Sometimes the importance of an argument can be seen in the ferocity of the distorted attack against it.
A few days after The Wall Street Journal published an Op-Ed entitled "Israel and the Plight of Middle East Christians" (March 9, 2012) by Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, a deluge of irate and distorted rejoinders by Palestinians and their partisan supporters filled the letters page -- with not one letter underscoring the merit of his important arguments.
Oren had simply stated the obvious -- that Israel treats its Christians with greater respect than any other country in the Middle East, but he was accused of all manner of sins. His detractors charged him with fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment, presuming to speak on behalf of people for whom he had no right to advocate, distorting the facts about Palestinian Christians and ignoring the discrimination Christians endure in Israel.
Not only were the attacks false, many of them were irrelevant. Christians aresafer in Israel than they are in any other country in the Middle East. That is an undeniable fact.
If Oren's decision to make this point offends Palestinians and their supporters in the U.S., perhaps they should rethink their strategy of using Palestinian Christians as a symbol to lambaste Israel. Now that the world has witnessed some clarifying catastrophes in Egypt and Iraq where Christians have been brutally murdered and driven from their homelands, it is clear this strategy has backfired. The chickens have come home to roost and none of the letters written in response to Oren's op-ed can shoo them away
.There is no falsehood about Israeli policy that can stand in the face of the truth: that Christians have been beaten and run over by military vehicles in Egypt, arrested in Saudi Arabia for praying, and sentenced to death in Iran. There can be no denying the firebombing of churches throughout the Arab and Muslim world. The facts prove that for Christians, Israel is an island of tolerance in a turbulant sea of persecution.
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Ambassador Oren reported that Christians are leaving Egypt and Iraq to avoid beatings and massacres inflicted on them by Muslim extremists. He reported that in Iran, conversion to Christianity is a capital offense and that Saudi Arabia "outlaws private Christian prayer."
All true.
He then made some other obvious points:
1. "As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries."2. "The only place in the Middle East where Christians are not endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel's founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek orthodox, Catholics and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%."
Oren then talked about Arab Christians serving in the Israeli government and in the military. He also noted that Israeli Arab Christians "are on average more affluent than Israeli Jews and better educated, even scoring higher on their SATs."
The ambassador then acknowledged that Israeli Christians do encounter intolerance in Israel, but he contrasted this intolerance with the hostility directed at Christians throughout the rest of the Middle East "where hatred of Christians is ignored or encouraged."
This is all true. In contrast, four letters written in response were full of distortions, they included:
1. The PLO Response
The letter submitted by PLO representative Maen Rashid Areikat accuses Oren of presenting a "distorted and inaccurate account of Christians in Palestine" and of omitting Israeli violations against the Palestinian Christian community. His first gambit is to condemn Israel for revoking the residency rights of Palestinians living in Jerusalem.
While it is true that Arabs, regardless of their religion, can and do lose their right to live in Jerusalem after being away from the city for extended periods of time, they can easily avoid this problem by applying for Israeli citizenship. In fact, there is an increase in such applications whenever it looks like East Jerusalem may become part of a Palestinian state.
In January, 2008, McClatchy Newspapers reported an increase in the number of applications for Israeli citizenship on the part of Arabs living in Jerusalem.McClatchy told the story of Salim Shabane, a Palestinian living in Jerusalem who applied for Israeli citizenship. McClatchy reported:
In 2007, according to the Israeli Interior Ministry, Shabane and 500 other residents of East Jerusalem requested Israeli passports, up from 200 in each of the previous three years.Shabane's decision to seek full Israeli citizenship reflects the awkward reality for Arabs in Jerusalem: Though many want to see an independent Palestinian state, they don't want to be part of it."My work and my life are inside Israel," Shabane said. "I am very proud to be an Arab and Palestinian, but for practical reasons I'm not able to be part of the Palestinian Authority."Though the number of Arabs seeking passports is relatively small, there's an uncomfortable acknowledgement, especially among the Arab middle class in Jerusalem, that their lives could get substantially worse under Palestinian rule."
Areikat also condemns Israel for imposing "an onerous permit system to access the Holy Selpucher in Jerusalem or the baptism site on the River Jordan. Even family visitations between Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem are heavily restricted."
