It's no secret that there's only one country in the Middle East where Christians have not become an endangered species, and where their population has grown over the last 100 years. You guessed it - it's Israel and I've written about it time and time again (search Bethlehem in the blog for some examples).
In Catch the Jew, Tuvia Tenenbaum writes about a meeting he had with a Christian in Bethlehem, who acknowledged that the town's Christian population had declined by more than 90% since 2000, as Christians fled. When he asked her why, she blamed it on... you guessed it: The 'Occupation.'
So what is it that these people don't get? Luma Simms, a Christian who grew up in Iraq tries to explain.
This is not just a Muslim problem. This anti-Semitism trickles down to
minority groups living in Islamic dominated lands. Middle Eastern
Christians manifest a hobbled prejudice since they lack the power to
politically act out against Israel. As I have observed my Middle Eastern
community over the years, there seems to be a Stockholm Syndrome
phenomenon. After being so long under Islamic rule and imbibing Islamic
propaganda, the Christians are apt to parrot their “captors” in the
Islamic authoritarian governments. I hold out hope that a free Arab
Christian culture could break this spell within a generation. But hope
is running out—Christianity may not survive in the Middle East.
Indeed it may not - at least outside of Israel. Simms goes on to explain why Israel is the last hope for Middle East Christians.
Israel is the last hope for Arab Christians; it’s as simple as that.
America is not leading on the refugee issue, especially for Iraqi
Christians. Yet helping them, doing good to the Christians in the Arab
world, would require Israel overcoming her neighbors’ anti-Semitism,
even of those Christians who will not ask for help because of their
prejudices.
Arab Christians in America and abroad feel caught between Muslim
interests on one side and Israeli interests on the other. They are
bitter. They are a weak minority, always overlooked. Arab Christians
have no power to negotiate or threaten, no money to buy arms, and no
land to cultivate and build. Their bitterness makes them miss an
important ally: Israel. As the genocide of Middle Eastern Christians
continues, the only hope of an Arab Christian remnant—a remnant that
would keep and pass on its beliefs, traditions, and customs—is through
help from the state of Israel. It is the humanitarian thing to do.
Israel already exemplifies this humane treatment
of her enemies. They have hospitals and medical units close to their
borders where they discreetly treat the wounded and injured who come to
them for medical help. These people eventually go back to their homes in
Syria. Patients keep the medical care quiet to protect themselves from
reprisal back home for receiving care from Israel. Sometimes the
patients are combatants and other times it is civilians caught in
crossfire; some arrive barely alive not even knowing they are in Israel,
regaining consciousness only to find themselves being cared for by the
very people they have been taught to hate. These doctors and nurses are “sowing seeds of peace.”
Another reason why helping Arab Christians would be good for Israel:
What better way to overcome jihad in the region than for Israel to forge
an alliance with Christians? For their part, Middle Eastern Christians
should see Israel as an ally, support its democratic state, and build an
alliance to combat Islamic terrorists. For too long Islam has used a
divide and conquer tactic on the Christians and Jews. For example, when
Arab Christians living in Nazareth wanted to integrate into Israeli
society and enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, they were harassed,
attacked, and threatened by Arab Muslim groups. What’s worse was the
accusation by Muslims and Christians that they were betraying
Palestine. Anyone thinking clearly can see this for what it is: Muslims
fearing the alliance of Arab Christians with Israel.
...
If Israel will not act, what’s to be done? It’s hard to find exact
numbers, but maybe there are between 200,000 and 400,00 Iraqi Christians
left. They will be killed in Iraq, or die trying to escape. Some, God
willing, may be allowed to emigrate. Elliot Abrams, during an AEI panel
on the Sykes-Picot Agreement, made the most courageous statements I have
heard from anyone regarding the situation:
Most of the Christian communities are dying, will never
be restored….nobody has that feeling toward Christian minorities in Iraq
[speaking of the desire to save the communities]…we don’t even take
Christian refugees…I am really struck by the hostility to the notion
that anything should be done for the Christian communities of the Middle
East…is anybody being persecuted more than the Iraqi Christians? Does
anybody have a more well-founded fear [of persecution]? They can’t even
go to U.N refugee camps safely. And we are doing nothing about that.
[Regarding the conundrum of liquidating Christianity from the area] It
would be like saying, in 1940, surely a 1000 years of Jewish history in
Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, we don’t want to kill it by taking
those people as refugees. They died. The Christians will die, or many of
them will die. So I think we don’t have the right to say, ‘Stay there
and maintain your churches,’ when they’re being killed.
Israel, rise up and lead that region of the world. You are the hope
for Iraqi Christians. Let it always be said: In the dark age of ISIS,
when desolation and despair covered the Arab world, Israel was the house
of light. Like the prophet Jonah whom God commanded to go to Nineveh
and offer redemption to the Assyrians, may Israel go and redeem
Assyria—redeem the Nineveh plains once again.
I have many Christian followers on Twitter. There are two in particular that I follow. Every time I tweet a link like this one, I tag them. One retweets me every time. The other never does. Why? I wish I knew.
At the 2012 and 2014 conferences, speakers
blamed radical Islam’s violence against Christians in the Middle East on
Christian support for Israel, as if Muslims had no moral agency of
their own. Speakers condemned Jews for having rejected Jesus as the
messiah, suggesting that this rejection rendered Jews unfit to run a
sovereign state of their own.
On a more practical level, speakers
falsely reported that the security barrier completely surrounds
Bethlehem, the city of Christ’s birth, in an attempt to portray the
Jewish state as an obstacle to God’s purposes for peace in the Middle
East.
I was stunned that the speakers defamed the
Jewish people so brazenly and that the audience of 600 Evangelicals from
North America and Europe listened so happily to it all.
Similar messaging was broadcast at the 2016
conference. I should be in a high dudgeon about what I heard, but
instead I feel pity.
Spreading lies about the Jewish state, as
unsavory and self-destructive as it is, is the price Palestinian
Christians pay for staying in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It’s
what they have to do.
