S
SCALCO
Guest
I pray for both sides. It’s a complicated issue and it will take both sides if their will be peace. I will take a look at those videos when I get a chance.
What are you doing to help the Melkite Greek Catholics suffering in Palestine?
- Status
S
SCALCO
Guest
You have seen and experienced things that I haven’t. I’ve always been given a more pro-Israel perspective from family and society as a whole and when I read the history and news it seems that both sides can share responsibility, so when you compare Israel to the Nazi’s and consider them to be evil it’s a little difficult for me understand.
I will remain neutral and watch the situation more closely.
C
Christy74
Guest
I own Schindler’s List. Have you ever seen that movie? What I was simply saying is, it is very interesting how what was that some of what was being done to those Jews is exactly what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
Specifically: Making them stand in endless lines to obtain “papers” to allow them to work, move, etc. Making them leave their homes, towns so that they could live in those those homes/towns. Building a wall around where they were forced to live. Random killing of civilians, including small children. Curfews set. Night raids of homes. Sending them to “camps”. Roads, towns, etc. which are exclusively for Jewish people (apartheid). Mass burials. Propaganda to hide and justify what is being done against them. This was not right when it was done to the Jews and it is not right now that it is being done to the Palestinians.
There are also stark differences to be sure, namely: There is not slave labor (however, the Palestinians and Palestinian Israelis are paid lower wages than non-Palestinian Israelis). There is not an overwhelming worldwide support for those who are suffering this time. Israelis are also bulldozing people’s home with or without them still inside I have not learn that the Nazi’s did this.Generally, with a few exceptions, the Israelis are not mass killing the Palestinians they prefer killing one to several at a time.
I don’t understand how one could consider it equal what a few Palestinian resistance fighters have done with what Israel is doing. Did we consider it equal what the Polish resistance did against some of the Nazis with what the Nazis were doing? No. To be absolutely clear: Killing is wrong on both sides. We of the United States justified the killing we did to free the Jews in WWII and justified the killings that the Polish did in the same attempt. How desperate does someone have to become to be willing to kill themselves in an attempt to gain freedom from an oppressor? We will not, and rightly so, justify that! We must however bring an end to the cause of such desperation. It is not right what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinians who, up until Israel state was created by killing and forcing Palestinians off their own land, we minding their own business as farmers, working the land in peace. Again Killing can never be justified and must come to an end.
So yes, there are similarities and yes there are also some differences. I am just amazed at how there is not more of an outcry worldwide. We, as a nation, are standing back and allowing this to continue year after year. Shame on me for not knowing. Shame on me for not doing something positive to bring and end to this.
I am committed to:
pray
let people know what is going on
adopt a child via the Melkite Greek Church
support those who are actively striving for peace via letter (& finances when I can) like the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Galilee: Abuna Elias Chacour
What are each of you committed to do?
S
SCALCO
Guest
Christy,
Since you have mentioned him a couple of times, I decided to find out more about him. Here is an excerpt from a speech by Abuna Elias Chacour. You are already familiar with his work, but I found this quote to be particularly important (even though it is from 2001).
emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/summer2001/commencement.html
What I hear from the Archbishop is a man of peace and forgiveness. While he is clearly on the side of the Palestinians, he is not anti-Israel. I could support someone like this.
C
Christy74
Guest
Exactly…this is the whole point! I’m glad you got it! May God be with you!
Others here have attacked Abuna simply for being Palestinian and accused him of being a terrorist! I’m glad you were willing to research this yourself so that you could see the truth. Bless you!
B
Bernardous
Guest
Catholics in the area of Palestine, Israel and Jordan are grossly overlooked by the Catholic church here in the USA. I feel that it is due to the heavy influence of the ‘zionist machine’ here which controls so much of what we hear and how we hear it.
