They should take anything fed to them by an official body of the Israeli government with a lot of scepticism. At least try visiting the Holy Land without Israeli minders to get a taste of how the natives fare.
If you grew up during the cold war, you should know how authoritiarian regimes cover up their crimes to look good.
But don't take David's word for it: look up the Christian Churches destroyed in Gaza in violation of International Law. And how the Israeli snipers killed two Palestinian Christians.
On 16 December 2023, two Palestinian Christians, Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal Anton, were shot and killed while they were walking inside the grounds of the Holy Family Church to go to the bathroom during the Gaza war. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that the shots were fired by an Israeli sniper.
Really good question, especially when former U.S. Congressman Justin Amash announced that several of his relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they were seeking shelter.
And let's not forget the USS Liberty. And those are not even the tip of the iceberg.
Matthew 7:12-- "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you."
Can't stop saying this: there's a reason those 1,000 Pastors and "Christian" Influencers didn't visit Bethlehem. I'm surprised no one in that crew asked why not?
This makes the point.
They are siding with Herod, not Christ.
Actually, less than 24 hours, if it isn't Christmas already in some places.
Open your eyes, the oppression of Palestinian Christians is what you are supporting when you stand with Israel.
Reporters in Gaza documented Palestinian Christians preparing for Christmas amid rubble, pain, and continuing daily attacks.
During Israel’s annihilation of Gaza, churches sheltering displaced people have been deliberately targeted by bombardments. In October 2023, just days after the deadly Israeli strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital, an Anglican institution that killed over 500 people, Israel bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest in the Gaza Strip, ending the lives of at least 18 people.
Christmas celebrations in Palestine, the land where Jesus Christ was born, are marked by ongoing hardships. As the enclave endures nearly daily ceasefire violations by the Israeli army, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, describes the resilience of Gaza’s people as “a lesson for the world.”
Another message of the season, this time from the Eastern Christians, Christians from Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Yes, there are very ancient Christian communities in those countries.
And there are still Christians left in Gaza as this video from the Latin Monastery Church in Gaza City,Palestine shows.
OK, 1000 US Pastors and "Christian influencers" were invited to Israel for a shepherded tour to get their support. So many things wrong with this which even this atheist can see, but people who claim to know the Bible side with a nation which has been harassing Christians.
Bethlehem is in the occupied territories and these people would have seen the reality of the occupation instead of stage managed propaganda to get their support for very un-Biblical activity.
Standing with Israel in this season of death and destruction is neither heroic nor is it Biblical. Expressing solidarity with the Church in Gaza is since this community has been Christian since the beginning. This is the home of the Christian religion.
Al Jazeera recently quoted several Christians from Gaza as saying that they think the current war will be the death blow for their community in the Holy Land. Mitri Raheb, an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and founder of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, said it was conceivable that the current conflict would spell the end of its long history in this strip of land. “This community is under threat of extinction,” Raheb said. “I’m not sure if it will survive the Israeli bombing, and even if it survives, I think many will want to emigrate.”
“We know that within this generation, Christianity in Gaza will cease to exist. This is the home to the oldest and most significant church in Christian history.”
Presently, the Gazan Christian community is concentrated in Gaza City. The majority are autochthonous inhabitants and the rest are descendants of refugees from the 1948 Palestine war. As of 2025, they reportedly number around 1,000 individuals, less than 1% of the total population of the Gaza Strip. Israeli bombing during the Gaza war (2023–present) has put the community at risk of extinction.
As of 2015, Palestinian Christians comprise between 1% and 2.5% of the population of the West Bank, and about 3,000 (0.13%) of the population of the Gaza Strip. Many individuals of the Palestinian diaspora who identify as Christians are descendants of the post-1948 Palestinian Christian refugees who fled from the Arab–Israeli conflict and settled in Christian-majority countries.
1 Corinthians 12:25-27: And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another.
If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if
one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness. All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.
John 17:21-23 (the final prayer of our Lord Jesus): I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one: I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.
Here's what these 1000 hypocrites look like:
May the truth shine brighter than the lies and deception.
This region is sacred to four world religions, and none of them should monopolise it or prohibit the practise of the other faiths.
And this from Husam Zomlot, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the U.K. and Former Ambassador to the US.
Of course, the Christian Zionists who went on this trip were herded around like they do in any totalitarian state. I doubt these people would support Israel if they saw what the Palestinians were going through.
On the other hand, we have seen the destruction of ancient Christian Churches and congregations attacked in prayer yet the hypocrital Christian Zionists still support the people who are really attacking Christianity.
Robert Reich doing a rant which I wish I had the time to have come up with, but I'll let him do it. Too bad he's a hardcore Democrat. And I rag on him for it.
