I feel a great deal of sympathy for the villagers of Bethlehem. But reading between the lines, I come to a slightly different conclusion: The problem isn’t the wall. The problem is Bethlehem is on the wrong side of it. Wolverine>

While Christians suffer from the oppresssion of the Palestinian authorities (mainly Hamas extremists), the world continues to blame the Jews. Will nothing ever change?>

Deanna, The wall around Bethlehem is a shameful embarrassment for three of the world’s great religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam. How can American Christians work to have the wall around Bethlehem removed? Would putting pressure on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) do any good? .>

I’d be more inclined to believe this data if the poll wasn’t conducted by Zogby. He’s notorious for being Pro-Palestinian.>

Deanna, From your quote, “Only 50,000 Christians remain in the Palestinian territories and within a few years there may be no Christians left in the Holy Land”, you seem to be saying that only the Palestinian territories comprise the holy land. One of the reasons all of the land of Israel, including the so called Palestinian territories is called the “holy land” is because it is God’s land, according to Joel 3:2. I know for a fact there are thousands of Messianic Jews living in Israel. So your statement is hooey.>

A battered Bethlehem celebrates Christmas The Associated Press, Sunday, December 24, 2006 BETHLEHEM, West Bank Thousands of people joined by marching bands, clergymen in magenta skullcaps and children dressed as Santa Claus celebrated Christmas Eve in the center of Bethlehem Sunday, doing their best to dispel the gloom hovering over Jesus’ traditional birthplace. Most were local residents or Christian Arabs from neighboring Israel, with a sprinkling of foreign tourists. “It hasn’t really set in that I am here in Bethlehem where everything happened so many thousand years ago,” said an overwhelmed Matt Lafontaine, a 21-year-old university student from Plymouth, Minnesota. “It’s really exciting. It’s just starting to set in. It’s surreal.” In an annual tradition, Bethlehem’s residents enacted Christmas rituals that seem out of place in the Middle East. Palestinian Scouts marched through the streets, some wearing kilts and pompom-topped berets, playing drums and bagpipes. They passed inflatable red-suited Santas, looking forlorn in the West Bank sunshine. Other scenes of this Bethlehem Christmas, however, could be found nowhere else. To get to town, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the Roman Catholic Church’s highest official in the Holy Land, rode in his motorcade through a huge steel gate in the Israeli separation barrier that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem. Israel says it built the barrier to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli population centers. Palestinians view the structure, which dips into parts of the West Bank, as a land grab. The robed clergyman was led into Palestinian-controlled territory by a formal escort of five Israeli policemen mounted on horses. Two Israeli Border Police troops closed the gate behind him. Sabbah, wearing a flowing gold and burgundy robe, led a procession into St. Catherine’s Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, for midnight Mass. Hundreds of worshippers packed the cavernous hall for the service, as clergymen chanted in Latin amid the sound of bells and organ music. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the ceremony, escorted by a large security detail to a front row seat. In his homily, Sabbah offered a blessing to Abbas, appealed to Palestinians to halt their recent “fratricidal struggles” and called for an end to Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. “The conflict here has lasted too long,” he said. “It is high time that the leaders who have our destinies in their hands in this land specifically, the Palestinian and Israeli leaders as well as those of the international community it is time for all of them to take new measures that will bring an end to the long phase of death in our history and lead us into a new phase in the history of this Holy Land.” Sabbah asked all political leaders and adversaries, including Israeli troops and those “who are classified as extremists and terrorists ” to “examine their conscience” to end the bloodshed. Earlier, Abbas expressed hope that his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Saturday would lead to a peace breakthrough. He called the meeting “a good start.” “I congratulate our people, especially our Christian brothers, not only here but all around the world for Christmas and the New Year, God bless us,” said Abbas, who is Muslim. Bethlehem’s tourist industry has been hit hard by the last six years of Israeli-Palestinian violence and by the barrier, which Israel began building in 2002, but also by internal Palestinian friction. This Christmas is the first under a Palestinian Authority governed by the militant Islamic group Hamas. To alleviate Christian fears ahead of the holiday, Hamas promised that it would send $50,000 ( 38,000) to decorate Manger Square in the center of town for the holiday. It was not clear if the money ever arrived. Manger Square and the surrounding buildings were decorated in bright neon lights. Bands performed on a stage, and a large screen beamed images of Palestinian flags and officials. But few foreign tourists appeared to be among the crowd. “It’s a lot more positive than I thought,” said one of the foreigners, Frank Baumann, 59, of Squamish, Canada, who came with his wife and three daughters. “It’s very festive and everybody is in a good mood. There’s certainly no sense of any violence.” Standing outside his empty souvenir shop, George Baboul said this is the “worst Christmas” he has seen in more than 30 years. Baboul’s shop, the “Bethlehem Star Store,” is in a prime location, at the side of the Church of the Nativity, but he said there is no business. “No tourists are coming,” said Baboul, 72, who opened the shop in 1967. “I don’t know what’s the reason for that. There are no problems, Bethlehem is safe, but tourists are afraid to come.” By evening, Manger Square was bustling with thousands of people. The small contingent of foreign tourists included a Polish choir group and a handful of pilgrims from South Korea who gathered to sing carols in one corner of the square, interrupted briefly by the loud call to prayer from a nearby mosque. “It’s exciting. I can feel that Jesus was here,” said Jae Hwan Kim, 29, of Seoul. Israel’s Tourism Ministry forecast 18,000 tourists would visit Bethlehem this year, up from 16,000 last year, but far below the tens of thousands of people who thronged Manger Square at the height of peacemaking in the 1990s. The only large foreign contingent was made up of around 200 Filipino Christians who work in Israel. They made the short trip to Bethlehem with their spiritual leader, Father Angelo. The small, bubbly priest wearing a brown frock predicted 3,000 Filipinos would arrive in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. “It’s Christmas, it’s time for joy, hope and peace, and happiness for all,” he said. With every Christmas, the Holy Land’s Christian community shrinks a bit. The native Palestinian Christian population has dipped below 2 percent of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem, down from at least 15 percent in 1950, by some estimates. Bethlehem is now less than 20 percent Christian. In Gaza, where 3,000 Christians live among around 1.4 million Muslims, the head of the tiny Roman Catholic community, Father Manuel Musallem, canceled Midnight Mass celebration, citing recent Palestinian infighting between Hamas and Fatah. “The children told me Santa Claus won’t come this year because it’s too dangerous,” he said. .>

