An ethno state with Arab citizens and Arab politicians???

The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land has warned in an interview that Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has made life worse for Christians in the birthplace of Christianity.

The Vatican-appointed Latin Patriarch, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community has come under increasing attack, with the most rightwing government in Israel’s history emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalised religious property at a quickening pace.

The increase in anti-Christian incidents comes as the Israeli settler movement, galvanised by its allies in government, appears to have seized the moment to expand its enterprise in the contested capital.

“The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” Pizzaballa told the AP. “These people feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”

Pizzaballa’s concerns appear to undercut Israel’s stated commitment to freedom of worship, enshrined in the declaration that marked its founding 75 years ago. The Israeli government stressed it prioritises religious freedom and relations with the churches, which have powerful links abroad.

“Israel’s commitment to freedom of religion has been important to us forever,” said Tania Berg-Rafaeli, the director of the world religions department at the Israeli foreign ministry. “It’s the case for all religions and all minorities that have free access to holy sites.”

But Christians say they feel authorities don’t protect their sites from targeted attacks. And tensions have surged after an Israeli police raid on the holy al-Aqsa mosque compound set off outrage among Muslims, and a regional confrontation last week.

Hostility towards minority Christians is nothing new in the teeming Old City, a crucible of tension that the Israeli government annexed in 1967.

But now Netanyahu’s far-right government includes settler leaders in key roles – such as the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who holds criminal convictions from 2007 for incitement of anti-Arab racism and support for a Jewish militant group.

Their influence has empowered Israeli settlers seeking to entrench Jewish control of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, alarming church leaders who see such efforts – including government plans to create a national park on the Mount of Olives – as a threat to the Christian presence in the holy city. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

“The rightwing elements are out to Judaise the Old City and the other lands, and we feel nothing is holding them back now,” said Father Don Binder, a pastor at St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem. “Churches have been the major stumbling block.”

The roughly 15,000 Christians in Jerusalem today, the majority of them Palestinians, were once 27,000 – before hardships that followed the 1967 war spurred many in the traditionally prosperous group to emigrate.

Now, 2023 is shaping up to be the worst year for Christians in a decade, according to Yusef Daher from the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre, a group that coordinates between the denominations.

Physical assaults and harassment of clergy often go unreported, the centre said. It has documented at least seven serious cases of vandalism of church properties from January to mid-March – a sharp increase from six anti-Christian cases recorded throughout 2022. Church leaders blame Israeli extremists for most of them, and say they fear further escalation.

“This escalation will bring more and more violence,” Pizzaballa said. “It will create a situation that will be very difficult to correct.”

In March, two Israelis burst into the basilica beside the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Virgin Mary is said to have been buried. They pounced on a priest with a metal rod before being arrested.

In February, a religious American Jew yanked a 10-foot rendering of Christ from its pedestal and smashed it on to the floor, striking its face with a hammer a dozen times at the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa, along which it is believed Jesus hauled his cross toward his crucifixion. “No idols in the holy city of Jerusalem!” he yelled.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...land-patriarch

Muh tolerance, muh greatest ally

I'd put myself in this label, but generally lean more right than left.

Imo, I think there is a lot to criticize and even hate Israel over. I hate seeing how fast people equate all Jews together, though. Like in any war, the people dying on both sides are largely innocent.Even the thugs in Hamas, as brutal and sickening as what we are seeing, even they are largely young indoctrinated fools duped into this.You don't see elder Islamic leaders strapping bombs to their chests.

Part of me wonders, I can sit back and judge so neatly all this -- what about me and what about most Americans? I dislike the policies of Israel (Hamas for that matter) but what about the policies of the USA? I see myself and most Americans as largely powerless to do much about it, not like a 'vote' towards two corrupt war-mongering piece of **** parties has any sway on anything. To what extent does that translate to Palestinians or Israelis? Are the majority of them just as powerless as I am in their respective situations and now having their homes destroyed, families killed, watching bombs destroy their communities or monsters allegedly beheading babies?

People seem so quick to jump to a side and it's either, "death to jews" or "**** Palestinians" but what are the chances the majority of them are probably a lot closer to being like us, just regular people trying to navigate and live their lives, trapped by a bull**** corrupt power structure where they end up fodder, meanwhile I can promise you there are people right now making millions in profit because of this -- and there always will be.

To me, if I'm going to start blaming anyone, it's not the people dying on either side. How about the powerful rich politicians and so-called leaders, and not just there but plenty here in the USA who are either partly to blame or jumping at the opportunity here to make money?

TL;dr. The pope is a dyed in the wool lib, next.

Too fuking bad, they’re old enough to know better and that slaughtering civilians is wrong but they’re doing it anyways. No mercy for them.