Does Areikat truly expect Israel to give Palestinians living in Gaza, a territory controlled by Hamas -- a terror group that denies Israel's right to exist and which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis -- free and unfettered access to the West Bank and Jerusalem? Gaza is a regular source of rocket attacks that terrorize Israeli citizens. Even this very day.
And does he really expect Israel to allow Palestinians living in the West Bank free and unfettered access to Jerusalem in light of the ongoing hostility between Israel and the Palestinians? This is simply ludicrous. In times and areas of conflict, checkpoints and permit systems are simply a lamentable fact of life.
Areikat also invokes the vandal attacks on Christian properties in Israel to prove the state does not respect the rights of Christians. Such attacks were detailed in the Jerusalem Post a leading Israeli paper, which reported the following:
In comments made to The Jerusalem Post, a spokesman for Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the minister views any harm inflicted on the different religious congregations in the country, "and certainly on the Christian community," very seriously.He added that Yishai will not allow such incidents to become routine and will act together with relevant ministry and government officials, as well as law enforcement authorities, "to eradicate the phenomenon and bring the criminals responsible to justice."
Such attacks are despicable and the Israeli government must do all it can to catch the perpetrators -- whoever they are. But for Areikat to invoke them as if they are evidence of an indifference toward Christian well-being in Israel is the height of hypocrisy.
Does Areikat think we have forgotten what has happened to churches andChristians in the Gaza Strip under Hamas control? Does he think we do not know that the constitution of the Palestinian Authority states "The principles of Islamic Shari'a shall be the main source of legislation" and that Shariah requires Christians to behave in a subordinate to Muslims?
To top it off, Areikat asserts that there has been "a long history and deeply rooted culture of tolerance and integration in Palestine." This is tenable if one ignores the anti-Jewish riots of 1929 and 1936 and the ongoing hostility directed at Christians in Palestinian society documented by Justus Reid Weiner and the violence directed at the First Church of Bethlehem during the First Intifada.
This church, which was recently visited by officials from the Palestinian Authority who said it was not a recognized legitimate church, was subject to 14 firebomb attacks in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In addition to guiding people to their seats for worship, ushers in this church became adept at extinguishing firebombs with buckets of water kept in the sanctuary just for that purpose. Its pastor has been shot at, and hit once in the shoulder. If this is tolerance, then what does intolerance look like?
The evidence of anti-Christian hostility in Palestinian society is simply overwhelming. Just how stupid does Areikat think we are?
2. Reverand Robert O. Smith's Response
Another letter, this one submitted by Rev. Robert O. Smith, a high-ranking official from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), came close to rivaling Areikat's letter in its deceptiveness. (Note: Rev. Smith was writing as a private citizen and not as a representative from ELCA). In his letter, Smith wrote that Oren's letter "stands in sharp disagreement with the perspectives shared by those he presumably wants to protect. Mr. Oren seeks to speak for Palestinian Christians before he has spoken with them."
Clearly, Rev. Smith did not read Oren's piece very closely. It begins with a description of a conversation Oren had with Christians in Bethlehem about the fear they had of Hamas. Oren has spoken with Christians in the West Bank.
And when Smith says that Oren's piece "stands in sharp disagreement with the perspectives shared by" Palestinian Christians, he is simply being disingenuous. The fact is Palestinian Christians do speak about fears of Muslim oppression.
For example, at the recent Christ at the Checkpoint Conference organized by Bethlehem Bible College, Pastor Nihad Salman testified to the concerns Christians in the West Bank have regarding Muslim hostility toward Christians. After speaking about the impact of high unemployment on Christians in the West Bank, he said that because Christians comprise only one or two percent of the population in the territory, they are affected psychologically.
You are afraid. And we have many times when people are afraid of what is happening in the Arabic Spring. Will the Muslims you know, take over? If it is true or not true. Whatever the outcome of that... what will happen? Will after Saturday come Sunday? So this is the type of thing that makes Christians want to run away.
The reference to Saturday and Sunday is to a well known proverb in the Middle East about Muslim hostility toward Jews (whose day of rest is on Saturday) and Christians (whose day of rest is on Sunday). The question Pastor Salman is asking is, given that Islamist groups are coming to power across the region ("Arabic Spring") and having already persecuted and expelled their Jews ("Saturday"), will these Arab countries now increase their persecution of Christians ("Sunday")?
