Showing posts with label Palestinian Christians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian Christians. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Christians Violently Attacked Near Bethlehem

Christians Violently 

Attacked Near Bethlehem

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY
The Feast of Saint George, a pretty important holiday for Palestinian Christians, recently ended, but it didn’t end well for those celebrating at the festival’s focal point, the Monastery of Saint George near Bethlehem.
Saint George’s Monastery is located in the village of al-Khadar, which is the name used for Saint George in Arab culture. Every year, Palestinian Christians, and even some Muslims, gather at the monastery, as well as at other locations throughout the region, to commemorate George’s martyrdom and dedication to his faith.
During this year’s festival, which occurred on May 6, the Christians gathered at Saint George’s were beset by Muslim provocateurs and assailants.
“Some local Muslims either tried to park a car too close the church and/or tried to enter the church during a service honoring St. George - the initial instigation isn’t clear. But when the intruders were asked to leave, one of them stabbed a Christian man who was outside the church serving as a guard. He was hospitalized. Several then started throwing stones at the church. 7 or 8 Christians were injured and some physical damage was done - broken windows etc. The police didn’t show up for an hour.”
One of the victims managed to record a portion of the attack on his cellphone and uploaded the footage to YouTube, where it has since been seen by over 20,000 people. And still, media coverage of the attack has been sorely lacking. Perhaps everyone is too busy furiously criticizing Israel over a few youth scrawling graffiti.
The Christians in the video, including crying children, can be seen cowering in fear as they are besieged by Muslim hooligans whom the authorities did very little, if anything, to stop.
This is from the same Bethlehem where Christ at the Checkpoint organizers say Christians and Muslims live in harmony; this is from the same “Palestine” the international community labels as “moderate” in its justification for establishing yet another Arab state; and this is happening, right next door, as everyone ignores realities and accuses Israel of abusing minorities, of being an “apartheid state.”
Watch the video:
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates FROM ISRAEL TODAY
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Messianic Officer Sets Checkpoint Record Straight - ISRAEL TODAY

Messianic Officer Sets Checkpoint Record Straight

Tuesday, April 08, 2014 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY
While Palestinian Christians obsessively complain about the so-called “atrocities suffered at the checkpoints,” Captain Joshua Lazarus (pictured), the Messianic Jewish officer in charge of training guards for the checkpoints, gives the real story in a short new video clip produced by the IDF. (See below)
Captain Lazarus oversees the training of all the soldiers responsible for guarding the border crossings and roadblocks along the Arab towns and villages surrounding Jerusalem.
Every day, tens of thousands of men, women and children pass through the checkpoints and road blocks guarded by Lazarus’ soldiers. “Most of them are on their way to work, or visiting friends or family, or buying groceries,” he says in private remarks to Israel Today. “There are pregnant women rushing up to the hospital in Jerusalem, and angry taxi drivers trying to make some money. We have to deal with Palestinian Authority officials, UN diplomats, international media, donkeys, farmers, just about everything and anything passes through here.”
These crossings are a microcosm of all that is good, bad, and unfathomable in the lives of East Jerusalem’s Arabs, and it all passes daily under the alert and formidable gaze of Captain Lazarus’ soldiers.
“We’re trying to weed out any terrorists,” Lazarus explains. “Since Israel built the security wall, these checkpoints are now the main targets for potential terrorists trying to get through unnoticed amongst the hundreds of people passing through every day. We have to check each and every one. A lot of them are angry and try to push through without being checked. It’s a tough job.”
Some believe that the constant friction between the soldiers and Palestinians at these roadblocks causes more agitation, hatred and even terrorism in the long run. “Sure, the people get angry at us, and sometimes it gets pretty rough,” says Lazarus. “But what alternatives do we have? How else can we stop the bombs and terrorists? Sometimes we just have to put up with a bad situation because it could be worse. It’s our job.”
“It is a tense and complicated situation for these young soldiers. This is why I wanted to be an officer in the first place,” says the young captain. “A lot of my friends went to be paratroopers or air force pilots,” Lazarus continues. “For me, this is a really important job. We are dealing with a huge problem here, and nobody knows how to fix it. Not many soldiers want to do this job. Everyday I need to remind them about how important their job is. I’ve come to realize that we don’t live in a world where everything goes the way you want,” he says. “Serving here wakes me up to the harsh realities of life in Israel and just how complicated it can be.”
Israel turns 66 this month and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting an early retirement from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Peace talks are going nowhere, again. Whatever the future holds, getting to know Messianic Captain Joshua Lazarus and some of his soldiers out there on the checkpoints has given this old man, at least, something to be proud of.
Watch Captain Lazarus’ video interview with the IDF Spokesman:
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates FROM ISRAEL TODAY
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Israeli Christians Take On Anti-Israel Facebook Campaign - ISRAEL TODAY

