Bethlehem Christians fear Muslim reprisals
Your Dec. 23 article, "Americans are unclear on Bethlehem facts," was misguided, at best, if not ill-conceived.
In my many visits to Jerusalem in the past years, I occasionally was taken to tour Bethlehem. My Israeli host would take me to visit her Christian business friends to purchase gifts or for an afternoon tea. This practice ended after 2000 when the Israeli government handed the control of Bethlehem to the PLO thugs.
Before 2000, Bethlehem was 75 percent Christian and 25 percent Muslim. Now, with Christians escaping the city from fear of Muslim gangs, it's 25 percent Christian and 75 percent Muslims. The reason why you hear some Christian Arabs blaming Israel is pure fear of Muslim reprisal.
The reason for the deteriorating conditions in Bethlehem is because the Israeli "Occupation" ended, and not as that article alluded.
HIRAM COHEN
Colonie
Original Article:
Americans are unclear on Bethlehem facts
By CHRIS HERLINGER, [aka moslem apologist / appeaser, that shoulbe be his proper title...ed A.I.]
Religion News Service
First published: Saturday, December 23, 2006
American perceptions of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, are at variance with the facts, according to a new survey commissioned by a campaign to draw attention to the city's problems.
Only 26 percent of Americans know that Bethlehem is a Palestinian city within the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a survey conducted by pollsters Zogby International for the group Open Bethlehem. Nearly 60 percent of those polled thought Bethlehem was in Israel.
The poll also found that 59 percent of those surveyed thought Bethlehem's population was either Muslim or Jewish or a mixture of both. Only 15 percent knew Bethlehem's population is actually a mixture of Muslims and Christians, according to Open Bethlehem, an organization trying to keep international focus on the city and the need to preserve its distinct religious heritage.
The organization is among numerous groups trying to stop the flow of Palestinian Christians out of Bethlehem and the West Bank because of deteriorating economic and political conditions. Those problems are caused, advocates said, by Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the separation barrier Israel has constructed.
The survey of 15,000 Americans also found that Americans' perceptions of Bethlehem and its current context are "wildly at odds" with the perceptions of Bethlehem residents, who were polled in a separate survey by the Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue.
While 78 percent of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem surveyed blame the current exodus of Christians from Bethlehem on the separation barrier and other Israeli measures, almost 46 percent of Americans are likely to blame the exodus on Islamic extremism. [And they would be correct in doing so, no matter how hard you try to obfuscate the facts Mr. Herlinger...Images of seething & rabid moslems abound, stories of beheadings as well...There is no way you can make islam appear to be the 'religion of peace' but you can sure shovel the shiite when the need arises...ed A.I.]
Pertinent Links:
1) Bethlehem Christians fear Muslim reprisals
2) Americans are unclear on Bethlehem facts
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