The largest source of aid to all Christians in the Holy Land is the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This is the Latin Rite Catholic Church of the Holy Land (Palestine, Jordan, Israel and Cyprus). You can find their web-page at www.lpj.org. Locally here in the United States we are lucky to have Msgr. Labib Kobti, a priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem at the service of us Arab-American Catholics in Northern California. He recently began an initiative to help the less fortunate along with a group of friends. The charity is called Queen of Peace Foundation. If you are interested in more information on how you can help, please contact his office at (415) 452-9634 or via mail at 1300 Junipero Serra Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94132.
God Bless you all and I hope that you will find it in your heart to be able to help our less fortunate Brothers and Sisters living in the Holy Land with this charity - Queen of Peace. It is the only known 501 (C)(3) in which NO ONE GETS PAID, NO COMMISSIONS, and NO FEES - It is the way a charity is supposed to be.
Your Brother in the Faith
Bernard Poggi
The largest source of aid to all Christians in the Holy Land is the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This is the Latin Rite Catholic Church of the Holy Land (Palestine, Jordan, Israel and Cyprus). You can find their web-page at www.lpj.org. Locally here in the United States we are lucky to have Msgr. Labib Kobti, a priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem at the service of us Arab-American Catholics in Northern California. He recently began an initiative to help the less fortunate along with a group of friends. The charity is called Queen of Peace Foundation. If you are interested in more information on how you can help, please contact his office at (415) 452-9634 or via mail at 1300 Junipero Serra Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94132.
God Bless you all and I hope that you will find it in your heart to be able to help our less fortunate Brothers and Sisters living in the Holy Land with this charity - Queen of Peace. It is the only known 501 (C)(3) in which NO ONE GETS PAID, NO COMMISSIONS, and NO FEES - It is the way a charity is supposed to be.
Your Brother in the Faith
Bernard Poggi
V
veritashunter
Guest
Dear Friends:
I am a Melkite Catholic and attend St. Joseph Melkite Catholic Church in Akron, OH.
The question asked “what are we doing for the Melkite Church”?
The best thing anyone can do for the Melkite Church is to support its parishes in the U.S. so that you know the monies are going to where they should be directed. I am not trying to be negative, but there are as many foundations as there are causes in the middle east…not all of which are reputable.
By donating through the Church your donations are also tax deductible. Some of the organizations that are commonly donated to in the middle east are not recognized charities in the U.S. It may seem like a worldly consideration but I tend to think of it this way…the government supports and subsidizes some really anti-Christian causes such as Planned Parenthood.
It makes me feel better to know that I can self-direct some of those monies to Christians rather than letting the government subsidize the school systems in teaching children that homosexuality is just an “alternative lifestyle equal in dignity to heterosexuality” or that we should all accept so-called “gay marriage” as morally equal to traditional marriage or that abortion is just a “choice”. Sorry, I have to step down off of the soap box for a moment!
But if you donate funds to the Church ear-marked specifically for middle eastern Christians in the Holy Land you will know that those funds are being received by those in the most urgent need of help. Many in my parish send monies back to their families but do so only in cash. They send it with friends travelling to their home villages and cities to be hand-delivered in person instead of through a courier service or organization because so much corruption exists at various levels in government and private organizations.
Another way to support the middle eastern church is to do what all Catholics should be doing. Go visit a Melkite, Romanian, Coptic, Roman, Ruthenian, Romanian, and Maronite parish throughout the year. We are Catholic (all encompassing) therefore we have a duty to explore the fullness of the Catholic Church as a whole in all of its beauty. This is its own reward in learning to understand the true human diversity that exists in the embodiment of Christ on earth: the Church.
The largest single contributor to the feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the ill in the middle east is still the Roman Church. It takes this duty very serioiusly. And it is a good example for us all to reflect upon in that we are not Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, Coptic Catholic, etc. first…rather, first of all we are all Catholic belonging to the Universal all-encompassing Church of Jesus Christ!
And I invite any of those in the Akron, OH area to attend the Celebration of Divine Liturgy with our parish located at 600 West Exchange St./Akron, OH at 10AM every Sunday. We would love to see you anytime.