Israeli Christians Take On 

Anti-Israel Facebook Campaign

Thursday, March 27, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY
The Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum on Thursday came out swinging against yet another malicious propaganda campaign targeting Israel on the popular social network Facebook.
The campaign appears to center around a composite picture of six dilapidated local churches that are presented as false evidence that the Jewish state discriminates against and seeks to remove Christians from the Holy Land.
Such notions have undergirded a new Evangelical Christian movement that paints Palestinian Christians as the suffering Jesus to Israel’s strong-armed Romanesque oppressor.
The first lie the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum (a growing movement of Arabic-speaking Christian natives) takes on is that in 1948, Jewish forces swept through the land with the aim of eradicating all Christians, along with the Muslims.
“To our great disappointment, in 1948 David Ben Gurion wanted the Christians to stay and join the defense of the State of Israel, but the Christians failed to be forward-thinking and instead cowered in fear behind the Arab militias or tried to stay out of the conflict all together,” the group wrote on its own Facebook page.
The forum noted that the local Druze residents “initially fought against Israel, but ultimately switched sides, saving their villages and their people.”
Among the other fallacies listed is the idea that surrounding Arab nations are “paradise” for Christians compared to the “hell” of living in what many try to portray as the “apartheid state” of Israel.
To this, the forum responded:
“If Israel is hell and the Arab state are paradise, then we as Christians with Aramean roots say that our religion is actually rooted in Judaism, [so] we prefer to remain in the ‘hellfire of the State of Israel.’ We invite the rest of you to take a one way trip to Syria or Iraq where you will be warmly welcomed as Arab Christians by [various terror groups], or to Gaza where Hamas will surely love you well.”
The group also addressed the ongoing spate of Jewish vandalism against primarily Christian targets, calling it the actions of a small group of racists who first and foremost are harming Israel’s image, and reminding everyone that the so-called “price tag” attackers have yet to kill or injure a single person.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates from ISRAEL TODAY.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Thursday, March 13, 2014

How Did Messianic Speakers Do at Christ at the Checkpoint?

How Did Messianic Speakers Do at Christ at the Checkpoint?

Thursday, March 13, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff  
It is no secret that much of the Israeli Messianic community was wary of some of their number not only attending, but accepting invitations to speak at the Christ at the Checkpoint currently taking place in Bethlehem.
Most in the Messianic community view Christ at the Checkpoint as a platform for thinly-veiled Replacement Theology and anti-Israel propaganda, and feared those Messianic leaders who were scheduled to speak there would fall into the trap of appeasing their hosts.
Now that both Messianic leaders who were scheduled to speak from the main podium - Dan Juster and Oded Shoshani - have done so, how did they do?
Firstly, readers should head over to the Christ at the Checkpoint video site and watch the recorded speeches for themselves: Click Here
For those wanting some more commentary on the talks delivered by Juster and Shoshani, our friends at the Rosh Pina Project have posted “performance reviews.”
First up was Dan Juster, who most in the local Messianic community hold in highest respect as an authoritative Bible teacher. In summary, Juster did begin to challenge the problem of Palestinian Christians allowing the emotions of their situation to drive their theology, but he seemed to back off that point and ultimately adopt a more conciliatory position that painted a somewhat grim portrait of Zionism and the modern rebirth of Israel.
Shoshani, by contrast, really brought the heat, directly challenging many faulty points in both the theology and the political assertions of Christ at the Checkpoint. As 2012 Christ at the Checkpoint speaker Wayne Hilsden later commented, “I commend my friend and ministry colleague, Oded Shoshani, for sharing glaring truth with amazing grace…he is a man of peace and demonstrates love not only for fellow Jews, but for Arabs as well. Oded expressed his convictions biblically and from personal experience on the ground — fearing God and not man.”
How do you feel these two men did stepping into what many viewed as a hostile environment to present a position that they knew would not be well received?
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates from ISRAEL TODAY.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)