"O Little Town of Bethlehem, How Islamic You've Become"

 

The Christians in Bethlehem Now Live in an Overwhelmingly Muslim Town

Jan 4, 2025 2:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

A report on the increasing despair of Christians in Bethlehem:

 ‘We may face extinction’: Bethlehem’s clergy sound alarm

on exodus and extremism amid ongoing war

by Giorgia Valente, The Media Line, December 26, 2024:

Anna, an Aramean Christian tour operator, told The Media Line, “I have been jobless since October 7. I am currently economically relying on my husband, who sells electronic devices in his shop here, but we have been struggling since neither the PA [Palestinian Authority] nor Israel has been able to help us financially. I used to take tourists on tours in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, but everything changed.”

Anna criticized polarized narratives about the conflict, saying, “I am against any form of violence, and what both sides did to one another is unacceptable. For this reason, I am against the choice of each side to portray itself as the ‘only victims’ because, in this way, they are just polarizing, even more, the perception of this conflict abroad.”

Anna, a Christian living in a Muslim sea, is careful not to lay the blame for Bethlehem’s economic misery on either side —-the Israelis or the Palestinians — though she surely knows that the violence of the Muslim terrorists provoked the Gaza War, and in the West Bank has made necessary the frequent IDF raids. The violence in both places have led foreign tourists to stay away from Bethlehem this year. But Anna can’t allow herself to say that openly. She’s going to sit on the fence, claiming that “what both sides did to one another is unacceptable.” She’s wrong. What Hamas did on October 7, 2023, when 6,000 Hamas members smashed into Israel, torturing, raping, mutilating, and murdering 1,200 Israelis is “unacceptable.. The IDF’s response — a careful campaign in Gaza to kill as many terrorists, and spare as many civilians, as possible — is not only acceptable but admirable, for the tremendous efforts the IDF makes to warn civilians away from sites about to be targeted, by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, and making millions of robocalls. But Anna is a Christian living in a town that is 90% Muslim. She doesn’t want trouble. She can’t possibly tell the truth.

“The beauty of our Holy Land, which I gladly define as a whole, despite walls dividing one side from the other, is that there is no black and white, but different shades, that people from the outside often do not see,” she added.

Her husband, a Palestinian ID holder, cannot travel freely as Anna and their children can. She emphasized teaching her children tolerance: “My goal was to teach my kids no resentment toward anyone. The problem of many living here is that they pass their trauma to younger generations and teach hate instead of forgiveness. If we keep doing like this, we will be stuck in this loop of violence forever—Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike,” she noted.

The only children who are raised up to hate “the other” are the Muslim children. The schoolbooks of the Jews and the Christians are not full of the venomous violence found in the schoolbooks provided by UNRWA to Muslim children.

Abood Sobha, a Muslim tour guide and souvenir shop owner, echoed Anna’s struggles. “I am a Muslim Palestinian who benefited from tourism and loved engaging with people from all over the world. I was comfortable economically before the war, and I loved to move from my city to other places like Haifa and Tel Aviv [he was clearly not living in an “open-air prison”] but since I own a Palestinian ID, I have been stuck here for more than a year, and I am mentally exhausted,” he told The Media Line.

“We need and want peace, and we cannot keep going like this. Unfortunately, it seems that here in the West Bank, it may even get worse. Look at Jenin and Tulkarem these days,” he added….

In Jenin, there is a war going on between Hamas and Islamic Jihad on one side, and Fatah — the armed wing of the Palestinian Authority — on the other. Right now, the IDF is letting Fatah attempt on its own to suppress Hamas and the PIJ in Jenin camp. In Tulkarem, it is the IDF itself that is taking on Hamas and PIJ combatants. What Abood Sobha fears is that as long as there is violence in Judea and Samaria, tourists will stay away from Bethlehem, but he is unwilling to blame Hamas and PIJ for stirring up strife by attacking both Fatah and the IDF.

The steady stillicide of Christians moving out of Bethlehem continues. In 2017, there were 23,000 Christians in Bethlehem. In 2024, that figure has dropped to fewer than 10,000. How can religious tourism in Bethlehem by foreign Christians be expected to flourish when there are only a few thousand Christians left in the city? Will Christians from abroad, once made aware of the reasons for the precipitous decline in Bethlehem’s Christian population, want to buy Christian souvenirs from Muslim shopkeepers, the very people who helped drive Christians out of one of the most sacred sites in Christendom?

