Catholic and other sources mis-represent Holy Land conflict

In this week’s Catholic Spirit  (Dec. 4 issue) your guest commentary by Tony Magliano, CNS, reflects a disturbing trend and attitude concerning Israel and the Palestinians that far too many Catholic sources perpetuate. He starts off by writing: "Since the occupation of Gaza and of the West Bank . . . " as though Israel has had nothing better to do. Do any of these pro-Palestinians ever acknowledge the root cause of the so-called "occupation"? Continuing on he writes, "Though most Christians there have stayed out of the fighting…" and then casually notes, "Moslem fighters often shoot at the nearby Jewish settlements . . . from the rooftops of Christian houses."  Obviously, the next phrase is: "The Israeli military fires upon Christian civilians and their houses."

 Well, what does he or they expect? Are the "Christians" doing anything to stop the "Moslems," or perhaps is that the fundamental problem? He concludes by stating that "American Catholics are in an excellent position to influence the politics of the region."  Perhaps they already do, and perhaps they should do so even more strongly by rebuffing the long standing propaganda and bias of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, among others, who, in essence, have become just another front for the militant Jihad Islamists?

[An article] in today’s Sunday Home News-Tribune  (Dec. 7 issue, p. A9) headlined "Truce unlikely in Mideast" (AP–Cairo, Egypt) said, "Hopes faded for Palestinians to offer a full-scale truce to Israel as the militant Hamas and Syrian-based factions said Saturday that they would accept only a narrow cease-fire halting attacks on civilians inside Israeli territory . . . Israel has hinted it could reduce its own military actions if a truce is declared, but it said the cease-fire must be total and be followed by the dismantling of Palestinian militant groups." This is something the CNEWA needs to sink its teeth into.

Contrast the attitude cited above with the "positive" portrayal by your staff writer, Chris Donahue, in "Christians in Holy Land seek stability in wood." Support for these true Arab Christians in the Holy Land who are striving to succeed by their marvelous wood carvings presents an entirely different image and worthy of everyone’s fullest support, especially that of the CNEWA.

 We waited a long time before you published the guest commentary by Douglas W. Kmiec, CNS, in your Oct. 23 issue, "Was the war in Iraq Justified?" Mr. Kmiec wrote, "Were we right about the magnitude of evil? Regretfully, yes." Later he concluded, "As the pope wrote in 1993, there is a duty to disarm ‘an unjust aggressor,’ [and] states no longer have a ‘right of indifference’ . . . John Paul II was writing then about the duty of humanitarian intervention, and in the final analysis that is what our nation did in Iraq and continues to do."

 These two items [are] inter-related. Christian Arabs are, or can be, citizens of Israel. They even have seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. It has been proven over and over again, that they are far better off in Israel than in any other Arab country, anywhere. The money given to the so-called "Palestinians," and undoubtedly largely from many Catholic sources, never got into the hands of the people.

Practically all "Christian" shrines are dominated and controlled by Arab Muslims, and only became accessible after  Israel won every war that the Arabs started! "Occupation" was the defensive result of those wars. When else in such situations do, or have, the victors returned the losses to the defeated (except for the United States)?

Opinions expressed in this section are those of the letter writer and do not necessarily reflect Church teaching, nor the position of The Catholic Spirit or the Diocese of Metuchen.

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