Jews stay in the land through the force of
arms and diplomacy. Palestinian Christians stay in the West Bank by
shilling on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, one of the most corrupt
and incompetent set of elites in the world.
Palestinian Christians have to pretend that their fellow Palestinians are ready for statehood, jihadism
in the Middle East is not the fault of Muslim radicals but the West,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all Israel’s fault and that
Palestinian leaders can be trusted to make peace with the Jewish state
even though they can’t be trusted with the money thrown at them by
Western governments.
Repeating these messages is the tax, or jizya
Palestinian Christians must pay to maintain peaceful relations,
precarious as they are, with their Muslim neighbors in the West Bank.
In
previous epochs, Christians paid protection money to Muslim rulers to
ensure their safety, but today they pay the jizya by telling lies to their fellow Christians in the West.
Orthodox Rabbis call on US government to save historic Middle East Christian communities
In a Wall Street Journal editorial, two Orthodox rabbis, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, have called on the United States government to step up and save the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East, which are now threatened with extinction.
Islamist terror attacks like the ones in Paris
and San Bernardino, Calif., have underlined the need for more and better vetting
of refugees from the Middle East who seek safety in the U.S. But with tens of
thousands pushing at the gate, who should to get first preference?
In our view, as rabbis, any immediate admissions
should focus on providing a haven for the remnants of historic Christian
communities of the Middle East. Christians in Iraq and Syria have been suffering
longer than other groups, and are fleeing not just for safety but because they
have been targeted for extinction. In a region strewn with desperate people,
their situation is even more dire. Christians (and Yazidis, ethnic Kurds who
follow a pre-Islamic religion) have long been targeted by Muslim groups—not only
Islamic State, or ISIS—for ethnic cleansing. Churches have been burned, priests
arrested.
In the worst cases, Christians have been
tortured, raped and even crucified. Mosul, Iraq, which was home to a Christian
population of 35,000 a decade ago, is now empty of Christians after an ISIS
ultimatum that they either convert to Islam or be executed. In Syria, Gregorios
III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, said
in 2013 that “entire villages” have been “cleared of their Christian
inhabitants.”
Unlike some others, Middle East Christians have
nowhere else to go. As a result of turmoil not of their making and beyond their
control, these Christians are the region’s ultimate homeless. Should some sort
of peace ever return, the likelihood is that maps will be redrawn, carving up
the pie among larger ethnic groups. There will be no place for Christians among
hostile Muslim populations.
The animosity toward Christians is illustrated
by a horrific incident earlier this year off the Italian coast. In April,
Italian police investigating events on a boat that had departed from Libya said
12 Christian refugees who were attempting to cross the sea to Europe were thrown
overboard by Muslim migrant passengers, and drowned.
The U.S. can do much good for Christian
refugees. Their religious heritage establishes an important basis of commonality
in the many Christian communities in our country.
When Secretary of State John Kerry
announced in September that the U.S. will accept as many as 100,000 refugees by
2017, many of them Syrian, the State Department provided a list of more than 300
agencies in 190 locations that would assist on the local level. Of those
agencies, no less than 215 are Christian. It makes sense to play to the
strengths of those agencies.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems to disagree.
Tragically, present policy does not take into
account the uniquely precarious situation of displaced Christians. Instead of
receiving priority treatment, Christians are profoundly disadvantaged. For
instance, the State Department has accepted refugees primarily from lists
prepared by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, which oversees
the large camps to which refugees have flocked, and where they are registered.
Yet endangered Christians do not dare enter those camps.
George Carey, the former Archbishop of
Canterbury, wrote in the Telegraph in Britain in September that a similar
protocol in the U.K. “inadvertently discriminates against the very Christian
communities most victimised by the inhuman butchers of the so-called Islamic
State. Christians are not to be found in the UN camps, because they have been
attacked and targeted by Islamists and driven from them.”
But the world is too busy focusing on the 'Palestinians,' who themselves have driven Christians out of towns like Bethlehem. Where are the Christian demonstrators on behalf of their brethren in the Middle East? Darned if I know.
Vatican signs treaty with imaginary state of 'Palestine'
And you thought the German Pope was going to be a problem? Argentinean-born Pope Francis I's Vatican has signed a 'treaty' with the 'state' of 'Palestine.'
The Vatican
signed its first treaty with the "State of Palestine" on Friday, calling
for "courageous decisions" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
backing a two-state solution.
The
treaty, which made official the Vatican's de facto recognition of
Palestine since 2012, angered Israel, which called it "a hasty step
(that) damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement".
Israel also said it could have implications on its future diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The
accord, which concerns the Catholic Church's activities in areas
controlled by the Palestinian Authority, also confirmed the Vatican's
increasingly proactive role in foreign policy under Pope Francis. Last
year, it brokered the historic resumption of ties between the United
States and Cuba.
Archbishop Paul
Gallagher, the Vatican's foreign minister, said at the signing that he
hoped it could be a "stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the
long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause
suffering for both parties".
He
called for peace negotiations held directly between Israelis and
Palestinians to resume and lead to a two-state solution. "This certainly
requires courageous decisions, but it will also offer a major
contribution to peace and stability in the region," he said.
To date, the 'Palestinians' have yet to make any 'courageous decisions' or to drop any of their demands. There is no compromising with them. They continue to seek the destruction of the world's only Jewish State, which happens to be the only state in the Middle East where Christians - including Catholics - are safe, and where their population has grown. Note this disingenuous statement from the article:
There are about 100,000 Catholics of the Roman
and Greek Melkite rites in Israel and the Palestinian territories, most
of them Palestinians.
If Joseph and Mary were trying to reach Bethlehem today.... UPDATED
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Here's a great comment in the Washington Post from the Volokh Conspiracy's David Bernstein. What would happen to Joseph and Mary if they were trying to reach Bethlehem today, before Jesus' birth?
How
would that carpenter and his pregnant wife have circumnavigated the
Kafkaesque network of Israeli settlements, roadblocks and closed
military zones in the occupied West Bank? Would Mary have had to
experience labour or childbirth at a checkpoint, as one in ten pregnant
Palestinian women did between 2000 and 2007?
