On Friday came the disclosure of anti-Semitic conversations between Rev. Billy Graham and President Richard Nixon. Rev. Graham has since issued a statement of apology, and one can assume that his views have matured in the interim. Though he claims to not remember the conversation, hopefully he is now as appalled as many of us by its disturbing contents. But what is even more disturbing than the familiar racist stereotypes of Jews expressed therein, is that this type of talk is all too common. Jewish people may not hear it very often, of course, but the rest of us do. Anti-Semitism is alive and flourishing, even in supposedly “enlightened” America.

Also on Friday, I was listening to a CSPAN call-in program during which caller after caller registered support for the Palestinians and extreme denunciation of Israel. Certainly, everyone has a right to his or her opinion, no matter how incorrect it is. But what is troubling about the harsher anti-Israel rhetoric that we are increasingly hearing is that it has become the “acceptable” way to express anti-Semitic feelings without being accused of being anti-Semitic.

Others have questioned whether the heightened anti-Israel speech is really at its essence anti-Jewish. In many cases, it appears to go beyond mere criticism to something with much deeper roots. I recall a conversation I had with a work acquaintance some time ago during which we were discussing the renewed violence in Israel. In addressing the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, the assessment of this seemingly “regular” fellow was, “It looks like the only thing the Jews learned from the Nazis was how to act like them.” In this reprehensible statement, Israelis and Jews are synonymous.

The historical phenomenon of anti-Semitism is in many ways inscrutable, and relentless. It is like a volcanic lava flow -- though there may be a hard crust on top that obscures it, cracks in that crust manifest the scorching, red-hot undercurrent.

Though mankind has demonstrated a great propensity for hatred of various and copious kinds, when it comes to Jews, we have quite outdone ourselves. The question of “why?” is one that cannot be easily answered. Perhaps the more pragmatic question of “will it end?” is the one that should be addressed.

In Europe in the mid and late 1800s, Jews in many places were beginning to feel for the first time that they might not be unwelcome. It was an optimistic era for Jews, when many of them were becoming comfortable in the societies in which they lived. Perhaps, many of them thought, anti-Semitism is largely a relic of the past; perhaps we can fit in with other peoples.

The Russian pogroms of the 1880s and 1890s and the emergence of the Nazi ideology were to dash all such thoughts. But even many Jews in Germany did not attempt to leave until it was too late, believing that it was unthinkable that in their “enlightened” culture Jews could be sent to their deaths en masse.

In the wake of the Holocaust, the State of Israel emerged as a refuge for Jews. The Zionist ideal of a place where Jews could live to escape the inevitable scorn of the goyim became a fact. The words of the Jewish prophet Isaiah, "The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge," became a reality. That same prophet predicted a Divinely initiated mass migration back to Israel. “I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 43:6 NIV)

All of the above leads me to my reluctant conclusion: Jews will never be fully accepted in the nations. History is indeed set to repeat itself, and anywhere Jews are now comfortable represents a momentary anomaly. There will be only one place on earth where this people will have a permanent refuge, and that is Eretz Israel.

If it is part of the Providential design that Jews from everywhere where they remain in the world continue to make aliyah, then ultimately the result is good -- good for them, that is. (I hope this would never be misconstrued that I think Jews should be forced out of America or anywhere else. No, of course not!) But perhaps there is a grand, benevolent plan in which the place where they belong is the place where they belong.

If the trend of history, the evidence of perpetual negative sentiments, and the inertia of the Jewish Scriptures are a reliable indication, perhaps Jews around the world should reconsider the arguments of their brothers in Israel who urge them to come up to the land. It is a "good land", after all.