www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Breaking news - Gaza

Shlomo Bob,

You state:
My question, and that of many Middle Eastern Christians is why does Israel have the right to exist? And if it has the right based on what was done to the Jewish people, then why doesn't Europe or the Americas pay the price.

As Michael Thoma has stated:
I am sorry, but my question is why don't Western Christians seem to care about Christians in the Middle East. The very same people when visiting the Holy Land do not support Christian business people, and then wonder why Christianity is dying in the Holy Land.

Further, I have also found that many Zionists try to shut donwn anti-Zionists with claims of anti-Semitism. While it is true that nearly all anti-Semites are anti-Zionst; not all anti-Zionists are anti-Semitic.

Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,

To go on the old saying: Speak of the Devil and he will apprear. This was in the Daily Star [dailystar.com.lb] out of Beirut.

More than a decade ago, when I first arrived in the Middle East, I tended to put these, er, discrepancies down to honest mistakes. By now, however, I have concluded that huge organizations like CNN (which seeks my input from time to time) and The Associated Press (which emphatically does not) are not being forgetful when they consistently neglect to mention certain very pertinent facts, nor merely ignorant when they almost invariably misstate others: They are lying, they know they are lying, and they bank on a calculation that most people are either too ignorant ("Israel jails Palestinian women and children without charge or trial?") to know the difference or too intimidated ("anti-Semite!") to point it out.

This paragraph puts the issue for us Middle Eastern Christians in a nut shell.

Fush BaShlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Yuhannon

Theophan writes:

I am not a "radical Islamist", nor any other sort of Mohammedan. I am a Greek-Catholic priest. I know of nothing which gives the Zionist state any moral or legal right to exist. I trust you are not threatening to kill me.

Fr. Serge

Father Serge:

Father bless!!

Heavens no.

My understanding of history is that the British gave the Jews the place they occupy at the end of WW2 as part of worldwide guilt over the Holocaust. Similar to pushing the borders of Poland 40,000 square miles into eastern Germany and allowing the Soviets to take 70,000 square miles of eastern Poland, this was part of the settlement of that war. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but it is what it is.

The Palestinians have been upset over this arrangement ever since.

There have been many problems of border placements by the governing forces in the past and we still live with them. This is but one. We've got the Balkans, we've got Iraq, we've got the Indian subcontinent, we've got Tibet, lots of places in Africa . . .

BOB

This charge is simply not true. Whenever I have gone to Israel the encouragement by the company conducting the tour was to always shop at Christian run businesses. I have always done so when I travel. I've been a tour host on a few occasions. The guides always took us to Christian run businesses. When worshiping I always went to a Christian Church. There may be some tourists who only frequent Jewish businesses but I know of none.

Why would the Jews ever trust their future to Europe or North America? Why should they have to?

You mention safe places within Israel. The intifadas have demonstrated that this is pure fantasy. So where are these safe places?

CDL

Why should Catholics and Orthodox in the HOLY Land - natives of the region - trust their future to Western cultural Jews who moved into the region from elsewhere (many who hold dual-citizenship elsewhere), neither care about the future of Orthodox-Catholic Christianity, or worse, actively promote their destruction?

And the Muslims do?

CDL

Carson,
many of the Musilims, Christians, and original Jews of the region lived as brothers together, before the Zionists came along.

The Jews were always there.

Choosing Death over Life [article.nationalreview.com], Hamas’s tin rockets killed Gaza’s golden opportunity, By Deroy Murdock

Hamas does not want peace. It wants the death of all Jews.

Muslims and Christians have seldom lived as brothers (at least not for long) with the Jews in Europe, or the Islamic empires of West Asia or North Africa. Forced conversions and massacres were their lot.

So.. Muslims kill Christians, we condemn them. Israel kills Christians... we give them money to kill more?

Dear Michael Thoma,

You are substantially correct. But don't get me started, please!

Fr. Serge

I am sure nothing I say will make any difference.
As those who have ears have already listened.

And anyways, the massacre had already begun, and it will only create new fierce hate. Those children who survived, are surely not going to seed love in the future that is for sure.

I found this article with half answers interesting:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...he-west-so-much-we-will-ask-1230046.html

Honestly, all I can do now is lift a prayer, and hope that God above will decide to interfere.

Lord have Mercy

Rockets are being fired on Israel from Lebanon. Let us pray this is not getting any messier than it already is.

I find this post the most fair and indicative of what many Americans feel. I love the Israelis as much as the Palestinians and I am saddened at the situation. War is hell. Both sides are usually to blame.

I recently read this and my heart breaks for these poor orphaned children--there is nothing more heartbreaking than a child losing its mother:



I pray for these children and all children of the world who are suffering one way or the other. Lord have mercy on them.

In Christ,
Alice