Thank you for directing a light back towards our little town of Bethlehem. I look forward to the day when you and I will be able to return there together to enjoy Christmas properly. Keep fighting the good fight.
Love,
Robert O'Neill
Peace Corps Volunteer
Soalala, Madagascar

A great Article. As if you read my mind and put it in words. Thanks for the simple touchy article. Just simply true Thoguh the truth may hurt sometimes.

WITH RESPECT TO THE ASSASSINATION OF BENAZIR BHUTTO

This is a glimpse of the world’s future if the Zionist so called “State of Israel” and its number one ally the USA don’t wise up and vacate the Middle East.

That’s right Victoria, they can’t blame this one on the general Muslim population.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/yossi_melman/2007/12/bhutto_conspiracy_theories_wil/all_comments.html

We may find out, however, that the culprit is the Islamist fundamentalists (Al Qaeda and the Taliban) who are enabled by the foolish greed of the colonial USA and Israel.

Certainly Musharraf is one of those with the most to gain. He can now postpone elections indefinitely and hold onto his power, although he may have quite a revolt on his hands if he does so.

On the other hand, Bhutto was a strong ally of the US and an outspoken opponent of the Islamic fundamentalists. That is the kiss of death in this region of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28pakistan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

“In October, Ms. Bhutto survived another deadly suicide attack in the southern city of Karachi on the day she returned from years of self-imposed exile abroad to contest the parliamentary elections. Ms. Bhutto blamed extremist Islamic groups who she said wanted to take over the country for that attack, which narrowly missed her but killed 134 people. But she also complained that the government had taken insufficient steps to safeguard her parade…

She was openly critical of Mr. Musharraf’s ineffectiveness at dealing with Islamic militants and welcomed American involvement…

The assassination comes just days after Mr. Musharraf lifted a state of emergency in the country, which he had used to suspend the Constitution and arrest thousands of political opponents, and which he said he had imposed in part because of terrorist threats by extremists in Pakistan…”

So this is how my crystal ball has it. We just took another step along the path to WW III. The Islamist fundamentalists (Al Qaeda and the Taliban) hold all the cards. Musharraf may or may not be making a serious effort to rein them in. He may be playing live and let live as they build their strength in NW Pakistan and continue to weaken Afghanistan.

The Zionist invader in Palestine keeps the entire Middle East inflamed at both them and the USA for supporting them. Of course our preemptive attack on Iraq and continued occupation of Afghanistan just adds fuel to the flames.

China, India and Pakistan’s thirst for Middle East oil makes them natural allies of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the other Arabian Gulf oil states. They will be eager to supply whatever these countries need in the way of precision guided land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACM) like the US Tomahawk. These are precision, Global Position System (GPS) satellite guided, low flying cruise missiles that hug the earth and can be programmed to attack Israel from multiple directions. Israel will never know what hit them. These will not be like the thousands of ballistic Katyusha rockets fired from Southern Lebanon, which mostly land in the olive orchards and sage brush fields. These missiles will each have a high rise building or other high value target and street number programmed in them like our Tomahawk attacks on Baghdad in 1991 and 2003.

Our thirst for oil and 10 Trillion dollar national debt, with much of it owed to China, puts us in a very weak strategic position. China could bankrupt us at will by flooding the market with our worthless paper IOUs. That’s why the US dollar has lost ~33% of its value relative to the Euro, which is on its way to becoming the world standard currency. The US dollar will soon be known as the US Peso.

Israel only produces ~1% of its required oil from its own oil wells, and must import 99%, 90% from Russia. Russia is anything but a reliable ally and is known to have used its natural gas supplied to Eastern Europe as a political tool in the past.

So standby for action the so called Zionist “State of Israel” and its number one ally the USA. We live in interesting times.

Here is and interesting post by JDLEDELL @ December 27, 2007 7:26 AM from Yossi Melmans’s blog:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/yossi_melman/2007/12/hopeful_for_bethlehem/all_comments.html

Yossi - Pay no attention to the extremists on both sides that populate this blog. I am extremely pessimistic about the chances for peace. I have dozens of relatives living in West Bank settlements and I have been going to Israel, at least annually, for more than 40 years. I have seen it all, the good, the bad and the ugly of this situation.

It's easy to put the blame on the Palestinians for they have made numerous mistakes which have significantly aggravated the problem. Suicide bombers, rockets and armed resistance are just a few of the well known errors. However, Jewish mistakes are less well known. The settlement enterprise is the primary problem. My sister and her family were one of the first to move from Haifa to the West Bank after the 67 war. Settlements were planned with three express goals: first, dividing up the west bank with Jews so that a viable Palestinian state could never emerge. Second, to surround Jerusalem with Jewish settlements so that Palestinians could never use it as their capital (to that end, in 1967 Israel tripled the size of Jerusalem's historical dimensions). Third, to build on top of and control the West Bank aquifers.

