Evil Alliances
The Germans never seem to get it.
From Middle Ages Catholic anti-Semitism, to Martin Luther, to Hitler. Now with anti-Semitism raging across the globe, Germany is hosting a contingent of Iranian business leaders.
From a Jerusalem Post report:
“A German forum to promote business and banking in the Islamic Republic of Iran, featuring politicians and government bodies, slated to begin on Wednesday, faced sharp criticism from human rights experts and an NGO seeking to stop Iranian terrorism and its illicit nuclear activity.
“Ulrike Becker, a spokeswoman for the NGO Stop the Bomb, said: ‘This banking forum is scandalous. German bankers and politicians in Frankfurt are rolling out the red carpet for a regime which is responsible for the flight of millions [of refugees] from Syria and Iraq.’
“Becker said the 5th Banking and Business Forum Iran Europe, which runs from November 15-16 in Frankfurt, seeks to lift financial restrictions against business with Iran.”
Germany’s Angela Merkel, of course, has flooded her own country with refugees driven out of their countries by the Iranians and their proxies in Iraq and Syria.
Israel just announced this week—yet again—that it will not allow Iran to camp along its northern borders. The fact that Iran, in public, has announced its desire to wipe Israel off the map, makes Germany’s overtures to the terror state all the more troubling. Yet we live in a time when nation states clearly signal that they do not care about Jewish lives. This is a fact.
Whether it was the recent American evangelical lauding of Martin Luther (for Reformation Day), or my frequent conversations now about an unwillingness to hear positives about Israel, among evangelicals, it is clear that Jewish life is cheap to most. Germany’s powerful European economy causes most countries to stand-down in the face of the Iranian business summit.
A few voices cry out:
“Julie Lenarz, a senior fellow for The Israel Project, based in Washington, told the Post that ‘Iran hasn’t stopped being a threat to international peace and security. It’s a pariah state, ruled by a fanatical mullah regime with malign nuclear ambitions, and should be isolated as the world’s largest exporter of terrorism.
“’Key sectors of the Iranian economy are controlled by the IRGC [Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps], the country’s driving force behind Islamic extremism, war crimes in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and annihilationist threats against the state of Israel,’ she said. ‘Rather than attending cushy meetings in the West, Iranian officials should be indicted for crimes against humanity.’
“Lenarz added that, ‘If you do business with the IRGC, you sponsor Tehran’s aggression abroad and violence against their own people.’ Large European banks have avoided business deals with Iran because of the volatility of Iran’s financial system. Oberbank, a mid-size Austrian bank, established business ties with Tehran in September. Michael Busser, a spokesman for the State of Hesse, did not immediately answer a Post press query. The German Green Party declined to comment.”
I have noticed though in my years of Israel advocacy that when one tries to win friends for Israel by using data and statistics, little headway is made. It is only when a biblical case is made—and the receiving heart is warmed to Jews—that any real friends are made for Israel.
The banking and business forum in Germany is but one example of indifference (hostility?) toward Israel and Jews worldwide. I maintain my view that even American evangelical leaders don’t care one whit about Israel. They just don’t.
This is due to many factors: a resurgence of Calvinism; the rise of “social justice” Millennials; aberrant theology taught in seminaries; evangelical “celebrities” who themselves are not biblical.
A principled leader would boycott the forum in Germany. And denounce it publicly.
Yet, as a long-time Southern Baptist deacon once explained to me why he voted for Bill Clinton: It’s good for the economy.
The world has lost its way. It has lost its moral bearings, if they were ever in place to begin with.
It is repulsive to think of the German government lavishly hosting those fiends from Iran.
But then again, we know that Gog/Magog will soon be a reality.