The Holy Land Thread

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The Holy Land Thread

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The Holy Land Thread

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Wosbald wrote: 27 Feb 2023, 23:34 +JMJ+

Yair Rosenberg @Yair_Rosenberg | Twitter
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Revenge riots and looting?

American suburban Democrats will fill their lawns with signs saying "JLM" and "Jewish Lives Matter."
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Holy Land Peace

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+JMJ+

Second Statement Regarding the Increasing Cycle of Violence in the Holy Land [Press Release]

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(Source: LPJ.Org)

We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, are saddened by the latest escalation of violence in the Holy Land.

On Sunday night, February 26th, dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged through the Palestinian town of Huwara near Nablus, killing a man, injuring dozens of people with metal rods and tear gas, and torching scores of buildings and cars. This took place as a retaliation after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli settlers near the same town — an act itself in response to the killing of eleven Palestinians in Nablus the week before.

This recent escalation came during and following the conclusion of a rare meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Aqaba, Jordan, in which Israel promised to halt settlement expansion in the Palestinian areas, and to stop, along with the Palestinians, a spiraling and senseless escalation.

These painful developments make it ever more necessary not only to immediately de-escalate tensions in words and deeds, but also to find a more lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in accordance with international resolutions and legitimacy.

With all people of good will, we pray to the Lord for peace and justice in our beloved Holy Land, where all have been tormented by this painful, long-term conflict.

    — The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem

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Second Statement Regarding the Increasing Cycle of Violence in the Holy Land [PDF]
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Netanyahu Flinched [Analysis, Opinion]

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(Credit: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP / Getty)

The Israeli prime minister and his radical allies pushed the country to the brink — and inspired the greatest mass movement in its history.

Last night, hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets, believing their country’s democracy to be in peril. The immediate precipitant for this popular protest was the firing of Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister. A former general tasked with overseeing the Jewish state’s security, Gallant had called for his own coalition to pause its attempted overhaul of the Israeli judicial system, arguing that division around the plan was undermining national cohesion. Rather than accede to Gallant’s proposal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired him. But although this removal provided the spark for Israel’s extraordinary explosion of civil dissent, the tinder had been building for months.

In January, shortly after the new hard-right Israeli government assumed office, it unveiled its first major initiative: a sweeping reconstruction of the country’s judiciary. Israel’s Supreme Court is arguably the most powerful such body in the world, and experts and politicians have long called for a recalibration of its powers. But the radical wish list produced by Netanyahu’s coalition seeks not to reform the court but to neuter it, and would essentially allow the ruling government to appoint all judges and override their decisions. This plan was composed in the halls of conservative think tanks, with no input from opposition parties and no attempt to broker a national consensus. What’s more, this effort to fundamentally revise Israel’s democratic order came from a government that received less than half the vote in the last election.

It did not go over well.

On the first Saturday night of January, tens of thousands of Israelis began demonstrating in Tel Aviv, setting off a chain of weekly protests. The crowds soon swelled to hundreds of thousands, not just in more liberal centers like Tel Aviv but in more middle-of-the-road places such as Ashdod and Beersheba. The mass movement brought together previously unimaginable bedfellows — including the conservative family of Israel’s first Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin, and the elected leaders of both Israel’s Arab parties. Business and technology leaders openly came out against the judicial plan and began shifting capital out of Israel. Civil servants warned that the reform threatened Israel’s economic and international standing. Israel’s mild-mannered president, Isaac Herzog, attempted to broker a compromise and was rebuffed by Netanyahu. Most remarkable, many Israelis in elite army units declared that they would refuse to serve if the legislation passed. Israel has a citizen’s army populated by a universal draft, and this sort of mass disobedience was both unprecedented and a genuine threat to the country’s national security. It was this development that prompted Gallant to speak out.

In recent weeks, ministers in Netanyahu’s government have dined with a convicted member of an organized-crime family, insulted the United Arab Emirates, and called to “wipe out” a Palestinian village. None of these individuals was publicly reprimanded by the prime minister. Gallant, by contrast, was promptly fired for questioning the judicial-reform plan. Netanyahu apparently hoped to make an example of him and quell further dissent. Instead, he supercharged it.

[…]

In the face of this outcry, Netanyahu did something unusual: He folded, at least temporarily. On Monday evening Israel time, he announced that he would be pausing — but not abandoning — the legislation. “We are not standing facing enemies, but facing brothers,” he said. “We must not have a civil war.” For more than a decade, Netanyahu has caved when pressured by his hard-right base. But this time, he was compelled to concede by an emergent counterweight to his left. This was a victory for the protesters, but only a partial one.

