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[Make sure to read Robert Spencer’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
Christmas used to be the season of joy, hope, and renewal, but all that is so pre-October 7. The new Christmas spirit is one of lies, rage, and hate. In that new spirit of the woke twenty-first century victimhood Christmas, the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem has set out a figure of the baby Jesus not in the traditional cradle in a manger, but surrounded by rubble meant to indicate buildings destroyed by the Israelis. Because nothing says Christmas more beautifully than hating Jews, right?
According to a Religion Unplugged report, the Rev. Dr. Munther Ishaq, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, explained: “This is what Christmas looks like in Palestine.” The report adds that “his crèche featuring building debris was a gesture of solidarity with Gaza’s beleaguered civilians caught between Hamas gunmen and Israeli Defense Forces.”
The Religion Unplugged report by Gil Zohar makes no mention of the fact that Gaza’s citizens are “beleaguered” because of Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. Instead, it presents the plight of Bethlehem’s Christians as entirely the fault of the terrible Israelis. Ishaq, whom Zohar further identifies as a “Palestinian theologian,” laments: “Christmas celebrations are canceled this year — for it’s impossible to celebrate Christmas while our people in Gaza are going through a genocide. Usually, it’s Jesus in the manger surrounded by the shepherds, surrounded by the Holy Family Joseph and Mary and the magi who came from the east.”
There is no indication that Zohar challenged Ishaq for his fantastically libelous claim that Israel is carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza. The source for the generally accepted casualty figures in Gaza is the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas. To take their figures at face value would be akin to trusting the word of Josef Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry for information about the conduct of World War II. Hamas has a vested interest in exaggerating the number of civilian casualties in Gaza, because it knows how effectively civilian casualties turn international opinion against Israel.
In service of that goal, Hamas has lied repeatedly. On Oct. 19, for example, the total casualty number increased by 307, from 3,478 to 3,785. Yet at the same time, the total number of children killed went from 853 to 1,524, an increase of 671. Nor was that the only time such a thing happened. On Oct. 26, the total number of casualties increased by 481, while the number of children casualties went up by 626. Clearly, the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza is not too concerned that people will study these numbers closely; the idea is simply to shock and appall people with Israel’s alleged inhumanity, and that is working well enough.
Munther Ishaq is not in Gaza at all, as Bethlehem is in Judea and Samaria, now known as the West Bank. But he nevertheless wanted to claim some coveted victim status for himself and his congregation. “Here we wanted to say,” he explained about his crèche, “that it is as if they are looking for Jesus in the midst of the rubble. We wanted to send a message to the world – a message that while the whole world is celebrating Christmas in festive ways, here in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus where Christmas originated from, this is what Christmas looks like to us.” Zohar tells us that this craven cleric “preached against the IDF offensive from his pulpit at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the adjoining town of Beit Sahour,” but doesn’t say anything about his preaching against the Oct. 7 jihad murders.
Zohar adds that “the sermon followed the IDF’s strike on Gaza City’s oldest active church, the historic St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church. The bombing killed 18 people, injured others and displaced about 400 civilians who were taking shelter in the church complex.” He gives no hint, however, of what even the Washington Post, never a friend of Israel, reported: “The Israel Defense Forces said in an emailed statement that a strike targeting a Hamas control center ‘damaged the wall of a church in the area’ and that it was ‘aware of reports on casualties’ and was reviewing the incident. They declined to provide further information and reiterated, ‘It is important to clarify that the Church was not the target of the strike.’”
Undaunted by facts, secure in the knowledge that his distortions would go unchallenged, Ishaq also said: “Christmas is the solidarity of God with those who are oppressed, with those who are suffering, and if Jesus is to be born again, this time this year he will be born in Gaza under the rubble in solidarity with the people of Gaza.” He doesn’t explain how he reconciles Jesus’ own recorded words with the oft-repeated genocidal statements of Hamas leaders, or the Gazans’ enthusiastic support for Hamas. In the world that Ishaq and Zohar inhabit, the facts don’t matter, only the narrative does. And the hatred for Jews and Israel that narrative is designed to elicit.