Don Costello: “I know for a fact there are thousands of Messianic Jews living in Israel. So your statement is hooey.” Source of information?>

I seem to recall a segment on NPR a few years ago that indicated that militant Islamists in Bethlehem were the real cause of the Palestinian Christian exodus from there. I do not doubt that the Israelis have done their share in making life for the Bethlehem Christians more difficult. I think, however, that Arabs, Muslim and Christian alike, tend to see Israel as a convenient scapegoat for all that ails them and their lives. Also, as to the “western converts” reference, Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again to truly know God. That means that regardless of what family or culture we were born into, we must ALL become “converts” to the Way of Jesus to be truly Christians.>

Israel’s Tourism Ministry forecast 18,000 tourists would visit Bethlehem this year, up from 16,000 last year, but far below the tens of thousands of people who thronged Manger Square at the height of peacemaking in the 1990s. Israel has a Tourism Ministry? I wonder what they think about the Wall around Bethlehem? And how has the entire “Wall of Shame” affected tourism to Israel, nationwide? .>

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in Bethlehem, sharply condemned the Israeli government… …for the Separation Wall it is building on Palestinian, West Bank land, which is having a deleterious effect on Bethlehem: ‘ “The wall which we walked through a little while ago is a sign not simply of a passing problem in the politics of one region; it is sign of some of the things that are most deeply wrong in the human heart itself,” Williams told his fellow church leaders, according to Britain’s Press Association. “We are here to say that security for one is security for all. For one to live under threat, whether of occupation, or of terror, is a problem for all, and a pain for all,” he was quoted as saying . . . Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh says the barrier separates residents of this town of 30,000 from jobs, studies, medical facilities and relatives in nearby Jerusalem. He told the visiting clergy the town had been “transformed into an open prison” by the barrier. “Your presence is challenging this ugly wall,” Batarseh was quoted as saying. ‘ .>

The Wall of Shame was paid for by American taxpayers. I forget how many million dollars it cost us. Look what it’s done to the so called Holy Land. Stolen from Palestinian citizens. The town of Bethlehem, imprisoned, apartheid style, a ghetto for Arab Christians. You and I paid for it. .>

From “Impact of the Israeli Security Wall in the Holy Land” oral statement by the Franciscans to the UN Commission on Human Rights: …Regrettably, the construction of the Wall has also to be associated with the increasing number of Israeli settlements in the region. They belong to the same expansionist policy of occupation of Palestinian land and must be opposed. Franciscans International, in cooperation with the Franciscan Justice and Peace Commission of the Custody of the Holy Land urges Israel: 1) To end the occupation of Palestinian territories and to immediately and totally end the establishment of settlements on confiscated Palestinian land; 2) To refrain from pursuing the erection of the wall, the long-lasting effects of which are not compatible with a just and sustainable peace; 3) To start to cooperate fully with the CHR Special Rapporteur as a concrete way to show the government s commitment to internationally recognized human rights standards. Full statement: http://www.franciscansinternational.org/docs/statement.php?id=226 .>

According to the Franciscans, the Wall of Shame cost $1.4 billion. .>

The remarkable thing about Bethlehem is that, given its historical significance for the Jews, Israel hasn’t annexed it outright. One could make a strong case that this would be the best thing that could happen for the town’s Christian population. Wolverine>

Why don’t you go ahead and make that case, Wolverine. But don’t forget to include the Palestinians in your proposal, or your case will have no merit. And the war will go on indefinitely. .>

Yes, Wolverine. Don’t forget to include the Palestinian Muslims in your proposal, who would assuredly bomb everything in sight until Israel gave up Bethlehem.>

It’s only too easy for hard line Israeli politicians to take American aid while abusing Palestinian rights. Palestinian radicals respond with suicide bombings. But most Palestinians are against the violence. They just want a normal life. Most Israelis are against the hardline policies. They understand that until Palestinian rights are respected, the nation of Israel will remain at risk. Israeli hardliners are endangering world peace and Israel’s very existence. America should just stop financing Israel’s apartheid policy. .>

Yes, Wolverine, You don’t seem to care much what the Palestinian Christians want for themselves, or where they see their difficulties arising from. They are most definitely Palestinian, and want self-determination for themselves and their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Cynthia>