Well,
since Joseph and Mary were Judeans, i.e., Jews, from Nazareth, they
wouldn’t need to be afraid of Israeli roadblocks needed to combat
Palestinian terrorism, but of being murdered by terrorists from Hamas or
Fatah.
Seriously, this sort of historical revisionism, treating
ancient Jewish Judeans as if they were Palestinian Arabs, and then
analogizing modern Israel to the oppressors of Jesus and his family, a
common trope in the UK, would be laughable if it were not so
pernicious. Pernicious not simply because it’s a ridiculous distortion
of history, and not simply because it’s often accompanied by a large
dose of anti-Semitism, with Palestinians playing the role of Jesus and
the Israelis being the foreign oppressors crucifying him. But
pernicious because it goes to the true heart of the Arab-Israeli
conflict–the failure of the Arab side to recognize that the “Zionists”
are not the “European settler-colonialists” of Third Worldist
imagination, but a people with a three thousand year plus tie to the
Land of Israel, whose religion was born there, who ruled two separate
kingdoms there, who have prayed toward Jerusalem for two thousand years
in their ancient Hebrew language, and so on.
First of all, on the approach to Bethlehem, they would encounter a
sign telling them that as Israelis, it's illegal and unsafe for them to
continue to Area A (under full control of the Palestinian Authority, of
which Bethlehem is part according to the 1990s Oslo agreement).
If
they proceeded anyway, whether by foot, bicycle, car or donkey—given
the current state of affairs—they would likely be met with problems from
the get go, including possibly being stoned, firebombed, shot at or
lynched. Recent instances of Israeli Jews going into or near other
Palestinian Arab communities have played this out.
Yes, the town
in which an Orthodox Jewish boy was born a little more than 2,000 years
ago has become hostile and inhospitable—and, in fact, dangerous—to Jews
today. Yet as much as Jew hatred is common in the region here today,
it's not much more hospitable to Christians.
Recently the Pope decried
the situation that Christians face from throughout the Islamic Middle
East as did the Vicar of Baghdad. Bethlehem is no better.
The 2002
siege of the Church of the Nativity by Palestinian Arab terrorists,
desecrating the place and the faith, is a distant memory. However, the
ideology and thugery behind that remains.
As a result, the town
that is not just the birthplace of Jesus but arguably of Christianity,
has seen a decrease in its Christian population from 70 percent just
decades ago to about 30 percent today. This is not because of Israel's
"occupation" or other problems blamed on Israel, but because life in
Bethlehem as a Christian is hostile and inhospitable at best, and even
downright dangerous.
...
So glaring is Jesus' absence from Bethlehem this season, one ministry
paid to put up a "radical" billboard celebrating Jesus. But they also
had to rent a generator and full-time security people because no private
companies would provide electricity to light up the sign, and for fear
that someone would deface it or burn it down.
What's behind all of
this? How is the situation going from bad to worse? I asked a Christian
friend who had spent considerable time in Bethlehem until called in by
police and told he was at risk and they couldn't protect him. He packed
and left, and I drove him to my home where he couldn't be threatened.
Ted Cruz comments on his appearance before Middle East Christian group
I debated just making this an update to the previous post about Ted Cruz's actions on Wednesday night, but I decided it deserved a post all by itself. I also debated whether to excerpt it or to just embed the whole post. I decided to embed the whole post.
Ted Cruz to Christian group: 'If you don't support Israel, I can't support you'
Ted Cruz is simply awesome. On Wednesday night, the Texas Republican Senator spoke to a group called Defense of Christians, which is fighting Islamic slaughter of Christians in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the group also includes some anti-Semites. When Cruz told them that Christians have no greater ally than Israel, some of the group started booing. Cruz didn't back down, and eventually he walked out (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
Cruz, the keynote speaker at the sold-out D.C. dinner gala for the
recently-founded non-profit In Defense of Christians, began by saying
that “tonight, we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight, we
are all united in defense of Jews. Tonight, we are all united in defense
of people of good faith, who are standing together against those who
would persecute and murder those who dare disagree with their religious
teachings.”
Cruz was not reading from a teleprompter, nor did he appear to be reading from notes.
“Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations,” he continued. “ISIS,
al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas, state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all
engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities
in the Middle East. Sometimes we are told not to loop these groups
together, that we have to understand their so called nuances and
differences. But we shouldn’t try to parse different manifestations of
evil that are on a murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate,
and murder is murder. Our purpose here tonight is to highlight a
terrible injustice, a humanitarian crisis.”
“Christians have no greater ally
than Israel,” he said, at which point members of the crowd began to yell
“stop it” and booed him.
...
Those who hate Israel hate America,” he continued, as the boos and calls for him to leave the stage got louder. “Those
who hate Jews hate Christians. If those in this room will not recognize
that, then my heart weeps. If you hate the Jewish people you are not
reflecting the teachings of Christ. And the very same people who
persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who
behead children, are the very same people who target Jews for their
faith, for the same reason.”
The cries of “stop it, stop it, enough,” and booing continued. “Out,
out, leave the stage!” At this point IDC’s president, Toufic Baaklini,
came out to the stage to ask for the crowd to listen to Cruz, but Cruz
had already had enough.
“If you will not stand with Israel
and the Jews,” he said. “Then I will not stand with you. Good night, and
God bless.” And with that, he walked off the stage.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: The Right Scoop). More after the video.
I want to respond to one claim in the Daily Caller piece (the first link) and then I want to give another blogger a say. The Daily Caller wrote:
Many Christians in the Middle East take issue with Israeli military
policy, which has made life for Palestinian Christians in their homeland
very difficult, and driven many from their homes. “Israel’s policies
have led to demographic pressure that’s made the West Bank and Gaza far
more Muslim than in 1948,” explained one Middle East analyst.
I don't know who the 'Middle East analyst' was, but he's dishonest and disingenuous. [Quote from an article on the Islamization of Bethlehem that was published in 2002, two years before Arafat's death].
