Zola Leavitt told Salt Lakers on Tuesday that a new breed of anti-Semitism is brewing in Israel - coming surprisingly from a Muslim-Christian front.
Leavitt, a Dallas author and host of a nationally broadcast religious program, spoke at the Meta Tauta Center, a nondenominational organization that sponsored his lectures in Price, Vernal and Salt Lake City.Leavitt was in Israel in October when the Jerusalem Post published an editorial titled "The Churches' Anti-Israel Crusade." The editorial discussed Jerusalem's Anglican Bishop Samir Katify's co-sponsoring with a world Islamic organization a conference on Christians and the church campaign to put the blame on Israel for a Christian exodus.
The Oct. 4, 1992, editorial stated: "Blaming Israel for the Christian exodus, Katify never mentions that the Christian emigration from Jerusalem and the administered territories began when these areas were under Jordanian rule. That this has continued after 1967 is due to Arab terrorism and harassment.
"The facts are plain enough. After 1948 the Jordanian administration initiated a process of Islamization of the Christian Quarter in the Old City. This included a ban on Christian purchase of real estate, strict control of charitable and educational institutions, compulsory closure of schools on Moslem holy days, a curriculum of Moslem teachings, and the building of mosques next to churches to prevent Christian expansion.
"Since 1967, Christian religious sites and cemeteries have been desecrated by Palestinian Arabs. Slogans like `Islam will win' and `First the Saturday people then the Sunday people' have been painted on walls, and PLO flags draped over crosses. Two years ago a PLO flag was painted on one of the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher."
Said Leavitt, "Prophecy tells us in Matthew 24:9 that Israel will end up hated of all nations. Amazingly it's Christian people - an Anglican Bishop and a Roman Catholic Monsignor teamed up with the PLO to de-Judaize Jesus and Palestinize him. You wouldn't believe this - this is why I interviewed the writer of the editorial, David Bar-Illan who said of his article, `You ain't seen the half of it.' Yasser Arafat has described the apostle Peter as a `Palestinian who defied Rome.'
"And a Jordanian TV production earlier this year blamed the Jews for murdering Jesus, `the Palestinian prophet.' This is like the gasping big lies of communism. And they're going to repeat and repeat this as the new thing. Jesus was a Palestinian, born in Bethlehem. Imagine Christians saying they're closer to Islam than to the Jews. This is a betrayal. God says he'll bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. God is not mocked. We haven't begun to pay up for this cursing," Leavitt warned.
"I've been called meshumed (traitor) - people have said `Don't listen to that guy, he works for the Israeli government' and it's true! I've been working for the King of the Jews for 20 years," said Leavitt, a Jew who converted to Christianity in 1971.
Leavitt said that anti-Semitism is as old as the Book of Job and that Christians need to develop a world view that includes all races.