Shana Tova from Catholics for Israel!

A blessed shana tova u'metuka (a good and sweet new year) to all our friends, supporters and visitors from Catholics for Israel!

Enjoy this joyful Rosh HaShanah musical parody by the Israeli group "Fountainheads" from the Ein Prat Academy, Israel.

Dip Your Apple - Fountainheads Rosh Hashanah

Jerusalem Old City Arabs on the Palestinian State, Conflict and Peace

Just a few days away from the dramatic events that will occur this week in New York, when PA President Mahmoud Abbas will make a formal request at the UN to recognize a Palestinian state, I went out onto the streets of the old city of Jerusalem to hear from some of the local Arab population how they viewed the upcoming events.

I went out not really knowing what to expect. Would they be enthusiastic and hopeful? Would they see this as a step towards a resolution of the conflict and finally attaining peace? Or would they view it, rather, as a hostile action aimed at undermining Israel?

I interviewed a little more than a dozen shopkeepers and bystanders. Even though I spent most of my time in the Christian quarter, most of them turned out to be Muslims, which in itself says a lot about the demographics of the old city.

I first spoke to a young, mild-mannered Muslim shopkeeper named Esmat, sitting in front of his t-shirt and oriental clothing shop.

"Are you for the creation of a state of Palestine," I asked him.

"Yes, of course," he answered. "This will make things better for us. Hopefully there won't be any violence afterwards. Now, business is not so bad, but if there are problems afterwards, business will drop."

And what about Jerusalem? Esmat said he was in favor of dividing Jerusalem so that it would be the capital of both Israel and Palestine, seemingly unconcerned about the impracticability of having some kind of international border with passport control dividing the old city.

Further down the street on Christian Quarter Road, between the various souvenir shops, I had a brief exchange with an elderly Muslim man called Abed.  He also pronounced himself in favor of a Palestinian state, personally preferring the internationalization of Jerusalem rather than its division. Abed said that he often prays for peace. As I thanked him and began to walk away, he called me back and pointed to another man sitting across the alley, saying: "go speak to him, he has lots to say about this." And indeed he did.

The gentleman called Muhammad spoke to me for several minutes in impeccable English (he had lived in England for some time), sitting in his chair in front of a fruit juice stand, with his son sitting next to him, occasionally interjecting some uncalled for comments (such as "Jews are Hitler"). Muhammad believes that the whole business of going to the UN is one big show, and that Abu Mazen (Abbas) is only trying to appear as a strong leader and "hero." He saw nothing positive in the creation of a Palestinian state now because this will create greater obstacles to solving concrete problems such as the refugees: "with a Palestinian state," he said, we will lose the right of return for the refugees, and we will lose East Jerusalem."

So, I said, if all these Palestinian refugees should go back to Israel to live there, what about the Jewish settlers in Palestine? Can they stay there, or must they get out? Muhammad said that they should either get out or accept to live in Palestine, with no weapons and no privileges such as those that they enjoy now, like having their own roads which allows them total freedom of movement and upon which Palestinians are not allowed.

"But what about Hamas and the other terrorist groups?" I asked. Muhammad claimed that Hamas was actually Israel's creation. I found this hard to follow, but I think that his logic went something like this: since Israel doesn't want a Palestinian state, it allowed and even somehow favored the rise of Hamas so that their terrorist attacks against civilians would give Israel a pretext not to move forward with the peace process. I think I was too taken aback by this bizarre claim to come up with an intelligent reply. In addition, said Muhammad, the current Palestinian Authority is actually working for Israel, They have no backbone and really only want to make an impression on the international politics scene. In short, they are the “worst rulers that the Palestinians have ever had.”

I thanked him for his time and walked away, slightly confused, jotting down in my notebook the jist of what he had said.

My next stop was in a shop that I knew was owned by a kind Christian woman that I will call Sandy. When I asked her what she thought about the situation, she sighed and raised her eyes towards heaven, saying that she had no hope that things would improve. Sandy didn't think there would ever be peace in Jerusalem - as long as the Muslims and the Jews are around, because the positions of the two sides are irreconcilable. She then lowered her voice, even though we were alone in the shop at this point, and said that she had overheard her Muslim neighbor say "first, we will kill the Jews, and then we will kill the Christians." It was not the first time that I heard this saying. Sandy had also lived abroad, and she repeated several times how she wished she could leave again. I could not help but feel very sad at her hopelessness. I then asked her if there were any other Christians who I could talk to. She hesitated, and then said "people can't really talk freely here, they are afraid. Christians will not openly tell the truth."

