Posted on 09/14/2014 12:32:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I had to read the penultimate paragraph of Ross Douthat’s New York Times piece on “friendless Middle East Christians” before the enormity of it sunk in. Douthat wrote:
If Cruz felt that he couldn’t address an audience of persecuted Arab Christians without including a florid, “no greater ally” preamble about Israel, he could have withdrawn from the event. The fact that he preferred to do it this way says a lot–none of it good–about his priorities and instincts.
In so many words: Jew-hatred among Middle Eastern Christians is so rampant that it should be ignored in the interests of saving this oppressed minority. Never mind that it is impossible to conceive of any strategic configuration on the Middle East that might help Middle Eastern Christians without including Israel; never mind that Israel’s supporters in the United States are among the first to urge America to act on their behalf; and, above all, never mind that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians can practice their religion in security and safety, and that Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a growing Christian population.
The statement is outrageous, capping a long list of inaccuracies. The problem is NOT, as Douthat argues, that “the Middle East’s Christians simply don’t have the kind of influence to matter” in American strategic calculations. The problem is that Middle East Christians threw in with (and some helped invent) a movement directly opposed to American interests in the region, namely the Arab nationalism embodied in the Ba’ath Party. I reviewed this sad history in a 2009 essay reposted on this site.
No-one proposes to blame the afflicted Christians of the Middle East for previous choices under duress: they had no good choices, and hardly can be faulted for bad ones. Unlike some of my conservative friends, moreover, I can’t blame Syrian Christians for supporting the Assad regime, which protects them from murdering Sunni jihadists. It isn’t about blame, but about the future–if there is one. Israel has a prominent role in any possible state of the world in which Christianity continues to exist in the Middle East (outside of Israel itself).
As I observed in the linked essay, the Catholic Church remains in the grip of nostalgia for its past influence in the region, and a great many of its Middle Eastern specialists simply cannot abide the idea that Israel might be the home to the remnant of Middle Eastern Christianity as well as the protector of Christian minorities elsewhere. But that is how things have worked out. That’s reality, and it’s the job of political leaders like Sen. Cruz to explain reality to their constituents. That’s not “florid.” That’s leadership.
An analogy might be useful: Evangelical Christians are among Israel’s strongest supporters in America, yet some Jews–including liberals as well as Christianophobic ultra-Orthodox–reject this support. That is hysteria. Israel’s supporters in America are among the strongest defenders of Middle Eastern Christians, yet some Middle Eastern Christians reject this support. That is also hysteria. Jews who reject Christian support are crazy, and Middle Eastern Christians who reject Jewish support are crazy. It’s the job of leaders to tell them so.
Good article. If Middle Eastern Christians are going to settle here and prosper, they better get on the Judeo-Christian stick. Instead of blaming Cruz, they should have minded their manners and not booed.
“...an audience of persecuted Arab Christians...”
Huh?
The Jews are persecuting Christians???!!
What!!!?
These people must be brought up by complete ignoramuses in ignoramus schools.
How ignorant. Even for the Times
Gotta say, I grew up on Long Island in a catholic and ethnic environment
I Never heard anything about hating a group of people until I was older, working among less educated people.
Honestly.
I never heard a word about hating Jews nor the word anti-Semite.
And I went to college with Jews, then worked in manhattan with Jews.
They didn’t share my faith, and vice versa.
No big deal for either.
they were educated and professional more than any group I’d been with, and they contributed, historically, and contemporarily to the local and larger culture.
The museums, symphony, and the hospitals were fed by the Jews.
and any anti-Semitism I met with since I always attribute to ignorance and visceral, ingrained, formed hatred. Form a young age, these bigots are taught to hate.
It surprises me, as it insults not only my sensibilities, but my sense of logic and judgment of character that the Jews who run the New York TImes can hate Jews so much, let alone, at all.
It is so ignorant. It is such a waste of reading time.
Persecuted Christians!!
What the hell is Douthat they talking about?
What is he talking about?
The Israelis have Nukes. For protection.
Cruz walked out of this gathering of a group of frauds in a sensible response.
They are not Christians. Christians don’t lie, nor hate.
And they certainly wouldn’t accuse Jews of persecuting them.
The New York Times is sinking into an abyss for lack of readers, but their ignorant self hatred won’t allow them to be introspective.
Last week in the Sunday puzzle the clue was “——— be praised”. Not saints - allah
Well, they are not referred to as a muslim rag for nothing
But this is beyond
T.C. walked out on a group of practicing “Chrislamists”.
The worst ME terrorist leader next to Arafat was Dr. George Habash, “Christian” founder of the PFLP-GC & a Jew-hater just as evil as any Nazi or Muslim.
I get the point, but they are secularists at best, nothing to do with Christ, hence, Chrislamist is an insult.
People can call themselves Christians, Catholics all day long, but that doesn’t make them Christian.
What they do and believe does.
To hate Jews in this way, in the name of Christianity is as big a lie as Ted Cruz detected.
anyone calling him wrong or misguided or political on this is ignorant of the obvious circumstances.
they were not infiltrated by anyone, not a group of Islamists, any more than any group of Christians would allow such a thing to happen to their name and reputation.
I am sick of this story, people trying to parse it, Cruz’ actions , the NYT, and Christians in general.
That people in this country have generally lost sight of what Christianity is as an excuse for ignorance is reprehensible.
THese people, and people who don’t know what Christianity is are not Christians.
and there is no such thing as Chrislams or whatever you call them.
Cruz did the right thing, leftists hate that
Meno to Mr. Douhat:
You shouldn’t try to make Ted Cruz angry.
You wouldn’t like Ted Cruz when he’s angry!
Douthat is nothing more than a NYT blogger that has no understanding.
I never liked Douthat. Talk about a person who thinks he’s an elite being...that’s Douthat.
He was reportedly the political mentor for some of the people at the IDC conference, who wish to mold the middle-east Christians as a constituency or political movement distinct from both the Jews (Israel) and the Muslims (Islamic nationalism.)
I don't know much about it. That's all I can contribute.
The Muslims have been a pain in Israel’s neck since 1948. As Spengler notes, the Muslims have been a pain in the Catholic and Orthodox communities’ necks since before then, even before the League Mandate, arguably back as long as there’s been Islam. It is essentially the same enemy and the same fight, and the Israelis didn’t start it. That’s not an opinion, sectarian or otherwise. That’s simple observable fact. This argument doesn’t make me want to say “screw those guys, let them die.” We need to do the right thing for them. But neither does it make me any more inclined to reconsider my take on the situation. It is what it is.
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