Yours in Christ,
Veritashunter
I am a Melkite Catholic and attend St. Joseph Melkite Catholic Church in Akron, OH.
The question asked “what are we doing for the Melkite Church”?
The best thing anyone can do for the Melkite Church is to support its parishes in the U.S. so that you know the monies are going to where they should be directed. I am not trying to be negative, but there are as many foundations as there are causes in the middle east…not all of which are reputable.
By donating through the Church your donations are also tax deductible. Some of the organizations that are commonly donated to in the middle east are not recognized charities in the U.S. It may seem like a worldly consideration but I tend to think of it this way…the government supports and subsidizes some really anti-Christian causes such as Planned Parenthood.
It makes me feel better to know that I can self-direct some of those monies to Christians rather than letting the government subsidize the school systems in teaching children that homosexuality is just an “alternative lifestyle equal in dignity to heterosexuality” or that we should all accept so-called “gay marriage” as morally equal to traditional marriage or that abortion is just a “choice”. Sorry, I have to step down off of the soap box for a moment!
But if you donate funds to the Church ear-marked specifically for middle eastern Christians in the Holy Land you will know that those funds are being received by those in the most urgent need of help. Many in my parish send monies back to their families but do so only in cash. They send it with friends travelling to their home villages and cities to be hand-delivered in person instead of through a courier service or organization because so much corruption exists at various levels in government and private organizations.
Another way to support the middle eastern church is to do what all Catholics should be doing. Go visit a Melkite, Romanian, Coptic, Roman, Ruthenian, Romanian, and Maronite parish throughout the year. We are Catholic (all encompassing) therefore we have a duty to explore the fullness of the Catholic Church as a whole in all of its beauty. This is its own reward in learning to understand the true human diversity that exists in the embodiment of Christ on earth: the Church.
The largest single contributor to the feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the ill in the middle east is still the Roman Church. It takes this duty very serioiusly. And it is a good example for us all to reflect upon in that we are not Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, Coptic Catholic, etc. first…rather, first of all we are all Catholic belonging to the Universal all-encompassing Church of Jesus Christ!
And I invite any of those in the Akron, OH area to attend the Celebration of Divine Liturgy with our parish located at 600 West Exchange St./Akron, OH at 10AM every Sunday. We would love to see you anytime.
Yours in Christ,
Veritashunter
C
chosen_people
Guest
This week I took a walking tour with my fellow Judges through the Jerusalem neighbourhood of ein kerem where we visited the many churches and monastaries operating there under total religious freedom and total protection of Israeli law. A beautiful new church was recently completed after decades thanks to the intervention and help of former primeminister Sharon.
A mere two hundred yards from my courtroom stands a Russian orthodox Church. I ,the great grandson of Russian Jews forced to flee for their lives from christian religious antisemitism against them, help to guarantee freedom of religion of the Russian orthodox church in the Jewish state.
Yasser Arafat and Moslem Palestinian Arabs began to decimate the Christian population of southern Lebanon (see and hear about this from a Christian woman at www.americancongressfortruth.com/)).
In the first Israel Lebanon war I did six reserve tours giving physical protection and providing medical service to the local Christian population.
As a youth I often visited what was then a vibrant community in Bethlehem with a Christian majority under Israeli rule. The Christian community only prospered under the Jews. It was only when Bethlehem was given to Palestinian Arab control under the Oslo peace accords that Christians were persecuted by non Christian Palestinians and reduced from a majority to only two per cent of the population.
Two weeks ago a case was brought before me in a land dispute concerning land in east Jerusalem. The plaintiffs are Christian Arabs claiming that Christian Palestinain Arabs are systematically being driven from their land by non Christian Palestinian Arabs.
My cousin, a med student, was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist while riding a bus in Tel Aviv. His family, religious Jews, agreed to donate his organs. His organs were donated according to medical need. All of them were donated to Palestinian Arabs. Israeli organiztions like save a child’s heart (saveachildsheart.com/home1.html) have succesfully given free heart operations to some 1600 children, most from areas dedicated to the destruction of Israel and full of hatred towards it. Over 800 Palestinian Arab children have benifited.
