End the Silence
We must confront the persecutors of Christians
THIS weekend, Jews and Christians will, together, celebrate the rare occurrence of the first night of Hanukkah falling on Christmas Eve. The last time this happened was 1959, when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House.
This wonderful confluence serves as a powerful reminder of the shared roots of our two religions. Many of our Christian traditions grow out of Jewish practices, the Hebrew scripture comprises the first part of the Christian Bible and we find the Ten Commandments, brought down from Mt. Sinai by Moses, to be a sturdy foundation on which to build a life.
The bonds that tie Jews and Christians together are stronger than ever. Unfortunately, today they also share a bond over the burdens of persecution. Today, millions of Christians are facing discrimination, torment and death throughout the Middle East and parts of North Africa at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, as well as from extremists in China and India. And, sadly, like Jewish victims of hatred throughout history, the world today seems completely indifferent to their plight.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed 25 Christian worshippers at Cairo’s Coptic cathedral complex during Sunday Mass. Every act of terror is outrageous, but targeting a religious service sends a very definite message — you will be killed because of the God you choose to worship. That’s a message Jews have heard throughout time.
It was the latest in a long series of attacks that have killed tens of thousands of Christians living in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria and Egypt. It has created a tidal wave of millions of refugees that is undermining the European continent. Christians have been tortured and murdered in the most medieval ways by groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. Entire Christian communities, in the lands where Christianity began, have disappeared. While the vast majority of the victims in the most recent conflict are Sunni Arabs, Christians have been an ongoing target for decades.
The entire Christian community of Nineveh in Northern Iraq could be completely gone in four years. These are the people who speak Aramaic, the same language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, with Christian roots that go back that far.
These horrific scenes make headlines but are soon forgotten — a poignant lesson in the silence Jews have long suffered under.
A little over a month ago, we passed the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht. On Nov. 9, 1938, Jewish homes and businesses were ransacked, Jews were beaten and murdered in the streets and over 1,000 synagogues were set on fire throughout Germany and Austria.
And while some individuals and groups denounced this horror, for the most part Western democracies said very little and did even less. Hitler was always watching and measuring the world’s response. When he heard mostly silence in the wake of Kristallnacht, he knew he had a free hand to deal with the Jews as he wished.
The terrorists committing these crimes today are adept at social media and they, too, see the lack of forceful reaction to their outrageous acts. Like the Nazis 78 years ago, their terror has only increased.
We realize that many decent people in the United States greet almost anything having to do with the Middle East with a sigh of resignation out of a sense that the problems in that region are either too complicated or have been going on for so long that any US involvement changes nothing and often brings even worse results.
But we believe dismissing the problem as “too complicated” is another way of avoiding it. In the end, it’s not really that complicated. We are talking about good and evil.
There actually are times when it’s that simple — World War II comes to mind. When human beings are burned alive, children beheaded and young girls kidnapped and sold into slavery, we are seeing pure evil. And the lesson of history is clear: Evil must be confronted.
Mere words have never stopped genocide. They must be backed up by action.
At a minimum, humanitarian aid should not be hampered, as it has been. Water, food, blankets and medical supplies promised more than two years ago by the United States and United Nations to the northern regions of Iraq have still not reached the Christian enclaves. There is no excuse.
Christmas is the season of hope and goodwill toward man. Hanukkah is the holiday of miracles. Both celebrate the victory of light over darkness. It strikes us that the world needs all four this year, and we’d add one more. Let’s end the silence, and tell the world in the strongest possible terms that this outrage against humanity must end — and it must end now.