The Christians in Bethlehem live now in an overwhelmingly Muslim town, a town that was 85% Christian in 1947 is now 90% Muslim, and the Muslim percentage of the population grows with each passing year. The Christians have been leaving the city to avoid the constant pressure of trying to thrive in the midst of a hostile population. Even if religious tourism returns, and the handful of Christian-owned souvenir shops sell their olive-wood creches and crucifixes, and Christian tour guides resume their occupation, how long can the dwindling Christian community withstand the pressures of living in a Muslim sea? And how many foreign Christians will want to frequent Muslim-owned shops in Bethlehem where their coreligionists are close to disappearing?

Astonishing Admittance from Former Iranian Cultural Attache > All weapons against Israel come from Iran

 

All the rockets fired against Israel anywhere are made 

in Iran or the product of Iranian training - Iranian official

FEB 3, 2024 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

This is essentially an open admission of the obvious fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is waging a proxy war against Israel by means of Hamas and the Houthis.

Not to mention Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad, and probably other groups we haven't heard of yet.

Former Iranian Cultural Attaché To Lebanon Mohammad Mehdi Shariatmadar: "Every Bullet, Rocket, UAV Fired Against Israel From Any Place Was Either Made In Iran Or Is The Product Of Iranian Training"

MEMRI, January 26, 2024:

Former Iranian cultural attaché to Lebanon Mohammad Mehdi Shariatmadar said on a January 26, 2024 show on Asharq News TV (Saudi Arabia) that all the bullets, rockets, and UAVs fired against Israel from anywhere, such as south Lebanon or Palestine, were “either made in Iran or the product of Iranian training.” He said that no one else gave a single bullet to the “Palestinian resistance movements.”

Mohammad Mehdi Shariatmadar: “All the bullets, all the rockets, and all the UAVs that are fired or launched against the Israeli entity anywhere – where in south Lebanon – in Palestine, or anywhere – are either made in Iran or the product of Iranian training. All the weapons. You cannot see anyone [else] in the world who gave a single bullet to the Palestinian resistance movements against the Israeli entity.

“From where would the [Qods] Force come to confront the Zionist entity? Will Jordan allow this? Will Syria allow the Iranian fighters to pass through so they can fight in the occupied lands? What is the difference between fighters who have a different nationality, and who are supported by Iran in the confrontation, and sending [actual Iranian] fighters? Obviously, Iran did do this. Iran sent forces in the past to South Lebanon and to Syria. Today, if Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, or Lebanon allow for a direct Iranian military presence…I believe that as part of Iran’s plan, and in line with its strategic patience – which has not been properly understood so far – there will be a confrontation. In any case, the confrontation is ongoing. It is not limited to the borders of the Goland Heights, Jordan, Palestine, or Syria, and so on.”

Perhaps, it is time to ask Iranians if this is in keeping with their character? If this is just the mania of the government, or if all the people agree?  

This astonishing admittance should result in complete isolation for Iran, with blanket sanctions smothering their ability to produce a single bullet.

This is Islamic madness in full bloom! Let's starve the plant and not continue to water it.

This is Islam > Violent rape of women and children; Paramedics murdered trying to help Hamas victims; Mosques must preach the extermination of the Jews

..

Hamas raped 'women, grandmothers, children,' so violently

'they broke victims' pelvis,' Israeli official says

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

The mother, and immediate family of Valentin (Eli) Ghnassia, 23, who was killed in a battle with Hamas militants at kibbutz Be’eeri near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, grieve during his funeral on October 12, 2023 at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel. Israel has sealed off Gaza and launched sustained retaliatory air strikes, which have killed at least 1,200 people with more than 300,000 displaced, after a large-scale attack by Hamas. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza by land, sea and air, killing over 1,200 people and wounding around 2800. Israeli soldiers and civilians have also been taken hostage by Hamas and moved into Gaza. The attack prompted a declaration of war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the announcement of an emergency wartime government. | Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Hamas terrorists subjected civilian women, grandmothers and children to extreme sexual violence, a Rabbinate corps member of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for preparing victims' bodies for burial has told media, calling the acts “worse than the Holocaust.”

“We wash the bodies and prepare them for burial. We try to bring them dignity in death,” the Rabbinate corps member, a woman named Shari, who did not give her last name to protect her family, told the Daily Mail and other media outlets. “I heard stories about Auschwitz as a child growing up in New Jersey. But what I have seen here with my own eyes is worse than the Holocaust.”