I’m sure you are aware that Israel is not really trying to forge a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The settlement game is still being played. Some of my settler relatives are being recruited to seed a new settlement in Atarot, for a 11,000 person city on the doorstep of Ramallah. Others are being recruited to seed Giv’at Yael, a 20,000 person settlement near Bethlehem. Plans have been developed to build another new settlement, Shimo’n Hatsedeeq , near Abu Dis.

Eventually the world will catch on to Israel’s word games. Like Jerusalem's expanded boundries, Ma’ale Adumim's municipal boundries extend all the way to Jericho, empty land that can accomodate hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Ariel city boundries are proposed to expand to encompass all the small surrounding settlements that will make Ariel geographically 4 times larger, on the theory Ariel will be allowed to stay under a peace agreement. These kind of games will not lead to “land for peace” or “peace for peace”.

Look at the maps the settlers pass around, you will see four “reservations” for Palestinians with Israel taking all the rest, including the Jordan Valley. This is the game plan and I don’t think any Israeli politician is strong enough to stop it or slow it down. There is no such thing as the status quo, if peace is delayed Israeli settlement expansion will surely prevent the birth of a viable Palestinian state.

This is a recipe for disaster as internal and external Palestinians demand citizenship and a bi-national state. Yossi, our mutual dream of a Jewish homeland will disappear as it has so many times in the past few thousand years. I, for one, find that to be an unforgivable mistake. However, an even worse outcome is possible, the loss of the jewish soul. I have seen IDF and settler depravity first hand in the West Bank. I have two nephews serving in the IDF and they are thugs, who have already lost their souls to hatred, along with numerous of my relatives. I cherish my Jewish faith and the wisdom of the Torah but I see too many Israelis abandoning this wisdom in their greed and visceral hatred for “others”. If we lose our soul, land will not matter.

Asım,

*Golden age of muslim Spain* is a Palaver,it is a myth.
The Umayyad army(horde of the looters and rapists) had invaded Spain.The Umayyads had no any capable statemen,so,they had employed the jewish administrators.That is the point.

The arabs(if they dont leave islam) and muslims couldnt and can not manage and administer the state.Could you show any islamic state which is being administered well.

Neil Kuchinsky:

Neil, Shame on you.
Yes, Quakers did take it upon themselves to bring in relief to aid everyone and especially the Jewish survivors. Have you any idea of the ratio of surviving Jews to the entire number of Quakers in the entire world in 1945-46? how difficult it was to get aid into Europe? Yes, the Quakers were there first - despite the obstacles. You are either ignorant, immoral or both. Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you. There are Jews cringing in shame for the disgraceful and ungrateful words you have written about a people who sacrificed for the survivors.

Rachel, Neither you nor anyone should be scared of me. I have already said that I am NOT your enemy. The opposite is true.

While I am not a member of the tribe. My father would be considered a member if he chose. My Grandma (Mathilda Benjamin) was his mother. So, Land of my Fathers also.

My only purpose in posting here is to say that Israel as a state and MY kin will never, ever be safe in Palestine. Why? because j(J)ustice favors the Palestinians. How will you ever be safe? Are you going to kill everyone? Please come back to the US.

Shame on you for calling me: "Hezbollah--I mean Nazi boy". It is both untrue and unbecoming.

Further, it reveals the fear of which I have written.

I am so sorry for you; but, I would feel even worse if I kept my mouth shut and ignored you.

SO WHAT IS REALLY THE PRO-ISRAEL AGENDA WITH REGARDS TO OIL?

First of all, the ethno-centric Jewish state of Israel is a small, resource-poor country, with no natural oil resources, and is almost completely dependent on US support in the form of not only massive financial support (billions of US tax dollars yearly) but US military and political cover as well. Israel, quite simply, would not survive as the apartheid, imperialistic, war-mongering Jewish state that it is, without the massive support of the US government. Israel is surrounded by well-deserved, self-made enemies thanks to the initial injustice of the UN unilaterally giving away Arab land that was not theirs to give away in the first place to Eastern European Zionist Jews who have been committing ethnic cleansing and persecution of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians ever since 1948. Since that time, Israel has continued to aggressively steal even more Arab land and has blatant ambitions to control the entire Middle East, using the power and might of the United States.

