Expect to see more of this trend, which has an Islamophobic scent to it that we covered yesterday. In the Wall Street Journal, “Israel’s Christian Awakening,” by Adi Schwartz, argues that Israel is more hospitable to Christian Palestinians than neighboring countries are to their Christians. The piece contains a statement from Hanin Zoabi, the Palestinian member of Knesset, saying that Palestinians are a national group not a religious one, and that some Christians’ efforts to join the Israeli army are dangerous and collaborationist. Schwartz used to work for Haaretz. Excerpts:
But now, an informal grass-roots movement, prompted in part by the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the region since the Arab Spring, wants to cooperate more closely with Israeli Jewish society—which could mean a historic change in attitude toward the Jewish state. “Israel is my country, and I want to defend it,” says Henry Zaher, an 18-year-old Christian from the village of Reineh who was visiting Nazareth. “The Jewish state is good for us.”…
In some ways, Christians in Israel more closely resemble their Jewish neighbors than their Muslim ones, says Amnon Ramon, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a specialist on Christians in Israel at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies…
According to Shadi Khaloul, a forum spokesperson, the total number of Christians serving in the Israeli military has more than quadrupled since 2012, from 35 to nearly 150. This may seem a drop in the ocean, but it was enough to enrage many Palestinian Israelis…
“The current Arab political establishment only brought us hate and rifts,” says Mr. [Bishara] Shlayan. “The Arab-Muslim parties didn’t take care of us. We are not brothers with the Muslims; brothers take care of each other.”
Thanks to Taxi.
Nothing Islamophobic- honest reporting, uncomfortable truth and a some knee-jerking from Mr. Weiss.
I noticed this as well.
“This is beyond belief and the “pale”:
“Dozens of Israeli soldiers respectfully rose from their seats as the Israeli national anthem began playing. The tinny recording of “Hatikva,” an ode to the Jewish yearning for the Land of Israel, wrapped up a ceremony, held in Hebrew, during which speakers thanked the troops and handed out awards.
It looked like a typical motivational gathering for soldiers of the Jewish state — except that nearly all those in uniform weren’t Jews and Hebrew wasn’t their first language. They were Christian Arabs, a minority that has historically viewed itself as part of the Palestinian people and considered service in the army as taboo.
The gathering — a pre-Christmas nod to Christian soldiers, who nibbled on cookies and chocolate Santas — was part of a new push by Israel’s government and a Greek Orthodox priest to persuade more Christians to enlist.
The campaign has set off an emotional debate about identity among Christians, a tiny minority within Israel’s predominantly Muslim Arab minority. So far the numbers of Christian Arabs enlisting is negligible, but with the community’s fate possibly at stake, tempers have flared and each side has accused the other of using scare tactics and incitement.
Father Gabriel Nadaf, the priest promoting enlistment, said Christians must serve in the army if they want to integrate into Israeli society and win access to jobs. “I believe in the shared fate of the Christian minority and the Jewish state,” he told the conference, held at a local hotel.
His spokesman warned that unlike Israel, the rest of the Middle East is a dangerous place for Christians. “They are burning churches, they are slaughtering them (Christians), they are raping the girls,” said the aide, Shadi Khalloul, referring to the targeting of Christian communities in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere by Islamic militants.
Arab Christians opposed to army service — the large majority in the community, according to its spokesmen — say the real goal is to divide and weaken Israel’s 1.7 million Arabs, made up of Muslims, Christians and Druze, who follow a secretive offshoot of Islam.”
link to abcnews.go.com
You can read the whole thing there.
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/12/palestinians-somebody-grass.html#comment-624269
This is the newest hasbara trend:
http://www.idfblog.com/2013/12/25/christians-serving-idf-growing-community/
By the way, I wonder when WSJ or other outlets will write about how Christians in Israel can’t even get the national partliament to acknowledge their existance without racism on their holiest day, namely Christmas day.
The Knesset speaker said those who advocate showing tolerance to the Christian minority and giving them a single day of recognition are aiding a “demographic threat”.
They tried using the environment.
They tried using gays.
They tried using sex.
Now they are trying to pimp Christians.
a key tenant of zionist strategy has always been to sow sectarian divisions among its enemies. this is still their strategy. not a surprise really, the whole age old divide-and-conquer thing.
since i was a kid, the zionist regime has deliberately and very openly treated christian palestinians much more humanely and permissively than moslem palestinians. they would issue passes or accept requests from christian palestinians much more quickly and easily than moslem palestinians. they would be extremely lenient on a christian palestinian kid if he “diverted” than a moslem palestinian. they would never invade a christian palestinian home in the middle of the night as they would a moslem palestinian home. they rarely destroyed the house of a palestinian christian.
and when they did these things, they openly and broadly announced it or made it known. the good ‘ol divide-and-conquer. the zionists did the same in lebanon, did the same between fatah and hamas, etc. etc.
so this is not about israeli jews and christians being more aligned than moslems. this is about politics and the zionist ideology. this is about keeping land that is not theirs. this is about colonization cloaked in religion to suit an illegal zionist agenda.
It’s possible that things have changed in recent years with the rise of Islamism, but traditionally, Christians have been disproportionately represented within the Palestinian movement, from militants such as George Habash to intellectuals like Edward Said, to politicians such as Hanan Ashrawi.
I doubt Israel will have much success with this latest attempt at divide and try to conquer.