need discernment, to perceive what's happening through the lens of God'sWord rather than the opinions of social media or the prevailing culture.
(21:46):
Like the sons of Issachar, we are called to understand the times and know what Israelought to do.
That's 1 Chronicles 12 verse 32.
Ephesians 6 verse 12 reminds us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, butagainst spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
(22:07):
Therefore, we must put on the full armour of God, take up our spiritual weapons andfaithfully engage in the fight, not with hatred or fear, but with truth, prayer and love.
Let us be people of prayer or intercession, of determination and
and of active faith.
(22:28):
In the days to come, standing with God's covenant purposes for Israel and the Jewishpeople may grow, and I could have caveat that will grow increasingly difficult.
Yet in a world where anti-Semitism is rising and the enemies are bound, Christians remainamong Israel's few steadfast allies.
As hostility towards the Jewish people intensifies, we are faced with a vital decision,much like the church was in the 1930s.
(22:54):
Will we stay silent or will we take a stand against this evil?
Will we be among those with the courage to confront darkness and declare never again?
The Church is called to play a vital role in this moment, to resist antisemitism throughfurther prayer, unwavering moral clarity and a compassionate witness that mirrors God's
(23:17):
faithful love for his people.
Elie Wiesel, a writer and Auschwitz survivor once said, the opposite of love is not hate.
It's indifference.
The opposite of beauty is not ugliness.
It's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy.
It's indifference.
Throughout the years, people have often asked, how could something as horrific as theHolocaust have happened?
(23:43):
To that, renowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer offered a sobering reply, simplybecause it could.
Not everyone actively took part in the atrocities of that time.
Yet many were complicit, whether by turning a blind eye or allowing anti-Semiticideologies to spread unchecked through their silence.
(24:05):
It's easy to look back and assume we would have chosen the right side of history.
But history isn't just in the past.
It's unfolding around us right now.
Where do you stand?
Are you really going to be one of those that truly
is an outward expression of never again?
Or are you going to sit passively by like most of the church did in Germany in the 1920sand 1930s?
(24:34):
This reality is unfolding around us right now and we'd have to be blind to not begin tosee what is truly going on.
Well, I want to turn our attention to looking at a Hebrew word which hopefully will helpus with regard to remembrance.
And we've just mentioned about the Holocaust and when we remember the Holocaust and saynever again, it is important to look at what the Bible has to say about what it really
(25:01):
means to remember properly and the implications for our walk with the Lord.
Often Hebrew verbs are more active than their English counterparts.
This was true of the Hebrew word for faith, emunah, which we have looked at in a previousepisode of Israel Matters.
You can see the link for that in the chat.
(25:21):
where you can go and watch that episode.
Emunah is faith in action.
It's active faithfulness.
And this is also true of the Hebrew verb for remembering, Zakah.
What good is it to remember it is my wedding anniversary or my child's birthday if I don'tactually do something to express that I remembered it?
(25:47):
In Hebrew, Zakah is an action verb.
meaning to remember, to be mindful, to call to mind, to record, to recall, to celebrate,to confess, and or to report.
Zichar is not merely to have an intellectual thought, but rather to do somethingintentional in accordance with what is on your mind.
(26:15):
It is related to the Hebrew word zicharon.
That means memorial, record.
remembrance reminder and the name Zechariah of the book of Zechariah means the Lordremembers.
Zechariah in Hebrew, the Lord remembers.
Wherever we find it in the scriptures, Zekar is intertwined with a purposeful action basedon the information that is brought to mind.
(26:46):
For example,
God rescued the Jewish people from slavery when He heard their groaning and zikhared Hiscovenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
See Exodus 2.24 for that part of the story.
And in Numbers 10 verse 9 says, When you go into battle, then you will be zikhared by theLord your God and rescued from your enemies.
(27:13):
When the Lord remembers us,
He intervenes on our behalf.
Then God, Zachad, Rachel, he listened to her and he enabled her to conceive.
Genesis 30 verse 22.
How precious and beneficial that the Lord remembers us and acts in his perfect timing.
