Palestinians at Nativity Church Demand Meeting With Arafat

The Los Angeles Times ^ | 4/26/2002 | T. Chrisitan Miller

[ex-Texan]

BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- Negotiations toward a peaceful end to the three-week siege at the Church of the Nativity hit a stumbling block late Thursday as encircled Palestinians demanded a meeting with their equally besieged leader, Yasser Arafat.

It was unclear whether the Israelis would permit such a meeting. However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon indicated that he might loosen restrictions on the Palestinian leader, who is trapped by Israeli forces in his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

[ex-Texan]

Old arafatwaddy gave orders 'not to surrender.' Now the killers have no food and must want to have his permission for an act of bloody terror inside the church. Read yesterday they had been destroying ancient books and holy relics ....

Would rabid Muslims do such terrible things? Just like a beast in the woods.

[chiefqc]

He'll be there as soon as someone change his soiled diaper, wipes the drool from his chin and point him in the right direction.

He's becoming unable to perform any task by himself, his brain is turning to mush I am happy to say.

I understand that his new name is going to be Ara-O Shi**Y the drooling moron.

[LetsRok]

Why doesn't an Israeli soldier take some initiative and put a bullet in Arafat's head? We can move on from there.

[TheDon]

Arafat can't go, else IDF will capture the bad boyz in his Ramallah lair.

[xm177e2]

Israel can't let anyone in or out without searching them. The priests that escaped said the terrorist pigs looted some of the artifacts from the Church.

[MissAmericanPie]

I don't care if they have to pull that church down around their ears to kill them, get the job done. Arafat has a cell phone, he's worn the dang numbers off of it. They can chat on the phone, Israel shouldn't give in to their demands, they obviously have done as much damage to the church as they can do, it is only stone and wood and can be rebuilt.

[DittoJed2]

I want to know where he gets his cell phone battery from. That thing is amazing!

As far as the church goes, I've been there. The place was not in the greatest repair when I was there a few years ago and is a stone building built by man. If it truly does mark Jesus' birth place, then it will still be Jesus' birth place if an earthquake came and collapsed the building. When I was there, there was nothing sacred feeling about Bethlehem. It was very commercial and that included the feeling I got when I was in that church. That was when the Israeli's controlled the territory. I'm sure it has deteriorated (as most things do) once the Pallis got ahold of it. Regardless, it isn't the place of the birth that is important but the person that was born. Our kingdom is not of this world. We shouldn't try to make things sacred that were just vehicles through which God accomplished His will. If the building goes, a revered building is gone, but the place of the Lord's birth can't be changed.

[AmericaUnited]

Arafat can't go, else IDF will capture the bad boyz in his Ramallah lair.

No, let Ararat go since harming him is the only thing preventing them from storming the headquarters.

[TheDon]

I was referring to the Arab perspective. I'm sure the IDF would love for Arafat to go out of his HQ for any reason, so they can capture the other bad boyz in there.

[MissAmericanPie]

God doesn't think much of places built of stone and wood given that every building will fall down at His appearing. Sure I would love to see the Church left standing, but not at the expense of letting these murderers go. They have already destroyed everything inside it sounds like.