I kept these words in mind as I walked into another Christian shop of archaeological artifacts and souvenirs held by an evangelical Christian. He was standing there chatting with two other young Christian friends in their 20s, one of them nonchalantly playing "Angry Birds" on his iPhone. The shop owner seemed to be the most serious of all, so I asked him for his opinion on things, but I noticed that at almost every question he deferred to his two friends. I immediately thought of the lady in the last shop: "people can't talk freely here." Perhaps I should be interviewing people only when they are alone, I thought, so that they are not under any peer pressure to parrot the things that they are expected to say?

His two friends did not come across to me as being the most devout Christians. "What do you think is the solution to the conflict?" I asked. "Suicide bombings" said the guy playing "Angry Birds," in Arabic, with a sarcastic sneer. Looking uncomfortable, the shop owner translated into English for me, quickly adding that he was only kidding. To my relief, the Angry Birds guy confirmed that he was indeed joking, but that there was no difference between suicide bombings and Israeli F-16s bombing civilians in Gaza. I was tempted to ask if he did not see a moral difference between a suicide bomber who intentionally murders civilians, and a targeted airstrike against known terrorist cells resulting in tragic but unintended civilian casualties - but I didn't feel that the debate would be very fruitful, so I kept my tongue. There followed a long litany of grievances: checkpoints, humiliations, being asked for their I.D. cards by the *expletive* Israeli police 4-5 times a day, and so on. I couldn't help but think to myself how their attitude ironically matched rather well the name of their iPhone game.

At this point it also struck me how little difference there was between the opinions of these guys and their Muslim neighbors, so I asked: "what difference does it make that you are Christian? How does your faith in Christ help you to deal with the conflict?" - wondering whether they actually had any such faith beyond being Christian by name. One of them said: "We are not violent, we don't hurt anyone, and we hope that there will be peace." I thanked them and moved on, walking towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, beginning to feel exhausted at hearing so many expressions of frustration and anger, cynicism and pessimism.

Just before I reached the Church, I stopped to talk to another young Muslim man who looked very bored sitting in front of his shop. It was again the similar language: "Palestinians want peace but Israelis don't. We are fed up." In the back of the shop was his father, sitting on a chair, who quickly joined in: "where there is justice, there is peace" he said, inviting me to come in. I stepped in and pursued the conversation with the father. He continued: "we want equal opportunities, there is constant discrimination against us, Israelis destroy the homes of Palestinians; true they are often built without a permit, but then they wait for the homes to be completely built and the furniture moved in and then they destroy everything, economically ruining the families that have built them." I thought that this was indeed a horrible thing to do, and it is no wonder that there is so much frustration if such things happen regularly... but do they?

The conversation with the Muslim gentleman somehow moved towards the issue of 9/11 and global terror. "Bush is so stupid, he just wanted to rule the whole world... what are the Americans doing in Iraq and Afghanistan?" But, I replied, wasn't there as a matter of fact a real problem of global Islamic terrorism? The 9/11 attacks preceded and provoked the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, didn't they? And what about the London, Madrid, Bali bombings, etc...? How do you think the US should have responded after 9/11? Should they have done nothing? He was not able to give me a coherent answer and kept going on his anti-American rant, saying that acts of terror were a distortion of Islam that he did not approve, but that America's politics of power will never bring peace.

After six or seven such conversations, I was beginning to feel dizzy. So Israel and America are at fault for all of the world’s problems, and the Palestinians have been nothing but innocent victims all along. And they really believe this. Trying to listen sympathetically, I could understand how their long list of grievances and sufferings, mixed along with a constant feed of anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda, and a good dose of Middle Eastern pride rendered them completely incapable of admitting that perhaps the Arabs and Palestinians have also done a few things wrong (such as launching numerous wars of extermination and murderous terrorism campaigns against the Jewish State).

Still, I kept wondering: how true is what they are saying? How much of it is the result of suffering true injustices at the hands of the Israelis, and how much of it is ideological?

The next conversation came almost as an answer to my question, leaving no room for ambiguity. This encounter was now in the Muslim quarter, just on the edge of the Jewish quarter. I began speaking with an elderly man, but because his English was poor, the conversation soon shifted to a young, well built lad sitting across the alley from him, still in his 20s, with intense eyes and speaking fluent English. When I asked him my opening question about what he thought about the possibility of a Palestinian state, he said that he didn't like the way things were going.  Why, I asked?

