Posted on 05/13/2002 7:37:09 AM PDT by FormerLib
LOS ALTOS HILLS, CA., May 10, 2002 (AP) -- While conflicts between Jews and Arabs rage halfway around the world, Jewish sixth graders made a gesture of peace Friday.
The students presented a $1,300 check to the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer, which an arsonist burned last month. The church is attended by many Arab-Americans, including Palestinian-Americans.
When they discovered the fire was deliberately set, students in Anat Harrel's sixth grade class at the nearby Mid-Peninsula Jewish Community Day School decided it was time to act.
"The kids decided they can't sit around anymore, they needed to do something," Harrel said.
The students planned a bake sale, and urged people in the community to make donations.
The class presented the check to Reverend Samer Youssef and members of the congregation Friday. They closed by singing a song with the word peace both in Hebrew and Arabic.
Hamed Yousanni,Captain of a Hammas malitia group responded, " Praise be Allah, this $1300 will supply 25 new explosive belts to fight the Jews!"
American media outlets like ABC World news complimented the Gesture; Peter Jennings commented: "The Zionists will catch more flies with honey than vinegar... Yasser Arafatt has always reciprocated to gestures of kindness from the Zionists... how else would you explain his Nobel Peace prize."
Unfortunately, the Arab Christians have received less than charitable treatment from the Israelis as well.
While I understand your support for Israel against the Islamic terrorists (I support them as well), smearing Christians because of their ethnic heritage is not only un-American, but morally despicable.
Hamed Yousanni,Captain of a Hammas malitia group responded, " Praise be Allah, this $1300 will supply 25 new explosive belts to fight the Jews!"
Whatever are you smoking?
This is a Christian church we are talking about. Do you think that the Islamofascists of Hamas and the PLO target only Jews? Arab Christians have a big, fat bull's eye painted on their backs, too.
It is pretty obvious to me that the occupation of the Church of the Nativity was planned well before the Isreali occupation of Bethleham. You don't get blankets, mattresses, food supplies, and munitions into a place at the magnitudes found in the church after the siege unless it was readied in advance. They found forty bombs, capable of leveling the building.
To me, this implies that the PLO planned to bait the Israelis into destroying the church, both for propaganda purposes, and to increase the suffering of the Christian faithful.
Don't think the Arab Christians are unaware of what is happening. They know they are being ground between the millstones of Zionism and Islamofascism. However, the Israelis protect holy site of all three religions to the extent that they can. It is the Islamofascist millstone that is turning, pushing, and crushing Jewish and Christian holy sites to dust.
Over the centuries, the Orthodox have suffered more at the hands of islam than any other group of Christians. In chechnya they target Orthodox Christians first and foremost. Most islamofascists hate us deeply.
THIS was written in 1998. We were ahead of the average American in seeing and promoting the threat to the world of islamic terror.
Those arab countries were once Orthodox Christian, prior to becoming muslim. The oldest and greatest Orthodox church is in Turkey.
Ok. When you are ready to rejoin the rest of us in the real world, you let us know.
The church's congregation is largely Arab American, with many Palestinian parishioners.
Investigators don't yet have a motive, and said it wouldn't be considered a hate crime until a suspect is caught. The arson marks the latest in a string of cases in which Bay Area Muslims and Jews were targeted.
Over the weekend, two Jewish men were attacked in Berkeley. In San Francisco, police found Molotov cocktails and combustible containers on a temple's roof last month.
Parishioners in Los Altos plan to rebuild and say they've had numerous calls of support and donations from other congregations.
Parishioners of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer that burned to the ground last weekend began to rebuild Monday.
The destroyed church, now an investigation site for federal officials and surrounded by police tape, is comprised of mostly Arab American parishioners.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which investigates all church blazes, has set up a laboratory in the church parking lot to determine whether the fire was intentionally set.
Investigators have not yet said whether anything suspicious stands out about this fire, but the church's members are hoping the fire was just an accident.
"That's what we're all praying for," said Abdallah Saah, a consultant from San Jose and longtime parishioner. "We don't want to think the worst, that anyone would want to hurt us."
None of the 225 Antiochian Orthodox churches in the country have been the target of vandalism since Sept. 11, according to a Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese spokesman.
The Rev. Samer Youssef said he has received more than 100 calls of support, and donations from other Bay Area synagogues that have pledged to help the church rebuild.
Members of the Bay Area Congressional delegation wrote to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on Monday, urging a thorough investigation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a link to the church site so you can educate yourself.
I hope this kind gesture gets a bit of publicity. But I guess that wouldn't be the style of our press. This is not their type of story.
This is good stuff!
Christ is Risen!
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