Israel in the only country in the middle east where the Christian population has grown. Our text books, unlike our saudi arabian neighbours, do not contain derogatory referrences to Christians.
Israel is a democracy with freedom of speech which is why Archbishop Chacour is allowed to run his schools and spread his untruths against us with impunity. However, in all fairness some of the things he claims against us require an immense amount of illogic and anti Jewish animosity to even be repeated much less believed.
No, we are not seeking out and destroying homes of Christians or denying them health services or any of the other things you falsely claim against us. To tell the truth I and others like me have probably done more for the Christian community then you ever will. I ask nothing in return except for you to consider to stop spreading lies against us.
G
Ghosty
Guest
I don’t think anyone is refering to what’s going on inside Israel, but what Israel is doing in Palestine. Few would argue against the fact that Christians live well within Israel proper.
This also isn’t to say that Muslims aren’t doing hideous things to Christians in Palestine, either.
Peace and God bless!
C
chosen_people
Guest
Firstly, Jews aren’t persecuting Christians as Christians in Israel, in Arab Palestine or in any other place.
Secondly, Israel is not not attacking or persecuting Arab Palestinians of any religion but finds itself constantly being attacked by terrorism by groups claiming as their goal the destruction of our country and claiming terrorism against civilians as a legitimate weapon. The PLO was set up in 1964 with a charter for the destruction of Israel. What “Jewish settlements” did we need to remove in 1964 for peace?
Thirdly, I take great offense not only by those who support terrorism against innocent Israeli civilians but then have the audacity to falsely accuse Israel of Nazism and racism. Terrorism is Nazism. Killing a Jew merely for the fact that he or she is a Jew is racism. If you use ambulances to carry bombs to kill innocent people or strap bombs to people supposedly coming to work inside Israel, is it not legitimate to check them first? These fanatics act inhumanely outside of the rules of humanity and then cry foul when people suffer because of their inhumanity.
E
eelpis
Guest
Terrorism is not Nazism. Terrorism is terrorism. Israel is a state and it should give, in reality, equal rights to all people. What do you have to say to those who were driven from their homes and later found their homes blown up by Jewish settlers? I think you should think twice before branding with the name of terrorists those who oppose the politics of your country.
P
PazFeAmor
Guest
This is exactly the attitude that will cause for peace to never come to this region. You keep talking in terms of within Israel when we are referring to the Palestinian occupied territories (West Bank / Gaza), plus you refer to “Lies against us” as if Christy is making comments against a racial or religious group when it is VERY OBVIOUS that she is not. How many times must it be repeated that we are talking about the **Israeli goverment ** and not a racial or religious group?
Stop trying to derail the thread off track and if you want you can create your own thread.
There are many Christian families who have had their lands confiscated by the Israeli government. A very high profile case is that of the Nassar family in Bethlehem who are fighting to keep the Israeli government from taking their lands away from them.
**Tent of Nations **website, an organization started by the Nassar family:
tentofnations.org/index_files/Page771.htm
And within Israel you have the unjust deportations of Christians who live in Jerusalem and if any Palestinian Christian from Jerusalem should travel abroad even for short periods of time when they return to Israel they are denied re-entry by the government. You can read about this below at the **Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation **website below.
hcef.org/index.cfm/mod/news/ID/16/SubMod/NewsView/NewsID/2049.cfm
You also have cases of churches that have been destroyed by the Israeli army such as the ancient **6th Century Church/Monastery of St. Barbara in Aboud **(West Bank) in 2002 of which you can read about in the link below.
hcsn.org/aboudyouth/barbara/barbara_en.html
I wish that people would take their blinders off and stop believing everything that is being spoon fed to them. It takes two to tango and there would not be a vicious cycle of back and forth revenge if the root of the problem that is the occupation were to be addressed and not just the outward symptoms of this conflict.
