Posted on 12/17/2016 11:49:45 PM PST by Enchante
Twain was not speaking of Jerusalem but the surrounding countryside. But even Jerusalem had a small population.
I should have been more clear but the main point is the area was thinly populated and underdeveloped.
Twain hated Christians, so I doubt he would say something good about them.
“St. Peter was the first Pope of the Catholic Church and Christians have been in the Holy Land ever since.”
I see. And the Christians presently in the Holy Land are direct descendants of the pre-Pauline Christians, exactly as described in the New Testament, which was entirely factual? Believe it if you want.
“George Habash was a Christian from Lud, and a major terrorist.
Do you need me to give you a list of Jewish acts of terrorism?”
Your point being that Menahem Begin and the followers of the late Moshe Stern identified with the “Palestinian” cause hand in glove, just like George Habash?
There was an extended period in which many Christians in Israel were ideologically aligned with the PLO. Then Oslo was implemented enough to show the residents of Bethlehem that a common language was not enough to elevate them above the dhimmitude to which the “Palestinians” consigned them. Their land was stolen, their women molested, and they left Bethlehem and Beit Jaaleh in droves, leaving only a persecuted minority behind them. That was the end of Christian collaboration with the “Palestinians”. They now are thoroughly alienated, those that remain, and are rediscovering Aramaic and calling themselves “Chaldean Christians” instead of “Palestinian Christians”. So now, belatedly, Jews and Christians have common ground in Israel, no thanks to George Habash and his ilk, let alone the MCA in 1921.
Actually I have no idea what you are raving about.
What, you guys haven’t heard the joke?
Once there was a big peace talk between the Israelis and Palestinians. As the Israeli minister got up to speak, he said he’d like to start with a little story. “Once, a long time ago, Moses was very hot and dusty in the desert sun. He went to a little oasis and decided to take a swim. He took off his clothes and hung them from a tree branch, and refreshed himself in the sparkling cool water.
“When Moses emerged, his clothing was gone. A young boy shouted, ‘Rabbi Moses, the Palestinians took your clothes!’” At this point the Israeli minister was interrupted by one of the Palestinian delegation.
“Hey! There weren’t any Palestinians here then!!”
The Israeli turned to the group and said, “Good. Now that we have that established, let’s talk.”
Hey cousin! ;) I want to have mine done, but haven’t yet. However, we did do at doctor’s request the 23andme test of my little daughter from adopted embryo, and just got the results back last week. So awesome, it basically was a complete geographic history of the peoples who created Puerto Rico. What a story our genes tell.
love that, great!!
“Actually I have no idea what you are raving about.”
And you’re proud of being dense?
What I am saying is simple. The Eastern Christians that you and I are both so eager to protect were from 1921 until the implementation of Oslo in league with the Muslims in their hostility towards the Jewish yishuv and then state. Habash was a only a more conspicuous example of it.
In fact, when the Laurentine Cairo-Khartoum kabal began its pan-Arabist, anti-Zionist campaign, it used a front group called the MCA (Muslim Christian Association), the membership of which, in 1920, when the Muslim holiday of Nebi Mussa and Easter both fell out on the same date, incited an anti-Jewish pogrom in Jerusalem.
So it continued, the Eastern Christians identifying as Arabs, then Palestinians and always anti-Zionist and anti-Israel until the implementation of Oslo put Bethlehem and Beit Jaalah under PA control, and the Muslims commenced to treat the Eastern Christians as dhimmis, extorting land transfers and forging deeds, attacking womenfolk, lynching Christians on thin pretexts, and driving them out.
Then the Christians suddenly remembered that they are neither Arabs nor Palestinians, and in fact the Arabs have always at most tolerated them, if that, and began brushing up on their Aramaic and practicing the Syriac alphabet. So now they look to Israel and Israelis for protection.
I’d love to give that protection to them, despite this checkered history of theirs, simply because we have the same deadly enemy, and Jews don’t generally hold grudges very long. But I’m not Bibi, and not even a member of the Knesset, or on any party’s list to become one. And even Bibi could not simply retake Bethlehem and Beit Jaaleh without awakening a firestorm of reaction from the EU, UN, USA and other organizations with ostensibly Christian majority membership, which are all but openly hostile to us on a good day.
So, your hostility towards me is misplaced and not reciprocated. We have a common enemy. They’re trying to invade your country, are already in mine and in Europe and Africa, and we can each hang separately, or all hang together. At least then we have a chance that with G-d’s help could yield a happy outcome.
As I said before, Christians are not invaders in the Holy Land, they have every right to be there, since they've been there for 2000 years. For example, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has been there since the first century. Whereas the vast majority of Israeli Jews are recent arrivals from Europe.
I’d love to give that protection to them, despite this checkered history of theirs,
I'm glad you recent arrivals are so gracious to people who have been there for 2000 years.
I never said that Christians were invaders in the Land of Israel. The Muslims who call themselves Palestinians are.
Christians of some sort or other may have been in Israel for a long time, but it’s utter balderdash to claim that the Christians presently living in Israel are direct descendants of the apostles, or that the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is practicing the same religion that the first church established there with that office did. For one thing, the language spoken in that first Church was not Greek, and it had nothing whatever to do with the Byzantine empire later embodied in the Greek Church. For another, they did not worship Jesus as a god, and kept all the 613 mitzvot. You seem to have no trouble understanding that the vast majority of Jews coming from Europe and the Middle East were not in Israel for the past 1,800 years, but have a problem wrapping your mind around the fact that the few Christians living in Israel at the time that our return started were also not.
“I’m glad you recent arrivals are so gracious to people who have been there for 2000 years.”
To people who joined Muslims in pogroms and terrorism against us for the past 100 years? Yeah. We’re pretty forgiving about that. I mean, what Christian or Muslim nation didn’t over the past 2000 years, either in or out of Israel. But one thing I don’t forgive is people who waste my time. Go ahead with your next non-sequiter. I’m no longer listening. Alas! Babble on.
BM
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