Now the Catholic Church wants another piece of Israel

 

Jews in Israel must not give away their heritage, their ancient homelands of the Bible. The reaction to arab aggression must not be to give away land but to retake lands lost to our enemies. .

UPDATE 13/05/2014  - The unpardonable intention to give away an essential part of Jewish heritage to the Roman Catholic Church is beginning to cause a storm in Israel, and not before time. There needs to be a strong reaction to stop this act of folly.

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Israel seems unable to forgive itself for having managed to wrest back control of its ancestral homelands and holy places. That's just as well because there is no lack of interested parties wishing to divest Israel of its lands. 

The Palestinian Arabs are ever present with their threats and their constant terrorism in service of their stated goal to destroy Israel. Hamas and Egypt took their bits of Israel without ever guaranteeing peace. Hamas encouraged by Sharon's retreat from Gaza stepped up its rocket attacks. 

Egypt would have been content to lick its wounds after the Yom Kippur War thrashing Israel gave it. Beigin had no need to give the strategic Sinai away for a scrap of paper, a peace treaty that Muhammad Morsy was content to undermine whilst conniving with Turkey to encircle Israel by land and sea, creating the conditions for another war. 

During the reign of Israel's much touted egyptian 'friend' President Mubarak, he was happy for Hamas to smuggle thousands of rockets into Gaza before being delivered to Israel. Mubarak complained that it was too much to expect of him to find up to a thousand tunnels in a strip of land a few miles wide. Strangely enough the present government of Sisi has done just that in less than a year. But Egypt now sees Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Hamas as a threat to its own security. 

So Israel unnecessarily gave away the whole of Sinai to Egypt which had no historical claims whatsoever on it (It was a present from Britain that wrested the Sinai in 1917 from the Ottoman Turks, for purely British imperial reasons of defence of its Suez canal positions). 

And then there was Oslo whereby Israel gave Palestinian Arabs de facto independence by withdrawing from 60% of Judea and Samaria. That of course could never be enough for arabs who don't recognize Israel, or Jews rights to any land anywhere in the region. Arab maps do not even mention Israel with Palestinian Authority and Fatah maps of 'Palestine' including the whole of Israel. So much for giving away Israel's land in the cause of peace. There is always a demand for more.

Israel withdrew from all of Lebanon rather than keeping a militarily sensible defensive line from the Litani river southwards. The result was not peace but constant aggression until the war of 2006. Even the UN agreed that with Israel's withdrawal in 2000 all of Lebanon's territory had been returned. So then the 'Sheba Farms' red herring was raised. Anything to deny Israel peace. And if Israel were to give the 'Sheba Farms' to Lebanon you can bet your bottom dollar that the case of villages that Israel conquered when defending itself in 1948 would come up as new demands.

Olmert wanted to give away the whole of east Jerusalem, probably in exchange for some bribe or another. For Olmert what was good for east Jerusalem was good for the rest of Jeruslaem. He decided to hand over parts of Jerusalem to Russia. Russia as we all know is so small that in its desperation for land it has annexed parts of Georgia and Ukraine.
So we can't blame the Catholic Church for now getting in on the act. The Israelis so much want to be liked by the gentile world that they will give away everything to achieve a temporary popularity. Anyone can enter the reputed room of the last supper which is over the Tomb of David. Why does the Church feel the need to take possession of it?


Which other country in the world voluntarily gives up its land? Israel which has paid such a heavy price in blood to defend itself from arab aggression seems always ready to give away that which its people died, and are dying to protect.

Rather than offering to give away lands, to strip itself of its defences, Israel should itself draw up demands for the return of its ancient biblical territories in Jordan, and lands that zionists bought south of Damascus before the establishment of Israel.

When the Pope comes to visit, a man who is recognized as a friend of the Jewish People he should be given all honors, courtesy and some presents such as an ancient oil lamp or two. But the land belongs to the Jewish People as our Bible reading pope knows only too well.


Report: Vatican Pushing for Control of Mount Zion
Christian leaders push Israel to hand over control of area housing King David’s tomb, ‘last supper’ hall.
By Maayana Miskin

Christian leaders reportedly pressured Israel to turn over control of Mount Zion in Jerusalem during a clandestine meeting of senior city officials.

The meeting took place Tuesday in the office of Attorney Amnon Merhav, the director-general of the Jerusalem municipality. It was attended by officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, President’s Office, Tourism Ministry, Police, Kotel Rabbi’s Office, and more.

During the meeting, representatives of Christian groups in the capital pushed Jerusalem leaders to give the Catholic Church control over the Mount Zion area that includes the “Hall of the Last Supper.” There have been reports that Israel’s government is planning to turn the building in question over to the Vatican prior to the Pope’s expected visit in May.

Pope Francis is expected to visit Israel and to lead a service in the Hall of the Last Supper.

The same building that houses the hall, which is holy to Christianity, also includes the tomb of King David, a holy site frequently visited by Jews. Some Church officials expressed upset over what they termed a major increase recently in the number of Jewish visitors to the site.

Representatives of the Israel Police and Shin Bet who were at the meeting warned that turning the building over to the Church could spark Jewish “price tag” attacks.

Several Members of Knesset and ministers have asked the Prime Minister to respond to rumors that he is planning to give control of the Mount Zion compound to the Vatican. To date, the Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry have refused to respond, although Deputy Foreign Minister Zev Elkin stated in mid-2013 that the government has no such plans.

In response to reports regarding the Tuesday meeting, the city of Jerusalem released a statement saying, “The state of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality are paying special attention to the Mount Zion compound, with the goal of improving and updating the infrastructure and the municipal service, and of calming tension… The municipality will continue to lead the process as the central sovereign power on Mount Zion.”

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to respond.

Christian arab israeli says, “Israel is really the best country in the world. We live in Israel, and I feel a part of the state and the Jewish People. "

Israel is proud of its arab soldiers, christian and muslim such as commander Monalisa Abdo pictured here

One day we can hope this young person's views will be reflected by the christian leadership in Israel.

However reading the latest interview of the Vatican's representative in Israel one understands why christianity is condemned to continue to disappear from the region (that is excepting Israel where christianity and christians are thriving). 

Indeed two thirds of christians have disappeared in the last century, a million from Iraq in the last ten years and around a quarter of a million from Egypt since the onset of the Arab Spring/Winter. It's not yet known how many christians are fleeing now from Syria.

Christians throughout the region have found that far from being protected by their bretheren in the West, they have been abandoned to their fate. Worse still, the established churches have stuck fast to a policy of diverting the world's attention away from the ethnic cleansing, massacres and all pervadingdiscrimination of christians in arab and islamic countries towards maligning Israel,

the only country where christianity is practised freely and where christians are full and equal citizens.