Peace.
C
chosen_people
Guest
This is exactly what I am talking about. There is no limit to the lies that groups politically opposed to Israel are capable of saying and there is no limit of their manipulating the truth. What can be expected from people so full of hatred that they can walk into a shopping center or on to a bus and kill scores of men women and children merely for the “crime” of being Jewish. Spreading lies against Jews and Israel is just part of what these same groups believe is legitimate and indeed is small potatoes to indiscriminate mass murder.
I am not only an Israeli Judge but also a Sgan Aluf or Lt. Col in the IDF reserves. I have served extensively in Judea and Samaria. I give you real personal examples - you give me propaganda web sites. Bethlehem is under Palestinian Authority control. The Christian population there has indeed been persecuted there but not by Israel.
As for Jerusalem, Arabs living in Jerusalem, whether Jews or Muslims or Christians are free to come and go as they please. The problem you are referring to is that the Jewish State is such a “horrible place” that many Palestinians would prefer to live there then under the Palestinian Authority which is more than a little ironic. You might look at the situation, mutatis mutandis, as an illegal Mexican immigrant living in the United States without the right to residency. Indeed if the person leaves the United States they will be denied re entry to the United States, just as the woman in your example cannot return to live in Jerusalem.
Destruction of Christian sites by the IDF? What nonsense. On the other hand the Palestinian population has destroyed countless Jewish holy places
( from Joseph’s tomb to Jericho’s shalom synagogue). This has never been Israeli policy concerning any religion in any area. If you want to remember a real example remember the use of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian terrorists and Israel refraining from entering by force lest the Church be damaged.
Two last things. It is not I who have blinders on. It is those who are so predisposed to believe anything anti Jewish who buy into the propaganda against the Jewish state. Secondly, I suggest to Christians to learn about their history in the area. The intolerance is not only against Jews but also against Christians. They may want to start with the massacre of Christians between 1840 - 1860.
C
chosen_people
Guest
I would say all Israelis enjoy equal rights under Israeli law and considering my job I know of what I speak. As to the “Jewish settlers” driving people from their homes and then “blowing them up” I truly don’t know who is worse, those who make up these incredible lies or the fools who believe them.
P
PazFeAmor
Guest
I am a Catholic of Jewish ancestry and do not have anything that even remotely resembles anti-Jewish feelings or thoughts. IF you want to see criticism of the government of Israel and the IDF as being anti-Jewish then that is your own delusion. It is sickening that the **“you hate Jews and are an anti-Semite” ** accusation gets thrown around **as a scare tactic in order to try and make others stay quiet about the truth ** of what the Israeli government and the IDF are doing to the Palestinian people across the board.
I have been to Israel and the occupied territories and have seen the truth with my own eyes. No one needs to feed me any propaganda. I know an injustice when I see it and a great injustice is being inflicted on the Palestinian people.
I don’t care to dialogue with anyone who needs to feed their delusions that criticism of the Israeli government and its military equals racism. That is total rubbish and you sir or madam are on ignore. I have said my peace and am done.
Peace.
C
chosen_people
Guest
Why am I not surprised that being unable to give even the smallest true example of Jewish Israeli persecutions of Christians, the subject of this thread, you ran away from the discussion.
G
Ghosty
Guest
Nobody has said they are. You’re the only person to suggest such a thing in refuting it.
I’m sorry, but this is non-sense. There is an occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli government, along with Israeli settlements on that land. That is a military occupation, period, and it is violence against the Palestinian people. The U.S. is currently militarily occupying another nation, and we call it what it is; we haven’t built U.S. settlement colonies in Iraq, however, which is a plus.
When Israel categorically eliminates the settlements and forces the settlers out of Palestine, you will have a case for Israel not doing violence against Palestinians. I’m all for the just defense of Israel, but the occupation and settlements are no such thing. Pull back to the original and rightful borders of Israel, and you’ve got a case.
