The 600 who understand on which side their bread is buttered

Role model for christians in Israel - Monalisa Abdo the first female Arab combat commander

It is heartwarming to see that so many young christians in Israel go against their leaders, the official churches, their bishops and do their duty by their country Israel by doing national service and serving in the IDF. 
Christian youth such as MonaLisa and her sister are the future of their community, not the religious bigots who purport to represent them.
Christians in Israel know that they have the luck to live in the only country in the region which protects the rights of all religious denominations, that allows freedom of worship and protection from discrimination.
Only in Israel are christians free. Christians look around them and see themselves under attack in every muslim country, every arab country in the middle east.
Many christian youth are not just taking all that Israel has to offer whilst besmirching the State of Israel, but are doing their duty. Kol Hakavod (Hebrew for 'respect'/ 'well done').


Christian leaders spar over IDF enlistment

Conference allegedly encouraging young Christians to serve in IDF leads to boycott, death threats and police complaints, but volunteers could be more satisfied with their service

Hassan Shaalan
The issue of the enlistment of Christians in the IDF has sparked unexpected tensions in Israel's Arab Christian community.

The head of the Council of Arab Orthodox Community Dr. Azmi Hakim on Tuesday filed a police complaint claiming he received death threats after voicing opposition to the recruitment of Christians following a conference in Nazareth Illit.

He later said he has no problem with those who choose to join the army but remains opposed to the idea.

Threats were apparently also made against other members of the community who promote enlistment, according to Defense Ministry official Haim Ben-Ami. 

The affair began early last month during a conference which was attended by Defense Ministry representatives as well as Nazareth Illit Mayor Shimon Gabso and Reverend Jubrail Nadaf.

During the conference, Christian teens were encouraged to join the IDF which sparked uproar among clerics and members of the Christian community council.

They called to boycott Nadaf claiming he does not represent them. "We will not let anyone sully the community's name by recruiting Christians to the IDF or National Service. We must fight this," one councilman said. 

Reverend Nadaf said, "I am not responsible for what was said at the conference. Anyone who says otherwise is inciting against me as a religious figure and will pay for it in court." Nadaf filed a police complaint against the council citing defamation.  

Data show that 18% of Christians in Israel volunteer for National Service, the director of the National Service Directorate, Sar-Shalom Jerby, said. "Of the 3,000 Arabs volunteering for National Service 570 are Christians," he said.

"There is some opposition to National Service in the Arab community," Jerby added. "Some treat the volunteers as traitors. At times they are even attacked."

'I love helping my community'

While the community's leaders continue to quarrel over the matter, it appears that the young Israeli Christians embrace the opportunity to serve their communities.  

"I volunteer at a school in the village and am very satisfied with my service because I'm helping my community," said 19-year-old Jana.

"All the people who are against it don't understand what we contribute. In the beginning, those who weren't happy with my decision created problems for me but I've proven myself." 

Another young Christian said she volunteers at a cultural institute and is happy she is able to help others. "I'm thinking about also serving in the IDF because I'm an Israeli citizen and want to contribute to the country," she said.  

One volunteer said she is determined to continue her service despite receiving threats. "It made me want to stop but my parents supported me and gave me strength. It made me go on without being scared of all the threats. I never expected Christian religious figures to stoop so low because of the conference, which is hardly something new." 

The Nazereth Illit Municipality said in response, "The event was a tribute to Christian soldiers serving in the IDF and performing National Service. It was not aimed at recruiting more Christians to the IDF."

 The Defense Ministry said, "We will not tolerate threats or attacks against those who promote enlistment. They will receive our support."