It is no secret that christianity is faced with genocidal islamic religious hatred and bigotry from Iran all the way to Gaza and Egypt, not forgetting the Palestinian Authority territories, yet when trying to explain why, Patriarch Fouad Twal. the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem could only “lament”, “that Israel’s 20-foot-high wall around the Palestinian territories has made daily life for many almost impossible”.

This pathetic statement rather than act as condemnation of Israel is in fact a backhanded praise. The severest criticism that Twal can level against Israel is that the security barrier erected to frustrate the arab suicide bombers impedes the transferring of priests around the country. 

Twal has however never found it in his heart to condemn the terrorists and their indiscriminate violence that have claimed the lives of a number of his fellow christians along with jews. But Twal as with his predecessor MichaelSabbah is in the business of attacking jews so one need not expect criticism any time soon of those who really persecute his congregation.

So Israel's security fence is the sum total of Twal's understanding of why two thirds of christians have been either killed or fled from the region in the last century. Later in the interview Tawal talks of his being an arab is important to his identity.

Tawal might learn from other christians in Israel who understand just how good Israel is to them, how Israel's laws prevent discrimination or harm befalling them. Tawal might learn from the violent attacks on his institutions and congregants by fellow muslim arabs. This will not happen of course because Tawal is infused not by love for christians, but of hatred for the Jewish State.

Israeli christians are in ever increasing numbers rejecting the hatred fed to them by their Catholic and Orthodox institutions.

They look around the middle east and unlike Tawal are not blind. Instead of hatred, they find themselvesloving Israel, loving the country of Israel which is blind to faithand ethnicity.

“Israel has a stable regime and protects us, and we in turn are loyal citizens, but we do live with a sense of insecurity, which brings us to feel like the rest of the Christian in the region.” In conclusion, he speaks warmly of what he defines as his country. “Israel is really the best country in the world. We live in Israel, and I feel a part of the state and the Jewish People. “

Catholic turkeys voting for the arab islamic christmas

Throughout the middle-east and islamic world christians are being persecuted, attacked injured, killed and even executed for 'blasphemy'. This has everything to do with islamic intolerance and nothing to do with the arab-Israel conflict (the conflict between 'palestinians' and Israel is an artificial construct). Catholic clerics in their recent confab in the Vatican continue to betray their constituents by preferring to always direct the spotlight on the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than use their offices to publicise the woes of suffering christians. Indeed the only country that regularly gets lambasted by catholic news organs is Israel, the one place where christians have full rights. Christians in Israel are welcome and protected by discrimination laws, as are muslims, and all adherents of recognised religions, as being part of the religious fabric of the country. Israel has the only christian community in the region that is increasing in number.

 ........during a meeting of the Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops during the works of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization being held at the Vatican... attended, among others by Cardinals Timothy Dolan, Leonardo Sandri, Louis Tauran and Pèter Erdo ......stressed that, at the base of the tensions and divisions in the Middle East, there is “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict“, in relation to which the international community is called to favor the implementation of internationally legitimized resolutions."  (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2012)

 I find it difficult to understand how the Vatican can continue to sing from an arab hymnsheet devoted to the destruction of Israel and having no bearing on the problems of christians in the arab-islamic world. The clerics bring Israel into the equation when this old and worn equation is patently false, belied by current events. We have the examples of christian persecution in Gaza by the various factions under the leadership of Hamas, the current ethnic cleansing kidnappings and forced conversions of copts in Egypt, the all but complete expulsion of Iraq's christian community of around a million souls and now the beginnings of the ethnic cleansing of christians from Syria. The last few days have seen two terror attacks against christians in Syria :

 A car bomb exploded this morning in front of the only Syrian Orthodox Church in the town of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, damaging it severely. According to local sources, the victims of the attack are five people who were in a restaurant near the church.

The body of the Greek-Orthodox priest Fr. Fadi Jamil Haddad, pastor of the church of St. Elias in Qatana, was found today in the Jaramana neighborhood (north of Damascus) not far from the place where he was kidnapped, on October 19, by unidentified armed group

The Vatican which still has possibly the best intelligence service in the world, with a priest in thousands of towns and villages throughout the middle-east reporting back to their superiors on unfolding events knows better than any just how bad the situation is becoming for christians in the region and sometimes reports about attacks on the official Vatican website Fides as above.

That only this week a priest was murdered in Syria and a church was bombed doesn't account for much in western media. No reports are seen in the media, no are any strong representations made by the Vatican to western governments or the USA who along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia are funding the islamist rebels. They are training and arming them through the good offices of islamist Turkey. There is much that could be done by christian representatives to bring western pressure to bear but isn't.

When all the christian communities are gone from the middle-east by the end of this century (bar that hated jewish State of Israel) the descendants of those christian communities forced into exile in the west will wonder how it could happen in almost total silence from the established Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Yet it happened in the 1950's to the jews of arab lands without so much as a peep from countries of the world or of any christian community. What was it that Pastor Niemoller said about 'first coming for the jews.......?' The Copts were only too happy to see the back of the jewish community in Egypt, and now it is happening to them, all whilst the world still applauds the 'moderate' Muslim Brotherhood.

Christians are fleeing arab countries yet the Patriarchs, Cardinals and Bishops of the 'New Evangelization' at the Vatican continue to focus on Israel.

When discussing anti-Christian sentiment, forget arab ethnic cleansing and lambast the Jews

Rimsha Masih arrested and her family along with 600 christians driven out of their village in Pakistan for 'blasphemy'

When Franciscans talk about their problems it makes them so much happier to identify the Jew as the cause of persecution of christians. As far as the muslim world goes these clerics neither hear, see or speak about the real crimes being committed against christians.

Of course in every country you have bigots who don't wish to see religious plurality. Thankfully in Israel religious toleration is ovewhelmingly the case and christians are made to feel welcome, especially when they come with love rather than hate in their hearts. In Israel the christian community is free and is increasing in number, the only such place anywhere in the middle east or the muslim world.

This interviewer a Christophe Lafontaine does not have any such love for jews or Israel. He unwittingly explains the anti-semitic mindset of his Catholic Order by the following:

“anti-Christian sentiment (the tearing of the New Testament by an Israeli governmental official, graffiti on your Monasteries, and arson at the Monastery of Latrun …)  has shaken the Christian community in the Holy Land”

The supposed "anti-christian" sentiment is juxtaposed with “Israeli”, and then with anti-christian actions that are attributed to israelis, or even better for haters of Israel, “settlers.” The blame for hatred of christians and attacks on them is placed foursquare on Israelis, as with the term 'zionist' the nowadays euphemism for jews. I have analysed thearson and the daubing and explained why there was a low possibility that an Israeli actually committed either outrage.

