Reuters has a good article today on what should have been obvious to Ethan Bronner – it is the Israeli occupation that is running Palestinian Christians out of the West Bank. From the article “Israeli barrier bites into Palestinian village“:
One third of Aboud’s open space has been turned into a buffer zone.
Hundreds of olive trees have been uprooted to make way for a dirt road
closed off with barbed wire and patrolled by the Israeli army. . .Aboud’s parish priest Father Firas Aridah blames the Israeli barrier
for decimating the income of Aboud’s Christian community and forcing 34
families since 2000 to leave in search of more stability and security.“The biggest problem is the loss of their land. Their olive trees
have been cut down, and this in turn has cut them off from their source
of livelihood,” said Aridah.The Fawadleh brothers, George, Francis and Khalil, watched 117 trees
owned by their family for generations being uprooted early last year.
They now have only 26 left and worry those will be destroyed as well.“It felt like having a stroke,” said George Fawadleh, a Catholic.
“It’s our land. When they uprooted the trees, it was a catastrophe for
us.”
It is obvious to those who looking at the region through the eyes of the Christian Palestinians, not the Zionists, that the Israeli occupation is the primary cause behind their exodus. Islamic fundamentalism happens to be the effect of causes such as Israeli wars and occupations in the region, the failure of internationals laws to protect the Arab people of the region and their interests, and the failure of the dictators and corrupted Arab leaders of the region to not only protect their people and their interests, but guarantee them their rights.
Check out the June issue of National Geographic: the cover article is "The Christian Exodus from the Holy Land". On the NG Magazine's website, a man who works for the MIddle East Council of Churches states: '"It's because of what Christians in the West, led by the U.S., have been doing in the East," he says, ticking off the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. support for Israel, and the threats of "regime change" by the Bush Administration. "To many Muslims, especially the fanatics, this looks like the Crusades all over again, a war against Islam waged by Christianity. Because we're Christians, they see us as the enemy too. It's guilt by association." See http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/arab-ch... Of course, he is talking about the Christian Zionists. As soft-spoken as Pope Benedict has been, he is still, using polite and diplomatic language, stating that the Palestinian (Muslim) and Arab Christian voices need to be heard. Because he must be careful not to offend the all-powerful Zionists, who constitute a powerful constituency in this country and others, he must follow in his predecessor's footsteps, and "be conciliatory" toward the Jews, being especially careful with the Zionists. However, this does not mean that he is unconcerned about the situation concerning Arab Christians in Israel, most of whom are Byzantine rite Catholics.
OF COURSE THE MUSLIM PALESTINIANS DO NO HARM TO THE CHRISTIANS. AS USUAL THE ONLY RESPONSIBLES ARE THE ISRAELI ALWAYS THE OTHERS NEVER THEMSELVES. RALPH