They are animals and must be put down. When that decision is made, you go through with it as efficiently and effectively as possible. Not sure randomly bombing Gaza serves that purpose much, but I'm also not there, not a military expert and accept I don't know.

I will say, we should all be stepping back and wondering why and how these young men were turned into animals. If even 1/10th of what we are seeing and hearing that they are doing, much of it already confirmed (and not some atrocity taken place at a different time and place and wrongfully purported to be what is going on now), it must have been something very very bad to turned a human being into a monster. I won't even say animal, animals show more than this.

People want to snap judgement: Oh, it's *ISLAM* and close the book, but I don't think that does the circumstances justice.

How does the Israeli Government treat Palestinians? Would any of us take that lying down? Is it fair?

Now, I will answer this one: Whatever it is, does it justify what Hamas did? My answer: No. Want to be sure that's in the open, that I am not coming off as trying to justify acts of terror, killing innocents, etc... I am just saying, there is more to this than Islam just being Islam. It certainly may be a hornet's nest, but it's not some black and white situation where Israel is the perfect and generous ruler over a group of insane violent monsters.

No white hats in this one.

Strong deflection Jew

They are animals and must be put down. When that decision is made, you go through with it as efficiently and effectively as possible. Not sure randomly bombing Gaza serves that purpose much, but I'm also not there, not a military expert and accept I don't know.

I will say, we should all be stepping back and wondering why and how these young men were turned into animals. If even 1/10th of what we are seeing and hearing that they are doing, much of it already confirmed (and not some atrocity taken place at a different time and place and wrongfully purported to be what is going on now), it must have been something very very bad to turned a human being into a monster. I won't even say animal, animals show more than this.

People want to snap judgement: Oh, it's *ISLAM* and close the book, but I don't think that does the circumstances justice.

How does the Israeli Government treat Palestinians? Would any of us take that lying down? Is it fair?

Now, I will answer this one: Whatever it is, does it justify what Hamas did? My answer: No. Want to be sure that's in the open, that I am not coming off as trying to justify acts of terror, killing innocents, etc... I am just saying, there is more to this than Islam just being Islam. It certainly may be a hornet's nest, but it's not some black and white situation where Israel is the perfect and generous ruler over a group of insane violent monsters.

No white hats in this one.

Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, defended his draft of the Nation-State bill on 26 November 2014, declaring Israel to be "The nation-state of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people alone"

Most Jews are White.

Pretty bad take op. Most on the right support Israel.

Right wingers are just racist. Lefties are virtue signaling.

Not surprised.

Where is "randomly bombing Gaza" coming from? Only precision munitions are being used.

He said far right.That is like 15 percent on the right. They are just louder.(like the people on this site) polls show that around 10 percent of both sides hate Jews and Israel.

But they're an ethno state. I thought that was bad? It's bad for white people to do it, they need to be multicultural but it's okay for Jews to do it.

It was kind of a throw-away comment and maybe dismissive on my part, because it is a more nuanced situation than I made it out to be.

Like a lot of this: Israel on this one is in a tricky situation at how they can go after Hamas. Hamas not really having a central headquarters or normal military targets. They're embedded in the population and even there there isn't a clear line of who would be a perfectly acceptable military target Vs targets that should be off limits. We've seen this kind of thing since Vietnam, you can't tell the enemy apart, civilians are often highly sympathetic if not outright cooperative with 'soldiers' and such.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...iege-civilians

At the same time, while I can respect Israel being in a tough spot, let's not pretend they are only targeting active military or that there will not be a lot of collateral damage.

Also, tinfoil hat conspiracy time, I'll am not saying it's for sure, but this is an odd situation. A lot of former IDF sources do not see how it's possible Hamas breeched Israel security so thoroughly or easily. I've heard some say: Impossible, even. At face level, sure seems improbable a bunch of animal thugs on gliders snuck through one of the most defensive and strong borders on the planet.

A big if, but *if* this might be something like what FDR is suspected of doing before Pearl Harbor (allowing it, to get get America 100% in the war), here, allowing it to give Israel the excuse to go full bore and clear out Gaza, again a big If, but that means the kids gloves are off and they will go very hard at the whole of Gaza, which will include Palestinian civilians.

Was it a conspiracy when they were caught off guard in 1973?

He said far right. That is like 15 percent on the right. They are just louder.(like the people on this site) polls show that around 10 percent of both sides hate Jews and Israel.

The key difference being on the right we take our trash out. Example: Leonydus, Skylinerd, keyboardworkout, largepeter, etc.

The left will get into bed with anyone.

The way the Arabs were almost mysteriously defeated, as if by an act of God, is surely kindling for someone's conspiracy. Not mine, though. Otherwise, that was 50 years ago. Things have changed. In other ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I loved reading about 1967, the Arab governments were telling their people all sorts of lies about victory, and six days later, the Arab population was hit with the actual truth.