Yea well maybe Muslims will kill them last. It’s not very complicated in most instances.
Punish them all for their evil actions
Christians in Palestine are shimmies They have been subdued for centuries now, and are of the same political opinions as their Muslim neighbours.
To be clear, people are unfazed about babies having their heads severed with spades, and sexual sadism the likes of which the most hardcore pornography has yet to imagine let Ali de depict.
And yet there are Christians that feel less than a blink in response.
Before they were dhimmis they were antisemites, and this is how deep the hatred runs.
It was Ecangelicals that were eventually able to turn Christianity around. Jews are family.
So-called ‘Christians” do who do not know their Bibles!
There seem to be a lot of them here. Read Matthew 25:40
He’s a UN funded propaganda puppet.
“ Gaza’s beleaguered civilians ” could have used the billions in western aid to build the equivalent of Dubai but they chose tunnels.
And the “humanitarian supplies” went to fat, man boobed Hamas jihadis. “Please send us more halal donuts fried in goat grease. And concrete. Shiploads of concrete for children’s hospitals.”
These non Roman Catholic so called Christian religions are not what God sent his son Jesus to die for.
They broke away from the Roman Catholic Church because they’re not true followers of Jesus.
Funny, I have noticed my Catholic friends identify with sermons by Franklin Graham more than those of the Pope. Although I have to admit there the word “evangelical” in the Evangelical Lutheran Church is seems to be something of a misnomer.
Not sure where you get the idea that the satanic catholic fake church is a “true follower of Jesus…
When it follows the Poop and worships Mary…
Additionally; they broke away because they believed in being Saved by Grace… not needing to perform good works in order to maintain their Salvation, like the satanic catholic fake church does…
Oh for a few pages to teach the opposite TRUTH about the kingdom of GOD that IS NOT OF THIS WORLD …” it cometh not with observation. Rome has disobediently added so much tradition to scripture that it resembles the kingdim of the Pharisees that,Jesus rebuked sharply, ..those that killed him.
Joe, do you ever wonder why they broke away from the Roman Catholic Church ?
This is the reason why.
And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
Sorry Siddi, your video is full of mistakes. Also there are many protestant religions, Lutheran, Baptist, Moravian, Methodist, etc. Each have varying differences.
They broke from the Catholic Church because it was corrupt and dictatorial. Of course, any denomination of Christianity can be corrupt in part or full. However, unlike the unholy koran, hadith and surah, the Bible isn’t corrupt from start to finish.
No, they broke away b/c they insisted that the bible was the authority for the church, not the other way around. Then the popes sent armies to kill them because they broke away.
If you go to Rachel’s Tomb. Rachel(One of the matriarchs who birthed Joseph and Benjamin) you will note that the entire site is surrounded by very high walls so that arab snipers can’t shoot willy nilly as they did for decades murdering Jews who visit this very holy site. And you will notice that there is a guard, armed and in flak jacket at the front door to prevent again, the shooting of visitors to that ancient site. Joseph’s tomb, the great Joseph of the bible, has to be reached only by a small caravan of armed vehicles several times a month, if I remember, as it’s too dangerous to simply go there to pray and honor this great patriarch of the Jewish faith.. Muslims have devastated, tried to destroy, urinated upon and such, that site several times over the last few decades. This is what is considered the normal behavior of people who demand what they want or else………. And this is not questioned by the non muslim world who prefers to allow the belittling of the Jews to coming to grips with the muslim bigotry and 1400 yr old demand to submit and murder those who won’t…..
One need only look at the sub-human terrorism of PFLP leader of Christian-Palestinian background George Habash of unblessed memory.
It is certainly possible for Christians to go wrong in their thinking and their actions. The late George Habash was one such individual. The first was Judas Iscariot. Jesus promised divine justice for such unrepentant persons, which is why Habash is spending eternity in hell.
I agree with your comment, except I would put the first “wrong thinking” in the Garden of Eden.
If Christians hate the Jews, they are aligned with Satan, and NOT the King of the Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I am not surprised, though. Satan MUST attack God’s people, both Jews and Christians.