The interviewer does not mention that the tearing of a New Testament was done by one member of Knesset, not a government official. One amongst 120 members of the Israeli parliament who was sent unsolicited the text. It is not to defend the man's inexcusable actions, but those who condemn the making of a film which upset muslims, will never think about the upset caused to a religious jew, to receive the christian text that led to so much suffering of jews, of millions killed over the ages. Anyone who has read John or Mathew will understand that a religious jew will be upset to receive a text promoting the blaming of jews for killing the christian god which if it did not actually invent anti-semitism, was responsible for its propagation throughout the world. Priests of the Latin Patriarchate nowadays do their little bit to keep the fire of hatred alive.
So the MK was reprehensible, but no less was the group which provocatively sent this text unsolicited.

Even if jews did commit the attacks of arson and daubing, why among four non-violent examples of “anti-Christian sentiment” no violent attacks mentioned. Why indeed was the very violent attack, one in a series which hospitalised a christian recently not mentioned by the interviewer?
Of course it is because the violent attack was not committed by jews but muslims, a gang of 50 of them. It's so much more pleasant to self-censor regarding arab muslim outrages and atrocities towards christians and only lambast Jews.

Whatever well meaning popes might wish for, little changes in the Catholic Church when it comes to priests propagating the old hatreds for the Jewish People.

“The creation of an anti-blasphemy law is a good idea, but I ask that this be done at the international level through the United Nations. I think we need a clear law that requires respect for religions with sanctions against those who desecrate religious shrines and others that disrespect religious symbols. A law without sanctions is a law that is not enforced.”

It's interesting that Bishop William Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem is in favour of blasphemy laws. One must ask oneself, has this catholic bishop not heard of what muslims do with blasphemy laws, that persecution of christians inevitably follows? Even young girls such as Rimsha Masih suffer. How lucky for the intolerant Bishop that he lives in the free society of Israel where priests can demonise jews and Israel at no cost whilst calling for the implementation of blasphemy laws.

Love from the Christian Embassy, and SSPX given the boot

Christian friends of Israel, Estonian flag in background

 The outpouring of love from christian groups from all over the world is a breath of fresh air, giving hope that one day the old hatreds found in the Catholic Church, and as promoted nowadays by the Anglican World Council of Churches in the guise of caring for arabs will dissolve. Whatever, we have to thank those christians who find it in our hearts not only to love the Jewish People from whose religion theirs sprang, but who work tirelessly on behalf of the beleagured Jewish State.

The other good news is that sense has prevailed in the Catholic Church with Pope Benedict realising that the anti-semitic, Holocaust denying priests of the Society of St. Pius X are too extreme to be reabsorbed. Having the SSPX back inside would have dealt a harsh blow to Catholic-Jewish relations, not excellent at the best of times.

The SSPX are similar to a neo-nazi or islamist party which can never be absorbed into the democratic system as they are duty bound to undermine it. When they gain any power they subvert and rot the system from within. The SSPX left over the provisions of Vatican II and its cancelling the doctrinal anti-semitism most notably the charge of 'deicide' that led to so much jewish suffering over the years (I myself was beaten up as a youth for having "killed Christ". I didn't take the beating without fighting back, but one against a group of five was somewhat heavy odds).

The impossibility of the return of SSPX was finally recognised by Gerhard Ludwig Mueller head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Inquisition which Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict ran formerly). For sound reasons of its own the Vatican was unable to allow the SSPX back into the fold.

Whether this makes any difference in the Catholic Church's attitude to Israel is moot. Popes friendly to jews such as John Paul II, who had personally witnessed where anti-semitism led are not frequently to be seen. The present pope it must be remembered whilst not known for his warmth is no adversary of the Jewish People. We can't expect that Pope Benedict to be cast in the type of the late and much lamented JPII.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s new doctrine czar says negotiations to bring back a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics are dead and that no new talks are planned.

Reconciling with the Society of St. Pius X — thus ending the only formal schism created since the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council — had been a priority of Pope Benedict XVI since his tenure heading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Society has come under fire for views seen as anti-Semitic and for one bishop who has publicly denied that Jews were killed in gas chambers during the Holocaust.

Monsignor Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, who now leads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told Germany’s Norddeutscher Rundfunk broadcaster, however, that “the talks are closed and I don’t believe there are new ones.”

“We couldn’t of course expose the Catholic faith to negotiation,” he said. “There are no compromises.’

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the society in 1969, opposed to Vatican II’s introduction of Mass in the vernacular and outreach to Jews. In 1988, the Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre and four bishops after he consecrated them without papal consent.

Benedict has spent nearly his entire seven-year pontificate seeking to accommodate the society, restoring the use of the old Latin Mass favored by the society’s members, removing the bishops’ excommunications and allowing them two years of theological dialogue with the Vatican.

Aside from being sympathetic to the society’s point of view, Benedict fears the growth of a parallel church that is even more conservative than his own.

But the society, which boasts 550 priests and 200-plus seminarians, refused to sign off on a core set of doctrinal points required by the Vatican to come back into the fold.

“The brotherhood for us is not a negotiating partner, because they don’t believe in negotiations,” Mueller said. 

The society’s most notorious member is Bishop Richard Williamson, who made headlines in 2009 when he denied that any Jews were killed in gas chambers during the Holocaust. His comments were a major scandal for Benedict since they were broadcast on the same day the decree lifting Williamson’s excommunication was signed.

The Jerusalem Post must stop disseminating anti-Israel propaganda

Anti Israel activists of New Israel Fund in Tag Meir "as an orthodox jew"mode

The Jerusalem Post used to be a paper with reports that one could trust were factual and written by those who had Israel's interests at heart, even if their views were critical and left of centre. Plurality of opinion is of course important in the Jewish State's newspaper of record. However you would not in the past find arab propaganda masquerading as genuine reports in the Jerusalem Post. That is no longer the case.

JP publishes a plethora of syndicated material from organizations such as Reuters placed without comment as written. They are overwhelmingly written from a pro palestinian and anti Israel viewpoint. Such articles fill space but are inappropriate in a newspaper that is broadly pro Israel.

In the last couple of days two such items of planted propaganda have appeared in the Post. One was initiated by the NIF under its false flag identity as 'Tag Meir', having purported 'orthodox jews' provide the rabidly anti-Israel and terror excusing Fransciscans with a mea culpa. They accepted on behalf of the wider jewish community that the latest daubings on the Dormition Abbey were the work of jews and went to grab a photo oppotunity for their anti-Israel cause. Journalist Jeremy Sharon might have thought twice about allowing himself to be used as a 'useful idiot' by the NIF. 

The latest piece of propaganda was written by no 'useful idiot' but a veteran anti-Israel activist journalist Linda Gradstein attacking Israel's intention to extend the security barrier crossing the arab village which is near to the jewish village of Beitar. 

