You've probably read already about the attack on an Arab Christian village in the West Bank by their Muslim neighbors. It started as a typical disgraceful story of depraved tribalism (you heard me) as a family murdered their daughter.

JPost: Muslims ransack Christian village

Honest Reporting calls it an Anti-Christian Pogrom in the West Bank, and says that " For years, media outlets have largely refused to report one of the most troubling aspects of the Mideast conflict -- Muslim intimidation and violence against Christians in Palestinian-controlled areas." Here's one example they include as a reason for the shifting tide of fortune against Arab Christians:

I have mentioned these issues any number of times on this web site. You can't always look to the Palestinian Christians themselves for an honest explanation of their plight to outsiders, though. Arab Christians are a Dhimmi people, a dwindling minority at peril to life and limb in an unfriendly sea efficient at punishing those who violate a national narrative and tribal norms if nothing else. Those living under such oppression don't always need to be kept under wraps by their jailers -- they keep themselves convinced...true-believing double-thinkers adept at displaying loyalty to the dominant culture. So adept that many have convinced themselves.

Even for those who are not convinced, criticism of Israel and Jews is free and can be used to curry favor, while criticism of the Palestinian Authority or the dominant Muslim society may be repaid with death...even to the point that their own society is choked away to the sound of their own silence.

I assure you, the Palestinian Christians Yahoo email group I subscribe to is consistently filled with the most freakish Jew hatred and smash Israel rhetoric of any I monitor.

Who will stand with those who are willing to speak and think freely? Rarely is it their co-religionists in the West, a great number of whom accept this incubated and exported turnthink uncritically.

This is best exemplified by groups like Sabeel -- a theological center which has co-opted and subordinated Christianity for the cause of Palestinian Arab nationalism -- and its ever-traveling director Rev. Naim Ateek. Ateek has been a guest at mainline Protestant events from coast to coast and continent to continent advocating for divestment for years. The indefatigable Dexter Van Zile of the Judeo-Christian Alliance has written extensively and importantly on this issue. One of his most recent efforts was this letter in Iowa's WCF Courier, Sabeel no friends of Israel (emphasis mine):

Not surprisingly, Van Zile's exposure of the truth results in shrieks of outrage from the usual quarters. I actually like it when people try to use the word "Zionist" as a pejorative term in regular American publications. I don't believe it sounds right to ordinary American ears, and makes the writer sound like an anti-Semite -- which is what they usually are. Don't buy Zionist intimidation:

Actually, I think Mr. Van Zile exposed Ateek's obvious anti-Semitism by exposing the long familiar themes present in his rhetoric. He did it without ever using the word. Methinks the author of this letter doth protest too much. "Friends of Sabeel" should be ashamed.

But they're not the only ones.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is another friend of Sabeel, and a place where the voice of Palestinian Christians finds amplification in Dhimmi tones. The PC(USA) and its News Service have a long history of forwarding a one-sided anti-Israel narrative. Noting that the Presbyterian News Service failed to mention the mob attack on a Christian town noted at the start of this post -- clearly a shocking and significant story by any standard, but particularly by what one would expect to be the standard of a religious news service that often focuses on the area west of the Jordan River -- an reader contacted the service coordinator, Jerry Van Marter:

Here is the reply she received:

A four person full-time staff? Sounds like they could crank out a whole lot of quality content on a group blog, especially since they don't produce everything themselves, but, as I understand it, repost from services like ENI. Seriously, but be that as it may, they certainly have time and space for a lot of other material that doesn't have much of a PC(USA) angle, but that do support the front office's "divest from Israel" agenda, even if they do not seem to have the same level of immediate import as the Taiba attacks. For instance, Rev. Van Marter's colleague, Rev. Alexa Smith has produced two articles recently that seem to present no immediate import other than as propaganda pieces, Fare market economy -- about the hardships of driving a cab in Bethlehem -- and Go betweens -- how Arab Christians (and Divestment) are helping to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between West and East. Oh joy.

Where is the Western Christian heart? Cozying-up to suicides and promulgators of the deicide accusation, cultivating and encouraging the culture of dhimmitude and ignoring the continuing physical threat to their co-religionists.