Posted on 12/24/2007 6:52:03 AM PST by kellynla
I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the main thrust of the Crusades was to allow Christians to be able to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land safely.
No, it was to repel 300 years of Jihad that had invaded Spain and encroached on Vienna.
This isn't even a good opinion piece. It is a smear with afalce veneer of evenhandedness. This crap does not beolg in the Wall Street Journal.
Agreed.
My reaction to the first paragraph of this article was “Blah, Blah, Blah. Waa, Waa, Waa!”
The second paragraph on got a different reaction. “Zzzzz....”
Given recent reports about the vanishing of Arab Christians from areas under Palestinian control, this problem (Palestinian Christians not being able to cross between Bethlehem and Jerusalem) affects say ... six persons, maybe a dozen, tops.
I was in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve in 1977....it was NOT a pleasant experience..in fact, it was one of the worst of my life.
Of course the article does not mention the fact that the Islamicists STILL will not allow Jews on the temple mount.
I was in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve in 1977....it was NOT a pleasant experience..in fact, it was one of the worst of my life.
I was there two years ago and it is still scary. What the author fails to mention is prior to the wall everyday Jews were being shoot and bombed by those who lived a block away. The Arabs did it to themselves the Israeli’s had no choice.
They can thank their muslim terrorist “brothers” for the restrictions.
Me, I’ll never be able to visit the Holy Land. We have created scenes of Jesus’ life for a drive through at our church, but I really don’t need monuments to know that Jesus WAS. Jesus IS here in my heart.
Though I feel for those whose lives are disrupted by this hatred and anguish, visiting “holy” sites does not make us any more holy.
My humble opinion, only. Merry CHRISTmas.
Evidently, the author just fell off of the turnip truck.
bmflr
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
Mr. Woodward complains that Christians can't visit their holy sites. Has he been to any Jewish holy sites anywhere in Israel? Any place that isn't surrounded by cement and guarded by the IDF has been desecrated, burned, and used as a toilet (one of the arabs favorite activities for non-muslim holy sites.)
Remember the standoff in the church of the nativity? That wasn't the IDF that pooped in your holy building, Mr. Woodward.
It's always easiest to blame the most civilized people for any wrongdoings because they are the only ones willing to listen. Try to be honest with yourself, Mr. Woodward, about the real cause of Christian oppression in Bethlehem.
You’re right. Jesus is in our hearts.
But I suspect that a lot of people want to visit to take in the history and don’t go so much to be holier or more blessed.
For me, I can’t think of anything more overpowering and striking than to walk the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem and think “I am walking the same route Jesus took on the way to his crucifixation”.
Christians can’t visit the holy shrines in Jerusalem because neither they not the ‘Oven Jews” in office in Israel have the backbone to realize about the Muslims what Rome eventually realized about Carthage.
Islam Delenda Est! It’s an idea whose time has come.
This resulted in a dramatic loss of revenues in Egypt whose government depended extensively on taxes paid for products supplied to pilgrims from North Africa and Europe.
Some sources portray the Egyptian Bey as having been subordinate to the Seljuks and others picture him as having been left hanging as the Seljuks conquered the more central parts of the Islamic Caliphate leaving him and North African Moslem kingdoms hanging.
Whatever the case, he's the guy who asked French knights for help.
The Pope authorized the First Crusade and next thing you know Jerusalem and other holy sites were once again available to pilgrims (tourists), and the coffers of the Egyptian government began to fill with tax revenues.
What's not to like about that.
I know Jews who visited Temple Mount, albeit as American tourists.
Allow me to condense this: Those dastardly JOOOOOS!
Right on, Cinnamon Girl!
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