- "Because I don't like the fact that Abu Mazen will leave half of the land to Israel," he said. "For you see, it is written in the Qur'an that jihad must continue until we have brought the entire land under the dominion of Islam... in fact, not only Palestine but the whole world."

"You see," he continued articulately and quietly, "I have to obey the Qur'an. The whole world must be ruled and judged by Islamic rule. This is not an idea of man but it is Allah's command. Islam is Allah’s system, intended for the whole world"

- "The whole world?" I exclaimed. "Even America and Europe?"

- "Yes," he said.

- "But is this not a recipe for perpetual war?" I replied, acting cool, detached, and mildly interested.

- "Oh no" he reassured me. "Jihad doesn’t mean war all the time. This will only be for a certain time. For when Islam takes over, non-Muslims just have to pay the jizziyeh tax to the Islamic authorities, and then they can live peacefully under Islamic rule.

I thanked him for his candidness and walked away, thinking how he had matter-of-factly confirmed in an instant everything I had read about Islam and jihad as being an absolutely normal and integral part of his religion.

On the way back home, I stopped and had a chat with one last shopkeeper who was more pragmatic and less religiously oriented than the previous one. He summarized well everything that I heard before: he hates the present situation; the Palestinians want peace; Abbas is sold to the US and for Israel; the Israelis are constantly destroying Palestinian houses; Jewish settlers are burning Palestinian trees; Israel is deceiving the Palestinians by constantly speaking about peace but never actually doing anything about it; the Jewish Temple never existed; the separation wall was built as a pretext to grab Palestinian land; he is against suicide bombings, but they are a natural response to Israeli aggression; Palestinians lose their citizenship if they leave the country for two years; they paid huge taxes to the Israeli government but get no services in return, etc, etc…

At this point, a French-Israeli you tour guide who was passing by with his group and had overheard the conversation politely intervened: "well," he said, "at least we are in a country where we are allowed to criticize our government, which might not be the case under another (Palestinian) rule... And remember the pitiful condition of the old city back under Jordanian rule when you didn't even have sewers, and how the Old City and your own condition has improved and developed under Israeli rule..."

I wrapped up my conversation with the shopkeeper who concluded with a thinly-veiled threat: "The Israelis had better give us our state, or we will get it by other means..."  I then caught up with the French-Israeli tour guide and asked if there was anything else he wanted to add. He said: "every time the Palestinians make strategic mistakes, and every time they are the ones who end up losing the most. It seems like this is what they are doing it again. Let's just hope that this will not lead to another regional war, and especially not one involving Iran..."

Mentally and emotionally exhausted, I headed back home, sadly thinking about Sandy's words: "as long as the Jews and Muslims are here there will never be peace..."  In the face of such cynicism and hopelessness, I thought that the most important thing we as Christians can do is to pray and work that the wounded inhabitants of this city and land may encounter Jesus, Messiah and Prince of Peace. Only He may renew their minds and hearts and turn a seemingly hopeless situation into one where true forgiveness, reconciliation and hope become again possible.

Conflict and Peace: Between Myth and Reality

On the Arab "Spring", Nakba, Hamas, Dhimmitude... and Sleeping Christians

In the last few months, it seems like the temperature has been steadily rising in the Middle East - and not only because of the nearing summer. The so-called "Arab Spring," initially carrying the hope that the fall of dictators in the Middle East would bring a blossoming of democracy and freedom in the Arab world, has already turned sour with bloodbaths in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The death toll at this point of some 13,000 and counting - with no sign of true democracy on the horizon - raises serious questions as to whether we are witnessing a "spring" at all.  As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu noted in his recent speech to the U.S. Congress, other revolutions that had raised similar hopes in the not too distant past ended up disastrously:

This historic moment holds the promise of a new dawn of freedom and opportunity. Millions of young people are determined to change their future. We all look at them. They muster courage. They risk their lives. They demand dignity. They desire liberty... Yet as we share their hopes, we also must also remember that those hopes could be snuffed out as they were in Tehran in 1979. You remember what happened then.  The brief democratic spring in Iran was cut short by a ferocious and unforgiving tyranny.  This same tyranny smothered Lebanon’s democratic Cedar Revolution, and inflicted on that long-suffering country, the [dark] rule of Hezbollah. 

