Beyond Words Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, 1960-1990 Volume 4 A "CHRISTIAN EMBASSY" For those willfully deluded Jews who prefer to believe that the gentile cannot match the Jew in cleverness, let a symbolic visit to the "new" Christian missionaries of Israel rudely disabuse them of such nonsense. Once the Christian missionary was open and blunt in his proselytizing. But the end of Christian hegemony and the rise of liberalism, combined with the birth of a Jewish state, served to create a new, subtle, clever and dangerous kind of Christian missionary. One can find them today all over Israel – and the United States. The sheep's clothing of lovers of Israel deftly disguising their main concern and goal – the bringing of the "truth" to the Jew, the conversion of the Jew to Christianity, the call to the Jew to be "born again." Remember the names: The "International Christian Embassy" and Jon Willem van der Hoeven. Remember and beware. They are, of course, only part of a bewildering and numbing influx of sects, religions and cults that are granted total freedom to ensnare the Israeli Jew. Paganism in its most blatant idolatry is given free rein in the Jewish state that is far, far from that Gurus of various forms and shapes, purchase buildings and villas to which they attract thousands of Jews. The pagan Hare Krishna can be seen in the streets and the campuses, singing their siren songs to a shallow and empty sabra (and young Jewish tourists, as well). Transcendental meditation flourish, as well as EST and a whole host of Eastern cults and pagan seductions, Never in Israel's history have the pagan and Eastern cults flourished so freely and well. But the old, classical missionaries – the Christians – are still here, flourishing as never before. And cleverer, by far, than the Jew. Shrewdly understanding the change in time and temper. They no longer blatantly seek the Jewish soul. Instead, they understand the Jewish Achilles' heel and with wile and guile, pounce upon it. They have come to understand that if the goy compliments the Jew, the latter will throw himself at the complimenter; that gentile praise of the Jew is as water to a parched soul. Let the gentile stand and defend the Jew, and the latter will dissolve in love and gratitude. Such is the painful but necessary result of two thousand years of Exile. So hated and persecuted the Jew pines away for any sign of the non-Jewish love he so desperately needs to believe is out there somewhere. Remember the names: the "International Christian Embassy" and Jan Willem van der Hoeven. Remember and beware: It is, of course, impossible for a people to live for any considerable length of time as a minority, without land or home or sovereignty, and remain a normal, healthy entity. It is simply not possible to be – for centuries – abused, persecuted, trampled upon, murdered, and the subject of contempt and sheer hatred, and to remain spiritually or mentally sound. One becomes filled with the fears and insecurities and neuroses and psychoses of the hated. One comes to hate himself as he slowly and subconsciously begins to believe that all these vilifications and attacks on him cannot all be false. It is the natural condition of man to be loved and not hated; it is the normal condition of man to be free and sovereign and resident in his own home. Twenty centuries of being a hated and despised stranger, supping at the tables and "tolerance" of others, has turned the Jew in the Exile into a less than normal person, so fearful of persecution and so eager for love, that he reacts with abnormal gratitude and thanksgiving at the slightest hint of gentile sympathy, not to mention lavish praise. Remember the name. And beware of it. It is the cleverest and most dangerous of the missionaries. Immediately after the passage of the so-called Jerusalem Law declaring the city to be the eternal capital of Israel, the few countries that had kept their embassies in the Holy City pulled them out. The missionaries saw here a golden opportunity for a public relations coup that would win them the love of a people starved for love. And so, the idea was born in the missionary mind to create an "International Christian Embassy" accompanied by a declaration of support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Is there any wonder that Jews fell over themselves in gratitude? Is there surprise that people who want to believe that the gentile really does not hate them will lionize and elevate unto the seventh heaven the cunning Christian, who outjingoizes the most xenophobic nationalist? And so, when the missionaries of the "Christian Embassy" brought over some 3,000 missionaries last Sukkot for a conference in Israel, of course they were given treatment usually awarded to visiting royalty. Begin, himself, spoke to them. Newspapers, television and radio publicized them. And the cunning game plan succeeded beyond all expectations. Jews and Jesus were beginning to move closer. The ban, prohibition and total separation between the Jewish people and Jesus the apostate, fraud and traitor to the Torah law, were now being abandoned. After all, Christians who praise Israel to the heavens cannot be those who seek to destroy Jewishness! But they do. And remember them. The "Christian Embassy." The heart of the Christian missionaries in Israel. The most cunning and dangerous. Tell your friends. Have your rabbis warn of the. Do not visit them. Condemn them. And consider what they are and what they do. The Christian Embassy openly distributes literature aimed at converting Jews, including a well-known missionary paperback entitled The Uniqueness of