All LPJ Catholic articles can be tweaked to attack Israel

 I've come accross this article from last year in the German section of the Latin Patriarchate Journal website which is about getting each diocese to sponsor building a home for a palestinian arab family. If german christians are up to another massive infusion of wealth for their coreligionists in east Jerusalem, then that's fine by me, even if its strange that there is no call to do this for any other christian community in the middle east. Indeed, one might think that christian money might be better spent on all those refugees in Syria and Lebanon, and those thrown out of Iraq in the last ten years. Not to mention the copts who unlike christians under Israeli rule, are having their churches damaged and knocked down all the time.

Als Minderheit zwischen den jüdischen und muslimischen Gemeinschaften, die viel zahlreicher sind, sehen sich die palästinensischen Christen mit den allgemeinen Schwierigkeiten der Bevölkerung konfrontiert – der Besatzung, der Kolonisation, der Einschränkung ihrer Bewegungsfreiheit – und der religiösen Intoleranz.
Laut katholischen Statistiken, leben von insgesamt 450.000 Einwohnern 10.000 Christen jeder Konfession in Ost-Jerusalem und ca. 50.000 in den besetzten palästinensischen Gebieten.
Im Rahmen des Besorgnis erregenden Exodus der Christen des Ostens emigrieren jedes Jahr etwa 600 davon aus Jerusalem, dem Westjordanland und dem Gaza-Streifen.

As a minority between the Jewish and Muslim communities, which are much more numerous, the Palestinian Christians are faced with the difficulties of the general population - the occupation, colonization, limiting their freedom of movement - and religious intolerance.

     According to Catholic statistics, out of a total of 450,000 people are 10,000 Christians of all confessions in East Jerusalem and 50,000 in the occupied Palestinian territories.

     As part of the alarming exodus of Christians of the East about 600 of them emigrate each year from Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The above laments that christians are a minority between jewish and muslim communities whilst identifying with the arabs in the Arab-Israel conflict. And there lies the answer to why the Catholic Church in Israel, is begging money to build arab settlements. It is just doing its bit in the conflict against Israel.

It is interesting how "- and religious intolerance" is tacked on at the end, after all the bits linked to the evil actions of jews to the poor palestinian arab victims. The LPJ knows full well that it isn't Israel which promotes religious intolerance, which is why it is slipped in at the end, leaving the impression that it is indeed the Jews who are oppressing christians, when the opposite is the case. "

Pope Benedict XVI hasn't been a bad pope

 
Benedict whose family is not known to have had nazi sympathies, like most german youth joined the Hitler Youth (membership was voluntary at first, but refusing to join the Hitler Youth could bring the unwelcome attention of the authorities to you, so joining the Hitler Jugend can not be held against Benedict. A few brave souls nevertheless did refuse to join).

Benedict visited Auschwitz and acknowleged Germany's special link with jews as the result of their past. This is unlike many germans nowadays who like ex SS member Gunther Grass prefer instead to whitewash their criminal history by way of attacking Israel. Israel defending itself from genocidal arab aggression is supposedly as bad as their nazi parents and grandparents. 

Benedict never took this easy course of absolving himself of feelings of guilt towards the victims of nazism. Benedict instead of attacking jews asked as "a son of Germany" why God was silent whilst 1.5 million victims were put to death in Auschwitz. It's not known what his doctrinal answer to this is however? It is hard to escape the feeling that many catholics even nowadays will ascribe it to Jews having "killed Christ"
(in my own youth I was faced with this accusation a number of times, and each time had to raise my fists to ward off the blows as best I could. Of course that was none to easy as those who attack jews usually like to move in groups).

Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith previously known as the Inquisition. He was the arch enemy of latin american liberation theologist priests who identified with revolutionary peasant movements and the poor in general. They railed against the Roman Catholic Church being seen as identifying itself with human rights abusing dictatorships of generals.