In Israel, so far largely untouched by the nearby revolutions and uprisings, the developments are nevertheless worrisome.  On May 4, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority signed a reconciliation agreement with the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, which has been ruling the Gaza strip since the bloody conflict between them in 2007. Just a few days later, on May 9, Israelis tried to put their worries to rest for 24 hours as they celebrated the 63rd anniversary of their independence.

But what is a cause of celebration for some is a disaster for others: On May 15, Palestinians remembered "Nakba day" - the "day of the catastrophe" commemorating the displacement of Palestinian people that followed Israeli independence and the subsequent war launched by the Arab nations in 1948 (the discrepancy in the date is due to the fact that Independence Day is celebrated according to the Hebrew calendar, and "Nakba Day" according to the Gregorian calendar).  In addition to clashes and riots in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in an unprecedented development, thousands of Palestinians and other Arabs marched towards the Israeli borders, and over one hundred protestors from Syria managed to breach the fence and entered Israeli territory - at the cost of more human life.

While the massive calls for a third intifada fortunately did not materialize and the violence quickly subsided, many challenges lie ahead in the coming months, with the interim Egyptian government flirting with the idea of cancelling the peace agreement with Israel, and with Palestinians expected to unilaterally declare statehood in September, causing Israeli police to prepare for wide-scale rioting.

With the ever-growing threats and attempts at delegitimizing the existence of Israel, what is perhaps most worrisome is the attitude of many Christians towards the conflict, ranging from misguided activism to naive passivity. I have recently been watching videos and visiting websites and Facebook pages of some Christian pro-Palestinian and "peace activist" groups, even engaging in conversation with some of them to try to better understand their point of view. These discussions, to be frank, were troubling.  I have found that the essential kernel of truth that they are supposed to stand for - which all Christians can agree with in principle - namely, the desire for peace, justice and dignity for the Palestinian people, becomes largely or even completely eclipsed by a number of nonsensical aberrations.  Some of these myths and lies are repeated ad nauseum until even sensible people start believing in them.  Here are some of the most prominent ones that come to mind:

1. The disproportionate amount of time, resources and energy spent in delegitimizing and attacking Israel rather than in proposing concrete solutions for the Palestinians (such as, for example, the anti-Israel campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions).
2. The disproportionate focus on Palestinian victimization and on Israeli injustices (some of which are true and certainly deserving of criticism, while others are greatly exaggerated), matched with a nearly total inability to see the "other side", namely the existential threat and fear of terror faced by Israelis almost on a daily basis.
3. The Palestinian inability to take responsibility for or even acknowledge the horrific acts of terrorism committed year after year against Israeli civilians.
4. The selective reading of history or even rewriting of historical facts.  Examples include the fixation on the Palestinian refugee problem while deliberately ignoring the story of the 800,000+ Jewish refugees who fled Arab lands in the years following the founding of the State of Israel, or more generally the myth of the vanishing Christian population in the Holy Land.
5. The Palestinian culture of incitement and hatred against Jews, and the public glorification of terrorists by the Palestinian Authority.
6. The propagandic use and wrenching out of context of hard realities such as the security fence/wall, originally built by Israel to stop relentless waves of terror bombings, but now used by Palestinian propagandists to symbolize an alleged "Israeli apartheid" - regardless of the fact that Israel is one of the most multi-cultural countries in the world.
7. The systematic demonization of Christian Zionists and supporters of Israel, who are commonly falsely portrayed as Arab-haters, avid supporters of injustice, or apocalyptic doomsayers.
8. The dhimmi mentality whereby out of fear for their safety, Christians oppressed under Islamic regimes prefer to remain silent or even claim that all is well with their Muslim neighbors to avoid further aggression, and instead blame Israel for everything.  

While one can appreciate the need to speak prudently in a situation of conflict with Islam, the absurd and disastrous result of dhimmitude is at least twofold: first, the one country that is most often singled out for criticism in the Middle East is ironically the one where Christians are entirely safe and enjoy full religious freedom, namely Israel.  Second, and carrying much graver consequences, the stories and reports that are told by many local Christians, increasingly tainted by fear, political correctness and dhimmitude, are forming a world opinion about the Middle East conflict that has more to do with caricature, fantasy and myth than with reality: this is the caricature of Israel the evil occupier, ruthlessly oppressing and dispossessing the poor Palestinians, and the fantasy that if only Israel would dismantle all settlements and grant the Palestinians their state, it would be the end of the Middle East conflict. Of course, as past Israeli withdrawals and concessions have demonstrated, nothing could be further from the truth.

