The Hidden Palestinian Crisis

Or maybe it should be called the “unmentionable” Palestinian Crisis.

Expert: “Christian groups in PA to disappear”

“The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs,” said Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer in an address at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he serves as a scholar in residence.

He cited Muslim harassment and persecution as the main cause of the “acute human rights crisis” facing Christian Arabs, and predicted that unless governments or institutions step in to remedy the situation – such as with job opportunities – there will be no more Christian communities living in the Palestinians territories within 15 years, with only a few Western Christians and top clergymen left in the area.

“Christian leaders are being forced to abandon their followers to the forces of radical Islam,” Weiner said.

Facing a pernicious mixture of persecution and economic hardships as a result of years of Palestinian violence and Israeli counter-terrorism measures, tens of thousands of Christian Arabs have left the Palestinian territories for a better life in the West, in a continuing exodus which has led some Christian leaders to warn that the faith could be virtually extinct in its birthplace in a matter of decades.

The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, down from at least 15% a half century ago, according to some estimates.

No one city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the great exodus of Christians than Bethlehem, which fell under full Palestinian control last decade as part of the Oslo Accords.

Or maybe that’s all a bunch of Israeli or Jewish or Zionist or American or Christian or anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab or anti-Muslim propaganda. You know, trying to distract from the “more prominent” problem of the Palestinian right of return and right to a Palestinian state. Or something.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And her people. All her people. Amen.

Pick Your Person of the Year

Time magazine is trying to figure it out again. (Actually, I suspect they’ve already chosen.)

But you could vote anyway — here.

A former Vice President turned green guru? A former First Lady turned First Candidate? How about a fiery Middle East leader, or the brains behind Harry Potter? Take a look at these and other possible contenders, and vote for your pick.

PS: I didn’t bother voting. 😀

Eritrea: What of It?

Eritrea : An “Open-Air Prison”

Eritrean government aggression against its own people continues unabated. It ranges from deliberate mass starvation to imprisonment without trial, torture, murder and disappearances. The aim is to crush any minimal claims or hopes for liberty and rule of law. The international media rights watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontiers, describes the country as an “open-air prison” under the most brutal dictatorship the African continent has ever seen.

The dictator, Isaias Afeworki, justifies his regime’s actions as a requirement until his border dispute with Ethiopia is resolved. No one is impressed by such an irresponsible ploy. Isaias’s core motive is to cling to power by all means possible. The fact remains Eritreans do not need tyranny and mass imprisonment to do what is right in defense of their homeland.

Two thirds of the population needs external food aid, according to the UN. But the regime continues to refuse aid under bogus self-reliance pretexts. The people are daily terrorized, intimidated and starved as a means of controlling them and preempting any popular uprising. The tyrannical regime treats every Eritrean as a potential enemy that must be controlled or liquidated.

Aggression is at its worst once an individual is arrested and imprisoned incommunicado for an indefinite period of time because of his/her political views or faith. Thousands – perhaps tens of thousands – of prisoners of conscience are rotting in gruesome conditions in prisons throughout the country.

Many are kept in dungeons and metal shipping containers under smoldering heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. Many die as a result, or become partially or fully paralyzed; one of the victims is the renowned Gospel singer, Helen Berhane. Sanitation is said to be mostly non-existent. There is no medical treatment for injured torture victims.

So?

Clarification: Wednesday, December 5 @ 7:29 am

My “So?” above, along with the post title, is intended to ask if the world cares. I posted in a hurry and neglected to make sure that was clear. It wasn’t.

I don’t think I have a careless attitude about the suffering around me and in other parts of the world. But do I have a caring heart?

A Lying “Live” Webcam?

These days I have an interest in weather conditions on Mt. Hood. I will have to drive there to get to central Oregon when my oldest daughter gets ready to have her third child.

So this morning I checked my usual webcam. (The one on the right on this screen shot.)


click for larger image

Then I happened across KGW’s webcam (shown on the left above) for Timberline Lodge, uphill several miles from the webcam on the right.

Notice that KGW’s web camera is self-identified as “live”! It even counts down and “refreshes” every 10 minutes or so.

Maybe there’s global warming going on at Timberline and it hasn’t worked its way down to Government Camp yet.

Maybe by the time I have to drive by there, it will have globally warmed at Government Camp.

Meanwhile, I often get to see Mt. Hood on the way to/from school with my two youngest children. It doesn’t look at all as KGW depicts it.

