Reporter Andrew Lee Butters thinks Israel has been a disaster for Mideast Christians. At Time's Mideast Blog, Butters writes:
And while support for the modern revival of the ancient Biblical nation runs deep among many Christians in America and Europe, the creation of Israel has been a disaster for Christians in the Middle East. Many of the Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in 1948 — never to be allowed back — were Christians. The flood of Palestinian refugees into Lebanon helped spark a civil war between Muslims and Christians there. And the ongoing occupation of the West Bank is strangling the life out of those Christian communities that are left. A UN report released a week ago said that the Palestinian West Bank town of Bethlehem – Christ's birthplace and a major stop on the Pope's visit – is now almost totally controlled by Israel.
And in a separate report,he raises another point that needs addressing:
That culture of tolerance is today under threat from the rise of religious extremism. But clash-of-civilizations pundits and Western leaders like the Pope often ignore how the West helped spark such intolerance, especially through its one-sided support of Israel.
Consider the following:
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The biggest disaster for Mideast Christians isn't Israel's creation, but the repression of Christian minorities in staunchly religious states like Iran and Saudi Arabia, to the secular states like Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
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The 1948 Arab flight from Israel wasn't a Christian phenomenon. Many people who left genuinely feared being caught in the cross fire, while a great many others believed Arab leaders who promised their dislocation would be temporary. It was no more a "Christian flight" than a "Muslim flight" (the majority of the refugees are presumably Muslim) or a "flight of the right-handed" (the majority of the refugees are presumably right-handed).
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Christians enjoy more freedom of worship in Israel than in the PA or any other Mideast state.
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The only thing "strangling the life out of the West Bank and Gaza Christian communities is Islamic fundamentalism which has hijacked the Palestinian cause, and corrupt indifference from Fatah.
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As for the West's "one-sided support for Israel," rest assured that on the day after Israel agrees to any final peace agreement meeting Butters' approval, Muslim extremism and Arab sectarian violence will continue destabilizing the region.