Let's illustrate the problem with one small example. A few weeks ago, the Franciscan Media Center in Jerusalem interviewed Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem William Shomali on the Fatah-Hamas agreement. The news report claimed that the agreement between the two Palestinian factions could "mark a [positive] turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict," and would somehow increase the Palestinian Authority's credentials to ask the UN for the recognition of a Palestinian state.  Msgr. Shomali claimed that the agreement would be an opportunity to "revive the [peace] negotiations," and that the freedom of local Christians (under a potential Hamas regime) would be guaranteed because "Hamas respects the freedom to build churches [and] to worship freely."

Over-zealous optimism, wishful thinking, or disconnect from reality?  It is hard to comprehend how Abu Mazen's agreement with the unrepentant terrorist organization, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, could "mark a turning point" in the conflict or increase the PA's credentials. This is the same Hamas that has called for the killing of Christians and Jews "to the last one" and condemned the death of Bin Laden as the the murder of a heroic "Arab and Muslim holy warrior." Ironically, just two days before the bishop's interview was published, a Hamas MP and cleric said on Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza that the Jews were brought to Palestine for "the great massacre" whereby the Arabs will "have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang," more dangerous than reptiles and lethal bacteria, so that "the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate."

An interesting basis for "reviving peace negotiations."

If this is not convincing enough, you can also read for yourself the Hamas Charter which openly proclaims that "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."  The charter also rejects all peace initiatives and praises Jihad and death for the cause of Allah as the Muslim's highest duty. As for Hamas guaranteeing the Christians' freedom of worship, this is the same Hamas that has relentlessly persecuted Christians in Gaza and is looking forward to the day when Rome and the rest of Europe will be conquered by Islam just like Constantinople was.

In this light, the "religious freedom" guaranteed by Hamas might of a rather peculiar type.

How the good bishop's rosy optimism can be reconciled with these basic facts on Hamas is a mystery. But this dichotomy between mythical opinion and sober reality demonstrates one thing: Christians around the world should be wary of passively swallowing any narrative or story coming from the Holy Land and Middle East - even when told by well-meaning Christians - without throwing in a good dose of critical thinking and fact finding. Things are not always as they seem. How many more bombings of churches will it take for the world to finally wake up and realize that Israel is not the problem?

Ariel Ben Ami

Jewish-Arab Coexistence in the Midst of Conflict

Sunday morning. In Israel, it's the first day of a new week. Just a few minutes ago, I arrived on the campus of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Mount Scopus, just a short walk down from the Mount of Olives. Before beginning a day of studying and writing, I went to the cafeteria to buy an orange juice. I greeted with a smile the Arab girl working at the counter, ordered, paid, and then said "shukran" (thank you) in Arabic. I then sat down and read the headlines in the Hebrew daily newspaper "Israel HaYom" (Israel Today). It was a quiet Shabbat in Jerusalem, but not in southern Israel, where thousands of residents were forced to spend the weekend in bomb shelters. Over the weekend, Islamic factions in the Gaza strip fired some 120 rockets and mortars onto the neighboring Israeli communities. The newly deployed "Iron Dome" missile system intercepted about eight Grad rockets that were heading for the civilian populations in the coastal city of Ashkelon and the biblical city of Beer Sheva in the Negev Desert. Last week, an anti-tank missile was fired at a school bus, critically injuring a teen and prompting a harsh Israeli response which led to the killing of several Hamas commanders.

With all the grim headlines and the seemingly endless conflict, I could not help thinking about how different my daily life is. In the last post, I posted a video showing examples of tolerance and kindness in Israeli society towards Arabs. I personally see similar situations every day around me. Earlier this morning I had breakfast at the Christian guest house in the old city where I usually eat, greeting Charlie, the Arab Christian receptionist, with a friendly "sabbah el'kheir" (good morning) in Arabic. In a couple of hours I will go to my Arabic class, continuing my study of literary Arabic along with some 20 enthusiastic Israeli Jewish students. Perhaps after class a group of us will head to the library together to do our homework, as it has become our custom. Last week, as we were all struggling with Arabic verbs, Shoshanat, one of the Israeli students, calls out a passing young female Muslim student friend, gives her a hug, and after a bit of friendly chitchat proceeds to grill her on the correct way to conjugate the verb "to prepare" in Arabic. Another time, it was Elisha, a young kippa-wearing religious Israeli Jew who lives in one of the Jewish settlements in Samaria, who chats, smiles and jokes around in Arabic with the veiled Muslim girl for several minutes as she kindly helps him do his homework.