Since
assuming control in 1995, Arafat has Islamized Bethlehem by changing
the municipal boundaries of Bethlehem and its twin towns Beit Jallah and
Beit Sahour. Together, they used to constitute the Christian enclave in
Judea and Samaria. Arafat transformed the demography there by
incorporating into the town three neighboring refugee camps, Dehaisheh,
El-Ayda and El-Azeh. Thus 30,000 Muslims were added to the 65,000
residents in Bethlehem's municipal boundaries. He intensified the
Islamization of Bethlehem by adding to its population a few thousand
Bedouins of the Ta'amrah tribe, located east of Bethlehem, encouraging
Muslim immigration from Hebron to Bethlehem, and inducing Christian
emigration/flight away from Bethlehem. The Christian population has been
reduced from a 60% majority in 1990 to a 20% minority (23,000) in 2001.
As
a result, more Beit Jallah Christians reside in Belize (Central
America) than are left in Beit Jallah itself! A similar process has also
afflicted the Christians of Ramallah, now down to 20,000.
Aware
of what was likely to happen under Arafat, Christian leaders had sought
to prevent the transfer of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority.
Between the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords and the 1995 transfer of
Bethlehem to the PA, Palestinian Christians lobbied Israel against the
transfer. The late Christian mayor, Elias Freij, warned that it would
result in Bethlehem becoming a town with churches but no Christians. He
urged Israel to include Bethlehem in the boundaries of Greater
Jerusalem, which had been the Jordanian practice until 1967. On July 17,
2000, upon realizing that then Prime Minister Barak recklessly proposed
to repartition Jerusalem, the leaders of the Greek-Orthodox, Latin, and
Armenian Churches sent a letter to Clinton, Barak, and Arafat,
demanding to be consulted before such action was undertaken. Barak's
proposal triggered a flood of requests for Israeli I.D. cards by East
Jerusalem Arabs, who dreaded PA rule with its oppressive track record.
Setting
out to "religiously cleanse" Bethlehem, in 1995 Arafat, defying
tradition, slapped Christians in the face by appointing a Muslim from
Hebron, Muhammed Rashad A-Jabari, as its governor. Arafat fired the
Bethlehem city council (nine Christians and two Muslims) replacing them
with a council equally balanced between Christians and Muslims. The
entire top level of bureaucratic, security and political officials have
been cleansed of Christians. The area is run by the local Muslim Fatah
leader and his thugs, along with Tanzim gunmen, mostly Ta'amrah
Bedouins. The PA has seized control of the Church of the Nativity, and
has tightened the pressure on the Greek-Orthodox, Armenian, Latin,, and
Franciscan Order in East Jerusalem. The Abraham's Oak Russian Holy
Trinity Monastery in Hebron was seized by the PA on July 5, 1997, which
then violently evicted its monks and nuns.
In addition, Arafat
and the PA embarked on a campaign of physical and psychological
intimidation of Christians. During anti-Israel PA rallies the chant is
heard: "After we do away with the Saturday People, we shall take care of
the Sunday People." Mosques have mushroomed adjacent to--and usually
taller than--churches, implementing the tradition of Saladin, who
constructed two taller mosques, Al Khanqa and Abdul Malek, contiguous to
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The curriculum at church schools has
been altered, adding Islamic--and reducing Christian--studies. Loudly
magnified Muslim sermons have been aired during Christian services,
including the April 2000 address by the Pope in Bethlehem, which had to
be recessed until the purposely-loud Muslim sermon was concluded.
Abusing Church tradition, the PA has transformed a Greek Orthodox
monastery, located next to the Church of Nativity, into Arafat's
official residence in Bethlehem.
...
There has been
congressional testimony on Arafat's oppression of Christians. According
to former Senator Connie Mack (R-FL), "[The Palestinian Christian] was
arrested and detained [by the PA] on charges of selling land to Jews. He
denied the charge, since he owned no land. He was beaten and hung from
the ceiling by his hands for many hours. After two weeks, he was
transferred to a larger prison where he was held for eight months
without trial... These Christians conveyed to me a message of fear and
desperation." (Senate speech, March 3, 2000,
www.senate.gov/~mack/issue/statement.htm).
The PA has imported to
Gaza, Judea and Samaria in general, and most especially to Bethlehem,
its oppressive legacy of Lebanonization. The Christians of Bethlehem,
Beit Jallah, Beit Sahour and Ramallah are now undergoing the experiences
of Lebanese Christians from 1970 to 1982. They are perceived by the
PA--as were Lebanon's Christians--as a potential Fifth Column. Accused
of wearing "permissive" Western clothing, Bethlehem Christian women have
been intimidated by PA personnel. Rape of Christian women has occurred
frequently (especially in Beit Sahour) as was the case in Lebanon.
Islamic hostility, disregard for civil liberties and economic jealousy
have been harnessed by Arafat and his 20,000 terrorists imported from
Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon in their campaign
against the Christian infidel. Christians who dare oppose PLO oppression
are accused of "collaboration" with Israel and face execution.
I don't know whether Ted Cruz was aware of all of the above. If he was, it's a pity that those present at Wednesday night's speech wouldn't have listened to it anyway.
It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Senator Ted Cruz
(R, Texas) to ignore the fact that the “In Defense of Christians” summit
dinner that he was speaking tonight at had far too many people involved
with it who, as the Washington Free Beacon notes,
“includes some of the Assad regime’s most vocal Christian supporters,
as well as religious leaders allied with the Iranian-backed terrorist
group Hezbollah.” But he did not. Instead, he told those folks the truth.
I cannot tell you how much I hope Ted Cruz runs for President in 2016. I would support him. But how many American Jews (as opposed to American Jewish expats living in Israel) would support him? Sadly, probably very few. After all, Ted Cruz is a conservative Republican.
Pope to drive around Bethlehem in open car, declare himself Che Guevara of 'Palestine'
Does it get crazier than this? Pope Francis is coming to Israel later this month, and he says that he will drive around Bethlehem with no security in an open top car. Rumor also has it that he will declare himself the Che Guevara of the 'Palestinian Authority.'