If more Americans were truly aware of how racist and imperialistic Israel is, they would most likely demand that our government stop supporting Israel at all until it is transformed into a true democracy for all regardless of religion, race or gender, as the world pressured South Africa to transform from an apartheid country to a true democracy ten years ago. If more Americans knew how support of Israel increases anti-American sentiment worldwide and ensures endless unjust wars, they might very well question their government's support of Israel. There are many reasons for Americans to question their government's support of Israel including first and foremost for real financial and security concerns as well as our country's hard-won reputation as a democracy for all, regardless of religion, race or gender.

The fact is that the pro-Israel, Zionist-dominated US media very rarely even mentions the topic of Israel outside of incidents that involve Palestinian suicide bombers, which then make the screaming front page headlines. The footage of the aftermath of such an attack is played over and over again, back to back on CNN and Fox News and all the other US media. These isolated attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers are thus over-reported while the context in which these desperate acts occur is usually completely ignored. The on-going brutal persecution of the non-Jewish Palestinian people, including the killing of innocent civilians and children, since 1948 by the Israeli army goes almost totally unreported and is generally veiled from view by the American public.

Even though sometimes is hard to abstract Christmas holidays from all the shopping, the big dinners and the fancy celebrations, my family, which I consideer traditional, always remind me of the real sense of these special days. Not only for Christians but for everyone. Christmas means the birth of a revolutionary man who preached the word of peace, mercy and tolerance with the different. I loved to realize that this man was born in miss. Andoni's family town of Bethlehem.
Unfortunately this biblical place has been forgotten by many for his religious meaning and taken as an piece of land to colonize, and use it to opress a whole community.
Thanks miss. Andoni for reminding all of us that Bethlehem is real place where real people relate.
I can't stop anyone from spending way too much money, or buying more food they can eat. But I'm gonna try to keep in mind the actions of that man called Jesus born in Judea, and remember Christmas is for sharing, loving and helping.

The Israeli army did not bomb the Church of the Nativity during the 2002 seige. Lamis Andoni has invented that part.

PRO-ISRAEL FORCES WANT TO RE-OPEN A PIPELINE FROM IRAQ TO HAIFA, ISRAEL

The fact that American-Israelis in our government are endeavoring to use the war on Iraq as a way for Israel to gain control over oil in the Middle East is rarely reported in the mainstream pro-Israel US media with your average American readership, however it has been reported in Jewish newspapers with Jewish readership and in Israeli papers.

A case in point is the fact that American-Israelis in our government want to "re-open" or re-instate, the pipeline that used to exist between Iraq and Palestine, which is now specifically Haifa, Israel. When Israel was created in 1948, that pipeline was re-directed by Iraq to Syria. Now pro-Israel forces are actively seeking to cut off the pipeline to Syria and re-direct it to Haifa, Israel. For more information on this, please do a Google-search using such keywords such as "Iraq oil pipeline to Haifa, Israel" and see what you come up with.

Just as Israel's connection to the war on Iraq has been kept out of the US mainstream media (as you may have noticed, Israel has not even been mentioned as one of our "allies" in the war on Iraq), this choice nugget of information with regards to Israel's ambition to get a basically free supply of Iraqi oil is also kept out of view for vast American public consumption.

LdA @December 24, 2007 12:01 PM: No religiosu or other intitution was held hostage. People sought refuge in a Church. This is actually a time-honored tradition, that is unfortunately lacking here in the US. If at that time you had read the comments made bny the PRIESTS (not the occupyiong Israeli forces), you would have noticed that they were afraid of the gunfire by the Israelis, who targetted the Churches.

The population of Bethlehem, along with that of the rest of the Holy Lands, has been greatly reduced following the occupation by Israel. Until then, it had flourished and grown, despite 1400 years of Muslim predominance.

As a matter of fact, there was in Bethlehem a tradition going back hundreds of years whereby the Muslim ruler would attend Christmas services. It was a show of respect and desire for co-existence. The tradition ended in the 90's when Israel refused to give Arafat, and all subsequent Palestinian leaders, permission to travel to the Churches.

Indeed 'Food for thought at this time of year'.

"The Western world ... did not pay much attention then to the plight of the town, its people or even the church, bombed by the Israeli army." - Andoni is a LIAR, Israelis never bombed the church in Bethlehem.

If I were really "scared" of you, I would not have left the relative safety in the US to move to Israel five years ago. Get a life Hezbollah--I mean Nazi boy--we are coming for you shortly, Inshallah.

Rachel
Land of my Fathers

herenotthere,Holzcel,Eli ...