Israel (entire chapters are devoted to quoting passages from the Torah which supposedly "prove" that Jesus was the Messiah). The Christian Embassy distributes articles by Menachem Benhayim, a Jew who converted to Christianity and now leads a missionary group called the "International Hebrew Christian Alliance." "A VEHICLE FOR EXTENDING G-D'S PURPOSE FOR ISREAL AND THE NATIONS" – that is, to convert Jews to Christianity. The author of the article, David Bivin, is on the Embassy's board of Trustees. Merv Watson, another member of the Christian Embassy's board of Trustees, if the founder of a missionary outfit called itself "Shekinah." This is the group that Jews in Israel dote upon. These are the people honored (and publicized) by the Prime Minister when he spoke before their convention. But above all, remember the cunning Dutchman, the man who is the evil genius behind the missionary center. Remember the name of Jan Willem van der Hoeven and fight him, unmask him, remove the cloak of "Jew-lover" that covers a man who would destroy, in his own way, Jews – quite as much as did the Nazi machine, in its own manner. I know van der Hoeven personally. Following attacks on missionaries in 1973, he – who was the warder of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (a Christian holy site) – asked to speak to me. He made an open and undisguised appeal to me to accept Jesus. And why not? He is a devout and fanatic missionary who has long taught Bible classes aimed at converting Jews. And why not? Every born-again Christian, fundamentalist, evangelist or what-have you MUST BE A MISSIONARY. The absurd Jews who ask them not to be, or the ludicrous ones who deny that they are, bring disaster on us. Can one tell an Orthodox Jew to suspend his observance of the Sabbath? Just as well as a born-again Christian to suspend his attempts to proselytize. They cannot. It is a fundamental part of their faith. And indeed, at a press conference in Jerusalem's Beit Agron (Oct. 12, 1981), van der Hoeven, the Dutchman who is flying so high with adoring Jews, refused to criticize or disassociate himself from missionary activities, saying: "After all, a basic tenet of Christianity is to witness our faith to others. Fair enough. But let us know them for what they really are. Fanatical missionaries who will stoop to every deceit, trick and lie in order to snatch a Jewish soul. And let us do two other things" One: Expose them. Have your rabbi, from the pulpit and in a special letter to the membership. Warn of them. Have every Jewish community group explain to the local community that the support for Israel that these groups give is derived – not from any love of Jews – but only because of the belief that Jewish victory and return to the land will bring the coming of THEIR Messiah, Jesus, and the total conversion of the Jewish people. And until that time, they fanatically renew their efforts to convert Jews NOW. And that leads us to the second point: The Israel government. There simply are no words to describe the tragedy of a government that calmly allows missionary work to literally explode in intensity in the Jewish state. Even as Begin regales us with yet another " Baruch Hashem," the Christian missionaries, in staggering numbers, fill the land. There is not one ulpan (school for learning Hebrew) that has not got its missionary. They come as volunteers in kibbutzim to work and snatch souls. They study and teach at Hebrew University. They come as olim (!), immigrants, and enter the absorption centers And Begin – Baruch Hashem, all is well . . . And I write these words on the heels of an effort by the lonely few of the Kach Movement to prevent van der Hoeven from speaking at a seminar, organized by benighted Jewish intellectuals. The seminar, held sadly enough at a rented yeshiva hall (the yeshiva did not know of the Dutchman at the time of the renting, but was notified later), was disrupted by Kach people demanding the ouster of van der Hoeven. They were attacked by police riot forces who gassed and arrested them. Despite the comments by the head of the yeshiva that the action of the Jews was a Hillul Hashem (sic), one can only call upon Heaven to witness the lonely sacrifice of these young Jews and to testify as to who really desecrated Judaism that day. No one need tell me about the born-again Christians and their support for Israel. Long before others, I wrote saying that here were people to be USED as a tool for Jewish struggle. But never did I say to do what is being done today. Never did I say to simply ignore their missionary activity. Rather, I said to do precisely what I did in practice when I flew to the church in Plains, Georgia, where Carter prayed and told some hundred Baptists in the courtyard: Israel does not NEED you. It will survive because it is G-d's Chosen state. But for your own sakes, remember the warning of the All Mighty in Genesis 12:3; " And I shall bless those that bless you and curse them who curse you." On Judgment Day, you Christians will be judged by the L-rd on the basis of your having either supported the chosen people of the land or not. Not because we need you but because you had better fear the L-rd, we warn you to stand behind the Jewish people and state. That is how one speaks to the Fundamentalists. And parallel to that, one fights in every way their missionary efforts. One demands that the Israeli government throw them out of Israel, pass a Knesset law banning their activity, and heavily punish all those who violate that law. Let us not be afraid of anyone except the G-d of Israel. And let us cleave unto His law and remove the abomination from our midst. | 