Pope Francis apparently feels very at ease over his visit to
Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled areas during his May 24-26 visit
to Israel. The Vatican reported on Thursday that he will ride in
open-top non-bulletproof cars in Bethlehem.
The pope's predecessor, Benedict XVI, rode in a bulletproof "popemobile," an armored car introduced after
the attempted assassination of John Paul II in 1981. The current pope
has in the past shown his preference for non-bulletproof cars.
"It's a program that he (the pope) himself has approved," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP.
Some may doubt Francis's decision, given the animosity towards Christians in Bethlehem which was on display last week, as Christian Arab residents of a village near the city were savagely attacked by local Muslims with stones as they celebrated a Christian holiday at Saint George’s Monastery. Indeed, most Christians have reportedly been driven out of the city by Muslims.
A possible indicator to the pope's feeling of ease may be found in reports from February by
Rabbi Sergio Bergman, a member of the Argentinian parliament and close
friend of Pope Francis, who said that the pope intends to define himself
as the "Che Guevera of the Palestinians" and support their "struggle and rights" during his visit.
Once upon a time, Bethlehem was overwhelmingly Christian. Not any more. I think he's off his rocker to do this.
London's Saint James Church promotes Christian torment in 'Palestine'
London's Saint James Church is running something called the 'Bethlehem Unwrapped' festival in the heart of London. As I have noted previously, the festival includes what claims to be a replica of Israel's 'security fence,' on which visitors are invited to scrawl graffiti.
The decision by a Christian church to cooperate with Muslim
Palestinians in an anti-Israel Christmas exhibit focusing on Bethlehem
will be seen as incongruous by some, given the record of oppression of
Christians by Palestinian Muslims in that city and elsewhere.
Under the Fatah and Hamas regimes in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the
resident Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent human rights
abuses including “intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of
churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment,
economic boycott, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual
harassment, and extortion,” notes writer Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld.
As a result of this persecution, the Christian population of
Bethlehem went from a 60 percent majority in 1990 to a 40 percent
minority in 2000, to about 15 percent of the city's total population
five years ago.
It was estimated that in 2000-2007, more than one thousand Christians
emigrated from the Bethlehem area annually and that only 10,000 to
13,000 Christians remained in the city by 2008.
...
According to international human rights lawyer Justus Reid
Weiner, the crimes committed against Christian Arabs reflects their
inferior social status in Islam, known as dhimmitude.
"As dhimmis, Christians living in Palestinian-controlled territories
are subjected to debilitating legal, political, cultural, and religious
restrictions. Muslim groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have built a
culture of hatred upon the age-old foundations of Islamic society.
Moreover, the PA has adopted Islamic law into its draft constitution.
"In such an environment, Christian Arabs have found themselves
victims of prejudice and hate crimes," he explains. "Tens of thousands
of Palestinian Christians have left their ancestral homes and emigrated.
They flee to almost any country that will issue them a visa."
Weiner points out that the first Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman,
Yasser Arafat, determined the policy that led to this demographic
shift. "After the PA gained control of Bethlehem, it redistricted the
municipal boundaries of the city. Arafat also defied tradition by
appointing a Muslim governor of the city. The Bethlehem City Council,
which by Palestinian law must have a Christian majority, has been taken
over by Muslims. Eight of the fifteen seats on the Council are still
reserved for Christians, but Hamas controls the City Council with some
Christian allies. Arafat crowned his efforts when he converted the Greek
Orthodox monastery next to the Church of Nativity into his official
Bethlehem residence.
The church's behavior is completely in keeping with the spirit in London. Here's a letter that our ambassador, Daniel Taub, recently had published in the Times of London (the paper is behind a paywall and all I have is the letter, which someone sent me by email).
‘Jack
Straw refuses to countenance the possibility that anyone other than
Israel might have a part to play in the plight of the Palestinians’
Sir, Jack Straw (Opinion, Dec 26)
asserts that Palestinian shacks in the South Hebron hills are being
gratuitously demolished by Israel while their residents are charged
exorbitant sums for
water.
In
fact, although these structures were built without regard to planning
permission, the Israeli authorities, which under the Israeli-Palestinian
agreements are charged with responsibility for planning regulations in
the area, invited the residents to submit a master plan to regularise
the situation.
The
proposed master plan which was submitted was rejected. Not, as Straw
suggests, because of gratuitous harassment, but because the planning
committee found that it did not provide adequately for welfare services
for the residents, and in particular would deprive Palestinian women
of access to educational and professional opportunities. The committee
has invited the residents to make an amended application.
The
price of water is determined by the Palestinian Water Authority, not by
Israel. Jack Straw refuses to countenance the possibility that anyone
other than Israel might have a part to play in the plight of the
Palestinians. Far more damaging than the castigation of Israel, however,
is the effect of such condescension and low expectations on the
Palestinian side.
Ultimately,
the most effective way of dealing with the issue of the South Hebron
hills is for
the two sides to reach a final status agreement. But ignoring the fact
that the Palestinians too have responsibilities will not help bring that
agreement closer.
Bashara Shlayan, 58, a ship captain from Nazareth, founded the new party. In an interview with Israel Hayom,
he says he was motivated to enter politics not only because of the
rapid changes gripping the region, but also because the Arab political
parties in Israel predominantly serve the interests of Muslims and have a
communist platform.
“People see what is happening now in
Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. They understand where we are living. I tell
them, ‘For 65 years we have given to the Arab communist parties; 65
years and they have done nothing!’ Give me three years, I will manage
and solve their problems,” he says.
“Look at what the Arab parties have
done. Just talking nonsense about nothing but communism; [MK Dov] Khenin
and [MK Mohammad] Barakeh (Hadash/Communist Party), what have they done
for us? They want us to disappear and are not acting according to the
integrity of their country’s citizens,” Shlayan adds.