(Today’s Cheap Shot: What’s else is KGW broadcasting that’s not a reflection of reality?) 😀

A Two-State Solution

BOA (Bush, Olmert, Abbas) sounds sinister, but it makes a handy, efficient acronym. (I certainly don’t mean it to sound disrespectful, I should append.)

When BOA (and others) talk of a two-state solution, they have in mind Israel and Palestine. Like this:

Palestinian state crucial for Israel, Olmert says

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after peace talks in Washington that failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians could threaten Israel’s long-term survival.

When I think of a two-state reality, I think of Gaza and the West Bank. These are both Palestinian entities, but they are two separate entities. At each other’s throats. Frequently, literally. With Israel sorta surrounding and sorta surrounded by the pinchers.

They already threaten Israel’s long-term viability.

To continue negotiations with them, especially with the weaker pincher, only makes matters worse.

And matters will get worse. Much worse. Modern Israel ain’t seen nothing yet.

That’s how I read my Bible, anyway.

Oh, and speaking of the West Bank and Gaza (and even the Golan Heights) . . . .

Why should they be Israel’s any less than certain American states, seized and annexed from Mexico, are the US’s?

Perhaps pro-two-stater politicians in the US should lead by example and enter into negotiations with Mexico for the return of those certain American states.

Just a thought.

A wild one, I know, especially since (good) example and politics may be oxymoronic concepts. 🙂

Peephole into My Heart

This week we’re having revival meetings at our home congregation. Our visiting preacher is my cousin AH from Georgia. His message last night was on individualism. Wow! What an excellent message! I’ve got to talk to my friend LM about getting it in MP3 format so I can post it online.

Anyway, about the meat of this post. In his devotional before the message, one of our local ministers (PT) read from and commented on Psalm 26.

These two verses spoke to my heart in particular:

“Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide” (1).

“For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth” (3).

That’s how I want to walk!

Well, that seemed like a good “Search of the Day” candidate, but I opted to use my computer Bible instead of Google.

Not many results. Here are two in the Outstanding to Me category:

“If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity” (Job 31:5,6).

“And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.” (Isaiah 38:3).

I need to work on that. The talk part of Christianity is important; much more the walk part. If my faith in Jesus doesn’t direct my walk (that is, my life in every dimension), that faith is suspect. Like I said, I especially need to work on the walk part.

Thankfully, it’s not just me at work on me. God Himself is the Master Craftsman!

These days His work has me struggling in deep waters that seem to crash over my head and surge into my nose too often.

So these two songs presented by Voice of Praise in their Reunion release have made new connections with me:
      • No, Not One
      • Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

God is greatest and John the Baptist was His prophet!

Mr. President, Don’t Divide Jerusalem

Joel Rosenberg reports in his blog:

The Bush administration’s much-anticipated and highly-controversial Arab-Israeli peace conference opens tomorrow in Annapolis, Maryland. A great deal is at stake. The most contentious issue on the table: the future of Jerusalem. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is talking openly about the possibility of dividing the holy city and giving part of it to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. This would be a mistake of colossal proportions. It will not send a message of goodwill and peace to Israel’s enemies, as Olmert and his advisors hope. Rather, it will invite more attacks by radical Islamic jihadists who want all of Jerusalem, not just part of it. What’s more, even mere talk of dividing Jerusalem fuels the apocalyptic, genocidal ambitions of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his colleagues who believe Israel’s day of judgment is coming and that Shia Muslims are destined to annihilate Judeo-Christian civilization and gain control of Jerusalem for themselves.

Mr. President, don’t divide Jerusalem. Don’t consider it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t encourage others to talk about it. Doing so will bring war — and a horrifying one at that — not the peace that you seek. Rather, open tomorrow’s conference by making it crystal clear that precisely because we want peace in the Middle East, we will not support any division of Jerusalem any more than we would support dividing Washington or London or Paris or Moscow with our enemies or our neighbors.

Then we have this news story from Agence Presse France via Yahoo: Israelis, Palestinians make progress in US talks

Israel and the Palestinians said Monday they had made major progress in reviving frozen peace talks, as US President George W. Bush launched his biggest push yet to end the Middle East conflict.

And WorldNetDaily reports:

Syria agreed to attend this week’s U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit after Damscus received American and Israeli commitments the Golan Heights would be put on the table at the Israeli-Palestinian conference.

The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory that looks down on Israeli population centers, and was twice used by Syria to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.

WND prefaces its report with this observation: “U.S. invitation has no preconditions for state accused of supporting terror.”

In my view, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief to accept all this as good news.

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Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005