I'm getting blown away watching Donald Trump since he's giving us some really great reasons for a rework of the US Constitution. And it's not just the republicans: it's the duopoly
The village of Aboud in Palestine (or the occupied territories) has been the focal point of celebrations of St. Barbara's Day for hundreds of years. The most widely held belief among residents about the origins of the day is that Aboud gave shelter and a final resting place to Saint Barbara, a Christian convert fleeing persecution some 1,700 years ago. Villagers revere a cave where Saint Barbara reportedly hid and that also held her remains for hundreds of years before their removal. A shrine still stands at the site.
The Holy Land is sacred to four world religions. None of them should have a monopoly on this region. And none of them should interfere with the religious practises of the others.
The Church leaders of Palestine are asking us to stand with them in solidarity this Advent season. His Eminence Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebastia, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, shares this message from the church adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Here’s how you answer the call.
Light a red candle and record a video. Share why this action is important to you. Say, “I’m lighting a red candle for peace and justice in Palestine.”
Nominate 5 friends to light a red candle and share the light. Post your video on social media and tag them! Tag @redcandlepalestine so we can amplify your voice.
This Advent, will you shine the light of peace? Will you stand in solidarity with Palestinians and take action for a future rooted in true justice and mutual flourishing?
Together, we can spread the light for Palestine across the world
I've got to pass this on since it's something which needs to get publicity:
The BBC has decided to censor the opening lecture of a series they invited Rutger Bregman to deliver. They removed the sentence in which he describes Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” This line was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre. He was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.
This has happened against his wishes, and he's deeply troubled by it. Not because people can’t disagree with his words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump is threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us.
This needs to get out there for a lot of reasons.
I used to like to think that Auntie was trustworthy, but she ain't.
I wanted to write something about this, but I think the original author, Rev Dr Fares Abraham, does a much better job. He was born in Beit Sahour, Palestine and is founder and president of Levant Ministries.
So, with that introduction: I grew up less than a mile from Shepherds’ Field in Beit Sahour in the occupied West Bank – the hillside where, according to the Gospel of Luke, the news of Jesus’s birth was first proclaimed. For my family, these were not distant biblical landscapes. They were the backdrop of our daily lives: The olive groves we played in, the terraces we tended, the land where our faith and identity were rooted.
Today, for the first time in my life, I felt fear that the community that raised me may not survive.
In recent weeks, a new illegal Israeli settlement outpost has been established on the edge of Beit Sahour. Caravans and construction equipment have appeared on a site the town had hoped to use for a children’s hospital, cultural centre, and public spaces – projects supported by international donors and meant to strengthen a Christian community that has endured for centuries. Instead, those plans are now suspended, and the families who live nearby are bracing for uncertainty, rising tension, and the real possibility of further displacement.
Others have documented the legal and political ramifications of these settlements. My concern is more personal and more urgent: What is happening today threatens the very continuity of Christian presence in the Bethlehem area – not abstractly, but concretely.
Beit Sahour is one of the last majority-Christian towns in the West Bank. Our families are Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical. We worship together, marry across traditions, and share a heritage that traces back to the earliest centuries of the Christian story. But like many Palestinian communities, we are running out of land – and with it, out of time.
Due to decades of confiscation, the separation wall, and settlement expansion, only a small fraction of our town remains accessible for Palestinian construction. Youth who wish to build homes often cannot. Parents worry about their children’s future. Families who want to stay rooted in their ancestral land face barriers that make leaving seem like the only viable path.
That is how communities disappear. Not because they stop believing, but because the conditions required for them to flourish are steadily stripped away by the Israeli military occupation of their land.
For many Christians around the world – especially in the United States – this situation creates real confusion. I hear it often: “We support Israel because we care about the Jewish people. We don’t want to see them harmed, displaced, or endangered ever again. So what do we do when Palestinian Christians say they are suffering too?”
This is a sincere question, shaped by conscience and by history. And yet it reveals a painful misunderstanding – the idea that supporting Jewish security requires tolerating the dispossession of others, or that acknowledging Palestinian suffering threatens the safety of Jews.
It does not. It never has.
The aspiration for Jewish safety is legitimate and deeply important – especially after centuries of anti-Semitism, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust. No person of faith should ever be indifferent to the vulnerability of Jewish communities.
But affirming Jewish safety does not require silence when Palestinian Christian and Muslim families lose their land, face escalating violence, or see their future shrinking. Safety for one people cannot be built on the insecurity of another. There is no moral framework – Christian, Jewish, or secular – that asks us to choose between the dignity of one child and the dignity of another.
If anything, the deeply biblical truth is that justice is indivisible. When we diminish one community’s rights to protect another, both are ultimately harmed.