Greek Orthodox Church believes that Israel should pay its bills even whilst undermining Israel's security

The Greek Orthodox Church is up in arms over having its bank account frozen by the Mekorot water company. It seems that the church believed that it was exempt from normal arrangements like paying for what you consume. 
I wonder why an unnamed Jerusalem mayor, most likely Teddy Kollek allowed the church to get away with this theft for so long. Most probably as usual Israel was blackmailed into it over the bad publicity that would ensue. And of course anti-Israel hatred is exactly what the Greek  Orthodox Church is trying to do at the moment. In the past its Bishop Hilarion Cappucci smuggled weapons for PLO terrorists abusing diplomatic rights afforded the Church by Israel. And only the other day another Bishop Hanna showed just how much hatred its priests have for the Jewish State when fulminating against christians serving in Israels army.

The Israeli government is usually soft on those that hate it and work against its interests, but a water company is a business and less likely to take religious blackmail into account. Most likely what will happen is that the Israeli government will pay up. Anything for 'peace' and quiet. The trouble is the enemies of Israel are very well aware of this.

Clergyman from church built on site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified says its bank account has been frozen due to long-standing dispute with Israeli water company

A clergyman from the church built on the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been crucified said Friday that its bank account has been frozen as the result of a long-standing dispute with an Israeli water company.

Greek Orthodox priest Isidoros Fakitsas said that the move has impaired the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pay bills and salaries.

As a result, the church is considering closing for a day in protest, shutting the doors to one of Christianity's most popular pilgrimage sites.

The account was blocked two weeks ago and lawyers were hired to address the matter in court, Fakitsas said. He insisted the church will be able to function despite the blocked bank account and that if matters become too difficult, it will try and find an alternative, such as opening a new bank account.

The church for decades was exempt by the different leaderships which ruled over Jerusalem's Old City from paying water bills until the Israeli water company began pressing it to pay up a few years ago.

Fakitsas, the superior of the Greek Orthodox Church, said an agreement was reached after months of negotiations. Under the deal, various denominations in the church would pay their monthly bill. A debt of some NIS 9 million ($2.32 million) was to be forgotten, he said.

But to the surprise of the church elders, its account was blocked two weeks ago, making it impossible to pay stipends of some 500 priests and monks, 2,000 teachers and the running costs of over 30 Christian schools that the church runs in the Palestinian territories and Jordan, church spokesman Issa Musleh said.

The water company, which could not immediately be reached for comment, demands the church pay for its water – charges from which it has been exempt for decades.

The Israeli Tourism Ministry said the issue is between the Church and the Jerusalem municipality. But because of the great importance of the site, the ministry is now trying to mediate between the two sides and hopes the issue will be resolved quickly.

Peace at "any price" is a recipe for Israel's destruction

 Israel is waking up to the fact that there is an enemy entity in the south of the country, but the message from Egypt has still not gone home. That an adviser to Barak the defence minister can talk about keeping the peace treaty with Egypt at "any price" is foolish. 

Britain's Chamberlain wanted peace at "any price", and the price for that was Czechoslovakia. The result of that perfidy in selling an ally down the road was not peace, but a terrible world war that could have been avoided. Germany was no match in 1938 for an alliance of France, GB and Czechoslovakia. Germany's generals were themselves only waiting for the nod from Lord Halifax to go ahead and arrest Hitler.

Israel has been buying peace at any price with Hamas for a long time now, and it has no peace or peace of mind. Israel keeps to the islamist rules of the game that so long as only the 'expendable' towns and even the city of Beersheba are attacked, then Hamas rule is safe. So we see time and again wave after wave of rockets killing and injuring Israelis and terrorising a million people. Once the terror has been inflicted Hamas through the intercession of Egypt 'agrees' to a ceasefire. This constant terror now aided and abetted by Egypt is aimed at undermining the peace and security of Israelis throughout the south, and a few dead Israelis now and again are just the icing on the cake. 
And the terror has had its effect. Israelis with capital have left the south. Only the poverty stricken remain in Sderot and Netivot the communities closest to Gaza.

And Israel goes along with this. It kills a few expendable terrorists in the act of firing rockets and then waits for the next attack which will force a million Israelis to sleep in bomb shelters and stop life for days. And that is without mentioning the thousands of jewish kids who wet their beds at night. And this goes on year after year.