(27:39):
Psalm 103 verse 2 to 5 gives us an indication of that.
This is something that he
delights in doing.
Let me read that Psalm to you.
Psalm 103 verse 225.
a second.
(28:00):
Psalm 103 verse 2 to 5, bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all his benefits, whoforgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from
destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies yourdesire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
(28:22):
He remembers us, he acts in his perfect timing on your and my behalf.
So here are a few questions for us to ponder as we think about this.
How do you remember the Lord?
How should you remember the Lord?
And how does the Lord remember you?
(28:43):
Too often we are impatient or doubtful concerning the timing of God's intervention.
Why is it so easy for us to forget all of the Lord's blessings and deliverances?
or to keep them only as head knowledge, remembering all that the Lord has done for usshould cause us to behave differently going forward.
(29:06):
Recalling the flawless track record of the Lord's faithfulness should be constantlybuilding our trust in Him, meaning we are able to step out in bolder and bolder active
faith as we progress in our walk with Him.
James 1.
Verse 22 through 25 warns that we should not be like a man who looks at his face in themirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
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This is a picture of a man who remembers in a way that does not translate into action.
When we are forgetful of the Lord, of his promises and of all the victories that he hasaccomplished,
then we end up circling around through the same doubts and lessons.
(29:55):
The Israelites experienced miraculous deliverances from Egypt, yet in the subsequent daysand years in the wilderness, they failed to remember God's power and goodness time and
again.
They needlessly doubted his care, his character, his ability, and slowing down theirjourney as a result and inviting avoidable trials into their story.
(30:21):
Jude 4 verse 9 says, be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget thethings your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.
Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
We're not only commanded to remember for ourselves, but we're actually commanded to teachthe next generations.
(30:43):
Remembrance is an essential part of worship.
I'll say that again.
Remembrance.
is an essential part of worship, such as remembering the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalfby partaking in the Lord's Supper.
1 Corinthians 11 verse 24 quotes, Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.
(31:08):
It is so beneficial to incorporate acts of remembrance into our daily, weekly and annualrhythms of life.
How are you doing in that area?
When was the last time you recalled something that took place?
that God did and gave him thanks and honoured him for it in a family situation, in achurch situation, in a day-to-day situation.
What did the Lord do today?
(31:30):
Not what did he do 20, 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, even when you got saved.
What is he doing today?
And how do you remember that and share that remembrance with others?
We are not left alone or helpless in the task of remembrance.
It should be a function of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
(31:50):
Do we quench the Holy Spirit when He desires to help bring to mind and act on the Word ofthe Lord?
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach youall things and will remind you of, and in parentheses here, help you to remember
(32:10):
everything I have said to you.
That's John 14 26.
So the Holy Spirit wants to be involved in reminding you of things you've learned in thepast in remembering and acting upon that which has been given to you and entrusted with
you.
Do you friend actively remember the Lord?
He is so worthy of all of our attention and worship and has truly done marvelous deeds.
(32:35):
Zakar, the things I have done in the past for I alone am God.
I am God.
And there is none like me.
Isaiah 56 verse 9.
If you think about it, the scriptures as a whole, the whole thing is a zikar.
Yes, there is the stuff that's looking towards the future, but there's the zikar of thepast.
(32:56):
There's the remembrance.
There's all scripture being profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction.
Every aspect of it is there for our growth and for our benefit and for our understandingand for us to have a deeper relationship with the Word.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He wants that relationship.
He wants that remembrance of the acts that he did, the remembrance of the acts of theapostles, the remembrance of Moses, of Abraham, of David.
(33:22):
They're all outlined in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, but the unfolding of theseremembrances, these zekas that God acted in history and God acts in the present.
And so let's not just remember.
the Holocaust in a theoretical sense.
Let's not remember it as a historical sense.
(33:45):
Let's not just remember it in a ethereal expense.
Let's remember it and show our remembrance through purposeful action today, tomorrow, whenthe need arises.
My wife studied the Holocaust and as I've looked at it and found the acquiescence,
My wife studied the Holocaust for her masters um and Jewish civilization and history anduh she undertook to look and we both have looked together.