Despite the undeniable fears and tensions in the country, such beautiful examples of friendly coexistence between Jews and Arabs abound, not only here at Hebrew University, but all over pluralistic and multi-ethnic Israel.

Latest News, Learn Hebrew, and Win a Trip to Israel!

Today, for a change, I have no theological reflection to propose to you.  Instead, I will briefly summarize some of the topics that have recently been of interest to us Christians in the Holy Land, along with some suggested links, and then present to you a special offer from one of our partners to learn Hebrew giving you a chance to win a trip to Israel!

• Purim: On March 20, Israelis celebrated Purim, a joyful feast remembering the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them (sound familiar?) while they were living in exile in Persia. The story is told in the book of Esther, read in all synagogues during the feast.  Although this is the only book of the Bible that does not explicitly mention God, believing Jews and Christians see with confidence His guiding hand of protection in the story of how the Lord protected His people from the evil Haman through Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai. For a good introduction on this feast, see this crash course on Purim.  In Israel, we were blessed with some abundant and well-needed late-winter rain this Purim.
• Modern-day Hamans: Unfortunately, murderous plots against the Jewish people are not only a thing of the past. Israelis were brutally reminded of this fact in the past weeks, first with the gruesome murder of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar on March 12, then the increasing Hamas mortar and rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities,  and then the terrorist bombing here in Jerusalem last Wednesday (March 23) which killed Evangelical Christian and Bible Translator Mary Jane Gardner, and wounded some 40 people.  It was the first major terrorist bombing in Jerusalem since 2004.  Still, things remain otherwise calm in the Holy City which is filling with an increasing stream of Lenten pilgrims as Passover and Easter come nearer.
• Third Palestinian Intifada?  The modern spirit of Haman also lives on in calls on Facebook for a third  Palestinian Intifada, following in the footsteps of the recent revolutions in neighboring Arab countries that also began via the channels of social media. Thankfully, after receiving massive protests, Facebook decided to shut down the page which had gathered over 300,000 supporters, though other pages are already appearing in its place.  Please act and report to Facebook pages that incite violence!
• Racism in Israel?  You might think that the recent wave of violence would provoke anti-Arab attitudes of resentment and even racism in Israeli society.  One even often hears the claim that Israel is an "apartheid state", discriminating against Arabs and other non-Jews.  These smear campaigns have little to do with reality.  If you follow only one link in this news report, be sure to watch this  moving video of an Israeli TV show that staged a scene with hidden cameras where an Israeli attendant in a gas station (an actor) refuses to sell coffee to an Arab-Muslim woman (also an actress).  How do you think the other Israelis in the shop reacted to the (staged) anti-Arab discrimination, unaware that they were being filmed?
  
  
  
  
• Jesus of Nazareth, Part II: The Holy Father's new book and especially his statement that there is no basis to hold the Jews responsible for the death of Christ caused a sensation in the Israeli media.  Even though informed Catholics and others know that this is nothing new (the same thing was already said almost 50 years ago in the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate), it was a needed re-emphasis of a foundational teaching that is still very much misunderstood (or unknown!) by many Jews.  Perhaps of even greater interest is the Pope's remarks on the evangelization of the Jews and ongoing mission of Israel today. Read some interesting commentaries here and here.
• Finally, one of our goals here at Catholics for Israel is to help Catholics rediscover the Jewish and Hebrew roots of our faith.  As St. Paul tells us, we Gentile Christians are but wild olive branches that were grafted into the natural olive tree of Israel, and we should be grateful towards our roots (cf. Rom 11:17).  Someone once told me: "Jesus was a Jew.  Everything about Him, in his humanity, was Jewish.  Can we therefore really know Jesus without knowing anything about Judaism and about our Hebrew roots?"  One of the best things that I have ever done in this respect was to learn Hebrew - the language that God chose, for some reason, to communicate His Word, the Holy Scriptures to Israel and to us.  Even the New Testament, which was written in Greek, is full of Hebraic and Semitic expressions and ways of thinking. Learning Hebrew is one of the best ways to get to know the Bible in-depth, digging deep into the texts and into the Biblical and Jewish way of thinking that underlies our faith.