That enemy citizens are upset by the project is obvious. Anything that gets in the way of destroying Israel is for them to be condemned. Gradstein does not acknowledge the terror aspect whereby from 2001 until the barrier was built thousands of Israeli civilians were being blasted apart by arab bombs placed in markets, hotels, coffee bars and night clubs, even a passover celebration for pensioners. No mention is made of the hundreds of attempted attacks on Israelis every month from Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. In Gradstein's article terror is mentioned in passing, by a suffering arab to negate this argument:

“It will be a prison here,” he says angrily. “The Israelis want me to leave my land but I refuse to. They say it’s for security – what security do they need here?” He said that in the past ten years there has been one terror attack in the area.

And when referring to an IDF statement Gradstein mentions only the relatively anodyne "Palestinian attackers" who could be anyone, stone throwers as seen on TV. The really lethal knifings and pipe bombing attacks which are constantly being prevented she does not mention.
This argument about no attacks at the moment is the same argument detractors used against France's after World War I building the defensive Maginot line to prevent new German aggression. Of course the attacks came, but the Linda Gradsteins of those days had made sure that the line was useless. For diplomatic reasons the Line was not extended along the Belgian border. The Germans just went around it in the north.


And the reason why there has only been one successful attack from the Battir area for a while with no security barrier there is that Israel has maintained heightened security precautions and patrols to make up for the lack of one. That only one attack on Israel succeeded is testimony to IDF vigilance and operations, not its arab enemies lack of will to perpetrate them.

The barrier has been slowly erected as an answer to the massive wave of suicide bombing from 2001 onwards. Along with Operation Defensive Shield the barrier has helped defeat the infiltration of suicide bombers into Israel from Palestinian Authority controlled territories.

Instead Linda Gradstein dedicates her article explaining how arabs will be affected, depicting arabs as indigenous inhabitants whose 'ancient farming traditions' are under threat. She goes into overdrive when describing Palestinian arabs as having a 2,000 year history. The overwhelming number of arabs are not indigenous but newcomers to the land, witness there being no palestinian arab family having as surname 'Palestini'. There are however many surnames denoting foreign origin such as Masri (Egyptian) and Shamsy (Damascene).

“Israel intends to construct barrier through the village of Battir, which some fear could end ancient farming traditions.

West Bank barrier in Battir Photo: Linda Gradstein/The Media Line

BATTIR - Water from natural springs burbles in the ancient Roman stone aqueduct as it carries water downward to this village’s ancient terraces. Palestinian families grow olives, cabbage and eggplant today the same way they did more than 2,000 years ago.”

Gradstein repeats all the tropes about vineyards and olive groves and even of ancient terraces tended by their loving and caring indigenous people, the palestinians of course. She can not resist bringing in the word 'apartheid' in relation to the barrier even though the BBC itself no friend of Israel is nowadays wary of using this disgusting term that in no way applies to Israel or the security barrier.

Gradstein is not an unknown journalist. She has a record of misreporting events with thinly disguised attacks on Israel.

So the question is, why does the Jerusalem Post post articles by this journalist working as propagandist for arabs?

Jewish advertisers should begin to think about supporting sites such as Arutz 7 (admittedly sometimes something of a belts and braces affair), or Israel Hayom rather than the Jerusalem Post.

Even Ynetnews seems better than the constant spoon feeding of arab propaganda now dished up by the JP.

Understanding that arabs and all minorities have rights in Israel is one thing, and which I support (as long as they do not participate in terror attacks or inflammatory propaganda against Israel such as that of the Northern Islamic group of islamists led by Raed Saleh), but journalists such as Gradstein knowingly peddling deceptive enemy propaganda (both of the above journalists are not innocents abroad, they know the issues) in order to gain enemy coin should mean that they are not welcome in loyal Israeli publications.

I would much rather read the odd article by Raed Saleh, Abu Hamza or Tewfik Toubi in the Jerusalem Post than articles by dishonest journalists. At least then we know who we are dealing with, whether their arguments are valid or not. 

With the publishing of an NIF anti-Israel attack in league with the rabidly anti-Israel Catholic Franciscan Order means that the JP has crossed the line.

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West Bank barrier could damage Roman Aqueduct

By LINDA GRADSTEIN/THE MEDIA LINE

10/06/2012 09:07

Israel intends to construct barrier through the village of Battir, which some fear could end ancient farming traditions.

Photo: Linda Gradstein/The Media Line

BATTIR - Water from natural springs burbles in the ancient Roman stone aqueduct as it carries water downward to this village’s ancient terraces. Palestinian families grow olives, cabbage and eggplant today the same way they did more than 2,000 years ago.

“Each family here gets water one day a week, but the week lasts eight days since there are eight families,” Kayan Manasra, the Palestinian Coordinator of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian NGO, told The Media Line.

“There are 13 springs and seven are still in use. We farm here the same way we are doing for thousands of years.”

Battir, with its 6,000 residents is in Area B of the West Bank, meaning that Palestinians provide municipal services such as garbage pickup but Israel is responsible for security.

Most crops are grown on terraces -- small plots surrounded by stone walls on the slopes of the hill. Conservationists say the farming methods are the same as those used in ancient times. Residents here are hoping that the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will designate the village a World Heritage Site. Earlier this year, UNESCO gave Battir the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes.

Battir also has a Jewish connection. Once a Jewish village, it was the site of the defeat of a Jewish revolt against the Romans led by Bar Kokhba in the Second Century. Archaeological artifacts show the site was inhabited since the Iron Age. Today, some 4,000 residents live mostly by farming.

Now, they fear that Israel is about to construct the barrier it is building in and around the West Bank right through the village lands, which some fear could end this way of farming.

“The barrier will disconnect part of the farming lands from their owners and disturb the landscape,” Gilat Bartana of FOEME, told The Media Line. “An appeal against the barrier was rejected so building could start anytime soon.”

Building the barrier has already begun in the neighboring village of Wallaje. The Israeli Supreme Court rejected several appeals and the planned route of the barrier will completely surround the village. Omar Hajableh, 47, told The Media Line that the barrier will run very close to his house on the outskirts of the village. He says he will not be able to reach his 450 olive trees.

“It will be a prison here,” he says angrily. “The Israelis want me to leave my land but I refuse to. They say it’s for security – what security do they need here?” He said that in the past ten years there has been one terror attack in the area. Hajableh also said that Israeli officials told him would build a special agricultural gate in the barrier to enable him to reach his farmland. Hajableh says this is not a solution.

“They said I can cross in twice a year to farm my land,” he said. “I work alone. I can’t take care of even one tree, let alone 450. They are simply trying to find a way to take the land.”

Israeli officials defend the route of the separation barrier, which Israel calls a “security fence” and Palestinians an “apartheid wall.”

