"This is a must read at the Wall Street Journal, particularly for our Christian friends..."
I have to say that statement made me chuckle..

Quite frankly...I don't think our Christian "friends" on the Left give a damn...they'll just read the article and blame Israel anyways. Why ? Because being anti-Israel is a safe and convenient way to be a Jew-hater. The christian Left is antisemitic to the bone, nothing they will read or see or be told will ever change that.
And since we're on the subject..our christian "friends" to the Right...will remain friends to us Jews as long as they believe that a Jewish presence in the holy land will resurrect their messiah. Once that belief ceases it will be a free for all Israel bash fest if not outright antisemitic actions. History has an unpleasant way of repeating itself.

As a Jew I am realistic enough to realize that we have no friends...when push comes to shove..we will stand alone as we always have. For the better or for the worse.

No doubt, where Islam flourishes creates a hostile environment for non Muslims.

Islam is vile.

If you think, Im anti Semitic, you havent seen nothing yet. Im actively hostile to Islam and its practicioners.

Once that belief ceases --- Mike

Well, mike, looks like youll have a long wait. However, dont let that stop you from your anti Christian rants.

Merry Christmas

Wonderful. EV hates Jews AND Muslims.

Little Joy on Christmas for Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem
The Palestinian Christian is an endangered species. When the modern state of Israel was established there were about 400,000 of us. Two years ago the number was down to 80,000. Now it’s down to 60,000. At that rate, in a few years there will be none of us left. When this happens non-Christian groups will move into our churches and claim them forever.
Palestinian Christians within Israel fare little better. On the face of it, their number has grown by 20,000 since 1991. But this is misleading, for the census classification “Christian” includes some 20,000 recent non-Arab migrants from the former Soviet Union.
So why are Palestinian Christians abandoning their homeland?
We have lost hope, that’s why. We are treated as non-people. Few outside the Middle East even know we exist, and those who do, conveniently forget.
I refer, of course, to the American Religious Right. They see modern Israel as a harbinger of the Second Coming, at which time Christians will go to paradise, and all others (presumably including Jews) to hell. To this end they lend military and moral support to Israel.
Even by the double-dealing standards of international diplomacy this is a breathtakingly cynical bargain. It is hard to know who is using whom more: the Christian Right for offering secular power in the expectation that the Jewish state will be destroyed by a greater spiritual one; or the Israeli Right for accepting their offer. What we do know is that both sides are abusing the Palestinians. Apparently we don’t enter into anyone’s calculations.
The views of the Israeli Right are well known: they want us gone.
Less well known are the views of the American Religious Right. Strangely, they find the liberation of Iraqis from a vile dictator just, but do not find it unjust for us to be under military occupation for 38 long years.
Said Senator James Inhofe (Rep.,Oklahoma): “God Appeared to Abraham and said: ‘I am giving you this land’, the West Bank. This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true.”
Inhofe must have got it wrong. Promises are being made to earthly Jerusalem that God did not make. The Holy Land was promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, as stated in the Bible. These are the Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews, who have been living in the land for thousands of years. The Bible never mentioned that God promised it solely to Jews. Anyone can be a Jew, but not anyone can be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants. James Inhofe and followers are unable to tell the difference between Jew, Israelite and Israel.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (Rep.,Texas) was even more forthright: “I'm content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank … I happen to believe that the Palestinians should leave.”
There is a phrase for this. Ethnic cleansing.
Silencing us, from seeking your support and enlightening you about our suffering, goes counter to what Jesus has mandated us to do. We all know that Muslims and Jews get ceaseless support (political, spiritual and financial) from Saudi Arabia and America respectively, while Palestinian Christians get nothing from Australian and other Western “Christian” governments. (The Pope has been an exception.)
Prior to the 1967 war, the Christian youth at the Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and other churches in Bethlehem used to pray and rejoice and have a good chat with hundreds of American Christian pilgrims. In particular Texas and California were two places from where many came to visit the Holy Land. Today only fading memories prevail. Bethlehem has been vacated by Christian families. The remaining Christians are paying the price by experiencing curfews which last for weeks. They remain sandwiched between Muslims and Jews without drawing the slightest concern from the many so-called Western Christians.
So why do American Christians stand by while their leaders advocate the expulsion of fellow Christians? Could it be that they do not know that the Holy Land has been a home to Christians since, well … since Christ?
Do not think I am asking for special treatment for Christians. Ethnic cleansing is evil whoever does it and to whomever it is done. Palestinian Christians - Anglican, Maronite Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Armenians, Baptists, Copts and Assyrians - have been rubbing shoulders with each other and with other religions - Muslims, Jews, Druze and (most recently) Baha’is - for centuries. And we want to do so for centuries more. But we can’t if we are driven out by despair.
We are equally frightened by those who commit suicide bombings. None of us Christians have condoned it or even contemplated the idea. Our commitment to Jesus’ teachings will never shake our resolve in this matter.
American journalist Anders Strindberg makes a clearer conclusion. He says Palestinians are equated with Islamists, Islamists with terrorists. And presumably because all organised Christian activity among Palestinians is non-political and non-violent, the community hardly ever hits western headlines. Suicide bombers sell more copy than people who congregate for Bible study.
What we seek is support: material, moral, political and spiritual. As Palestinians we grieve for what we have lost, and few people have lost more than us (the Ashkenazi Jews are one). But grief can be assuaged by the fellowship of friends.
----------------------------------------------------
Prof Abe W Ata was a temporary delegate to the UN in 1970 and has lived and worked in the Middle East, America and Australia. Dr Ata is a 9th generation Christian Palestinian academic born in Bethlehem, and currently works in Australia