The news that Netanyahu had flinched was first made official not by the premier but by Itamar Ben-Gvir, his far-right national-security minister, in a telling demonstration of who has been driving the car in this Israeli government. Ben-Gvir then promised that the reform would still pass by late summer. Netanyahu and his allies are likely betting that the pause will take the wind out of the protest movement’s sails, and that, having exhausted itself in the streets, it will dissipate during the Passover holiday, enabling the coalition to proceed with its plan after a pretense of negotiation.

Is Bibi right? The protests have only grown since January, fueled by people-to-people organizing in WhatsApp groups and social networks. Many Israelis who previously eschewed politics have thrown themselves into the fray, and even show signs of coalescing into an actual opposition with specific goals. This movement has already forced Netanyahu to throw his coalition into chaos by halting its signature legislation. In his overreach, Netanyahu may have created a new adversary.

The question now is not only whether the protesters can keep their movement alive through the coming weeks, but also whether they will prove able to build a true pro-democracy movement, expanding its aims beyond this bill to address Israel’s other long-standing deficits. Whatever the next days bring, one thing is certain: The struggle for Israeli democracy is just beginning.


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Holy Land Christians say attacks rising in far-right Israel

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Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads the Easter Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, April 9, 2023. Since the rise of Israel’s most right-wing government in history, church leaders say the 2,000-year-old Christian community in Jerusalem has come under increasing attack, with an uptick in harassment of clergy and vandalism of religious properties. Several church leaders, including the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the region, told The Associated Press they fear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition has empowered extremists. (Credit: Mahmoud Illean/AP)

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

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

The uptick in anti-Christian incidents comes as the Israeli settler movement, galvanized 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 said during Easter week from his office, tucked in the limestone passageways of the Old City’s Christian Quarter. “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 prioritizes 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 now Netanyahu’s far-right government includes settler leaders in key roles — such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and 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 right-wing elements are out to Judaize 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 Mideast 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 Inter-Church Center, a group that coordinates between the denominations.

Physical assaults and harassment of clergy often go unreported, the center 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 in all of 2022. Church leaders blame Israeli extremists for most of the incidents, and say they fear an even greater surge.

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

[…]

But Christians allege that Israeli police haven’t taken most attacks seriously. In one case, 25-year-old George Kahkejian said he was the one beaten, arrested and detained for 17 hours after a mob of Jewish settlers scaled his Armenian Christian convent to tear down its flag earlier this year. The police had no immediate comment.

“We see that most incidents in our quarter have gone unpunished,” complained Father Aghan Gogchian, chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate. He expressed disappointment with how authorities frequently insist cases of desecration and harassment hinge not on religious hatred but on mental illness.

The Israeli police said they have “thoroughly investigated (incidents) regardless of background or religion” and made “speedy arrests.” The Jerusalem municipality is boosting security at upcoming Orthodox Easter processions and creating a new police department to handle religiously motivated threats, said Jerusalem deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.

Most top Israeli officials have stayed quiet on the vandalism, while government moves — including the introduction of a law criminalizing Christian proselytizing and the promotion of plans to turn the Mount of Olives into a national park — have stoked outrage in the Holy Land and beyond.

Netanyahu vowed to block the bill from moving forward, following pressure from outraged evangelical Christians in the United States. Among the strongest backers of Israel, evangelicals view a Jewish state as the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy.

Meanwhile Jerusalem officials confirmed that they’re pressing on with the contentious zoning plan for the Mount of Olives — a holy pilgrimage site with some dozen historic churches. Christian leaders fear the park could stem their growth and encroach on their lands. Jewish settlements home to over 200,000 Israelis already encircle the Old City.

The Israeli National Parks Authority promised buy-in from churches and said it hopes the park will “preserve valuable areas as open areas.”

Pizzaballa pushed back. “It’s a kind of confiscation,” he said.

[…]


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Holy Land Peace

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+JMJ+

Source: National Catholic Reporter / OSV News
Link: ncronline DOT org/news/latin-patriarch-condemns-israeli-assault-palestinians-urges-dialogue-prevent-future-attacks
Latin patriarch condemns Israeli assault on Palestinians, urges dialogue to prevent future attacks

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July 13, 2023 — Cardinal-designate Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed the need to respect and protect the life and dignity of Palestinians during a July 10 visit to Jenin, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the city July 5.

"I see another face of resilience. I see people suffering, people experiencing the consequences of the occupation, but at the same time I see people who don't want to leave, who don't give up, who don't let anyone break down their will to live with dignity in their homeland," said the cardinal-designate in an interview with Franciscan Christian Media Center, a day after being named a cardinal by Pope Francis.