In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the route of the barrier is based only on security considerations and Israel tries to minimize the damage to the Palestinians. They say the numbers speak for itself, that the construction of the barrier has made a major contribution to Israel’s security, and that Palestinian attackers have not been able to enter Israel since it was erected. The barrier costs an estimated $1.4 million dollars per mile to build. Some 90 percent of it is a fence with trenches on both sides, while ten percent, in heavily populated areas, is a 26-foot high concrete barricade.

Part of the barrier runs along the so-called “Green Line”, the demarcation line between Israel and the West Bank that was agreed to in the 1949 armistice agreements, but part also dips into the West Bank. The Israeli human rights group B’tselem says the barrier effectively annexes 8.5 percent of the West Bank to Israel, by keeping that land on the Israeli side of the barrier.

Back in Battir, the view from the top of the hill is breathtaking. A donkey ambles by, led by a farmer on the way to his plot. Palestinians here say they fear that the Israeli bulldozers will come, and permanently change their way of life.

Latin Patriarchate travels to Germany to poison catholic minds against jews

Father Aridah travels to Germany to continue the legacy of Dr Goebbels

The Vatican's Latin Patriarchate continues its propaganda war against jews with a conference in Germany to indoctrinate Germans against Israel. This jordanian catholic Father Firas Aridah begins his diatribe by saying he was 'unwillingly' drawn into this on-going conflict. Going by the rest of his utterances, this is the priest's first lie. I reproduce without changes most of his article entitled 'Situation of Christians in the Holy Land presented in Germany' with my comments. 

The Latin Patriarchate must be very proud of Father Aridah , a credit to this catholic institution's overall propaganda effort against Israel.

This effort against Israel is of course mounted from within Israel itself, taking advantage of the protections Israel affords christians and their institutions. No christian order would dare show such ingratitude anywhere else in the middle east for fear of the results.

DUDERSTADT (Germany) – On September 4, 2012, Father Firas Aridah, pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Jifna,  gave a conference about the situation of the Christian Community in the Holy Land. Below is the text of his presentation.

I want to thank you for the honor of being able to speak with you this morning at this vibrant gathering here in Duderstadt about the situation of the Christian community in the Holy Land.
My name is Father Firas Aridah from Jordan. I am a Roman Catholic priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which serves the Christian community in Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Cyprus.

It is a land sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims; all three faith communities have existed there for centuries. Historically it was home to many nations, and now, in the modern context, it is a home to Israelis and Palestinians. One land, two peoples, three faiths; each rooted in conviction and vigor for Jerusalem, each who need to be reminded that there can be no exclusive claim which will be accepted.

Father Aridah wishes to water down the jewish link with the Land of Israel as just being one of three communities, not even being the uppermost in his order. This priest might know that jews 'existed' there for thousands of years, not centuries, that it isn't 'a' home to Israelis but 'the' home. Palestinian arabs have only been around for a hundred years at most, and their nationality has been variously defined by them as being part of Egypt, part of Jordan or even part of Syria. Now of course palestinian arab leaders claim the whole of Israel under the so-called 'right of return', a euphemism for destroying the Jewish State.

The Land of Israel is not sacred to Islam as the Koran itself accepts ( Koran states (Sura 5:21) that God granted the Land of Israel to the Children of Israel and ordered them to settle there. In addition, it is predicted that before the end of days, God will bring the Children of Israel to retake possession of the Land, gathering them from the different countries and nations (Sura 17:104) ). There is no mention of Jerusalem in the Koran whereas the Bible mentions it over 600 times. Israel and Jerusalem are part and parcel of the jewish prayer service.

What I had in mind when I came to serve in Jerusalem, was to focus all my energy in performing the ‘normal duties’ of a parish priest—tending to the needs of the Christian faithful and the community at large while being able to attract the youth as you are doing here. It was there, in the midst of my ‘normal duties’, where I became unwillingly drawn into this on-going conflict. It was never my intention to get involved in politics – and I am still resolute to leave the politics to the politicians – but my focus is the people. And in my service to the people, I dealt with the occupation.

With the occupation came the confiscation of lands and the demolition of homes. With the confiscation of lands and demolition of homes came the building of walls of separation in the name of security inside the west bank, losing 8 % from our land not the borders of 1967.

This Jordanian / palestinian arab priest talks of 'occupation' but he doesn't define it. This definition is deliberately left loose, designed for non specialist western minds who think he is talking about Israelis who settle the ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria ('WB'). But he is really talking about the whole of Israel. This priest denies the right of jews to any part of the Land of Israel. To him the whole of Israel is 'occupied'.

The priest's interest is in the destruction of the State of Israel, not of so-called 'occupation' of Judea and Samaria which in any case is mostly controlled by palestinian arabs. Jewish settlements cover only around 3% of the land and has rarely if ever involved confiscation or destruction of palestinian arab property.
The jews settled on the hills, on unproductive land not settled by arabs. This supposedly uninvolved Jordanian talks about "our land ", and "stealing our own water". Another lie by this priest who was anything but an outsider to this conflict. As a Jordanian he sees himself as a palestinian arab, which is only right as Jordan was cut off by Britain from the lands mandated by the League of Nations in 1922 as a homeland for the Jews. 78% of the Mandated lands were given illegally by Britain to an arab sheikh they wished to reward. Jordan with around 50-70% of its population being palestinian arabs is in fact Palestine, and most palestinian arabs possess Jordanian nationality, as does their president, Mr Abbas.

Faridah denies Israel has security concerns. Obviously he is unaware of the hundreds of stonings and other terror attacks against Israelis each month by palestinian arabs. The Security barrier, which is mostly a fence, was built to stop arab terror that killed over a thousand Israelis in the so-called second Intifada in the years 2001- 2002. The barrier has stopped the suicide bombers killing israelis.

With the building of walls of separation came the destruction of olive orchards and stealing our own water. These ‘normal duties’ of a parish priest have been particularly painful in Palestine.
Olive trees are a main source of livelihood for Palestinians. They are used to derive products such as: olive oil, soap and wood crafts. These trees and this livelihood are thousands of years old, handed down from one generation to the next. The groves are a lifeline with great significance and value in our culture. In the aftermath of the 26 foot high wall that now surrounds most of the West Bank and with new border enforcement, people can no longer get to their farms. Families have been divided; many have lost their jobs or have become deprived of advanced medical care at hospitals which are no longer accessible. As a priest, a pastor of souls, my conscience and my calling drive me to be “a voice for those who have no voice and to defend the weak and the oppressed.” (Patr. Sabbah. Seek Peace and Pursue it. 1998) How then can I say nothing as this tragedy befalls the people who I am serving? How can I remain silent when the Christian community I am serving is disappearing because of this occupation?

Our priest protests he can't remain silent about wrongs supposedly committed by jews, yet he remains silent as to the palestinian arab terror that forced the building of the security fence. The fence was rerouted by Israel's Supreme Court a number of times after appeals by arab villages being not about taking arab land but about shutting out suicide bombers. Every country in the world has a right to defend its citizens but his priest doesn't think jews have that right. Until 2002 and the suicide and other bombings there was no fence and arabs could come and go as they pleased inside Israel.