Clearly u don't live on planet earth:jewish terrorist gangs and all jews who arrived Arab historic Palestine as invaders at or after 1914/ww1 should simply pack up and leave to where they come from...peacefully.

zionists-as u guys are-are worse than nzais and zionism has always been good at manufacturing and fabricating history:jews have no temples or history in Arab historic Palestine-read my post again-and like the apartheid racist cancerous nuclear armed south africa and like the crusaders and mogul hordes,colonial Britain and France, israel is doomed to vanish.

It's my objective knowledge of my history that assures me of the doomed fate of the artificial zionist entity.The Arab world has no tolerance whatsoever for a racist colnial settler state in its midest-Arabs in Alegeria evicted by armed struggle another more powerful colonail settler state,France,which occupied Alegeria for 132 years statring in 1830.Over 1.25 million Alegerians were martyered as a cost.

It's simply untenable as it's unsustainable to accept a foreign cancerous and evil entity as a wall SEPERATING the Arab East from Egypt and the Maghrib-this just goes against the tumult of history which will surely clean up this zionist wall.

Again no hostility whatsoever against jews or their faith per se-remember the golden age of the jews in Muslim Spain and their accomodation in Arab and Muslim land after the Iquisition-it's all about Land Theft in full day light of history.

Yes I have Glubb Pasha's books and have personally met his son Faris who died recently in Kuwait and his grand daughters;Glubb was a British agent and did his part to evict Palestinians and arrange the sale/trade in of Palestine for creating and securing some Arab thrones...well for a while...

US diplomatic documents of 1947/8 and US Counsel General at the time in Arab Jerusalem and his correspondence on the treason and "behind the barn deals" of some Arab rulers,are available in any decent US library including liberary of congress. Also see the facts on the scholarly

WWW.PLANDS.ORG

As history unequivocally proves times and agin,racist colonial settler states are doomed ;also see Maxine Rodinson's writtings including "israel a colnial settler state," Rodinson being a respectable French jew and a historian.

israel is doomed-that simple-it will never be accepted to have an alien and a thief in the most sacrred of all Arab Land, Palestine.

Why israel "INSECURITY" over and over again even with a nuclear arsenal:because a theif will never feel safe in a stolen house.

Regarding the Quakers, they have never particularly been "Friends" of Israel or the Jews. For example, at the close of WWII, they took it upon themselves to be the first into Germany with food and clothing for the German population, while the masses of surviving concentration camp victims were virtually ignored by them.

Freedom will soon come to the Christians of Bethlehem as further conflict and war looms....all
those of faith must buckle down and pray and fast for guidance in these very troubled times....

What prevents the Muslims from celebrating and sharing with the Jews?

What prevents the Muslims from accepting Israel as a legitimate presence in the Middle East?

What prevents the Muslims in the Middle East from stopping the promulgation of anti Semitism?

What prevents the Muslims from helping the Palestinians form a state to live side by side in peace with Israel?

Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah!

Bill,
Perhaps a closet is appropriate at times. At other times, should we not pray in public? as did Jesus? (following his admonition to pray in private)?

Anonymous, You speak the truth. Are you a practicing Quaker?

God bless you.

God bless the Palestinian people.

God bless Palestine.

God deliver Palestine from the oppressor.

God bless the Hebrew who loves his fellow man.

The Chrsitmas experiences recounted by the writer resonate with what I had experienced growing up in Beirut, Lebanon. I lived in a Muslim neighbourhood in Beirut's southern suburbs. We always celberated Christmas, both at school and in our home. At school, we would have a party and sometimes one of the teachers would dress up as Santa Clause. At home, we spent great time decorating a tree.

Back to the point, American and Israelis like to pretend like Palestinian Christians are helped by Israel. What a crock. Come to San Fran, Ca where the largest population of Palestinian Christians are. You wont hear anything from Pali Christians but Damnation for their Israeli occupiers. Us Christians in palestine are persecuted just like any other Palestinians. Thats why the muslems and christians get along so well over the years. We both have the same common enemy that is Israel. This evangelical movement of Christianity that supports Israel does not exist amongst Christians of the rest of the world. The rest of us Christians know the truth about Israel. OCCUPIER. RACIST. MURDERER.
I went to a Quaker school in Ramallah that is quite famous amonst Palestinians. It is a Christian school and the pupils are mixed evenly muslem and christian. Never one problem ever. As students all we did was study and organize peaceful demonstrations against the israeli occupation. We, us, Palestinians are one nation. Christian and Muslem with some Jewish sympathisizers. BY the way, you can look up the school. Friends Boys school run by quakers from Philly.
For the naysayers, Bethelehem is inacessible by most Palestinian Christians. Israel blocks us out of Bethehem with their barbaric checkpoints.
Israel is for jews only. They hate Christians and muslems. WAKE UP

Ahmad, I think Jesus would go into a closet to pray, like he told everybody else to.