(34:16):
We produced a film called Jacob's Tears, which looks at the spiritual dynamics behind theShoah, behind the Holocaust.
And that is available.
There's a link in the chat below to watch Jacob's Tears.
It looks at the...
Where was the church in the leader...
It looks at where was the church in the lead up to the Holocaust?
Why did the church largely acquiesce to Hitler?
(34:38):
What were the preconditions that brought that about?
And how did a church get swallowed up to the point where they were actually puttingswastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler on their pulpits?
What took place in Germany that caused this character to unfold within the German church?
The acquiescence of that German church in the 1930s and 40s is tragic and disturbing.
(35:03):
And so many European Christians stood by passively as the Nazis unfolded their genocidalplans against God's chosen people.
I've always hoped that I would have done better if I were in their shoes.
I have hoped that we as a church would do better if a similar situation arose in our day.
And the reality is this is our time.
(35:27):
This is the moment for our generation to stand up and show
that we possess courage and moral clarity in the face of evil.
In the 1930s, there were four groups of Germans, the perpetrators, the collaborators, thebystanders, which were by far the largest segment of society, and then what Jewish
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historians call the righteous among the nations.
They were a small
but mighty minority who risk their lives to stand up for their Jewish friends, to stand upfor truth, goodness, decency, and the sanctity of life.
Our actions in this season determine which we will be.
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The perpetrators, the collaborators, the bystanders, or the righteous among the nations.
How will the church's response to Jew hatred in our generation be remembered?
Thank you, friends, for joining us today.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
(36:35):
I'm Stephen Briggs, and this is Israel Matters.
beachgoer had his ear bitten off in Greece.
Dozens of children without their parents were forced off of a Spanish flight for singingin Hebrew.
Aggressive messaging was found on kosher meals and by air traffic controllers.
There is a no Zionist option on a dating app and Israeli musicians have been kicked out ofa restaurant in Vienna for the crime.
(00:24):
Speaking Hebrew.
No, I'm not reading the news report from Europe of 1938.
Rather, it is the shameful Summer 2025 report.
And this is an urgent wake-up call to the church to rise up and take standing with ourJewish brethren seriously.
I'm Stephen Briggs and this is Israel Matters.
(00:59):
Well, summertime in Europe, it should be a time of fun, relaxation and enjoyment.
But instead, a troubling wave of anti-Semitic incidents have been sweeping the West.
Combating anti-Semitism reports, an Israeli tourist was seriously injured at a popularbeach near Athens in a suspected anti-Semitic assault at the end of July, intensifying
(01:22):
concerns for the safety of Israelis and Jews in Greece as anti-Semitic hostility continuesto grow across the country.
Staff Ben Shushan was visiting the Bolivar beach bar with his wife and friends when a manapproached the group shouting, free Palestine and I am Hamas while filming them.
After beach security removed the man, he returned and ambushed Ben Shushan while he wasswimming, biting off part of his ear.
(01:50):
Ben Shushan was hospitalized for treatment of his wounds.
Greek police arrested the suspected attacker
reportedly a Syrian migrant.
In a disturbing twist, police also briefly detained Ben Shoshan after the assailant fileda counter-complaint accusing him of racism.
Israeli officials confirmed they were in contact with Greek authorities and were assistingthe victim.
(02:16):
According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, the attack was preceded by verbal harassment froma group that had identified the tourists as Israeli, underscoring
the targeted nature of the assault.
This violent incident is part of a broader pattern of rising anti-Israel aggression inGreece.
(02:36):
Just days earlier, Israeli teenagers were assaulted by Turkish tourists on the island ofRhodes.
The same week, a pro-Palestinian mob prevented the Israeli-owned MS Crown Iris fromdocking on the island of Seiros, one of the Greek islands, forcing the cruise ship and its
1,600 passengers
to re-route to Cyprus.
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The attack in Athens also reflects a wider European trend of antisemitic violencemasquerading as political protest.