Further distinguishing himself from
his Muslim Arab neighbors, Shlayan says he is an “Arab Christian in
Israel who recognizes the land of Israel as belonging to the Jews.”
“Firstly we are completely Israeli, and then comes religion,” he says.
There is fierce opposition among
Muslims living in Israel to serve in the IDF, a position that in the
past influenced Christian Arabs to opt out. Though there is a draft in
Israel, the government does not require Christian or Muslim Arab
citizens to serve, due to possible conflicts of loyalty as family
members may reside in Lebanon, Syria or other Middle Eastern countries
still officially in a state of war with Israel.
Shlayan says he wants to change that,
and helped his nephew and son enlist in the IDF. Since they were the
trailblazers, that effort was a challenge.
“When I wanted my son to join the army
we decided to create a forum for Christian enlistment. We also invited
priests from the church to a conference we held in Nazareth Illit. One
of them is the Church patriarch, Father Gabriel Nadaf [who has drawn the
ire of Arab MKs recently for encouraging Christian Arab youth to join
the IDF], who preferred [our way] and said we were right.”
Today Shlayan’s nephew is a major in a combat unit.
Because he publicly backed enlistment
for Israel’s 130,000 Christian Arab citizens, Father Nadaf was “banned
from entering Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and was threatened
with being fired from his position in Yafia. The tires of his car were
punctured and a rag with bloodstains was laid at his doorstep,” writes
the Times of Israel.
For a number of years now, a group of Nazareth Christians who are
officers in the Israeli army have been actively recruiting young local
Arabs to follow in their footsteps and serve the Jewish state.
Though not an officer himself, one of the main figures in this
movement is Greek Orthodox cleric Father Gabriel Nadaf. Late last month,
the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem, acting on demands from
Muslim Arab members of Israel's Knesset, threated to fire Nadaf.
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Interior Minister Gideon
Saar immediately called the priest to convey their support and offer
their assistance.
On Wednesday, Israel's Attorney General's Office announced that it
had opened an investigation into the activities of the Muslim Knesset
members who pushed for Nadaf's dismissal.
"It’s unacceptable that Arab MKs should think that they can be Trojan
horses in the Knesset and send letters of incitement against a
Christian priest who encourages young Christians to enlist in the IDF,"
said Likud MK Miri Regev during a Knesset Interior Committee hearing on
the matter.
...
Khaloul said that until now, many in the community had been too
afraid to speak out, but that was going to change. Many are now even
referring to themselves openly as "Israeli Christians."
Ali, an organizer for the forum, noted that local Arabs see what is
happening across the Middle East and realize that Israel is the only
place in the region where Christians can feel safe and belong. "That’s
why more and more of us are realizing that there is no other country
here that is worth fighting for," he added.
Some went even deeper in their reasoning for joining the army of the Jewish state.
If there are so many loyal 'Israeli Arabs' (and I have heard and posted many stories like this one over the years, which claim that there are) why do they keep sending such drek to the Knesset?
Time for 60 Minutes and Jeff Fager to Correct Bethlehem Falsehood
In April, a 60 Minutes report on Christians in the Holy Land made a number of false claims about Israel's treatment of Christians in general, and in Bethlehem in particular. Among other things, the report claimed that Israel's 'security fence' (they called it a wall) completely surrounded the town of Bethlehem.
CAMERA is now trying to gently persuade 60 Minutes to correct its report. You can help. Here's how.
I received a message from a colleague alerting me to Ravid’s piece in Haaretz
condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for radicalizing
“his traditional Christmas greeting into an attack on Muslims in Arab
countries.”
Whoah, that’s a serious charge.
Apparently, in his Christmas greeting, Netanyahu made the
unforgivable sin of stating the obvious: That Christian populations are
shrinking and are in danger in the Middle East.
Netanyahu then added
salt to the wound and reminded his listeners that Christians are safe in
Israel.
According to Ravid, “Netanyahu did not specify in his greeting who is threatening to annihilate the Christians, but it’s clear from the wording that he means the Muslims.”
Earth to Barak Ravid: Netanyahu didn’t have to say who was threatening the annihilation of the Christians because we already know.
Unless they’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, most
Christians know that Muslim extremists throughout the Middle East have
been attacking Christians on a regular basis for the past few years.
Their churches have been bombed. Their pastors kidnapped, held for
ransom and killed.
And moderate Muslims and secularists in the region do not have the
power necessary to stop the attacks on their Christian neighbors. They
can’t even defend themselves.
Read the whole thing. Van Zile is right. Israel's Left probably has the most active Jewish guilt complex in the world.
You can find a summary of the complaints, starting with the segment's title, here.
UPDATE 9:38 PM
Jennifer Rubin and Soccer Dad both point out via Twitter that CBS did issue an official response to Rubin two days after the segment was aired. CBS did not address any of the specific points raised by Jennifer or David in their respective responses to the segment. Its response related to the number of reactions received.
Moreover, CBS has not addressed questions raised by Ben Smith at BuzzFeed with respect to Bob Simon's behavior in connection with the segment.
Here's one of the CBS 60 Minutes extras on the last all-Christian village in Israel.
I want you to watch the video and pay close attention to the question that gets asked around the 2:50 mark and to listen to the answer.
Let's go to the videotape.
Note that he asks how many Christians there were when the 'Israeli occupation' started, and the response was 'at least 2,000.' But the truth is - as even the 60 Minutes presentation admitted at the beginning of the main show - that Israel is the only country in the region where there are more Christians than there were 60 years ago. Yes, Christians are leaving Taibe, but that can be attributed to the Muslim-dominated 'Palestinian Authority' and not to 'Israeli occupation.' The question that the priest should have been asked is how many Christians there were in 1994.
Anyone want to bet that the answer would be a lot closer to 2,000 than to 780?
60 Minutes' Christians of the Holy Land: Yes, it's a hatchet job
60 Minutes did a segment on Sunday night about Christians in the Middle East, and specifically in Israel.
Let's go to the videotape.