The 'peace at any price' mantra in Judea and Samaria means that there also there is no peace. Jews are attacked and their property is damaged and stolen unceasingly and arab settlements keep encroaching on jewish land.


There is an inability amongst many of Israel's leaders to recognise just what our enemies are up to. From trying to cut bits of Israel's ancient homelands away, to terrorising the border areas and now to Muhammad Morsy's desire to rearrange the peace treaty there is a plan, to reduce the area where jews live in, to make Israel's borders less secure than they already are, to reduce those borders, to situate armed and agressive enemies along those borders and then to destroy Israel when it is least able to defend itself, when its strategic borders are lost to it. This may happen through one coordinated attack or many smaller ones which gradually overwhelm Israel's defences. The latter plan is already in effect in Judea and Samaria and with the attacks from Gaza.

Barak and Netanyahu must realise the game has changed in the middle east. The sunni muslim countries are surrounding it with (the present exception of Jordan but that country is very unstable and could easily fall to the islamists) all extreme and all committed to Israel's destruction. None more so than Egypt whose leader only a week or two ago uttered 'amen' to his imam's prayer for the destruction of jews and Israel. One month before his election Morsy was screaming his wish for Jihad, his Muslim Brotherhood leader Baddie said that next year muslims would raise their black flag in Jerusalem.

If Israel's really do want peace, then they must remember the wise saying that "if you wish for peace, then prepare for war." 

If Israel believes that it can buy its way out of another war with Egypt by appeasing it, by allowing the Peace Treaty to be changed, it is very much mistaken. The only way a new war can be avoided is if Israel makes it clear that Egypt will pay a terrible price, that the Aswan dam will be turned to rubble. Israel must learn the laws of the middle east. Hezbollah has not messed with Israel since 2006 after Israel turned its Beirut neighbourhood and much of South Lebanon to rubble. Balance of terror is the only way that the armies of islam will be put off from their plans.

Israel must change its mindset, turn from appeasement to a determination to defend its interests, to make its enemies pay a stiff price for their aggression against Israel. Once Israel does that it will have peace.

Shabbat Shalom (to my christian and muslim readers, have a nice weekend)

There is little chance that Israel will maintain high-level diplomatic channels with an increasingly radicalized Egypt, a top Israeli security official said Friday.

Defense Ministry department director Amos Gilad told students in Herzliya that the election of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi as president in Egypt had led to all but frozen ties between Jerusalem and Cairo.

“There’s no talking between our diplomatic corps and theirs, and I believe there will not be in the future. [Morsi] won’t talk with us,” he said.

Morsi’s election has worried some officials in Israel, who fear that the Islamist president will move to change the terms of Israel and Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty, which has held a cold peace between the countries.

Gilad slammed Morsi’s regime, saying its rise to power boded ill for the region.

“Out of a desire for democracy, grew a horrifying dictatorship,” he said.

Gilad, a top aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said Israel needed to make sure the treaty with Egypt stayed in place, no matter the cost.

“We need to keep the peace treaty with Egypt at any price,” he said, adding that the country did not want to have to send troops against Egypt.

Morsi has said he will respect the treaty, but has downplayed any chance of high-level contact with Jerusalem.

In July, President Shimon Peres received a friendly letter from Morsi hoping for security and stability in the region, but Morsi’s office denied ever sending the letter.

A letter sent last month with Egypt’s envoy to Israel called Peres a “great and good friend.” After the publication of the letter caused a small uproar in the Arab world, Cairo claimed the text was standard and did not mean anything special.

Loyal christians make this greek orthodox bigot fume

Yet another christian bigot allowed to disseminate his anti-semitism and intimidate christians from within Israel

That our brave christian arab Mona Lisa and her sister are not alone, that there are more christians interested in doing their bit to help the land that protects them and their community is laudable. It makes bigoted clerics like Father Attallah Hanna fulminate against them from the pulpit.