In Portugal, Israeli PhD student Bar Haurel was subjected to a relentless campaign of hateafter publishing a report on campus antisemitism at the University of Coimbra.
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In an interview with Combat Antisemitism Movement, CAM for short,
He described being doxed, assaulted and threatened with death while the university policeand government failed to act.
Anti-Semitic stickers, including one reading Zionists should carry a certificate to provethey're human, remain plastered across university buildings.
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Similar hate-filled slogans have appeared throughout Greece.
In Athens, visitors have reported graffiti and stickers equating Zionism and Nazism.
and branding Israeli soldiers as war criminals, rapists and murderers.
Combined with mounting street-level aggression, these messages have created a climate offear for Israeli and Jewish visitors.
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Anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence escalates across Europe.
Attacks like the one in Athens offer a stark reminder.
Hatred of Jews and Israelis is not just growing, it is becoming brazen,
normalized and increasingly dangerous.
Here is another example from a recent week where three professional Israeli musicians inVienna were kicked out of a restaurant for speaking Hebrew before a concert.
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Here is cellist Amit Palad describing the experience on I-24.
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Friends, this should make us all pause and give thought now to what we will do if we areeyewitnesses to a similar incident.
We must not be bystanders like so much of the church was in the 1930s.
Of course, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit in the moment to have wisdom anddiscernment, but we should also have courage and plan to stand up for and to stand up with
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Jewish people who are being mistreated.
What will you do?
if a waiter is trying to force someone to leave because of their language or ethnicity.
Don't be caught off guard.
Start praying and thinking about this now, friends.
I've heard it said that if a line is going to be drawn around the Jewish people, let it bedrawn around Jews and Christians together.
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We must not leave the Jewish people alone.
We must learn from history and not repeat its mistakes.
This next story makes me
So upset as a parent, a large group of Israeli children were kicked off of a flight inItaly for singing a Hebrew song.
Yes, that's right.
They were singing, enjoy a song in their native tongue.
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And the JNS reported more than 50 French Jewish youths were removed from a Viewling flightin Valencia, Spain on the 23rd of July, allegedly following their singing in Hebrew.
Viewling claimed that the teenagers were being disruptive.
Amichai Chikli, Israel's minister for Diaspora Affairs and combating anti-Semitism,accused the Spanish airline in a post on X of being responsible for one of the most
(08:14):
serious, severe anti-Semitic incidents seen recently.
Chikli was commenting on a video that shows a young woman lying face down on what appearsto be a boarding bridge, as one Spanish police officer handcuffs her and another instructs
the person filming to move away.
Let's watch the clip here of the 21 year old leader of the group being forced to theground, reportedly because she was insisting that the airline did not have a right to take
(08:41):
the children's mobile phones from them.
(09:09):
Shocking to see right, Chikli identified the woman as an instructor of the Kinneret Club,a summer camp operated for Jewish families by the Matanah Charitable Association.
The I-24 News television channel reported that the members of the group of 52 youths wereaged 13 to 15 years old.
And for that age group, Kinneret Club arranged a summer camp that ended on Wednesday inSant Calles de la Rapita, a coastal resort city situated between Valencia and Barcelona.
(09:36):
Valencia and Barcelona for those that don't speak Spanish.
Viewing in a statement on X said that the teenagers were taken off the flight due tohighly disruptive behaviour, claiming members of the group mishandled emergency equipment
and so the crew decided to have the group disembark to prioritise the safety of the restof the passengers.
This, is a shocking anti-Semitic incident of discrimination against minors.
(10:00):
Sasha Roitman, chief executive director of the Combat Anti-Semitic Movement, told JNS.
It is outrageous that we have reached a situation where singing in Hebrew by teenagersconstitutes grounds for removing them from a flight using violence and unreasonable force
and demonstrating excessive hostility towards them simply because they are Jews andIsraelis," said Reutemann.
(10:23):
A mother of one of the vacationers, Karine Lamy, told I-24 that the children sang inHebrew in the airplane until the flight crew told them to stop and threatened to call the
police if they persisted.
The children stopped, but the police arrested the instructor and told them to exit theairplane.