I find it astounding that the segment criticizes Israel while letting the 'Palestinian' Muslims off the hook. Bethlehem was a Christian town until the 'Palestinian Authority' took over in 1994. And yet, the only hint that Muslims might have something to do with Christians leaving is 'Michael Oren says.'
Since assuming control in 1995, Arafat has Islamized Bethlehem by changing the municipal boundaries of Bethlehem and its twin towns Beit Jallah and Beit Sahour. Together, they used to constitute the Christian enclave in Judea and Samaria. Arafat transformed the demography there by incorporating into the town three neighboring refugee camps, Dehaisheh, El-Ayda and El-Azeh. Thus 30,000 Muslims were added to the 65,000 residents in Bethlehem's municipal boundaries. He intensified the Islamization of Bethlehem by adding to its population a few thousand Bedouins of the Ta'amrah tribe, located east of Bethlehem, encouraging Muslim immigration from Hebron to Bethlehem, and inducing Christian emigration/flight away from Bethlehem. The Christian population has been reduced from a 60% majority in 1990 to a 20% minority (23,000) in 2001.
As a result, more Beit Jallah Christians reside in Belize (Central America) than are left in Beit Jallah itself! A similar process has also afflicted the Christians of Ramallah, now down to 20,000.
Aware of what was likely to happen under Arafat, Christian leaders had sought to prevent the transfer of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority. Between the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords and the 1995 transfer of Bethlehem to the PA, Palestinian Christians lobbied Israel against the transfer. The late Christian mayor, Elias Freij, warned that it would result in Bethlehem becoming a town with churches but no Christians. He urged Israel to include Bethlehem in the boundaries of Greater Jerusalem, which had been the Jordanian practice until 1967. On July 17, 2000, upon realizing that then Prime Minister Barak recklessly proposed to repartition Jerusalem, the leaders of the Greek-Orthodox, Latin, and Armenian Churches sent a letter to Clinton, Barak, and Arafat, demanding to be consulted before such action was undertaken. Barak's proposal triggered a flood of requests for Israeli I.D. cards by East Jerusalem Arabs, who dreaded PA rule with its oppressive track record.
Setting out to "religiously cleanse" Bethlehem, in 1995 Arafat, defying tradition, slapped Christians in the face by appointing a Muslim from Hebron, Muhammed Rashad A-Jabari, as its governor. Arafat fired the Bethlehem city council (nine Christians and two Muslims) replacing them with a council equally balanced between Christians and Muslims. The entire top level of bureaucratic, security and political officials have been cleansed of Christians. The area is run by the local Muslim Fatah leader and his thugs, along with Tanzim gunmen, mostly Ta'amrah Bedouins. The PA has seized control of the Church of the Nativity, and has tightened the pressure on the Greek-Orthodox, Armenian, Latin,, and Franciscan Order in East Jerusalem. The Abraham's Oak Russian Holy Trinity Monastery in Hebron was seized by the PA on July 5, 1997, which then violently evicted its monks and nuns.
In addition, Arafat and the PA embarked on a campaign of physical and psychological intimidation of Christians. During anti-Israel PA rallies the chant is heard: "After we do away with the Saturday People, we shall take care of the Sunday People." Mosques have mushroomed adjacent to--and usually taller than--churches, implementing the tradition of Saladin, who constructed two taller mosques, Al Khanqa and Abdul Malek, contiguous to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The curriculum at church schools has been altered, adding Islamic--and reducing Christian--studies. Loudly magnified Muslim sermons have been aired during Christian services, including the April 2000 address by the Pope in Bethlehem, which had to be recessed until the purposely-loud Muslim sermon was concluded. Abusing Church tradition, the PA has transformed a Greek Orthodox monastery, located next to the Church of Nativity, into Arafat's official residence in Bethlehem.
...
There has been congressional testimony on Arafat's oppression of Christians. According to former Senator Connie Mack (R-FL), "[The Palestinian Christian] was arrested and detained [by the PA] on charges of selling land to Jews. He denied the charge, since he owned no land. He was beaten and hung from the ceiling by his hands for many hours. After two weeks, he was transferred to a larger prison where he was held for eight months without trial... These Christians conveyed to me a message of fear and desperation." (Senate speech, March 3, 2000, www.senate.gov/~mack/issue/statement.htm).
The PA has imported to Gaza, Judea and Samaria in general, and most especially to Bethlehem, its oppressive legacy of Lebanonization. The Christians of Bethlehem, Beit Jallah, Beit Sahour and Ramallah are now undergoing the experiences of Lebanese Christians from 1970 to 1982. They are perceived by the PA--as were Lebanon's Christians--as a potential Fifth Column. Accused of wearing "permissive" Western clothing, Bethlehem Christian women have been intimidated by PA personnel. Rape of Christian women has occurred frequently (especially in Beit Sahour) as was the case in Lebanon. Islamic hostility, disregard for civil liberties and economic jealousy have been harnessed by Arafat and his 20,000 terrorists imported from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon in their campaign against the Christian infidel. Christians who dare oppose PLO oppression are accused of "collaboration" with Israel and face execution.
I think those numbers speak for themselves.
The Israeli guard tower that the kids see from their window in Bethlehem is the guard tower that protects Rachel's tomb. Until that tower was built, 'Palestinians' would shoot at Jews visiting Rachel's tomb.
I'll have the 'extras' and some additional comments a bit later today.
'Israel is the only safe state for Christians in the Middle East'
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Here's Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on the situation for Christians in the Middle East.
The trauma of those priests is now commonplace among Middle Eastern Christians. Their share of the region's population has plunged from 20% a century ago to less than 5% today and falling. In Egypt, 200,000 Coptic Christians fled their homes last year after beatings and massacres by Muslim extremist mobs. Since 2003, 70 Iraqi churches have been burned and nearly a thousand Christians killed in Baghdad alone, causing more than half of this million-member community to flee. Conversion to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death. Saudi Arabia outlaws private Christian prayer.
As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries.
The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren't endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel's founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%.