Abe W Ata,

I don't know if I understood your comment correctly but going by what I've witnessed of the behaviour of the Church Leaders in the Middle East isn't it about time that Christians criticized their actions?
In Lebanon of the 70s while the PLO, for example, massacred the men, women and children of Damour, trashed their church and dug up their graveyard Vatican and Orthodox officials were running arms for the PLO.
As Arafat's thugs were "liberating" Christian towns in the West Bank Sabag and ilk were lending them political support in the fight against the Israelis.

What is most remarkable to me is that we don't hear far more about the plight of Christian communities in Muslim countries. There will be an infrequent story about Assyrians and Chaldeans in Iraq, perhaps around Christmas or Easter, with a subtext usually about the adverse impact on them of the US invasion and not so much about the Islamic inspiration for attacks on them. There is the occasional story about the peril Christian Palestinians remaining in Gaza are in, but not much about the decline in numbers of Christians from where they have so long resided on the West Bank and in Lebanon. The NYT covered the story of Egypt's slaughter of pigs in response to the outbreak of swine flu, and the Christian aspect to that one was that it is only Cairo's abysmally poor Christian garbage collectors who keep pigs and their slaughter had a very disruptive effect on garbage collections. The Copts are regularly oppressed, and harshly so, but that's old news. When an individual Christian faces death in Afghanistan, Bengladesh, or elsewhere that may break into the news. But the press gives it all a sliver of the attention that the plight of Palestinians, Muslims in Europe and elsewhere gets. And while attention focuses on Switzerland's vote to ban the construction of minarets, it is seldom mentioned that no houses of worship other than mosques can be constructed in Saudi Arabia, Copts can get permission to build in Egypt, etc.

Professor Ata notes the fate of Ashkenazi Jews, presumably alluding to the Holocaust, but fails to say that some Sephardic Jews perished in the Holocaust too. More importantly, he fails to note the persecution and displacement of ancient Sephardic communities throughout the former Ottoman Empire.

And he says nothing of Christian participation in the PLO and alliances between Christians and Muslims against Israel, e.g., Aoun and his backers with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Then there was the likes of Sabeel, an Episcopalean headed by Reverend Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, who depicts Israel as "crucifying" Palestinians.

I would also tell him that he is mistaken about the eschatologic thinking and motivations of many Christian supporters of Israel; he need not worry on behalf of Israel about the religion of Christian Evangelicals; and the Palestinians, Muslim and Christian are not the innocent lambs he implies they are ("...both sides are abusing the Palestinians").

BTW, did Professor Ata's forbears refer to themselves as "Palestinians" before the Jews living there called themselves and their institutions that? If so, I would very much like to have proof of it.

And while Professor Ata laments the so-called Religious Right's support for Israel, I lament the Religious/Irreligious Left's support for Israel's enemies, most particularly the mainstream Protestant and "peace" churches.

I don't think EV is antisemitic, Sophia. He seems to be answering Mike's overstatement. That's all.

Here is a good source on Christian persecution...

International Christian Concern

http://www.persecution.org/suffering/index.php

Voice of the Matyrs

http://www.persecution.com/

Here are some of the latest in Europe...where the Left is continuing to persecute Christians...

Christian teacher fired for offering to pray for sick pupil

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237204/Christian-teacher-lost-job-told-praying-sick-girl-bullying.html

Court Rules Against Crucifixes in Italy's Schools

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125727049699525807.html

Swedish Government Seizes Child from (Christian) Home Schooling Family

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09122304.html

Amsterdam: If headscarves are allowed, why not crosses?

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/12/amsterdam-if-headscarves-are-allowed.html

Sorry Mike,

If Jews are going to label me an Anti Semite when I complain about or criticize Jews or the behavior of Jews or Israel, then Im going to return the favor.

Enjoy!

On a more meaningful note, the victimization politics that the New Left has elvevated to zeitgeist...is a terrible shame. However, if people are successful at promoting their groups agendas and well being via that vehicle, then those who refuse to play will end up the losers by default.

Therefore, I have adopted the lingo and push the marrative of Christianophobia, Anti Christian, Anti White racism and prejudice, persecution of Christians, , Misandry, and so on and so forth.

Dont hate the player, hate the game.

EVil, it's over for you.

Asians are smarter than you.

Black people are stronger and better atheletes than you.

europe can't maintain replacement population levels and Muslims are taking over europe, building mosques while barring churches in saudi arabia.

Trust me on this eddie, if worse comes to worse, there is always the final solution for the other.

Best to avoid that, though, I say.

On a side note, did you see the story, that Israel was indeed stealing peoples body parts!

LOL!

The Israeli officals called the leaked story anti Semitic.

Great tactic, Ill think Ill start using that one.

;)