And in a separate airline related incident, Cam reported a Jewish passenger flying fromBuenos Aires to Madrid on Iberia Airlines last week was shocked to discover the phrase,
(10:53):
Palestine, handwritten on the packaging of his kosher meal.
A targeted political message, a targeted political message,
scrawled across a religious food order.
The incident, which occurred on flight IB 102, was reported by Salvador Odey, who alsonoted that several other unopened kosher meals bore the initials FP written in the same
(11:19):
pen.
The flight's final destination was reportedly Israel.
Odey promptly alerted the flight crew, I reported the incident to the head flightattendant who took down the complaint, took photos, etc.
They tried to apologise in every possible way, he told Visavi, an Argentinian Jewishnewspaper.
While Odey believes the message did not come from the crew, he raised concerns that it mayhave been written by an employee of the airline's food supplier.
(11:46):
Apparently it wasn't any of the crew members.
So if it came from outside, I'd imagine that Iberia will conduct an internal investigationof its supplies and procedures, he said.
That's precisely why I reported it, so that it doesn't get forgotten.
I'm sure.
The Jewish pass...
I'm sure the Jewish passengers did not feel comfortable eating those meals, not knowingwho had tampered with them.
(12:12):
And if that isn't enough to make you lose respect for modern air travel in Europe, theYnet reports a French air traffic controller at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport told an LL
flight crew, three Palestine over the radio shortly after takeoff on Monday night.
prompting the pilots to report the incident to the airline's management.
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El Al condemned the exchange as unprofessional and inappropriate, saying it was workingwith Israeli authorities who were in contact with their French counterparts.
The airline vowed to continue flying proudly with the Israeli flag on our aircraft tails,maintaining professionalism and ensuring the safety and security of passengers and crew.
Obviously, an air traffic controller
(12:57):
has the lives of the whole flight crew and all the passengers in their hands.
And they need to be trustworthy and respectful, not trying to intimidate or belittle thosewhom they are paid to look after.
This indeed is seriously troubling.
LL staff have also been having serious trouble with visa renewals in France, and the LLoffices in Paris have been vandalised with red graffiti made to look like blood that says
(13:22):
LL Genocide Airline this last week.
And in a violent anti-Semitic incident in Greece, an Israeli tourist was attacked inAthens in June by a violent mob after he was heard speaking Hebrew in public.
And in a disturbing turn of events, police initially responded by handcuffing the victim.
(13:43):
Medad Jose, 35 years old, was using Google Maps while walking to a gym when the app'sHebrew voice command drew the attention of nearby passersby.
One man stopped him and asked,
Are you from Israel?
And Jose replied, Yes, that was all it took.
He began cursing me and went into a frenzy, Jose told the Israeli news outlet Ma'ariv.
(14:08):
A group of people joined in.
They started yelling, hitting me.
I ran into the middle of the road to escape, hoping cars would shield me, but they chasedme even through the traffic.
As the mob closed in, Jose tried to document the assault with his phone.
He ultimately found refuge inside a restaurant where he locked himself in the bathroom.
The crowd, growing in number and aggression, surrounded the building.
(14:31):
They tried to break down the door.
One of them even said, Let's get an axe.
Jose said, I called the person I was staying with and he called the police.
It took them 20 minutes to arrive.
But when police finally reached the scene.
They did not arrest the attackers.
They took Jose out in handcuffs after one of the assailants filed a complaint against him.
(14:52):
Outside, Palestinian flags waved and demonstrators continued shouting in the streets.
Nobody helped me, Jose said.
Jose was eventually released after police reviewed video evidence showing that he had beenthe target, not the assailant.
The only provocation?
A Jewish Israeli dared to speak his native language on a public street in a Europeancapital.
(15:18):
This wasn't a misunderstanding.
It was a lynch mob.
I'll put the link in the description to the video where you can see part of this attack.
Although I won't play it here because of the profanities that the attackers are yelling atthe Israeli man.
They say over and over again, you are not welcome here, Zionist.
Anti-Semitism is even sweeping online dating apps.