And his lies extend to his 'explanation' for the troubles of christians in palestinian controlled territiories. Despite the Jewish state protecting all its minorities, jews get all the blame for christian sufferings at the hands of the muslim contolled Palestinian Authority. There is no mention of those muslims who convert to christianity, of how they are threatened and killed.Abdulla Yusuf a convert to christianity just managed to escape this fate himself.

The current situation we face is this: Today, we have fewer Christians in the Holy Land than we had in 1947 going from 8% to 1.6% in 2000. When at one point we numbered 27,000 Christians in Jerusalem, now we are only 9,000 Christians. Our people are emigrating, our presence is threatened and if the trend continues, our future is moving towards extinction. This is impacted by the fact that there are over 550,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Many of our villages are under military control, with restrictions on movement from one village to the next, meaning that we have immediate family who have become separated from each other. Our lands are still being confiscated all around us to build more Israeli settlements or to expand settlements that already exist. Recently Israel has confiscated around three thousand acres from 59 Christian families in Beit Jala to continue expansion of the Gilo settlement and the separation wall where we lost more than 9 % from the land of west bank.

Our priest talks about Beit Jala without mentioning the firing from there on Gilo by terrorists. Father Aridah mentions that there are 1.6% christians down from 8% in 1947 in the 'Holy Land' (does that include Jordan as well, he doesn't say?). But christians in Israel during that period have risen from 34,000  to 150,000. He also doesn't mention the christians of Bethlehem who are now less than 7,500 down from 20,000 in 1995 when Israel gave the city to the Palestinian Authority.  As for Jerusalem's christians decreasing, that has happened whilst the overall muslim population has gone in that time from 35,000 to over a quarter of a million. The reason for a reduction in christians should rather be looked at in relation to their living in the mainly muslim east of the city rather than to Israel's policies which if they had affected the number of christians adversely, would also be expected to adversely affect the numbers of muslims. This has however not happened.
The only conclusion can be that Father Aridah dishonestly twists the figures to blame Israel for a reduction in christian numbers when the opposite has happened. Where the results of Israel's policies can be found, i.e. in the protection of its minorities, this has in fact meant a vastly increased number of christians. Unlike anywhere else in the middle-east, christians are thriving in Israel.

Our lying father Aridah ignores the true reasons for christian suffering in palestinian areas and the middle east, and by this shows that his motivation comes not from a genuine worry for christians but out of hatred for the Jewish People. Why else would he distort the history of discrimination against christians by muslims, of the attacks, the theft of christian property by PA connected thugs, and of the ethnic cleansing of christians from palestinian arab ruled territories?


As our lying catholic priest well knows, Jews aren't the reason for the flight of christians from palestinian arab areas and the wider middle east, but islamic intolerance is. The proof is everywhere, in Iraq where a million christians have fled in the last ten years, in Egypt where a quarter of a million Coptic Christians have fled in the last two years of the so-called Arab Spring alone.

Father Aridah can not find it within him to mention any of this. Attacks on christians by muslims are frequent and even he can not be unaware of them as one of the latest in a series of attacks was reported on the Latin Patriarchate website, albeit without mentioning palestinian muslim arabs by name. Only Israelis and jews will ever be identified for censure, however unfair, however untrue.

The recent development of clashes between settlers and Israeli civil authorities is proof that settlements are a phenomenon which has grown far beyond Israel’s grasp. They violate the laws which have been put in place to protect them and they unquestionably threaten peace and stability in the region. As the book of Proverbs says: “Where there is no hope, the people perish” – an entire generation of Israelis and Palestinians have grown up witnessing and experiencing violence, occupation, separation, and hatred. There continue to be fewer and fewer opportunities to interact. There is heightened suspicion and apprehension on both sides and so, our people deeply feel a sense of hopelessness and despair.

This priest dares take the moral high ground, a representative of a Church that was responsible for millions of dead jews throughout the ages? There is no humility from this man just as there is almost no truth in what he says. If he knew anything about the settlements, he would know that they were placed in strategic areas so as to prevent arab countries again threatening the existence of Israel through surprise attack.
In 2006 Ariel Sharon withdrew all Israeli settlements from Gaza and since then Israel has been subjected to wave upon wave of rocket attacks, over 9,000 to date. Parts of the south of Israel are barely habitable because of the indiscriminate volleys of missiles raining down on jews.
If Israel was to dismantle the settlements in Judea and Samaria, we know better than ever, that missiles would be fired at jewish Jerusalem, at Tel-Aviv and Haifa. Israelis want peace. They don't have a death wish. Israelis know that the only reason arabs wish Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria is so that the rest of Israel can be attacked all the easier. Once Judea and Samaria was given to arabs, the demands would not stop. The next grievance would be framed and supported by new acts of terror against Israel.

In the midst of this unfortunate reality it falls on us to speak out and remind everyone of the objective truth that is Jesus Christ. In the words of our Patriarch Fouad Twal: “ultimately, Israelis and Palestinians … must work out their differences in a just and righteous manner, in ways that require painful compromises.” No, we the Christian community of the Holy Land, the people of Calvary, will not allow our hope to die. We today live the Gospel – we live the hope it promises.

Israel has had its fill of  "painful compromises" for peace. All it gets in return is terror. Israel must now offer peace in return for peace, and harsh countermeasures in return for terror. Jews only know peace when they are willing to defend themselves. Israel won't be suckered again by its enemies, even by mealy mouthed catholic priests who distort our  history.

We are walking towards our Lord with conviction and with faith not allowing the huge obstacle of war, violence and occupation to hinder our path. Be assured friends we are walking towards Jesus Chrsit and nothing will keep us from him.
It is amazing to see that even in Gaza where our small Christian community not only suffers from the occupation and economic sanctions imposed by most of the free world – they also suffer from extremism and fanaticism caused by a lack of education.

 This Father Aridah surely has some chutzpah to imply Israel is to blame Israel for the suffering of the Christian community in Gaza.  He is obviously unaware of the forced conversions to islam, of the christian bookshop owner Rami Ayyad who was murdered after his bookshop was  bombed some months earlier. In islamist Hamas run Gaza those responsible for islamist attacks on christians and on moderate muslims are never found.
Yet this Father Aridah blames Israel every time, with never a glance in the direction of islamic extremism. For shame.
And then the priests adds a lie of economic sanctions against Gaza when the opposite is true. The only limitation on Gaza is that ships can not dock there in order to prevent the mass importation of missiles. Only recently produce was exported from Gaza to Saudi Arabia.

