Christian community in Holy Land being destroyed by Israel

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Christian community in Holy Land being destroyed by Israel

Posted: 2/16/2006 8:49:24 AM EDT

Historic Christian towns losing ground in Holy Land

February 16, 2006

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., is taking an increased interest in the desperate plight of Christians in the Holy Land -- to the point of politely and privately asking for help from President Bush. Immediately at stake is the West Bank village of Aboud, whose Christian roots go back two millennia, and which now is threatened by Israel's security barrier.

Aboud is the current object of Israeli policy that has contributed to heavy migration of Christian Arabs, promising further reduction in their present 1.7 percent share of Israel's population. Following previous security barrier construction that effectively expelled villagers from olive groves, Israel in October 2005 ordered new land confiscation to extend the barrier. Aboud's 2,300 residents, about half Christian and half Muslim, are being deprived of their water supply by the new construction.

''I am afraid that what is happening in the Holy Land is that we're losing the presence of the Christian community,'' Cardinal McCarrick told me. As leader of his faith in the nation's capital, he seeks friends on both sides of any political divide. Accordingly, the cardinal told me the West Bank's Christians are endangered by Palestinians (particularly since Hamas' election victory). But there is no question for the Holy Land Christian Society, seeking to save their co-religionists, that water-hungry Jewish settlers benefit from the security wall.

Catholic sources divulged to me that McCarrick, who recently had been called into the White House to discuss foreign trade, brought up the condition of the West Bank Christians with Bush. Acting as though he had heard this for the first time, the president turned to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and asked him to look into the problem.

Jordan's Muslim King Abdullah earlier this month met with members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to discuss the plight of the Christians. The Vatican has indicated intensified interest. But so far, there is no sign that Hadley or anybody else in the Bush administration has engaged this problem. A Catholic contact with the White House talked to Elliott Abrams, the presidential aide handling the Middle East. Abrams responded that the barrier is required for Israeli security.

But U.S. intervention may be needed to save the village of Aboud, which according to local tradition received the Christian faith from Jesus himself. Christ is said to have preached at the place in Aboud where the ruins of the Messiah Church stand. Jesus and the Holy Family would have traveled the Roman Road, near Aboud, on the route between Jerusalem and Galilee. The village's Orthodox church was built in the 4th century under the first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine.

Religious tradition, however, does not deter Israeli policy. The new barrier will confiscate 39 percent of the village's olive fields and take over the aquifer that supplies one-fifth of the West Bank's total water supply. In October, construction uprooted 500 grapevines in Aboud. Twelve kilometers of the barrier will be built on Aboud's land, and the villages of Al-Lubban and Rantis also will lose more territory.

All this is justified as protection against terrorists, but the Holy Land Christian Society rejects that. ''It is clear that the security barrier is not about security but the annexation of land for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Israeli control over the water supply,'' argues a society paper. Israeli settlements Beit Arye and Ofarim were built on land taken from residents of Aboud.

The problems of the Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Aboud do not resonate in American politics. The evangelicals have signed a blank check to Israel in the interests of security in the Middle East. Of the many Roman Catholic members of Congress, only the venerable Rep. Henry Hyde (in the last year of his long career) has shown much interest in the subject.

That is why Cardinal McCarrick's involvement is encouraging for the champions of Holy Land Christians. He will visit the West Bank next month and may meet with Karen Hughes, under secretary of state for Public Diplomacy, for the sake of a few Christians in an ancient city.

Our foreign policy in unhinged.

Funny how we support a wall in Palestine, but not in Arizona.

I wonder where these Christians immigrating from Israel/Palestine go? Do they come here?

Posted: 2/16/2006 9:14:32 AM EDT

[#1]

Many go to Canada. I knew several when I lived there.

Posted: 2/16/2006 9:56:06 AM EDT

[#2]

Christian Arabs are between the Isreali "Rock" and the Muslim Arab "Hard Place". They aren't "Arab" enough for the Hamas crowd and are too "Arab" for the Isreali's. Many of these people are indeed coming to North America.

The Druse sect are the only nonjewish Arabs that seem to have integrated into Isreali society. They serve in the armed forces alongside Jews. Arabs, Christian and Muslim need not apply.

Posted: 2/16/2006 10:15:46 AM EDT

[#3]

Most Israeli settlements in the West Bank were built around wells and water supplies for a reason. If the Arabs got out of hand, you simply cut off access to their water supply.

Now that some settlements are being evacuated (aka Land for Peace), the security wall is being used to keep those strategic water resources under Israeli control.

No big surprise.

Posted: 2/16/2006 10:18:54 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Historic Christian towns losing ground in Holy Land

The problems of the Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Aboud do not resonate in American politics. The evangelicals have signed a blank check to Israel in the interests of security in the Middle East. .

This is a good thing.

Funny how we support a wall in Palestine, but not in Arizona.

I often wonder why the present administration is so concerned with Israel's West Bank while showing a lack of concern for America's "West Bank."

Posted: 2/16/2006 10:24:05 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Most Israeli settlements in the West Bank were built around wells and water supplies for a reason. If the Arabs got out of hand, you simply cut off access to their water supply.

Now that some settlements are being evacuated (aka Land for Peace), the security wall is being used to keep those strategic water resources under Israeli control.

No big surprise.

If somebody were to build armed camps around our water sources and threatened to shut off water to my community unless I let them take what they wanted, when they wanted, I'd probably start shooting them too.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Christian community in Holy Land being destroyed by Israel

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