Also at this conference, another Pastor, Labeeb Madanat said, "There are pressures. There is discrimination. The dhimma system is a system of discrimination. We do not deny that."
How exactly does this testimony offered by Palestinian Christians -- at an event they organized -- contradict what Oren stated? And does their testimony foment anti-Muslim sentiment the way Rev. Smith said Oren's piece does?
What is so alarming for Rev. Smith, who has worked assiduously to use Christian suffering as a symbol to focus attention on Israel is that Christians from the Middle East have become increasingly vocal about the suffering they endure under Muslim rule.
For example, at a recent conference about Christians in the Middle East(organized by CAMERA), Juliana Taimoorazy, founder of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council reported stated that since June 2004, churches in Iraq have been bombed more than 80 times. Sometimes, multiple churches would be bombed at the same time as part of a coordinated attack. "Most of these attacks happened on Fridays, marking the day of Islamic prayer," she said. Clergy have been routinely kidnapped and killed on a regular basis. Even children have been killed by Islamists, Taimoorazy reported.
And at a recent prayer event held at a Coptic Church in Rhode Island, Dinaa Girgis called detailed the suffering Christians endure in Egypt. An article about the event, written by this analyst states the following:
Dr. Douaa Girgis, who described the events in Egypt before, during and after the Jan. 25 uprising. After describing the attack on the church in Alexandria that took place on Dec. 31, 2010, Girgis told the audience, that attacks against Christians are a common thing in Egypt.
"It happens pretty much on a weekly basis," he said.
Girgis told the audience about young girls who are kidnapped, isolated from their families and forced to convert to Islam. The government, she said, is purposefully not prosecuting the perpetrators of kidnappings.
She told the audience about the discrimination that Christians endure in Egypt. Christian physicians are not allowed to practice certain specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology because Muslim law prohibits Christians from touching Muslim women.
Discrimination and regular attacks against Christians have prompted 100,000 Copts to leave Egypt in the past year, she said. Things are likely to get worse in light of recent parliamentary elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists won approximately 75 percent of the seats. With this victory, Christians could be forced to pay discriminatory taxes, otherwise known as the jizya.
All of this testimony supports Oren's premise.
3. Arab Christian Response from Bethlehem
And the distortions just keep on coming. Fr. Jamal Khader, a Catholic priest living in Bethlehem (and signer of the dishonest Kairos
Perhaps this is true. And if it is, it is unacceptable. But discrimination in Israel is certainly not state policy. Racism and xenophobia exist everywhere in the world. They are regrettable elements of human nature and should be combated. However, Israeli law does not condone discrimination. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the laws of many neighboring states.
It is also important to acknowledge the factors that contribute to Israeli fear of Arabs. Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab countries who refuse to recognize the Jewish state. This reality must have an undeniable impact on attitudes toward Arabs in Israel. In the long run, the best hopes for good relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs (of all faiths), is for Arabs and Muslim leaders to make peace with the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
Conclusion
There are two points on which Ambassador Oren may have misstated statistics, though neither instance alters the overall accuracy of the individual point or the larger argument.
It appears the number of Coptic Christians who have fled Egypt may be lower than he stated. He wrote that 200,000 Christians have fled the country, butrecent estimates put that figure at approximately 100,000 since Mubarak's ouster. An NGO report issued in September 2011 stated that this number could reach 250,000 by the end of the year. Thus, there's no doubt Coptic Christians have faced intense persecution and have fled in substantial numbers.
Secondly, he states that "the West Bank is hemorrhaging Christians." In fact, the population of Christians in the West Bank has risen from approximately 40,000 in 1968 to approximately 60,000 today. It should also be noted that in the late 1940s, there were approximately 60,000 Christians living in the West Bank and that this population declined to approximately 40,000 just prior to the Six Day War in 1967. This decline in absolute numbers took place under Jordanian, not Israeli rule. This indicates that Israeli control of the West Bank has actually made life safer for Christians in that territory, a point that affirms Oren's basic point.
Despite these minor distractions, Oren's premise was unassailable. This may help explain why it prompted such an angry reaction. The Wall Street Journal publishedfour letters in response to Oren's piece. It seems there was an organized letter-writing campaign against him. Now there must be a campaign of truth.