I take offense at this sort of thing too, but it hasn’t been done on this thread. If I’ve missed it, please point it out so the offenders can be reported.
I didn’t read the links the other poster provided, but I will say that the tings I’ve referred to in this thread are not from any groups that are politically opposed to Israel, or which have supported suicide bombers. What I’m talking about are the things reported by my Palestinian and Israeli friends at my Church; yes, we have Israeli Arabs as well, so we do get stories from both sides of the “border”. The Christians in Israel do quite well, and my good friend Hanna from Haifa has no problem calling himself Israeli, though he also speaks of his relatives in Palestine who are not so fortunate due to persecutions against Christians by Muslims, and against Palestine in general by his own country.
Just remember, when you’re speaking to Melkites here you’re not talking to people who only get their info from the internet; you’re talking to people who have living relatives in the areas affected. If we want an update, we just make a phone call.
Peace and God bless!
A
Aramis
Guest
Israel occupies Palestine. By military force alone, not by agreement of need. (The US in Afghanistan and Iraq at least has a general consensus that it is truly needful from the UN Security Council).
Israel also created and still maintains settlements where once Palestinian villages stood.
Israel, as a nation, is a violent occupying power, doing violence daily to maintain an unwelcome and unneeded military occupation. An occupation that not only provides neither full rights to the indigenous population, nor a means to get same.
Israel is strongly implied by all the non-Israeli press to be a police state; the US government seems to agree; travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html shows strong implications of racism by the IDF and Israeli Immigration.
E
eelpis
Guest
These are historical facts and there is no way you can deny them .
Wikipedia states:Israel
The roots of Anti-Catholicism in Israel can be traced back to the origin of the Jewish state in 1948 when several villages with majority Catholic populations, such as Kafr Bir’im and Iqrit, were forcibly depopulated by the Israel Defence Forces.[57] Catholic priests have been expelled from the country, and dozens of churches have been occupied, closed or forcibly sold since 1948. More recently Israel has denied residence status to Catholic clerics and has attempted to block the appointment of Catholic bishops.[58] Israeli government attempts such as the failed 1998 effort to block the Holy See’s appointment of Boutros Mouallem as archbishop of Galilee were condemned by the Vatican and other nations.[59] Suspicion and hostility towards Catholic clerics has led to incidents such as the October 2002 detention and harassment of Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Elias Chacour and Archbishop Boutros Mouallem, who were prevented from leaving Jerusalem to attend an interfaith meeting in London.[60]
By the way the Jewish supremacists have almost the same ideology as the Nazis, you are no more chosen than the Aryans.This thinking leads to a lot of confusion and a lot of strife.
R
Ridgerunner
Guest
I decided to post once more here, because I feel CAF has been honored by the presence of a member of the Israeli judiciary, and because everything he has said is familiar to me.
I am, by marriage, related to a very large, widely respected Palestinian tribe that has members in the West Bank, Jordan, and virtually every country in the Middle East. Various of them have been the guests of President Mubarak, King Abdullah, Ehud Barak (and other Israelis) and work with them for peace in ways more effective than anything I have seen some of the more strident partisans ever do. I have talked at length with some of them. They want nothing more than peace in the Eastern Mediterranean, and see Israelis as partners, not enemies, in the process. The real enemies of peace have been Hamas and certain factions of the PLO/Fatah organization, as well as the duplicitous and self-seeking foreign elements (e.g., Iran, sometimes Saudi Arabia, Syria, previously Iraq) that influence events away from peace and prosperity for the region, for their own aggrandizement.