And yet, too often, many churches in the West remain silent when Palestinian Christians raise their voices. Every December, American congregations sing about Bethlehem without acknowledging that many families in the Bethlehem area are struggling to stay on their land. Pilgrims visit Shepherds’ Field without asking what is happening to the people who have cared for it across generations.
This silence is not intentional malice. In many cases, it stems from fear of appearing partisan, or from the mistaken belief that speaking about Palestinian suffering undermines support for Jewish safety.
But silence has consequences. It sends an unspoken message that some lives matter less. It weakens the moral credibility of the Church. And it leaves communities like mine – Christian families who have lived in Bethlehem’s hills more than 2,000 years – feeling abandoned by the very global body they belong to.
What is happening in Beit Sahour is not simply a political conflict. It is a question of human dignity and the future of a Christian witness in the place where the Christian story began. If the Christian community in Bethlehem’s district disappears, the loss will not only be Palestinian. It will be a loss for the global Church and for anyone who cares about the continuity of the gospel’s birthplace.
I grew up less than a mile from these fields. I know what is at stake. And I believe that American Christians can hold two truths at the same time: That the Jewish people deserve safety, and that Palestinian Christian communities deserve to live on their land without fear.
This is not a choice between peoples. It is a choice between justice and indifference.
OK, it sounds like it's AI generated using a voice like Malcom X. I don't totally agree with it, but it is worth pondering because:
Christian Zionists are working for a secular state, not a religious state. The Orthodox Jews don't support it since the true state of Israel promised by scripture can only be created by god, not man.
The current state of Israel persecutes Christians and has destroyed sacred sites to Christianity.
It attacks Christians who are in prayer or seeking shelter in Churches.
The settlements on the West Bank are in violation of International law.
I have been posting about the attacks on Palestinian Christians for a while now.
The supposed evangelicals who support this really need to open their eyes.
OK, time for a change from Palestine. And a bit of good news at that since this is indeed true. On the other hand, the US politicians and media are so in the pocket of big money that you wouldn't know this.
Fact check this if you don't believe me.
And I can't believe the crap I am going through to get solar panels on my roof (and yes, the historical commission is a part of all that).
Actually, they did give approval since my house was built in 1980 and very modern, but there were still people who talked about "the historic character" is this area.
Professor Tad Stoermer on how trashy the US Constitution is. And for the "no King's" crowd, the US president has far more power than the British king did, even at the time of the war for independence.
And you wonder why I prefer the Westminster system. It would be nice if the only thing the president could do would be to run the civil service. People describe parliamentary systems as responsible government, where the elected representatives are responsible to the people who elect them.
Think about it: Zionism is an ideology based on an ethnicity, not a religion. Toss in that it is rabidly nationalistic and intolerant of non-Jews. And even non-European Jews.
"anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies".--Theodor Herzl, Entry of June 12, 1895, The Complete Diaries Of Theodor Herzl, Volume I, pages 83–84
Next we have Avraham "Miko" Peled explaining the difference. Peled's grandfather, Avraham Katznelson, after whom he was named, signed Israel's Declaration of Independence.[2][3] Peled's father, Mattityahu Peled, who fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and served as a general in the Six-Day War of 1967, became an advocate for an Israeli dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after the Israeli cabinet ignored his investigation of a 1967 alleged Israeli war crime.
See also:
Beinart, Peter (10 January 2023). "Antisemitic Zionists Aren't a Contradiction in Terms". Jewish Currents.
Kaplan, Amy (24 February 2017). "Opinion: History shows that anti-Semitism and pro-Zionism have never been mutually exclusive". Mondoweiss.
Massad, Joseph (15 May 2019). "Pro-Zionism and antisemitism are inseparable, and always have been". Middle East Eye.
I've known about this since I was a kid. It didn't make sense until recently when I put the connection between the Zionist lobby and lack of support for the US Constitution.
Fuck, I'm a dual national and I know that I obey US law when I'm in the US and UK law in the UK, but some politicians don't know they need to follow US law.
Make US politicans realise they took an oath to serve the United States, and not Israel.
As a Tory, I would prefer the US be a part of the Commonwealth (e.g. Canada), and not a truly foreign power.
Alana Hadid, Gigi and Bella's older sister, says that we should be pushing for Marwan's Freedom. I learned that Marwan's my age and the Israeli Occupational Forces killed his dog when he was a kid. So, You can bet I support this man geting his freedom.
Seriously, he is the best man to lead Palestine to its freedom.
Sarah Hurwitz, Melanie Phillips, John Fetterman, and other hard core Zionists need to learn about the history of their ideology. I'm sure they will change their opinion pretty fast.