That's all well and good, but I wonder how many other countries allow enemies to run around in time of war intimidating citizens into not doing their duty by their country?

If this religious bigot who hates the fact that christians want to serve in Israel's army wishes to rant and rave in his incitement against the country which gives him refuge, then he should be shipped over the border to another country where he'll be happier and more welcome. He could go to Lebanon, Syria or Egypt. He should be given the opportunity to acquaint himself with the reasons why christians in Israel love the country and wish to serve in its army. The bigoted bishop could ask copts why their daughters are kidnapped and forcibly converted? He could ask Syrians why the christians of Homs packed their bags and left so hurriedly? He could investigate the murder of monk in Syria last week. Why stay in Israel the country he hates so much?

Israeli Monalisa Abdo the first christian arab combat commander1

Israel salutes its brave muslims and christians who show their loyalty to the state and jit suffers those who do not whilst extending to them all their rights. 
But those who act seditiously in an attempt to force israeli citizens away from doing their duty must be punished or shown the door just as happens in any other country. 

Will Israel finally begin to show that it's tired of its hospitality being abused?

Father Hanna slams attempts to recruit Christian Arabs in Israeli army

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Father Attallah Hanna, the archbishop of Sebastia in Jerusalem, strongly denounced the Israeli army for its attempts to recruit Christian Palestinians from the 1948 occupied lands.

Father Hanna said those who participated in suspicious meetings with Israelis to encourage the Christian young men of Palestine to join the army do not represent the Palestinian Christians and their national affiliation and only represent themselves.

He stressed that the Palestinian Christians are Arabs and an essential part of the Arab nation, describing these Israeli attempts as a grave conspiracy aimed at uprooting the Christian Palestinians from their national identity.

The Israeli war ministry organized recently a meeting in Nazareth Illit city between a number of Christian clergymen and Israeli officers from the army and its intelligence to urge the Christian Arabs to join the army and fight in its ranks.

For its part, the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands warned the Arab young men of falling into the trap of the Israeli attempts to Israelize them and create sectarian conflicts between the different spectra of the Palestinian people inside the Israeli occupied territories.

The Islamic Movement also urged the Arab political parties and movement in the 1948 occupied lands to take active role within the Arab committee against military and civil service in order to pool the efforts to confront Israel's attempts to recruit Palestinian young men.

Christians who show the Jewish People the 'other' christian cheek', their love rather than the traditional enmity

It has been sad to see the east coast of the USA battered so terribly by Hurricane Sandy. I hope that affected americans there will soon pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.

It is inspiring that even whilst the US is battered by the elements, christians found time to turn out and show the love that millions of christians have for the Jewish People and Israel. Their love makes up for the legions of christian anti-semites supported even from the Vatican (I don't believe that the Popes are personally involved in anti-jewish agitation, or even that they support this. Popes after WWII have generally been well disposed to the Jewish People, most notably the much lamented John Paul II of blessed memory).

As with the catholic church so with the protestants under the influence of the World Council of Churches whose anglican priests and bishops spend much of their time propagandising against Israel in the cause of undermining and defeating the Jewish State. Those priests constantly condemn jewish people for having 'occupied'  their own homelands of Judea and Samaria. Those priests are seemingly ignorant of the Bible. 

Our enemies amongst whom the most active in Israel are the Quakers and Franciscan monks would see jews again massacred if they had the chance.

Jews have never received any official apology for murders of millions of jews by european christians over the millenia. Even in living memory catholic priests were at the head of christian communities in Europe who killed jews. The priests under Archbishop Stepinac even ran a quisling government under the nazis where they massacred jews in their thousands. Although communists everywhere were excommunicated by the Vatican, none of the priests or even nazi soldiers were. Not one.