And with all this they are determined to stay, determined to live where Christianity has existed for two thousand years – no friends nothing will stand between us and the Lord. We will not allow others to use our voice. We will not stand for a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible which seeks to legitimize the infringement of Palestinian rights, nor will we stand for Islamic extremism.

Enough said from this lying and hypocritical representative of the Latin Patriarchate and his outpouring of hatred towards the Jewish People.

Jews wish nobody any harm, and Israel although subject to constant lies against it actually does more for palestinian arabs than any other country. Israel supplies most of the electricity needs in Gaza and in the Palestinian areas despite being owed hundreds of millions of dollars, gave the PA an advance on its tax dues recently (even whilst it spends its money subsidizing Hamas terrorists), and allowed hundreds of thousands of palestinian arabs to access Israel's beaches this year in a good will gesture for the feast of Eid.

If peace ever comes, it will be because Israel's enemies give up their attempts to destroy it. Israel will remain strong until then, will maintain its high morals and will continue its non-discriminatory policies which have seen the population of muslims and christians increase exponentially over the years.

Israel is a light unto the nations. Always has been, and always will be.

When it comes to 'showing the other cheek', Israel does it time and again, year after year.

Catholic Church hypocrisy and its propaganda war against Israel as seen in two separate articles

The Catholic Church, despite the efforts of popes in the last 50 years such as John Paul II, is still institutionally anti-semitic and wages a constant propaganda war against the State of Israel. The Latin Patriarchate is one example. There are others such as Radio Maria in Poland or the Asia News website which is published from within the Vatican and which can always be relied on to slant its articles against Israel.

It is interesting to compare two articles by the Latin Patriarchate:

The first article tells of a rare attack by a few Israeli youths on palestinian arabs, to which the whole Israeli establishment reacted with disgust and outrage. Such violence against innocent people are not the norm in Israel. But every society has its misfits, its criminals, its racist thugs. The shame is not that such people exist, they exist everywhere, but that a society tolerates them. Israel is not such a society. Even the supposedly extreme settler movement has condemned racist attacks on arabs outright.

 However in arab society such racist behaviour towards jews and christians is accepted by the majority population. This has led to approximately one million christians being ethnically cleansed from Iraq in the last 10 years. And Egypt has seen over a quarter of a million christian copts flee abroad in the last two years as well due to ongoing state sanctioned violence, kidnappings and forced conversions to islam.

The second article recounts a mass attack on a christian institution where the attackers are not identified. The attack was by a mob of palestinian arabs, the third occasion in two years on this christian institution. Attacks and intimidation of christians by palestinian arabs it  should be noted are not rare but have resulted in a steady reduction in the numbers of christians living in palestinian arab controlled areas of Judea and Samaria (West Bank). 

Where christians once made up around 10-15% of arabs inhabitants of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), they now number only 3%. The same goes for Bethlehem under Palestinian Authority control where intimidation and land confiscations from christians has reduced the number of christians living there from 70% down to 3% now. Strangely, the established churches, the Anglicans, the Catholics, and others such as the Quakers all have nothing to say about this, no reports of 'racism', no condemnation of the perpetrators of such attacks.  The christian cheek is well and truly turned to attacks when muslims are involved.

The first article is the lead story on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem website despite there being no direct relevance to this christian order. 

An article about a mob attack on a Latin institution in which a christian was hospitalised and a number wounded comes fourth on the list of articles on the 27th August. Of four articles on the 24th August, the one about the attack comes second after one about twinning of parishes. 

The prioritiy of the Latin Patriarchate is skewed in favour of a negative report about Israel which has no relevance to the christian order, and against a seemingly very relevant report to christians of another serious and large scale violent attack directed at catholic christians of this order, one of a series of attacks, which in this case caused a number of injuries. 

It is hard not to see an intention to bury the report of muslim violence against christians amongst other reports whilst headlining an article that has little relevance to Latin christians, but which involves jews.

The language used in the reports is also relevant. In the article published on the 27th August about Israelis attacking a palestinian the article's first part seems to blame the Israeli educational system, calls the attack by Israelis a "racist lynching" which was condemned by the Latin Patriarchate, etc etc. The second part of the same article glides into recalling another attack reported on the 24th August without identifying who the perpetrators were. There is no mention either of any palestinian notables or politicians who condemned the massed and repeated attack on a christian institution. This is strange because the Palestinian Authority is not known for its reticence in condemning any attacks (whether true or invented by 'Pallywood'), so long as they can be linked to jews. Surely one palestinian could be found to condemn this "racist lynching" of christians by a mob?


Without careful reading of the article of the 27th August we could easily think that, after what was written previously being about violent Israelis, it was Israelis who similarly attacked the christians. There was nothing in the writing to dispel this impression. 

But this was an attack by palestinian muslim arabs on christians, almost certainly racist in nature. The tone in the latter part of the article is not condemnatory but understanding, of emphasising good relations and parenting. There is no condemnation of racism by muslims or palestinians or of using emotive language such as "lynching". 

The second article about the arab attack on christians when referring to the attackers has in the last paragraph a vague condemnation by agreement, not identifying the perpetrators or of those who were condemning the violence:

 All agreed in condemning these events and to take necessary measures to prevent recurrence.   The importance of good neighbor relations was emphasized between the residents of the housing complex and their Muslim neighbors.

The anodyne description of 'events' does not compare with the description of a "racist lynching", does not even identify the attackers apart from another vague illusion at the very end of the article which mentions the developing of good relations with muslim neighbours.

It's hard to believe the Catholic Church hierarchy as being changed much since Vatican II, but rather as being an institution of which its clerics still peddle the same hatreds (albeit expressed more carefully as anti-settler, or intoning against rare happenings of jewish violence). 

This is even when Israel is the only country where christians are protected amongst a sea of anti-christian persecution and ethnic cleansing. 

It might be too much to expect that Israel would get some gratitude from the Vatican or its representatives, for being the only place in the middle east to give christians full protection and rights. But it is unnaceptable that there is a constant propaganda effort against Israel by Catholic clerics and their media. This happens whilst they all but ignore the real and constant arab and islamic inspired racism and terror directed against christians in all arab countries.

Even Pope Benedict when he came to Bethlehem, rather than defend his people there, he made do by attacking Israel. Similarly the Roman Bishop of Westminster at Christmas could only find condemnation for Israel's security barrier that helped to stop wave upon wave of palestinian arab suicide bombings against Israeli citizens.

The good Bishop obviously hadn't read this:

There have been incidents of tension between Christians and Muslims in Beit Jala since the Palestinian Authority took over in 1995. Many Muslim families from Hebron and other parts of the West Bank moved to Beit Jala and illegally seized privately-owned lands. Christian residents who tried to prevent Tanzim gunmen in Beit Jala from firing at the Israeli settlement of Gilo were beaten by the gunmen who were also accused of raping and murdering two sisters. There have been reports by Christian women in Beit Jala of being harassed by Muslim men from the village of Beit Awwa in the Hebron area.Muslim and Christian political leaders say that the violence is mostly the result of “personally motivated” disputes and deny the existence of an organized anti-Christian campaign.

