Posted on 04/02/2010 8:58:30 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
My mother is from Bethlehem and my father is from Jerusalem.
Those two important cities dont seem to mean much to American Christians.
Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation in Bethlehem and in East Jerusalem are oppressed by the Israeli government and supported by members of the U.S. Congress.
This week the oppression reaches its peak as Christians of Palestinian ancestry are oppressed and denied entrance into Jerusalem to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the spot where Jesus was crucified.
Israels right wing government insists in its propaganda that Jerusalem, under their rule, is an Open City where anyone can enter and pray. They add it was under the Arabs, and Jordan, that Jews were denied the ability to pray in Jerusalem.
Its a big lie, of course. Yes, since the war in 1948 that divided Palestine allegedly into two states, there has been a continued conflict. Israels pre-state army, the Haganah, grabbed West Jerusalem in 1947, before the state of Israel was founded and before the so-called Arab Armies of 22 Arab countries attacked the tiny state.
What a bunch of hooey!
That lie was set in stone in the 1960s in the book, Exodus, written by Leon Uris, commissioned by the Israeli Government to write the pulp fiction that became a movie starring Paul Newman.
The truth is, yes, after the 1948 armistice the war was still going Jordan prevented all Israelis and anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport from entering East Jerusalem.
But they did not prevent Jews from praying at the holy Wailing Wall that was under their control.
When Israel controlled West Jerusalem, Israel banned all Christian and Muslim Arabs across the board from entering West Jerusalem. And when Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, they not only banned Christian and Muslims Arabs but all pro-Palestinian activists from entering the city.
They also destroyed several Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to expand the Wailing Wall, and they expelled hundreds of thousands of Christian and Muslim Palestinians from the West Bank.
My mothers family lives in Bethlehem. Their movement is restricted during Palm Sunday and Easter and they are prevented by Israel from entering East Jerusalem to pray.
Its a fact. A tragic fact. But thats not even the worst tragedy at all.
Israels government lies about it and Americans are so brainwashed by the propaganda that they dont even know that their own people, the original Christians where Christianity was birthed, are under oppression.
They dont even know about how Christians every day suffer because they are Christian and Arab, the original Christians. They care even less about the Muslim Arabs, who are oppressed even worse under Israels governments.
Americans should care. And Americans should start questioning our misguided foreign policy. We should ask where our billions of dollars are going when they arrive in Israels governments hands.
Some of it is going to underwrite Israels government-sponsored health care for its citizens. Imagine that. Israels citizens get almost free government health care but Israels champions in the U.S. Congress wont even allow Americans to have the same kind of health care plan.
If we want peace in the Middle East, the first thing we need to do is open our eyes and see the truth. No side is better or worse than the other. Israels government is just as bad as the Arab governments have been.
My relatives have asked me to give you a simple message: Happy Easter.
(Listen to Ray Hanania on WJJG-AM 1530 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday. He also may be heard from 7 to 8 a.m. Fridays on www.RadioBaladi.com in the Chicago area, Dearborn, Mich. and Windsor, Ontario. Check out the Web site at www.radiochicagoland.com or call [708] 493-1530.)
Post your comments on this column or any other topic at ChicagolandTalk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Hanania is a Palestinian American Arab columnist, author and Chicago Radio Talk Show host. He can be reached at rayhanania@comcast.net
Oh, who was it that defecated, urinated and desecrated the holy Christian sites and churches in Bethlehem?
Who was it?
It wasn’t the Jews.
*yawn*
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Christians are dying in every Muslim country. Suffering opression??? Yeah that too, but Dying, being killed by Muslims.
Dont try to tell me the Mussies are being treated badly. That’s BS.
I’ve noticed an increased attempt by the Muslims to try to lure Christians away from support for Israel.
It is NOT the Jews that have a declared “Jihad” against the infidels (all non-believers).
Therefore any attempt to “recruit” Christians to the “cause” can only be describe as a blatant attempt to undermine the Christian Faith.
al-Taqiyya/Dissimulation
Never forget it!
I would not want to be on the wrong side of this one.
The palestinians and arabs would do good to start ignoring their own propaganda and start looking objectively at WHY Israel has such a large army and why it has attacked preemptively before.
When you live in a neighborhood surrounded by heavily armed bullies who have sworn to attack you and drive you into the sea, the only logical response would be to arm and defend yourself.
It is the arabs who are responsible for the continuing conflict there, not the Israelis.
Stopped reading after line two:
“Those two important cities dont seem to mean much to American Christians.”
this guy is in a bubble.
“For This Easter, Think Of Just One Thing (MEGA-PROJECTILE BARF ALERT)”
I know this is TOTALLY crazy and probably no one EVER thought about it before, but I’m thinking about The Resurrection this Easter. Nuts, huh?
My pastor has promised us some “good news” on Sunday.
I’m still trying to figure out what it might be.
Got any ideas?
“My pastor has promised us some good news on Sunday.
Im still trying to figure out what it might be.
Got any ideas?”
He’s still coming back but it’s not Obama?
“MEGA PROJECTILE BARF” isn’t suffient. Can we come up with the ultimate of barfers ? “Megabrontothorium-metamaxis-shultze BARF” or something ?
it’s gonna come in the form of 3 words
He is risen.
RAY HANANIA - any one got his email?
A billion muslims bow to Mecca 5 times a day every day. And never speak out against Saudi apartheid (no religious tolerance for any othe faith in Saudi Arabia, discrimination against non-muslims under the law).
The way I understand it the "original Christians" suffer horribly under Arab rule. And this guy is whining about what the Israelis do?
“He can be reached at rayhanania@comcast.net “
Mr. Hanania,
The Arabs declared the UN Partition invalid & attacked Israel and they got their arses kicked ... several times.
“On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted with a 2/3 majority to partition western Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state .... Over 75% of the land allocated to the Jews was desert. Desperate to find a haven for the remnants of European Jewry after the Holocaust, the Jewish population accepted the plan which accorded them a diminished state. The Arabs, intent on preventing any Jewish entity in Palestine, rejected it.”
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/maps/part.html
And they lost Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza & the Sinai Peninsula. And so the attempted revision of history began, perpetuated by conscienceless, lying anti-Jews like this Hanania character.
He is risen indeed...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.