Benedict was not a bad pope as far as Israel and jews are concerned. Despite being conservative he recognized "with great shame" that Christianity had been a violent religion in the past. But Benedict whilst recognizing the evils that emanated from the religion of islam (if the Koran was published nowadays for the first time, its author would be in breach of many countries' hate Speech laws for passages describing jews and christians) was overly indulgent of palestinian arabs involved in the steady ethnic cleansing of christians from territories that they hold in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Like most christian clerics in the middle-east the pope in reaction to his remarks about islam took the path of appeasing muslim arabs, hoping they would temper their hatred of christians. The opposite is however the case. Just as in the 1930's with the nazis, appeasing arabs never bears pacific fruits. 

When Benedict made comments criticising Islam as being evil and that it was spread by the sword, muslims as if to prove the veracity of his comments burned churches and killed christians in the middle-east, africa and asia.

The pope of course, in the wake of the extreme violence by followers of the 'religion of peace' had to later 'regret' having implicated islam in violence. The pope's conciliatory gesture was to travel to islamist and pray in the Blue Mosque with the grand mufti of Istanbul. Benedict would not have dared demand the prayer to peace be made in ex-church later taken over as a mosque, the byzantine Aya Sofia church. Turkey is now demanding its artifacts back from the west, why does the church not demand restitution of its magnificent church? Appeasement...........

Only when the West is unassailable militarily has the crusading muslim world acted peacably. Islam is a religion which aspires to a caliphate, an islamic empire. Unlike christianity, islam has still not lost its crusading and imperial tendency.

Attacks on christians whether in Gaza, Taibeh, Bet Jala or Bethlehem give the oft repeated lie to that idea, but still christians have not learned. And now it is happeing again in Syria. Christians are being murdered, are fleeing, and are being ethnically cleansed by jihadist fanatics. Appeasment and showing intolerance for Israel is deemed to be the best path to saving christian lives.

Yet Pope Benedict said to palestinian arabs in Bethlehem in 2009:

"The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders."

Ignoring the silly description of Judea and Samaria as the “ land of “ arab “forefathers” (most arabs immigrated to Mandatory Palestine to take advantage of job opportunities created by jews in the 1920's and 30's) palestinian arab terror and constantly repeated threats to destroy Israel were and are ignored. That palestinian arabs have not the slightest interest in living in peace with Israel is similar to arab regimes not having the slightest wish for christians to remain in their countries. From Libya to Syria christians are fleeing, and that's only the arab part of the muslim world. As for the jews they were already ethnically cleansed from arab countries already in the 1950's.

Pope Benedict has not gone out to antagonise the Jewish People. Every now and again he slipped up but it is hard to see these mistakes such as having been deliberately intended by him to upset jewish sensibilities.
Indeed, the Elder of Ziyon notes that with regard to the Judea-Samarian security fence/wall protecting Israel from arab suicide bombers and assorted terrorists, Benedict was careful not to criticize Israel even whilst not directly referring to the arab atrocities which forced the building of the wall. 

“How earnestly we pray for an end to the hostilities that have caused this wall to be built."  

It is hard to ascribe good intentions to Benedict's advisers though as the ramifications of policies such as moving forwards on making Pope Pius XII, 'Hitler's Pope' a saint. The Pope signed the infamous Concordat with Hitler, excommunicated all communists whilst never excommunicating one single nazi, or german soldier.

The Vatican always likes to aver that PPXII saved many jews, yet despite doubts as to the veracity of this (many catholic priests, nun and laity did save jews, but there is no evidence that it was at the instigation of PPXII) the records of the time remain under lock and key. Only approved researchers are allowed near them. If there is nothing to hide, why the secrecy?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger or "God's rottweiler" as he was known when dealing with reformers in his church was staunchly conservative, but this did not mean that he translated this into negativism towards jews or Israel. He showed no special love for the jewish people, but he showed no animus towards jews either, and for this we should be grateful. There has thankfully since the Holocaust been a string of popes who have understood the results of hate speech towards jews.

It is a pity that this understanding of where anti-semitism leads does not seem to have seeped down lower in the cathoic heirarchy, as a reading of my articles about the Latin Patriarchate in Israel will show.

Whilst allowing the reintroduction of the Latin mass Benedict was wrong not to insist on taking out its prayer for the conversion of the Jewish People. We thought that this 'replacement theology' ghost had been exorcised long ago in the 1950's. I might be wrong, but I would be surprised if Benedict personally intended a slight to the jews but wanted rather to impose his own conservative will inside the church, to help bring peace to different factions within the church demanding the reinstitution of the mass in latin. And of course to bring in the errant sheep such as the notorious SSPX back in the fold.