Not in numbers, of course, but in sheer brutality. But then, we've never really heard the worst stories from the Holocaust, they were too horrific and shameful to be articulated, or even remembered.

Unbelievable brutality

The woman, who moved from New Jersey to Israel 20 years ago, said what Hamas did to Israeli civilians is “beyond words.”

“There is evidence of mass rape so brutal that they broke their victims’ pelvis — women, grandmothers, children,” Shari said, adding that it's difficult to break someone's pelvis. 

Shari said she saw “people whose heads have been cut off,” and women in their night dresses “woken up and shot.” She also witnessed “faces blasted off … heads smashed and their brains spilling out.”

She also described a baby “cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.”

“Women and children burned to charcoal. Bodies murdered with their hands tied behind their backs.”

Were terrorists drugged-up?

The Daily Wire said reports also suggest that many of the Hamas terrorists were under the influence of Captagon, a drug linked to heightened aggression and commonly referred to as the “ISIS drug.”

As if "evil" needs some help among Hamas terrorists.

The Wire quoted Colonel Rabbi Haim Weisberg as saying there is evidence of “torture and savagery,” agreeing with the Rabbinate corps member.

On Oct. 7, Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel, killing over 1,400 civilians, including 30 Americans. Israel has been carrying out retaliatory airstrikes since Hamas' attacks.

Hamas has claimed that over 4,100 people in Gaza have been killed since the airstrikes began, with over 13,000 injured.

And how many of them were killed by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad missiles, 450 of which fell short of Israel, landing in Gaza?

As civilians are fleeing airstrikes, the Egypt-Gaza border opened Saturday, allowing 20 trucks of aid into Gaza for the first time since Israel’s blockade and airstrikes began two weeks ago, The Associated Press reported.

Aid workers say this is far from enough; 200 trucks with 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting to get in, the newswire said, explaining that Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are facing a dire humanitarian situation — half have left their homes, hospitals are low on supplies, and there’s a territory-wide power blackout.

Five hospitals have ceased operations due to fuel shortages and bombing damage, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, it added.

At least one of which was fired by PIJ within Gaza.

Israeli-American paramedic on the front line of Hamas terror attack

describes how three of his colleagues were slaughtered

as they tried to save Jewish villagers and festival-goers

by Ruth Bashinsky, Daily Mail, October 21, 2023:

An Israeli-American paramedic has laid bare the horror of what he witnessed on the front line of the Hamas terror attack – where three of his colleagues were slaughtered as they desperately tried to save people’s lives.

Staten Island-born Ari Yonatan, 32, who now lives in Israel and works for Israel’s national ambulance and rescue service Magen David Adom (MAD), responded within an hour of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel to help the wounded.

Yonatan, who was on his day off, said he heard the rockets overhead and called his dispatcher before rushing as close to the scene as he could get.

He said his dispatcher told him there were ‘casualties, both dead and injured everywhere … more than 300 that he needs us to respond to.’

Yonatan told DailyMail.com: ‘There was chaos everywhere. It was like a horror movie. The wounded were coming from everywhere and dead people too.’

The army set up a field hospital to treat the injured, many near death. The victims were transported from various regions as the country was under attack.

Yonatan, along with his peers tried to stay safe as bombs and rockets were launched around them and terrorists infiltrated regions such as Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 80 people were slaughtered, and Re’im, the site of the Supernova musical festival where nearly 300 were massacred.

‘I treated people from the kibbutzm, my own city, neighboring cities, civilians, soldiers, police officers, and people who attended the music festival,’ he said….

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PA: All mosques must teach that extermination of Jews

is an Islamic imperative

by Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, October 22, 2023:

The PA Ministry of Religious Affairs posted guidelines for mosque preachers on Thursday instructing preachers what content they should include in their Friday sermons. The most horrific part of the instructions was a quote from a Hadith (Islamic tradition attributed to Islam’s prophet Muhammad) that teaches that the End of Time, the Redemption of humanity, is contingent on Muslims killing and eventually exterminating all Jews:

“The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rock or a tree will say: ‘Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him’; except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.”

[PA Ministry of Religious Affairs, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2023]

Following so close to the atrocities by Hamas, this PA religious message to Palestinians is first and foremost elevating the horrific massacre of nearly 1,400 Jews to constitute Islamic worship. In addition, it is a clear message that Allah/Islam wants Palestinians to leave their mosques after Friday prayers and set out to murder more Jews….