He obviously hadn't heard about the waves of attacks on churches in Palestinian Authority territories after the Pope made a speech referring to the violence of the founder of Islam, Mohammad.

A lone Catholic voice has published an account of the sufferings of christians in Palestinian Authority territories:

"What do you mean by difficulties between Israel and the Vatican? We Christians in the Holy Land have other problems. Almost every day – I repeat, almost every day – our communities are harassed by the Islamic extremists in these regions. And if it's not the members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, there are clashes with the 'rubber wall' of the Palestinian Authority, which does little or nothing to punish those responsible. On occasion, we have even discovered among our attackers the police agents of Mahmoud Abbas or the militants of Fatah, his political party, who are supposed to be defending us."

Fr. Pizzaballa is an authority. He represents the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, the institution to which the Holy See has for seven centuries entrusted the care of Church property in the land where Jesus lived.

He speaks Hebrew and understands Arabic. And he told the "Corriere" that he has "a list of 93 cases of injustice of various kinds committed against Christians in the region of Bethlehem between 2000 and 2004."

And on the very day this public protest appeared, another case of anti-Christian violence was reported in Taibeh, the ancient city of the Bible known as Ephraim, a village east of Ramallah.

In Taibeh on Sunday, September 4, thirteen homes inhabited by as many Christian families were attacked and burned, the streets devastated, a statue of Mary demolished.

Maybe the Church believes that it can make allies of muslims by attacking Israel and jews. If if the case of the approximately one million ethnically cleansed christians of Iraq, and Egypt , is anything to go by, the thawing of relations has not happened yet. 

The Latin Patriarchate articles reflect an institutional anti-semitism, of selectively reporting news which show Israel in a bad light, of playing down a report that was very relevant to christians but which however did not involve jews. The full ire of the church is reserved for jews. This is in stark contrast to the Church attitude to those who are not jewish and whose muslim authorities have not intervened to help the Latin Patriarchate institution when it was attacked on a number of occasions. For them there is only understanding, a lack of criticism and 'good neighbourliness'. 
There is no condemnation of the Palestinian Authority which has overseen its own ethnic cleansing of christians, never recovers confiscated christian lands,  which does not intervene to help christians in distress and under attack.

The hypocrisy of a Catholic Church which can not come to terms with jews and the democratic Jewish State, the only country in the middle east where christians can sleep at night in safety will in the long term only serve to reduce good will towards leaders of christianity in Israel. This is surely not the best policy in a region where amongst terrible hatred for christians, Israel shows it is the only powerful friend that christians have. The Catholic Church takes for granted the jewish sense of justice, the abhorrence of racism and of a determination that all who live in Israel should be free no matter what their race or creed. 

Hatred of jews and hypocrisy are the hallmarks of the Franciscan Order. If they think they will buy their way out of racist islamist hatred for them by helping in the unjustified attacks on Israel, they have not been looking around the Palestinian Territories, the middle east and the wider muslim world.

The Catholic Church continues its two thousand year old default mode of blaming jews for all ills and taking the side of those who seek to be enemies of the Jewish People.

Jews have managed to survive institutional Church hatred for thousands of  years, but with the clerics who represent christian interests, God help christians in the middle east.  They won't be around very much longer (apart from in that hated jewish country of Israel of course).

1) 

“Responsible education as a response to violence”

J

JERUSALEM – On Sunday, seven teenagers were arrested by Israeli police after assaulting young Palestinians three days earlier in Jerusalem.  It was a case of racist lynching, added to the recent violent events this week in Bethphage, escalating fears of the resurgence of violence. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem calls us to condemn all violence and focus on youth education for tolerance.
 On  August 16 around midnight in Ben Yehuda, Jerusalem’s lively neighborhood, a dozen Israelis assaultred three young Palestinians. One of them, Jamal Junali was in a coma and  transferred to the Hadassah Hospital where he was revived.
The culprits were quickly identified with the help of surveillance cameras and interviews with witnesses.   They will probably be tried and the case would have ended there. One of the young offenders, age 17, after acknowledging his actions, said he had no regrets. Violence as perpetrated by this young man has caused a stir in Israel. The press and particularly the Israeli media widely echoed this case, drawing much attention to it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the act as “contrary to our values” while the State President Shimon Peres admitted his “shame” and “disgust”. Yesterday, The Jerusalem Post reported the visit of the President of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin to the young Jamal Junali saying: “It is hard to see you lying in the hospital because of an unimaginable, outrageous act …..” I came here in the name of the State of Israel, in order to apologize and express anger over what happened.”  Jamal’s mother said to the  press, “ I pity their mothers. Who could be proud of a child who does a thing like this?”
Everyone seems to fear the recent rise in violence as the region has been shaken by the fratricidal war in Syria that doesn’t seem to end, and the Iranian threat is burdensome.
Condemn violence and educate our young people
Bishop Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem is also concerned about the violence.  On Wednesday he accompanied Patriarch Fouad Twal to Bethphage to support the people of this Christian neighborhood in Jerusalem who were stone-throwing victims earlier this week. “The violence of recent days make us wonder about the education that young people have received” confided the Bishop. “Everyone has a share of responsibility in their education,” he said. “Parents should educate their children to discover the difference with tolerance and mutual respect.” Bishop Shomali concluded: “The Peace of tomorrow will be measured with the energy that each of us will give today in the education of our children.”
Amélie de La Hougue
2)

Violence in a Christian residential complex in Jerusalem

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 in Local news, Politics and society

 

Bethphage –The Episcopal Commission for Media of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land condemned a violent incident in the Christian housing complex of Bethphage in Jerusalem. 

This occurred on Monday, August 20, from 8:00 p.m. to midnight when a group of fifty boys attacked the residential complex for 79 families which is part of  a project of the Franciscans of the Holy Land. Following a brawl between young people of the Christian area and some neighbors,  friends were called and they all attacked the complex, yelling, throwing stones, smashing cars and windows of houses.    A number of residents were injured and one had to be hospitalized for treatment. ”They do so because they know that we will not respond with violence!” protested David Josef, a father of five children, as he emphasized: “This is the third time this happened to us in two years …”
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, ofm and Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem, William Shomali accompanied by  Priests and Franciscan Friars visited Bethphage on Wednesday morning to show their solidarity with the residents. They heard the complaints and sentiments expressed by the population and saw first-hand the damage resulting from these unlawful actions.
All agreed in condemning these events and to take necessary measures to prevent recurrence.   The importance of good neighbor relations was emphasized between the residents of the housing complex and their Muslim neighbors.