Accepting the anti-semitic and Holocaust denying Society of StPius X back into the church was less of a problem with jews than for catholics themselves. The problem of schism in the Catholic Church is ever present. Eventually the SPX threw out one of its own leaders, British bishop Richard Williamson ostensibly for his Holocaust denial, but most probably because like often the case when convinced nazis fall out, Williamson wanted to be 'fuhrer' in his organisation.

It is sad that Pope Benedict has so quickly aged in his time at the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and I for one wish that his health improves once the heavy burden of his office is removed. Pope Benedict should have a long, healthy and happy retirement.


And of course the question is, when the holy smoke clears, will the next pope be a friend or....... not so much of a friend?

John Paul II's don't come along that frequently.
























Exonerating Jews of the charge of deicide Christ's death, repudiating the concept of collective Jewish guilt that haunted Christian-Jewish relations for centuries.

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.

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.

Whilst the Vatican bashes away at Israel christian communities are disappearing

Michael Sabbah apologist for palestinian suicide bombers

Another palestinian arab hypocrite Archbishop Michel Sabbah “patriarch” of Israel's catholics who blames all christian woes on Israel (but in the relative obscurity of the german language begs Hamas run Gaza to leave) christians in peace)

“But there is no Muslim persecution of Christians, and in fact they share the same hope of one day having an independent state. “

As well as denying that muslims persecute christians, Michel Sabbah the former head of the Catholic Church in Israel is an apologist for indiscriminate arab terror against Israelis, able to understand the suicide bomber and his indiscriminate murder, but not his indiscriminately chosen Israeli civilian victims, normal people, young and old torn apart:

Do you see suicide bombers as true martyrs?
According to Islam, they are. It’s necessary to treat each one according to his own principles. As Muslims see it, suicide bombers are giving their lives for their country, to gain their liberty. As a Christian, suicide is not permissible in any case, even for your country. You may not kill yourself.

The Israelis, too, are under attack. They are being overwhelmed with continuing acts of terrorism.
Under attack, by whom? Israel occupies and attacks someone else’s land and finds resistance. Israel is not being attacked. When Israel ceases to attack and to occupy [the Palestinian territories], they won’t suffer any further counterattacks. If Israel wants to end violence, it only needs to end occupation. I’m 200 percent certain of this, and I’ve said it many times.

The Catholic church in Israel is unreconstructed, an organisation of jew hating clerics indoctrinating new generations of catholics with their hatred of jewsvwhilst enjoying safety in Israel, the only country in the middle east where christians are safe. The Catholic Church in Israel may look around the middle east and see christian communities everywhere being ethnically cleansed. By the end of this century Israel will along with the Lebanon be alone in having sizeable christian communities. It is hard however not to see Lebanon's christian community as also being doomed to extinction. When their expulsion will finally happen is anyone's guess. It could happen in a few years or in a hundred. And Sabbah's successors will still be spouting the old hatreds against jews, the lies about 'occupation' as the justification for the killing of jews.

Sabbah in his 2003 interview could not even find it in his heart to condemn palestinian arab suicide bombers who were placing their bombs not to kill soldiers, but against kids in the Dolphinarium discotheque, in cafes, even in a hotel were a passover service was being held for pensioners. Not one word of sympathy for jews being torn apart by bombs. This representative of the Catholic Church describes arab terror directed at Israeli civilians as 'resistance'. 

Of course Sabbah blamed terror on the 'occuptation', saying that it would all end when Israel withdrew. Israel did that when it left Gaza, and since then over 9,000 missiles have landed in Israel. Even Israeli humanitarian food convoys into Gaza get targeted for attack. And of course before 1967 Israel did not 'occupy' Judea and Samaria or Gaza, so what was the reason then for the constant terror and threats to destroy Israel from arabs? The fact is that even if Israel consisted of one square kilometre of land around Tel-Aviv, that would also be 'occupied'. Sabbah and his fellow jew haters will not allow jews anywhere to express their nationality. The Catholic Church in europe denied jews their very existence for two thousand years. Nothing has changed. Sabbah isn't so much a palestinian arab as someone who uses his christian religion as a vehicle to attack jews.