Aside from the promotion of murder of Jews, this Friday’s instruction sheet also included the current prominent PA libel that misrepresents the Islamic Jihad missile that landed in a parking lot near a hospital killing 50 Gazans, as an Israeli attack on the hospital killing 500.

The following is the text of the PA’s instructions to the preachers in the mosques:

Text: “In the name of All Merciful Allah”

"All Merciful Allah", and I thought Muslims had no sense of humour.

The State of Palestine – the [PA] Ministry of Religious Affairs

[Document] No. 1664, Oct. 18, 2023

Friday sermon for Oct. 20, 2023 –

The Al-Mamadani Hospital crime is ‘the crime of the times’ (refers to libel accusing Israel of bombing Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, which was done by Islamic Jihad -Ed.)…

“‘The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and the rock or a tree will say: “Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him”; except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.’

7: [The Hadith:] ‘A group of my nation will remain on the side of truth, and it will not be harmed by those who abandon it… until Allah’s word will come as they overcome the people.’”

More hilarity - "will remain on the side of truth!"

[PA Ministry of Religious Affairs, Facebook page, Oct. 18, 2023]

=========================================================================================

This is Islam > Hamas is insanely telling Palestinians to ignore Israeli warnings

..

For many years now, Israel has warned people living or working in a particular building to evacuate before they destroy that building. It is the most humane act of war I have ever heard of, but, of course, mainstream media will never tell you that. There is no precedent that I am aware of where the IDF bluffed, and it is telling of how reckless Hamas is to assume that they have started now.

Why would Hamas risk losing so many people? Because they don't get paid by the people, they get paid by Iran and Iran's proxies no matter how horrible the job they do. 

Hamas And Palestinian Islamic Jihad To Gaza Strip Residents:

Do Not Evacuate From Areas About To Be Targeted In Airstrikes

MEMRI, October 10, 2023:

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which are currently waging the terror campaign against Israel, are calling on the residents of the Gaza Strip to ignore messages sent to them by Israel instructing them to evacuate areas that are about to be targeted in Israeli military strikes.

Ahead of airstrikes against targets belonging to the terror groups, and out of a desire to minimize civilian casualties, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has been sending warning messages to the residents of the Gaza Strip urging them to evacuate areas that are about to be targeted in strikes. In response to these messages, media outlets operated by Hamas and PIJ have been instructing residents of the Gaza Strip not to heed these warnings and not to share them or forward them to others.

Several accounts affiliated with the terror groups have been sharing posts describing the Israeli messages as psychological warfare and claiming that the messages are being sent “randomly.”

Below are several examples of these posts published by Hamas and the PIJ.

Hamas: The Israeli Warnings Are “Psychological Warfare”

On October 10, 2023, the spokesperson department of Hamas’s interior ministry wrote on the ministry’s Telegram channel: “An important note: We repeat our call on the residents to ignore the voice messages being sent randomly by the occupation to their phones demanding that they leave their homes. Their goal is to arouse panic and fear as part of a psychological warfare [campaign] accompanying the occupation’s aggression against us.”[1]

Of course, they could be right, Israel might be trying to exhaust the people so they will turn against Hamas and PIJ. On the other hand, the IDF may be trying to depopulate Gaza City so they can completely flatten it. Personally, I would act on the side of caution, but Hamas has always put civilians in the line of fire, so why would they stop now?

The post published on the Telegram channel of Hamas’s interior ministry.

Similar messages were posted by the “Home Front” Telegram channel, which also belongs to Hamas’s interior ministry. One, on October 8, read: “An important note: The occupation has been randomly sending audio and recorded messages to the phones of Gaza residents demanding that they leave their homes. We call on civilians to ignore such messages, which are aimed at arousing panic and fear and in the framework of a psychological warfare [campaign] accompanying the occupation’s aggression against our people.”[2]

A similar message published by the Home Front Telegram channel, run by Hamas’s interior ministry.

PIJ: The Israeli Warning Messages Are Aimed At Confusing The Palestinian Public

Several of these messages have been published in unofficial and semi-official channels affiliated with the Gazan terror groups.