(15:42):
The J-Post reports Grindr, a popular LGBT dating app, confirmed in a statement to OutMagazine last week.
that they had decided to reverse a ban on the term No Zionists on user profiles.
Grindr said that the policy change was implemented following user escalations around itspotentially inflammatory nature.
(16:04):
However, a spokesperson confirmed that the company recently decided to reverse this oneupon review.
These are not the only stories that tell of a violent hateful summer towards Israelis andJews.
There are many more I could highlight here, incidents and attacks and hate on the streetsof London, Montreal and even in the United States.
(16:25):
I came across this video yesterday and I think it sums up the situation so well.
Supporting Palestine and opposing Israel has become not just a trend, but in fact, areligion.
(19:02):
while delivering nothing but destruction.
is a shocking video, but one that does really sum up the situation so well.
He is very astute in how he's portrayed it.
And I think there are things that we could go back and relisten to it and take notes fromthat because as followers of Jesus, we may find ourselves asking, why does antisemitism,
(19:28):
this ancient and pervasive hatred, the oldest hatred,
continue to resurface in our modern world.
Though it takes new forms in each generation, its underlying nature remains unchanged.
So how should Christians respond to the growing wave of hostility against the Jewishpeople today?
(19:49):
It's important to understand that antisemitism is not simply a bias against Jews or thestate of Israel.
At its core, it is a spiritual conflict, one rooted ultimately
in opposition to God, His people, and His promises.
This struggle dates all the way back to Genesis 3 verse 15, where God declared that therewould be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
(20:17):
From that moment, a spiritual battle has raged between God's redemptive plan and theforces that are set against it.
God in His sovereignty chose Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, and through them,
established the Jewish people as the vehicle for His covenant and the coming of theMessiah, ultimately for world redemption.
(20:38):
The enemy has opposed this plan at every turn and that opposition continues today throughhostility aimed at the Jewish people.
To confront anti-Semitism rightly, we must first recognise its spiritual roots.
It is ultimately stirred by demonic forces seeking to undermine
(20:58):
God's redemptive purposes.
In 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 and 4, apostle reminds us, though we walk in the flesh, we donot war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling downstrongholds.
This war is not fought with human strategies.
(21:20):
It is fought in the spiritual realm with spiritual weapons.
Whether we are ready for it or not,
We are engaged in a battle that will continue until Messiah returns.
It's not just a conflict of ideology or politics, but a spiritual war against darkness.
To stand firm, we need discernment, to perceive what's happening through the lens of God'sWord rather than the opinions of social media or the prevailing culture.
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Like the sons of Issachar, we are called to understand the times and know what Israelought to do.
That's 1 Chronicles 12 verse 32.
Ephesians 6 verse 12 reminds us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, butagainst spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
(22:07):
Therefore, we must put on the full armour of God, take up our spiritual weapons andfaithfully engage in the fight, not with hatred or fear, but with truth, prayer and love.
Let us be people of prayer or intercession, of determination and
and of active faith.
(22:28):
In the days to come, standing with God's covenant purposes for Israel and the Jewishpeople may grow, and I could have caveat that will grow increasingly difficult.
Yet in a world where anti-Semitism is rising and the enemies are bound, Christians remainamong Israel's few steadfast allies.
As hostility towards the Jewish people intensifies, we are faced with a vital decision,much like the church was in the 1930s.
(22:54):
Will we stay silent or will we take a stand against this evil?
Will we be among those with the courage to confront darkness and declare never again?
The Church is called to play a vital role in this moment, to resist antisemitism throughfurther prayer, unwavering moral clarity and a compassionate witness that mirrors God's
(23:17):
faithful love for his people.
Elie Wiesel, a writer and Auschwitz survivor once said, the opposite of love is not hate.
It's indifference.
The opposite of beauty is not ugliness.
It's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy.
It's indifference.
Throughout the years, people have often asked, how could something as horrific as theHolocaust have happened?
(23:43):
To that, renowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer offered a sobering reply, simplybecause it could.
Not everyone actively took part in the atrocities of that time.