On July 3, the Israeli military launched a major assault on the Jenin refugee camp located in the West Bank Palestinian city of Jenin in a two-day operation that they said was meant to destroy militant infrastructure and weapons, cracking down on a hotbed of Palestinian militant activity.

Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed during the operation, and more than 100 Palestinians were wounded, including civilians.

In a July 4 statement, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem condemned the violence and demanded a ceasefire. "(We) hope for pursuit of peace and dialogue to prevent other future unjustified attacks on the population," he said.

The assault was the largest incursion against Palestinian militants in 20 years, since fighting during the Second Intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s. The attack came amid a string of terror attacks by Palestinians and nightly Israel Defence Forces military raids.

Since the beginning of this year, 25 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including soldiers and civilians. During this period, at least 152 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed, with most of them being involved in clashes with security forces or carrying out attacks. However, there also were cases of uninvolved civilians being killed.

The July military attack caused major damage to the city's roads and buildings, including the Latin Catholic Church of the Holy Redeemer, when a large explosion near the church shattered windows, destroyed the electrical source and caused other structural damage.

The explosion took place on the night of the invasion when no one was in the church, so no one was injured while fighting was taking place outside, Fr. Labib Deibs, the parish priest, told the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Media Center.

Young members of the parish swept up the broken glass and cleaned the church as best they could, and they were able to pray there, said Deibs.

"We ask God to bring peace to this land, because it desperately needs it. Human rights need to be protected in order for human beings to live a respectful life," he said. "We pray for peace to manifest in this land."

[…]

Christians are a tiny minority in Jenin, with some 200 Christians living among the city's Muslim majority, who number 50,000 residents. Approximately one-third of the population lives in the Jenin refugee camp.

Pizzaballa's visit included seeing civil authorities in Jenin Governorate, and the Jenin Governmental Hospital, and a tour of the Jenin refugee camp. The cardinal-designate stressed the need to stop all forms of violence and to seek a just and comprehensive solution to bring peace to the Holy Land.

"As a church we don't have an army, we don't have weapons, we don't believe in violence, we are against all forms of violence. But we are here to express our solidarity with the dignity and freedom of Palestinians," he said. "Hope remains, as well as the need to seek a just and comprehensive peace that includes all parties."


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Title: Israel Has Already Lost [News Analysis]
Source: The Atlantic
Link: theatlantic DOT com/ideas/archive/2023/07/israel-supreme-court-netanyahu-parliament/674833/

The Money-Quotes:
Polls consistently show that two-thirds of Israel’s citizens oppose the ruling coalition’s unilateral overhaul of the judiciary. Put another way, most Israelis simply do not trust the intentions of their own government. They do not believe that Netanyahu, let alone the extremist allies he depends upon to maintain his power, will be more reasonable than the unelected Supreme Court. And they do not believe that the coalition will stop with this small salvo against the judiciary when it has already announced its intentions to deconstruct the entire edifice. The Israeli opposition has lost faith in its countrymen to act in the best interest of the entire nation, which is why its leaders now openly accuse the government of seeking to destroy democracy.

This rancor extends well beyond the usual partisan politics, and it runs both ways. Rather than attempting to calm the waters and reestablish civic trust, Netanyahu’s far-right ministers have rubbed their recent victory in the opposition’s face and promised more of the same. “The salad bar is open,” crowed Ben-Gvir on Saturday night, framing the impending reasonableness reform as merely the appetizer for a much more forbidding buffet. A cannier, more responsible politician would mouth platitudes about how This is a difficult time for Israel, but we are all patriots who want the best for one another and the country. Ben-Gvir does not believe that — and rarely feels compelled to pretend that he does. Instead, he and his allies have cast the hundreds of thousands of anti-overhaul street protesters as “privileged anarchists” and foreign-funded enemies, rather than fellow citizens expressing genuine concern. Something has gone terribly wrong in a country where this is how leaders speak about those they are supposed to shepherd.

Such an utter collapse of shared solidarity is unprecedented in Israeli history, which is why what happens next is so uncertain. In the days ahead, Israel’s Supreme Court may overturn this first strike against its authority, something it has never done before to a quasi-constitutional “basic law” of this kind. The justices may let the legislation stand but interpret it into irrelevance, coming up with new legal ways to get to the same results that the reasonableness doctrine previously provided. Or the Court may punt entirely, deciding that it lacks the power to overrule such a parliamentary prerogative.

[…]

Still, though the ultimate outcome of this week’s events remains in limbo, one thing is certain: Regardless of whether Israel loses its independent judiciary, it has already lost a core component of any functioning democracy — the sense of collective concern among citizens. And that is something that cannot be fixed by any legislation or court order.