In Sabbah's latest speech in Gaza (reported only in German) he asks for christians not to be converted by force whilst trying to ingratiate himself with the islamist murderers there.

Sabbah who blames Israel for all christian ills, can not bring himself to admit that his 2003 statement that christians are safe in arab lands was wrong. He seems ignorant of the christians of Iraq and Egypt, of those in Pakistan and Indonesia, and has no words of condemnation for those in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority who constantly attack christians,  have murdered them and stolen their lands:

“In Arab countries there is no persecution of Christians. I don’t speak of Pakistan, but in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon—no. Historically there have been some massacres, beginning when Europe entered the Mideast. ”

Sabbah says Christians are living in fear, but that Hamas and the other islamist terrorists have supposedly nothing to do with this fear, “Christen in Gaza leben in Angst. “ ( Gaza's christians must therefore be suffering from a Freudian “free floating anxiety”, not based in any reality. With people like Sabbah to help them, a man who can only talk about a supposedly shared palestinian nationality which Hamas islamists don't subscribe to, Gaza's christians are living on borrowed time.)

"Here in Gaza, it is the duty of Hamas to defend the Christian presence and to ensure their continued existence. In this sense, I say to all Islamic forces and movements in Gaza remains your true Islam, commit to protecting the Christians, and do not make them Muslims.

All Islamic forces in Gaza, Hamas, Jihad, the Salafists and the people of the mission, all, whatever you think of when you will be with Christians in Gaza or elsewhere faced, I would say, are with us as their brothers, and if anyone says otherwise, we will repeat it again and again and again say that we are here for you, brethren, are Muslims and Palestinians. And see in every Christian in Palestine of a believer and a creature of God, the Creator of all things, the Christians and the Muslims as well as all other people, and we are all his creatures, and God has given us the same dignity. God guides whom He will, whatever He wants.

Each of us is a human being, a believer, Muslim or Christian, a Palestinian, remains committed to the unity and equality of all people, and for the unity and freedom of our country.

Michel Sabbah

Hier in Gaza ist es die Pflicht der Hamas, die christliche Präsenz zu verteidigen und ihren Fortbestand zu sichern. In diesem Sinne sage ich zu allen islamischen Kräften und Bewegungen in Gaza: bleibt eurem Islam treu, aber verpflichtet euch, die Christen zu schützen, und sie nicht zu Muslimen zu machen.

Allen islamischen Kräften in Gaza, der Hamas, dem Jihad, den Salafisten und dem Volk der Mission, allen, wie auch immer ihr denkt, wenn ihr mit Christen in Gaza oder anderswo konfrontiert werdet, möchte ich sagen, für uns seid ihr wie Brüder, und wenn jemand das Gegenteil behauptet, werden wir es nochmals wiederholen und immer wieder sagen, dass wir         für euch Brüder sind: seid Muslime und Palästinenser. Und seht in jedem Christen in Palästina einen Glaubenden und eine Kreatur Gottes, dem Schöpfer aller Dinge, der Christen und der Muslime wie auch aller anderen Menschen; wir sind alle seine Geschöpfe und Gott hat uns die gleiche Würde verliehen. Gott lenkt wen Er will, wie auch immer Er will.
jeder von uns ein Mensch, ein Gläubiger, Muslim oder Christ, ein Palästinenser bleibt, der sich für Einheit und Gleichheit aller Menschen, und für die Einheit und Freiheit  unseres Landes einsetzt.

• Michel Sabbah
  
  

The Catholic Church believes it will mitigate arab hostility to christians by paying with Israeli coin. The stupidity of this belief, that the more enmity that can be showered by the Catholic Church on Israel the safer christians will be, has already been shown to be a fallacy.

As the Vatican and its cardinals and multiplicity of clerics continue their war against Israel, christianity is shrinking in the middle east. The continuing disappearence of christians from the region has nothing to do with jews or Israel, but much to do with christian clerics.

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.