Yet many were complicit, whether by turning a blind eye or allowing anti-Semiticideologies to spread unchecked through their silence.
(24:05):
It's easy to look back and assume we would have chosen the right side of history.
But history isn't just in the past.
It's unfolding around us right now.
Where do you stand?
Are you really going to be one of those that truly
is an outward expression of never again?
Or are you going to sit passively by like most of the church did in Germany in the 1920sand 1930s?
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This reality is unfolding around us right now and we'd have to be blind to not begin tosee what is truly going on.
Well, I want to turn our attention to looking at a Hebrew word which hopefully will helpus with regard to remembrance.
And we've just mentioned about the Holocaust and when we remember the Holocaust and saynever again, it is important to look at what the Bible has to say about what it really
(25:01):
means to remember properly and the implications for our walk with the Lord.
Often Hebrew verbs are more active than their English counterparts.
This was true of the Hebrew word for faith, emunah, which we have looked at in a previousepisode of Israel Matters.
You can see the link for that in the chat.
(25:21):
where you can go and watch that episode.
Emunah is faith in action.
It's active faithfulness.
And this is also true of the Hebrew verb for remembering, Zakah.
What good is it to remember it is my wedding anniversary or my child's birthday if I don'tactually do something to express that I remembered it?
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In Hebrew, Zakah is an action verb.
meaning to remember, to be mindful, to call to mind, to record, to recall, to celebrate,to confess, and or to report.
Zichar is not merely to have an intellectual thought, but rather to do somethingintentional in accordance with what is on your mind.
(26:15):
It is related to the Hebrew word zicharon.
That means memorial, record.
remembrance reminder and the name Zechariah of the book of Zechariah means the Lordremembers.
Zechariah in Hebrew, the Lord remembers.
Wherever we find it in the scriptures, Zekar is intertwined with a purposeful action basedon the information that is brought to mind.
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For example,
God rescued the Jewish people from slavery when He heard their groaning and zikhared Hiscovenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
See Exodus 2.24 for that part of the story.
And in Numbers 10 verse 9 says, When you go into battle, then you will be zikhared by theLord your God and rescued from your enemies.
(27:13):
When the Lord remembers us,
He intervenes on our behalf.
Then God, Zachad, Rachel, he listened to her and he enabled her to conceive.
Genesis 30 verse 22.
How precious and beneficial that the Lord remembers us and acts in his perfect timing.
(27:39):
Psalm 103 verse 2 to 5 gives us an indication of that.
This is something that he
delights in doing.
Let me read that Psalm to you.
Psalm 103 verse 225.
a second.
(28:00):
Psalm 103 verse 2 to 5, bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all his benefits, whoforgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from
destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies yourdesire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
(28:22):
He remembers us, he acts in his perfect timing on your and my behalf.
So here are a few questions for us to ponder as we think about this.
How do you remember the Lord?
How should you remember the Lord?
And how does the Lord remember you?
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Too often we are impatient or doubtful concerning the timing of God's intervention.
Why is it so easy for us to forget all of the Lord's blessings and deliverances?
or to keep them only as head knowledge, remembering all that the Lord has done for usshould cause us to behave differently going forward.
(29:06):
Recalling the flawless track record of the Lord's faithfulness should be constantlybuilding our trust in Him, meaning we are able to step out in bolder and bolder active
faith as we progress in our walk with Him.
James 1.
Verse 22 through 25 warns that we should not be like a man who looks at his face in themirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
(29:35):
This is a picture of a man who remembers in a way that does not translate into action.
When we are forgetful of the Lord, of his promises and of all the victories that he hasaccomplished,
then we end up circling around through the same doubts and lessons.
(29:55):
The Israelites experienced miraculous deliverances from Egypt, yet in the subsequent daysand years in the wilderness, they failed to remember God's power and goodness time and
again.
They needlessly doubted his care, his character, his ability, and slowing down theirjourney as a result and inviting avoidable trials into their story.
(30:21):
Jude 4 verse 9 says, be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget thethings your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.
Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
We're not only commanded to remember for ourselves, but we're actually commanded to teachthe next generations.
