Christian cleansing

The numbers are truly staggering: In Iraq of 2003, until the fall of Sadam Hussain, there were 1.5 million Christians, but today there are only 250,000, that means that 1.25 million have migrated, been killed or forced to become Muslims. In Syria just three years ago there were 1.75 million Christians, of whom 450,000 have already left, and the rate of ethnic cleansing is increasing.

This means that by the end of this decade there will be no more Christian Arabs in the Levant, the northern east of the Middle East. Instead, the area is becoming "Salafi" and violent, there is no place for the Christian Arabs, and they are being forceably exiled.

This phenomenon is happening full force at the Palestinian Authority, and If in Bethlehem there once were 90% Christians, today it is already 65% Muslims. The tradition is that the mayor is Christian despite the Muslim majority, but the female mayor is facing harsh persecution, including by the "Fatah" movement. 

The day there will be no more Christian Arabs in the Palestinian Authority is getting close, and according to estimates there are only a few tens of thousands left. In the day to day reality of Hamas, Salafis and Jihad, they have no place and they migrate, many to South America, where they already have large communities. 

In the Gaza of Hamas,  there are only a few hundred Christians left out of 2,500.  The rest have escaped or been forced to become Muslims. If one day there will be an independent "Palestinian" territory, the Christians will be the first to pay the price, especially after the Salafis take control there.  It is only a matter of time, as it is for the entire Middle East.

The Christians were promoted at the National Arab Movement, they were the leaders of the Pan-Arab movement;  Hamas tolerated them, but the Salafis are brutally exterminating them. In the Shari'a  state, the Christians have no place.

In Egypt nearly nine million people are Coptic Christians (one tenth), and the estimate is that a quarter of a million have already migrated since the fall of Mubarak, and the rest are suffering persecutions, murders, violence, robbery and looting. They are in a grave situation and the reality is that there is no justice when they are attacked, no consequences for hurting them.

In Lebanon there are still about one million Christians (according to a survey published this year), but they are in deep despair, some of them are under the protection of the Shiite Hezbollah state. Do they really have any hope?

Oddly, in a year when the Pope is elected "Man of the Year", there is no outcry about the shocking ethnic cleansing of his flock, as well as nothing from the west. The United States has whispered something, but that's all.

As for Israel this silence is very telling. While the new anti-Semites are busy condemning Israel, proposing resolutions and banning Israel, they are saying nothing about the real massacre and the forced exile taking place here. There is no limit to the hypocrisy. Where are the human rights movements, in the face of the Christian-free Middle East  that is being created here? 

 For us in Israel: this silence is a warning that if G-d forbid, Israel will one day be weakened, the extremists will do much worse to us and no one in the world will help us. In the violent Salafi Middle East, there is no place for Christians or for the Jews. 

Luckily for the Jewish state we are strong and self protective, and now it is clear how important it is to have a Jewish state, as it is the only place in the Middle East left, that is not Muslim. 

Now a word for the Christian communities around the world: if one day the sovereignty over the holy places in Jerusalem will be held solely by the Palestinian Authority, in a short time the religious war that is taking place in the entire Arab world will erupt here as well, and neither Jews nor Christians will be allowed access anymore to their holy sites, as it is happening in Syria, in the places sacred for the Christians. 

Only under Jewish sovereignty will freedom of religion be maintained and the proof is - only in one place in the entire Middle East do the Christian Arabs get freedom of religion as well as equality, and that is in Israel, and so for the first time, we see young Christian Arab citizens, wanting to join in alliance with the Jewish State. They already know that no one will be waiting for them out there, in the cold Christian winter.

(Translation from Hebrew: Avishai Zonnenberg, Arik Klein)