Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,

Two major reason are interfering with Christmas celebration.

One is Terrorism

The other is the lack of funds.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

There's still a long way to January 7th.

Let the Protestants go to Sweden and have their Christmas there.

Here's an interesting link that lists all the churches of Bethlehem by denomination http://www.bethlehem2000.org/religion.htm#The%20Catholic%20Churches: Hard to believe they have that many churches left with something like only 7000 Christians left.

Did anyone hear about that $60 million dollar amusement park the evangelicals are building outside Jerusalem.

Well no one said that the churchs were well attended they probably are empty. The Orthodox and Catholics have traditional ties in the are but the CHurch of God and the Baptist? Come on now are they claiming that Jesus was born in thier little church in Bethleham. Don't know but maybe they put churchs their to have some claim as having a church in Bethleham sounds great for marketing anyway. But I suppose they are empty like the more traditional churchs have been in recent years.

Dear Yuhannon,

It seems to me the terrorists do not need to do anything in order to get the Christians to cease to be exactly that...Christians! But then again, that's been going on for the past one-thousand-five-hundred years.

As for saying that Israel is behind it...well remember; didn't the Arabs say that it was the Israeli's that flew the planes into the World Trade Towers, and then tried to prove it by saying that no Jews were killed.

Now here we have the same problem. The only difference is that we are being 'terrorized' through public pressure. These 'liberals' are rediculous. I think we should get even with them, and instead of saying Happy Holiday, start saying Happy Holy day. Well! You can always say you have a strange accent.

Zenovia

Shlomo Zenovia,

As I have said before, it quite suprises me, that people who are not from the region, seem to know more than those of us who are.

No where in this post do I accuse Israel alone of driving out Christians. I have stated that the establishment of Israel help to depopulate Palestine of Christians. We were 15-20% of the population before the State Of Israel was established. Now we are less than 2%. Please tell me how we in less than 10 years went from 15-20% of an areas population to less than 2%.

Also, here is a direct quote from an Israel board that I monitor. This is concerning the New Orthodox Patriarch Of Jerusalem.

Deport all hostile foreigners from Erez Ysroel

Why should we care about these idol-worshipers? Who cares who is in charge of their church? Just kick this trash out of Erez Ysroel. They have been defiling this land for too long.

This is what we are thought of by many Israelis. Talk to some of the nuns, priests, and monks that are attacked by Israelis, spit on, and harrassed. Or the Christians that are left who have had more and more of their land taken.

Further, to quote you: "As for saying that Israel is behind it..." about me is totally incorrect and you owe me an apology.

In closing, here are some more quotes from that same Israeli board (Israelinsider.com) about us Christians.

Conversion from Judaism to Christianity makes one an idolater, that's all. You cannot be an ex-Jew. Born and Jew, die a Jew. But you can be an apostate! And of course, you can never say there is such thing as a Catholic Jew, that is so true!

This one is about the present Pope: " if it weren't true it would be funnier than hell. Can You imagine the stupidity of this? Your Naziness? Or, Your holy Naziness? The church must be harder up than I thought. It has lost many members in europe, america and the only ones left are third world countries. hmmm, sounds like Islam. If the two join up again, they'll make one big army, holy poop!

As I have pointed out many times here, Middle Eastern Christians have no friends in the Middle East, nor in the West (which for us includes all of Eastern Orthodoxy). The only way that we can survive is by showing what is happening to us, by all sides, not just those that are out of favor with the West at the moment.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

The last time I was in Palestine a Latin priest told me that Palestine was his main priority and that Palestinians would never disappear from their homeland, saying that he would resign as priest and have children before he would let that happen.

I think that that illustrates how strong our people's feelings can be.

And I think that the recent fighting in Taybeh--Palestine's last 100% Christian village--illustrates how patient our people can be. No one there wants to make the conflict ethnic or religious. Muslims and Christians may not mix or interact so much as in times past, but they aren't at one another's throats either. Note that Israeli soldiers refused to stop the fighting in Taybeh but Palestinian police, whom the Israelis had detained at a crossing, intervened to save Christian property and lives. I saw much peacemaking between Muslims and Christians in Palestine and saw Muslims worshipping in Christian holy sites.

What can you say about Muslims when our own people refer to the Greek Orthdox Patriarchate as "the second occupation?" And when I heard the Greek Catholic Patriarch speak he studiously avoided attacking Muslims and referred to Christ as "the First Political Prisoner," "the First Refugee" and so on--and this got him a standing ovation in church from the faithful, something I have never seen elsewhere. (And in his church they share Communion with others, Catholic and non-Catholic, and served shots of brandy after Lturgy.)

People who are interested in this should check out the Holy Land Trust organization in Bethlehem; they do great work and have a good website. If you can, please visit them in Palestine. I also co-cordinate a Palestinian charity (pcwf.org) that sells lots of Christian items; all of our money goes to keep Palestinians working.

I would be in Palestine today if the Israelis would let me return.

Salamat,

bob