Christians are prominent in all aspects of Israeli life, serving in the Knesset, the Foreign Ministry and on the Supreme Court. They are exempt from military service, but thousands have volunteered and been sworn in on special New Testaments printed in Hebrew. Israeli Arab Christians are on average more affluent than Israeli Jews and better-educated, even scoring higher on their SATs.
This does not mean that Israeli Christians do not occasionally encounter intolerance. But in contrast to elsewhere in the Middle East where hatred of Christians is ignored or encouraged, Israel remains committed to its Declaration of Independence pledge to "ensure the complete equality of all its citizens irrespective of religion." It guarantees free access to all Christian holy places, which are under the exclusive aegis of Christian clergy. When Muslims tried to erect a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Israeli government interceded to preserve the sanctity of the shrine.
The most amazing things about this are the silence of the World's Christians and the fact that most of them (outside the United States) side with the 'Palestinians' and not with Israel. Oren does not discuss these points.
If Israel is really an 'apartheid state,' why do so many Arabs want to live there?
From 'Palestinian' journalist Ramzi Abu Hadid, who lives in Jordan:
As an Arab Christian, Ashrawi would have done better if she had chosen to focus on the plight of her fellow Christians in the Palestinian territories, many of whom continue to complain about persecution and harassment from Muslims.
Has Ashrawi, the self-declared human right rights advocate, never heard of thousands of the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who try to infiltrate into Israel every morning in search of work and a better life?
Why has it become the dream of many Arab Christians and Muslims to emigrate to the "Apartheid State"? Is it possible that all these people are uninformed? Or do they really know the truth about Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East? In Egypt, Syria, and Iran, for example, government officials put journalists in jail, but Israel is the only country in the region where one small journalist nobody has ever heard of can put a government official in jail.
In the past few decades, many Christian families from Bethlehem and even the Gaza Strip have moved to live in Israel because they feel safer in the "Apartheid State" than they do among their Muslim "brothers".
Has Ashrawi ever asked herself how come dozens of Christians and Muslims from neighboring Arab countries and Africa try to infiltrate the border into Israel every day, or how come so many of her fellow Christians want to live in the "Apartheid State"?
Is Ashrawi aware of the fact that while Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered in the Arab world and Africa, the Jewish state remains the safest place for them to live? Is she aware that the Christian population in Israel is on the rise while in the Arab and Islamic world it is dwindling -- and even faster in places such as Nigeria, Egypt and the Sudan where Muslims are slaughtering Christians?
...
Does Hannan Ashrawi really care about Palestinians, or is she just being paid by Europeans and Western NGOs to keep bashing the region's only democratic country, which, though admittedly not perfect, still tries harder than any other to treat all of its people with decency and equality?
Abu Hadid doesn’t provide hard numbers, but the data amply prove his claims. During the first 11 months of last year alone, for instance, 13,851 illegal migrants entered Israel from Sinai; the biggest contingents were Muslim refugees from Sudan and Eritrea. And the risk of being shot by Egyptian guards is just one of the dangers they braved to reach “the apartheid state”: Migrants also face horrific abuse from the Sinai Bedouin who smuggle them over the border.
As for Palestinians, those who “try to infiltrate into Israel every morning” are only part of the story. To that, add the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have moved to Jerusalem in recent years rather than remain on the Palestinian side of Israel’s West Bank security barrier. Then add the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have sought and obtained Israeli citizenship by marrying Israeli Arabs.
Altogether, some 350,000 Palestinians have acquired citizenship through “family reunification” since Israel’s founding in 1948, according to veteran journalist Nadav Shragai. But the numbers surged following the 1993 Oslo Accord – i.e., precisely when Palestinian statehood for the first time looked like a real possibility: In 1994-2002, fully 137,000 Palestinians acquired Israeli citizenship through marriage. The numbers have since dropped drastically, but that isn’t because Palestinian demand has fallen: It’s because in 2003, Israel enacted new restrictions on family reunification in response to the second intifada.
Read the whole thing (I'm a little pressed for time today because it's Purim and a short Friday).
By manipulating traditional Christmas songs, images, and messages, NGOs such as Sabeel, War on Want (UK), Amos Trust, and Adalah-NY continue to demonize Israel with crude, antisemitic rhetoric.
"These NGOs have hijacked Christmas to promote their extremely divisive boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) and demonization campaigns," says Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. "Manipulating religious symbols and images in this manner is deeply offensive, and clearly does not foster an environment of coexistence among Israelis and Palestinians. These NGOs are pursuing hate-filled agendas."
Friends of Sabeel - Detroit is selling Christmas cards as a "fundraiser in support of Friend of Sabeel - North America," one of which implies the destruction of the Jewish state by depicting a map of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza as one territory filled in with the phrase "The Empire will not last!"
Adalah-NY held its annual "Anti-Apartheid Holiday Caroling" on December 17, 2011 in front of a New York jewelry store owned by Israeli businessman Lev Leviev. The protest is part of Adalah-NY's campaign targeting Leviev because he is an Israeli, and they invited activists to sing awkward and offensive versions of traditional holiday songs. This year, the event was held in conjunction with Code Pink, whose Stolen Beauty campaign targets the Israeli company Ahava. In their lyrics, the NGOs use the "Ethnic cleansing and apartheid" blood libels, and chanted "Selling beauty creams, / Blood mixed in with mud"; other inflammatory lyrics include "That beauty cream you bought her / Makes her soul disappear."
UK-based Amos Trust is advertising its annual Bethlehem Pack, "a resource to help churches talk about the current situation in Bethlehem at carol services and Christmas events." Exploiting charged theological images to attack Israel, this text proclaims: "If Jesus was born today in Bethlehem, the Wise Men would spend several hours queuing to enter the town" and "If Jesus was born today in Bethlehem, much of the shepherds' fields would have been confiscated for illegal Israeli settlements."
"Linking the suffering of Palestinians to Christian themes revives traditional and deep seated antisemitic theology," Steinberg adds. "By employing these tactics, and grossly misrepresenting a complicated conflict, these NGOs are making peace more difficult to achieve."
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