(30:43):
Remembrance is an essential part of worship.
I'll say that again.
Remembrance.
is an essential part of worship, such as remembering the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalfby partaking in the Lord's Supper.
1 Corinthians 11 verse 24 quotes, Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.
(31:08):
It is so beneficial to incorporate acts of remembrance into our daily, weekly and annualrhythms of life.
How are you doing in that area?
When was the last time you recalled something that took place?
that God did and gave him thanks and honoured him for it in a family situation, in achurch situation, in a day-to-day situation.
What did the Lord do today?
(31:30):
Not what did he do 20, 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, even when you got saved.
What is he doing today?
And how do you remember that and share that remembrance with others?
We are not left alone or helpless in the task of remembrance.
It should be a function of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
(31:50):
Do we quench the Holy Spirit when He desires to help bring to mind and act on the Word ofthe Lord?
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach youall things and will remind you of, and in parentheses here, help you to remember
(32:10):
everything I have said to you.
That's John 14 26.
So the Holy Spirit wants to be involved in reminding you of things you've learned in thepast in remembering and acting upon that which has been given to you and entrusted with
you.
Do you friend actively remember the Lord?
He is so worthy of all of our attention and worship and has truly done marvelous deeds.
(32:35):
Zakar, the things I have done in the past for I alone am God.
I am God.
And there is none like me.
Isaiah 56 verse 9.
If you think about it, the scriptures as a whole, the whole thing is a zikar.
Yes, there is the stuff that's looking towards the future, but there's the zikar of thepast.
(32:56):
There's the remembrance.
There's all scripture being profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction.
Every aspect of it is there for our growth and for our benefit and for our understandingand for us to have a deeper relationship with the Word.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He wants that relationship.
He wants that remembrance of the acts that he did, the remembrance of the acts of theapostles, the remembrance of Moses, of Abraham, of David.
(33:22):
They're all outlined in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, but the unfolding of theseremembrances, these zekas that God acted in history and God acts in the present.
And so let's not just remember.
the Holocaust in a theoretical sense.
Let's not remember it as a historical sense.
(33:45):
Let's not just remember it in a ethereal expense.
Let's remember it and show our remembrance through purposeful action today, tomorrow, whenthe need arises.
My wife studied the Holocaust and as I've looked at it and found the acquiescence,
My wife studied the Holocaust for her masters um and Jewish civilization and history anduh she undertook to look and we both have looked together.
(34:16):
We produced a film called Jacob's Tears, which looks at the spiritual dynamics behind theShoah, behind the Holocaust.
And that is available.
There's a link in the chat below to watch Jacob's Tears.
It looks at the...
Where was the church in the leader...
It looks at where was the church in the lead up to the Holocaust?
Why did the church largely acquiesce to Hitler?
(34:38):
What were the preconditions that brought that about?
And how did a church get swallowed up to the point where they were actually puttingswastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler on their pulpits?
What took place in Germany that caused this character to unfold within the German church?
The acquiescence of that German church in the 1930s and 40s is tragic and disturbing.
(35:03):
And so many European Christians stood by passively as the Nazis unfolded their genocidalplans against God's chosen people.
I've always hoped that I would have done better if I were in their shoes.
I have hoped that we as a church would do better if a similar situation arose in our day.
And the reality is this is our time.
(35:27):
This is the moment for our generation to stand up and show
that we possess courage and moral clarity in the face of evil.
In the 1930s, there were four groups of Germans, the perpetrators, the collaborators, thebystanders, which were by far the largest segment of society, and then what Jewish
(35:51):
historians call the righteous among the nations.
They were a small
but mighty minority who risk their lives to stand up for their Jewish friends, to stand upfor truth, goodness, decency, and the sanctity of life.
Our actions in this season determine which we will be.
(36:12):
The perpetrators, the collaborators, the bystanders, or the righteous among the nations.
How will the church's response to Jew hatred in our generation be remembered?
Thank you, friends, for joining us today.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
(36:35):
I'm Stephen Briggs, and this is Israel Matters.
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