The level of ignorance or malevolence required to hate the Jews is staggering to this Christian. Do these “Christians” not bring shame upon their Lord, Who came first to and from the Jews and Who was the embodiment of all life and truth?
Christians and other non-Muslims who live in Muslim dominated area tend to be very submissive to Islam.
African-Americans who lived in Jim Crow south were also very submissive.
And Dirtbagocrats are very submissive to Black Lies Murder.
Thanks for honest civilian death report
Every member of Hamas and the other 49 jihad organizations in Gaza are civilians.
Since baby Jesus and his parents were Jewish, if the nativity was today baby Jesus would have either been beheaded, his head crushed by the boot of a Hamas warrior, or baked alive. Mary would have been raped until she died and Joseph would have had his genitals ripped off, eyes gouged out, and a pack of Palestinians would have pulled his intestines out.
There’s a Church in islamic Bethlehem? It must be a tourist attraction that charges for admission and gives tours and sells trinkets. I bet the moslem overlords of Bethlehem extort money from it with a protection racket.
Bethlehem
In 1950, 80 percent of the population was Christian. Today, 80 percent is Muslim.
I’m sure you know how this happened.
Matthew 25:40
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
The people of Gaza made their choices over the years to allow Hamas to use schools, mosques, private homes, and hospitals as military bases/launching facilities., etc. Voting for a terrorist group that vows to erase Israel and America and kill the Jews and Americans, and allowing them free reign to militarize the entire territory negates their claim to be peaceful civilians. They are all enemy combatants/enablers and must be liquidated.
I can, and I do believe that the IDF is NOT engaged in mass murder or genocide, AND I can and do simultaneously believe that the IDF need not and does not “liquidate” noncombatants.
So let me get this straight, Jesus who was Jew and if he somehow miraculously returned today would be sympathetic to the Muslims, who are the modern-day equivalent of the Amalekites? Because that’s the narrative of some anti-Semitic Christian sects!
By the way, these same Christians spin the narrative that Jesus was a Palestinian. In Jesus’ lifetime, if you’d asked anyone in the Roman occupied province of Judea where was Palestine, they’d say – what place? That’s because approximately century after Jesus’ death, Roman Hadrian declared total war against Judeans in his response to the last Judean revolt (132-5 CE). He oversaw the slaughter of hundreds of thousand of Jews, destroyed all local houses of worship, caused the exile of most of the population, renamed Judea to Syria-Palaestina and renamed Jerusalem after himself (Aelius) to Aelia Capitolina.
What the Roman Empire was to the Jews back in Jesus’ day, Muslims are now the invader and seek to erase the Jewish state. Yet some people seek to manipulate the Jesus narrative thinking he’d be sympathetic to Muslims who like the Roman Empire seek destroy Judaism and along with Jewish independent state.
I can’t count on my hands the number of Christians I know who believe Jesus was a Palestinian. That’s because I don’t know any.
Robert Spencer is spot on with his points in this article. As genuine, biblical Christians, we believe that the physical descendants of Israel have a God-given right to the land of Israel because the Holy Bible teaches us this fact. God gave them the promised land. See Deut. 31, Joshua 1, 10, etc. Those who profess to be Christians and disregard this biblical fact are either ignorant or deceived. The only other possibility is that they are counterfeit “Christians..” How can a true Christian be anti-Israel or anti-Semitic when we worship the God of Israel, embrace the new covenant promised to the children of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-37, Luke 22:17-20) believe in and follow the promised Messiah of Israel our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew1-2, Luke 1-2) who was Jewish.? We choose to love the God of Israel and the people of Israel, You can call us Christian Zionists or Christian nationalists or any other man-made label you want. We simply choose to believe what God’s Word – the Holy Bible teaches.
Christian Arabs have been at the forefront of ethically cleansing the Middle East of Jews. Now that the Islamofascists have no Jews to target Christians are on the chopping block.
Israel is the only country where the Christian population is increasing in the entire world. It has increased every single year since the reestablishment of Israel. Bethlehem was over 80% Christian when the PLO took over, now about 5%.