First and foremost, (and this added much to my education) they consider themselves members of their tribe first, then as simply “Arabs”. The term “Palestinian” in the sense of a territorially limited, discrete “nationality” in the western sense, is meaningless to them. They know, as I have learned from them, that Palestinians are people whose tribes tend to predominate in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan. Nevertheless, it is their position that the West Bank and Gaza will need to be a state or states of their own, if for no other reason, that some form of rational governance must replace the chaotic situation in which a segment of the Palestinian population has, by the design of other Arab states, remained “stateless”. While Israeli governance is benign as compared to Hams or Fatah governance, it will not do to have a Jewish state govern a largely Muslim population indefinitely. They envision and support (one lost his life because of that support) free movement of Arabs and Jews in the region and the free flow of labor and trade. Still, they recognize that the Jews in the region must have their own state in order to ensure, for themselves, safety in a region that is often hostile to Jews (and Christians) tends to be politically unstable and is always under the threat of radical Islamist influences and the machinations of those foreign powers that seek hegemony over the region and over other states within it.
Finally, I will report that while this “tribe” (huge, extended family) has no hatred of Isralis, its members do consider Israelis “tough”, even sometimes “arrogant”. But at the same time, they recognize that Israelis have been given little choice in the matter, and regard Israelis as fundamentally honest and ethical. They do what they say they will do.
I will also speak in favor of the poster who suggested that those who wish to support the Melkite Church in the Middle East, do so through their own parishes. No harm will be done by taking this approach, and it will ensure that responsible people will guide your charitable efforts.
Likely the judge, by now, knows the tribe of which I speak. Because he knows, as I do, that revenge in the region is taken by the murderous Palestinian and foreign organizations with very little provocation, I ask that he not mention its name on here.
I will now resume my “break” from CAF.
I am, by marriage, related to a very large, widely respected Palestinian tribe that has members in the West Bank, Jordan, and virtually every country in the Middle East. Various of them have been the guests of President Mubarak, King Abdullah, Ehud Barak (and other Israelis) and work with them for peace in ways more effective than anything I have seen some of the more strident partisans ever do. I have talked at length with some of them. They want nothing more than peace in the Eastern Mediterranean, and see Israelis as partners, not enemies, in the process. The real enemies of peace have been Hamas and certain factions of the PLO/Fatah organization, as well as the duplicitous and self-seeking foreign elements (e.g., Iran, sometimes Saudi Arabia, Syria, previously Iraq) that influence events away from peace and prosperity for the region, for their own aggrandizement.
First and foremost, (and this added much to my education) they consider themselves members of their tribe first, then as simply “Arabs”. The term “Palestinian” in the sense of a territorially limited, discrete “nationality” in the western sense, is meaningless to them. They know, as I have learned from them, that Palestinians are people whose tribes tend to predominate in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan. Nevertheless, it is their position that the West Bank and Gaza will need to be a state or states of their own, if for no other reason, that some form of rational governance must replace the chaotic situation in which a segment of the Palestinian population has, by the design of other Arab states, remained “stateless”. While Israeli governance is benign as compared to Hams or Fatah governance, it will not do to have a Jewish state govern a largely Muslim population indefinitely. They envision and support (one lost his life because of that support) free movement of Arabs and Jews in the region and the free flow of labor and trade. Still, they recognize that the Jews in the region must have their own state in order to ensure, for themselves, safety in a region that is often hostile to Jews (and Christians) tends to be politically unstable and is always under the threat of radical Islamist influences and the machinations of those foreign powers that seek hegemony over the region and over other states within it.
Finally, I will report that while this “tribe” (huge, extended family) has no hatred of Isralis, its members do consider Israelis “tough”, even sometimes “arrogant”. But at the same time, they recognize that Israelis have been given little choice in the matter, and regard Israelis as fundamentally honest and ethical. They do what they say they will do.
I will also speak in favor of the poster who suggested that those who wish to support the Melkite Church in the Middle East, do so through their own parishes. No harm will be done by taking this approach, and it will ensure that responsible people will guide your charitable efforts.
Likely the judge, by now, knows the tribe of which I speak. Because he knows, as I do, that revenge in the region is taken by the murderous Palestinian and foreign organizations with very little provocation, I ask that he not mention its name on here.
I will now resume my “break” from CAF.
- Status