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The Holy Land Thread

Post by Del »

Apparently nothing interesting happens (or ever happened) in the Holy Land except politics. And according to the anti-semitic news, the politics is very, very bad.

I heard this observation from Dennis Prager, a few weeks ago:
"If Israel's enemies put down all of their weapons, there would be peace in the Middle East.
If Israel put down all of their weapons, Israel's enemies would destroy the nation and kill all of its people in a week."


Donald Trump was very close to establishing a lasting peace in the Middle East, with mutually beneficial alliances between Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab States, and Western nations of peaceful will -- against the terrorist state of Iran, China, and their deadly agents in Palestine. This was something that wosbald's Democrat media could not abide.
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The Holy Land Thread

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+JMJ+

Source: Crux
Link: cruxnow DOT com/2023-consistory-and-synod-for-synodality/2023/09/new-jersualem-cardinal-calls-gaza-under-israeli-control-an-open-prison
New Jersualem cardinal calls Gaza under Israeli control an ‘open prison’

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ROME — As Israel faces ongoing political and social instability, its new cardinal has said that since achieving stable peace in the near future is unlikely, constructive efforts in facilitating dialogue are needed.

Speaking to journalists during a Sept. 28 press briefing, Cardinal-Designate Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said his appointment was a surprise, and that he sees the red hat as “a responsibility.”

“To be a cardinal is not just a title, but also a responsibility, to be a voice from Jerusalem, of Jerusalem, about our situation, and also from Jerusalem to all the churches, to be able to say something positive for constructive building in this very complicated context,” he said, referring to Israel’s socio-political crisis and the broader tensions of the Holy Land.

Constructive efforts in bettering the current situation are difficult “but not impossible,” he said, saying what can be done to improve the status quo “depends on what your perspective is.”

“If you want to arrive to a solution of peace where everyone is living peacefully and will love one another, of course we are not there, and I don’t think we are going to see this [anytime] soon,” he said.

Yet at the same time, Pizzaballa insisted that “it’s possible to create a context of peace, a context of encounter, of dialogue, in society, in groups, in movements.”

“There are many people, Israelis and Palestinians, belonging to different religions, Christians, Muslims and Jews, who are ready to cooperate, to do something positive in society. This is what we have to do right now,” he said.

Pizzaballa, who will get his red hat from Pope Francis Saturday, has been in the Holy Land for 34 years, and is seen as one of the most authoritative Church voices on regional affairs.

His appointment takes place amid a recent uptick in violence between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as ongoing tensions over the controversial judicial reform pioneered by the rightwing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

[…]

Church leaders have spoken out against [the empowerment of Israeli settlers to tighten Jewish control of the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem], voicing concern that such efforts are a threat to the Christian presence in Jerusalem, while Palestinians have pushed back.

[…]

Observers have also warned that democracy in Israel is at stake amid the debate over a controversial judicial overhaul.

In July the Israeli parliament passed a controversial law stripping the Supreme Court of its power to declare government decisions unreasonable, marking the first step in a massive judicial overhaul which many fear will worsen the country’s crisis.

In his conversation with journalists, Pizzaballa said the Church’s position on issues such as the current political upheaval “is that we never say anything publicly about this, because it’s a crisis within the Israeli Jewish society mostly.”

“We say what we have to say, which is, you cannot change basic laws by majority, you need to have a vast majority. These laws should reflect the desire and the will of all the country, which is not the case right now,” he said.

[…]

Another issue Pizzaballa addressed is current debate over the international status of Jerusalem, one of the most sensitive topics in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

[…]

“First of all, I have to say that it’s the first time after many years that the Holy See is talking about Jerusalem and the Status of Jerusalem. It’s something we didn’t hear, not only from the Holy See, but many other countries, for a long time,” Pizzaballa said.

Apart from the United States and a few other countries, there are no embassies in Jerusalem, he said, “because embassies are in Tel Aviv and also because from the international community, the status of Jerusalem is still under discussion, (it) should still be under discussion.”

“How realistic it is, it depends how strong the international community wants to be,” he said.

[…]

Pizzaballa also addressed the current situation in Gaza, a Palestinian city on the Gaza Strip under Israeli control which has traditionally been a hotbed of violence in the Israel–Palestine conflict.

“Gaza is a prison, an open prison. Two million people packed inside there with a very difficult economic and social perspective for the future,” he said.

The Christian community in Gaza ironically complains the least, because they are “very well united, maybe because of the situation,” he said, and called the political and social situation of Gaza “something shameful.”


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The Holy Land Thread

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https://x.com/sentdefender/status/17107 ... 68691?s=20

Israeli Defense Forces are still Engaged with Hamas Terrorists in roughly 22 Locations across Southern Israel with 2 being considered Active Hostage Incidents.
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