And in Israel there is the memory of the crusaders who after having marched through europe wiping out whole jewish communities on the way, took the old city of Jerusalem and massacred the whole jewish community there.

Jews don't need lessons from Franciscan monks:

On the eighth of Iyyar (May 3, 1096), the crusaders surrounded the synagogue of *Speyer; unable to break into it, they attacked any Jews they could find outside the synagogue, killing eleven of them. One of the victims, a woman, preferring death to conversion, the only choice left open by the crusaders, inaugurated the tradition of freely accepted martyrdom. *Kiddush ha-Shem, martyrdom for the glory of God, thus became the exemplary answer of Jews threatened in their life and faith by the crusaders. On the 23^rd of Iyyar (May 18, 1096) *Worms suffered a similar fate. The crusaders first massacred the Jews who had remained in their houses, then, eight days later, those who had sought an illusory refuge in the bishop's castle. The victims numbered about 800; only a few accepted conversion and survived, the great majority choosing to be killed or suicide rather than apostasy. Hearing of the massacre, the Jews of Mainz asked for the bishop's protection, paying him 400 pieces of silver to this end. When the crusaders, led by Emicho, arrived outside the town on the third of Sivan (May 27, 1096), the burghers hastened to open the gates. The Jews took up arms under the leadership of Kalonymus b. Meshullam. Weakened through fasting, for they had hoped to avert the disaster through exemplary piety, the Jews had to retreat to the bishop's castle; however the latter could do nothing for them, as he himself had to flee before the combined assault of crusaders and burghers. After a brief struggle, a wholesale massacre ensued. More than 1,000 Jews met their deaths, either at the enemy's hands or their own. Those who managed to escape were overtaken; almost no one survived. A comparable disaster occurred in Cologne,

When we have catholic monks write recently in their journal that unsbstantiated allegations of jewish anti christian daubings in Jerusalem (almost certainly the work of arab agitators) are a result of a bad education, we know those people for what they are, having already experienced the fruits of their 'love' in their past and read their regular missives demonising jews and Israel.

Just for the record the Israeli educational system works hard to inculcate ideals of tolerance and respect for minorities. Not for nothing is Israel the only country in the middle east where christians are thriving.

It is heartwarming to see that millions of christians recognise that Israel is the only friend of christians in the middle east, and that christians are welcome in Israel, will find that their love is very much reciprocated.
Christians who love Israel should go there, visit their holy sites and see what a wonderful place it is, what a magnificent country the Jewish People have built in the teeth of great adversity.

Thousands of Texas Christians Rally in Support of Israel

Thousands of Christian Zionists gathered at a Texas megachurch on Sunday night to rally in support for Israel.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

First Publish: 11/1/2012, 2:31 PM

PM Netanyahu speaks at CUFI event

Flash 90

Thousands of Christian Zionists gathered at a Texas megachurch on Sunday night to rally in support for Israel, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Pastor John Hagee, noted television evangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), organized the event and reaffirmed the organization’s belief that the defense of Israel as a Jewish homeland and a strong U.S.-Israel bond provides the world with the greatest chance at peace and stability in the Middle East.
“The day America turns its back on Israel, that day God will turn his back on the United States of America,” Hagee told the audience.
With more than one million members, CUFI is America’s largest pro-Israel organization, according to its website.
Sunday’s “Night to Honor Israel”, which brought together rabbis, Christian ministers and Israeli representatives, marked the 31st year the event was held at San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church.
Some waved American and Israeli flags while listening to speeches, singing songs and reciting prayers. There was also frequent cheering and clapping as the noted speakers rejecting candidates for U.S. office who have not held Israel's enemies-- most notably Iran-- accountable for seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.
The event raised nearly $3 million to support Jewish and Israeli charities.
“Such donations and commitment to seek favorable political leadership are reasons to hope,” said Meir Shlomo, consul general of Israel to the Southwest.
“We all know you have our back covered,” he said, prompting a prolonged standing ovation.