Never Again

I was compelled to write this morning. As many of you know, the conflict in Israel is close to my heart. I may be Christian but I support Israel and  the Jewish people's right to exist and thrive. In my heart, I am a Spiritual Jew as outlined in the Bible:

Romans 2: 28-29 (KJV) states, "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

Recently, some have tried to create the phrase "Never again for anyone." This is an attempt to morally equivocate the Israeli genocide of the Holocaust with what they call a "Palestinian genocide." They do this to stir emotions and win people over to their Pro-Hamas argument.

It is also a lie.

By 1947, six million Jews had been killed in the Holocaust. Their population had been reduced from over nine million to just 3.5 million. It is something that has been thoroughly documented. That kind of slaughter is literally genocide.

Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It is a combination of the Greek word γένος (genos, "race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing"). Lemkin had fled the Holocaust to the United States. Many in his family had been killed during the Holocaust. He heard a 1941 radio broadcast by Winston Churchill in which the UK leader described the atrocities being committed by the German state police as "a crime without a name." Lemkin decided to give it a name to help prevent future acts of wholesale slaughter of a race or ethnic group.

In contrast, the Palestinian population that was displaced from Israel and mostly sent to Jordan was 200,000 in 1948. The current population in Gaza is over two million. That is not to say the Palestinians in Gaza have not suffered casualties but it is not a genocide by any stretch of the imagination.

And Gaza is ruled by Hamas, the same terrorist group that inflicted Holocaust-level atrocities upon Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas still holds many hostages taken that day in Gaza. Hamas constantly breaks any ceasefire attempts. Their charter literally calls for the eradication of Israel.

Yet people still attempt to morally equate Israel and Hamas's actions. They call Israelis "white colonizers" when they're neither "white" (implying they are European born and not from the Middle East) nor colonizers. In 1947, they were allowed to return to their own land. In 1967 and since, they expanded their territory after being attacked by neighboring countries.

That isn't colonization. That is survival and the results of victory in wars they didn't start.

Since October 7, I have prayed for Israel,  the Jews, and the innocents who suffer from this needless conflict brought about by terrorists and their financial backers in Iran and other countries dedicated to Israel's destruction. I pray for peace and resolution.

I admit, it angers me when I see people try to culturally appropriate the term "Never Again" for an anti-Israel purpose. I see it as another way to water down or erase the significance of that term, to take it away from the Jews.

So this morning, I wrote the following:

Never Again
By Allen Steadham

“Never again” happened on October 7, 2023

A phrase born from the Holocaust

A warning from the past to future generations to be vigilant against hate towards the Jewish people

Against the fruit of Holocaust denial which is a rallying cry to destroy the Jews and Israel

Against people who would erase the Jews and their ancestral, God-given homeland

Against people who would try to appropriate the very warning itself

You can’t have “never again.” It’s not yours.

Am Yisrael Chai ("The people of Israel live")