Plight of Christians Worsens Thanks to World Apathy

It is amazing how Christians in the country where Christianity is strongest, America, are so disconnected and uncaring about the fate of their faithful brethren in their place of origin, Palestine.

In contrast, Israelis recognize the significant of their persecution of Christians in Palestine. Israel has mounted a massive propaganda campaign to thwart the truth, easily brainwashing Americans with ethically-challenged propaganda. Just Google the words "Christians Middle East" and a plethora of propaganda emerges including the renown racist bigot Daniel Pipes, the current Israeli Foreign Ministry and many right-wing Israeli publications. Are not most Israelis right-wing and against peace these days?

There have been some minor gains. The CBS news program "60 Minutes" did a groundbreaking expose on Israel's oppression of Christians in Palestine. The April 2012 report sparked an angry backlash from Israeli watchdogs in the U.S. The biased American news media all but ignored the report's powerful points. So bad was the backlash, that the CBS reporter, Bob Simon, who is Jewish, was pilloried as being anti-Semitic.

Reminding us how desperate the Christian Arab situation remains, this year, the Catholic Pope finally, after many years of ignoring Middle East Christians, added Arabic to the languages in which it offers its mass. These deficient and late actions have done nothing to reverse the collapse of Christianity in the Middle East. In 1948, Christians constituted nearly 33 percent of the population of Palestine. Today they are less than 2 percent.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and Christianity, is abandoned by Western Christians. Their apathy has transformed major Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas into commercialized pagan events. The belief in Jesus has been replaced by the need for an iPad.

Jews have also abandoned Christians. Remember, Jesus was a Jew born in Bethlehem. The early Christians were Jews who converted to Christianity, the "New Judaism."

It offers a challenge to Israel's racist claims to Palestine. Who are today's Jews? Those who continue to believe in the old Jewish religious teachings or the "New Jews" whom we call Christians? Do "New Jews" (Christian Palestinians) not have more rights in terms of Biblical prophecy than Israelis?

It's a fascinating argument because Palestinians like myself arguably have more of a claim to Israel than Jews, many of whom are converts to Judaism who long ago lost any links to the Biblical Hebrew people. (Hanania is a Hebrew word that means God has been gracious. What real Jewish ties do names like Netanyahu, Begin or Aubrey Solomon (the real name of the late Israeli orator Abba Eban) have in that context?

As a Palestinian Christian, I consider myself a "New Jew." Yet Israel, which claims to be the "homeland of the Jewish people," rejects all Jews who believe in Jesus. The logic continues along the same lines for those Jews who became Christians and who later, in the 7th century, became followers of the Prophet Mohammed and founded Islam.

Maybe that is why Muslims have shown more compassion for Christians and why Israeli Jews hate Christians as much as they hate Muslims. (Hate is a strong word, but how else can one explain Israel's vicious oppression of Christians and Muslims in Palestine?) Arab Muslims have done far more to protect Middle East Christians, mainly because they too suffer as a result of Israeli war crimes.

Today, Israel is doing everything it can to destroy not only the Muslim claim to Palestine but the Christian claim, too. In fact, for Israelis, destroying the Arab Christian presence in Palestine is more important to them than destroying the Muslim claim to Palestine.

Arab Christians are a direct pipeline to Western Christians who underwrite Israel's militarism. Israel has brainwashed Western Christians through years of repeated media manipulation. This extremist Western Christianity is driven in part by a lingering Crusader hatred of Islam.

America is the cornerstone of this ironic and twisted Christian self-hatred. Without America, Israel would just be another Apartheid South Africa. No one speaks of this louder than today's South Africa, which freed itself from Apartheid and recently denounced Israel for its racist policies.

The key to victory over Israel's extremist policies and fanatic leaders is the Christian world.

Arab Christians need support. Arab Muslims and the Islamic world need to change their attitudes toward Arab Christians. Muslims should include Arab Christians in their organizations and in their mosques, recognizing them as the "New Jews" of today's world. It might help awaken an enlightenment of the truth among Western Christians. For sure it would shame the inaction of the Christian World when it comes to Christian Arab rights.

If Western Christians do not want to embrace the truth of their history, then maybe Muslims should step in and declare the Christian sanctity of Bethlehem. Muslims should help restore Christianity to Bethlehem and the entire Middle East.

It might be a powerful way to awaken the truth of what Israel is doing to Arab Christians, and by virtue of truth, what it is doing to Muslims, too.

Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American columnist. To find out more about Ray Hanania and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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