For example, on October 9, a Telegram channel affiliated with the PIJ wrote: “Dear residents: Do not share any information or publication by Zionist occupation channels calling on [people] to leave the areas [about to be targeted in airstrikes], which are aimed at creating confusion among the Palestinian public.”[3]

Islam - Current Day > Terrorist Factions fight among themselves in Gaza, not surprisingly, it's Biblical

 

In Gaza, Scorpions in a Bottle: Hamas Mob Storms Mosque, Attacks PIJ Members 

JUL 21, 2023 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

In Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, right on the border with Egypt, comes a heartwarming story of the violence one terror group, Hamas, visited on members of a rival group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. More on this fracas can be found here: 

Trouble in paradise? Clashes between Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Rafah.

Media silent, as usual.

Elder of Ziyon, July 19, 2023:

Last night, a mob of Hamas members entered a Gaza mosque and attacked Islamic Jihad officials there.

Hamas militia and the militants from the Al-Qassam Brigades attacked two members of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Jihad Movement, in the city of Rafah.

Eyewitnesses reported that Hamas members stormed  the Al-Awda Mosque, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, and assaulted the PIJ officials there….

Islamic Jihad issued a statement saying…they were surprised at the large numbers of Hamas members attacking the mosque….

The Hamas mob – who came armed with knives, and used as well chairs inside the mosque – severely injured Yahya Mansour and another “official” of the PIJ. If other PIJ members were attacked, their injuries were not severe enough to merit mention.

There are clearly tensions between Hamas and Islamic Jihad that no one is talking to the media about. And they are both trying to keep their differences quiet. Islamic Jihad’s statement ended off with:

Brothers, the sons of this struggle, our weapons are pure, we advise you to restrain your anger and not pay attention to the problems created by some suspicious people and pay attention only to the direction of the Zionist enemy. Our guns are pure, our direction is known, and the compass can only be diverted by the enemies of the resistance….

But notice how the media simply doesn’t want to cover a story about major differences between the two largest armed groups in Gaza. It is almost like they agree with the terror groups that it is better to keep these things private and only attack Israel. 

Why would a Hamas mob attack members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad just now? They are not allies but rival terror groups, both in Gaza, where Hamas has ruled the Strip since 2007, when it killed or expelled hundreds of Fatah members, and in the West Bank, where both terror groups have been making inroads at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, attracting young disaffected Palestinians who despise Mahmoud Abbas for his corruption, and mismanagement, and want more attacks on the hated Zionists.

The 44-hour war in Jenin camp launched by the IDF was aimed only at the PIJ, that had recently been responsible for several murderous attacks on Israeli civilians. In all that time, Hamas did not lift a finger. It did not launch rockets into Israel from Gaza; no Hamas fighters joined the PIJ in trying to fight off the IDF in Jenin. After the campaign was over, Hamas joined all the Palestinians in declaring a “victory” over the Zionist enemy, supposedly “driven out of Jenin camp” by Palestinians whom Hamas refrained from identifying as PIJ fighters. But that was the extent of Hamas’ participation.

This was the second time this year that the PIJ faced Israel without any support from Hamas. Between May 9 and May 13 the IDF attacked PIJ fighters in Gaza. Gaza’s ruling Hamas supported the PIJ only by sharing a joint command room, but it did not fire a single rocket.

Since the Jenin mini-war, the PIJ has been fulminating against Hamas’ failure to. support it, depicting itself as now the sole paladin of the Palestinian “resistance.” Naturally this claim has infuriated Hamas, that is not solely a terror group as the PIJ is, but also has the responsibilities of rule in Gaza, and has therefore tried not to be drawn into hostilities with the IDF, knowing what the result would be.

The PIJ’s criticism of Hamas’ inaction during IDF attacks in both May and in July, was what finally led a Hamas mob to enter that mosque in Rafah to teach the PIJ a lesson. The result was the violent attack on two PIJ officials, including Yahya Mansour. Judging by the PIJ’s mild verbal response, it is now worried about other attacks by resentful Hamas members, and will likely tone down its criticism.

As for those of us watching from afar, we can only hope that these scorpions in a bottle will continue to sting one another. Pull up a chair, and watch.

In Genesis 16:2, God Himself prophecies about Ishmael and his descendants before Hagar, his mother: “But he will be a wild donkey of a man; His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live in defiance of all his brothers.”

Ishmael, whom God himself disqualified as Abraham's son, is the forefather of all Arabs and consequently most Muslims. Mohammed's brutal ideology fit right into the blood-lust nature of Ishmael's descendants.