Please, Great Creator, pour your blessings upon Palestine and the Palestinian people.

Rachel, Rachel, Rachel,

Such name calling - rather unbecoming.

"For Hezbollah Boy Tashunkatate :

We do not need to hide in holes in the ground in bunkers. Only cowards do this. May our amazing IAF pilots find you soon. If not them, then by all means may Shabak pull your IP and forward it along to the proper authorities. This is my wish for a peaceful New Year.
Rachel
Tel Aviv"

Rachel,
I know you are scared. We are all concerned for the safety of all Palestinian and Hebrew alike - including you.

No need for you and Ben to attack me. I am not you r enemy.

http://www.btselem.org/index.asp

http://www.hamoked.org.il/default.asp

Do any of you posters find fault when I ask the Great Creator to pour his blessings upon Palestine and the Palestinians? If so, why? If not, then please join in prayer.

Tash

David Kass, December 25, 2007 7:54 AM

Excellent comment, although I seem to be the only one to have read it. I think what the world needs is for good people of all faiths, respectful of the rights and dignities of others and aware of their own shortcomings, to unite against the intolerant people of the world, and to ignore distinctions of religion, race, and creed. I'm not holding my breath, though.

If you cut off the hands of these greedy filthy zionists, then they will stop stealing from their arab neighbors and we will finally have peace in the middle east.
I guarantee it.

will happen when the Messiah comes from heaven to fight against all teh nations that fight against Jeruslaem. He will put his foot on teh Moutn of Olives which will split in three making a way of escape for the beleaguered Jerusalemites and then He will destroy the Antichrist (Mehdi) with his legions. And then teh world (dar el harb and dar el islam) will know who is King and God. The Jews will also know who is King, the one Who came to resuce them (and already came to rescue he rest of the world from Hell). Jesus.

to the one that said "JEsus is Satan" the pharisees said the same thing and Jesus warned them that there is one sin for which there is no forgiveness and that is it blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. whenever whackos, like this lady from aljazeera (probably a plant from Mecca) says stuff like she said it rouses emotions on all side and we say things we souldnt in anger but there is a limit to what we are allowed by God to say. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is related to teh commandment about not taking God's name in Vain from Moses. For that sin, God says there is not forgiveness in this world or in the one to come

to the one that said "JEsus is Satan" the pharisees said the same thing and Jesus warned them that there is one sin for which there is no forgiveness and that is it blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. whenever whackos, like this lady from aljazeera (probably a plant from Mecca) says stuff like she said it rouses emotions on all side and we say things we souldnt in anger but there is a limit to what we are allowed by God to say. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is related to teh commandment about not taking God's name in Vain from Moses. For that sin, God says there is not forgiveness in this world or in the one to come

Someone retorted: "Eli,
the jews have absolutely no place in Arab PAlestine-all and every inch of it-the sooner they leave the better for the world."

Ah, but we have a place. Are you blind? Anyway, thank you for the thought. You and your ilk are the reason why we still have to fight.

You also wrote:"There were no "seven Arab armies":there were ragtag poorly trained and poorly armed militias controlled by British officers-Britain is the creator of the racist jewish theocracy."

You don't know your history. I'm sure Sir John Baggot Glubb (Glubb Pasha) and the great grandfather of the present King Abdallah of Jordan (shot and killed by a Palestinian on the Temple Mt-coming out of Friday prayers in al Aqsa Mosque in 1951), General Kaukji, the Egyptian Army, The Syrian Army etc. might take umbrage at your description of them.

You wrote: "At rate the zionist gangs/troops outnumbered the Arab ragtags:highly trained and prepared zionist troops who are fresh from fighting in WW11-trained and armed by the British-numbered 127,500 troops vs around 90,000 Arab ragtags." Some Jews did participate in WW II in the Jewish Legion. Perhaps they fought against some of the Bosnian Muslim Brigade headed by Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jslm, who spent the war in Berlin. But there weren't so many.

You do not know your history.How many people made up the states of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Transjordan and the Arab population of Mandate Palestine? Many more than Palestinian Jews.

There was no regular Jewish army in Mandate Palestine, it was all an underground and repressed by the British. There were then only ca 600,000 Jews in Palestine then. Men, women and children had to fight to prevent being driven from their homes and massacred; some were massacred and some battles were lost. Arab gangs had been used to maraud since the 1920's. They slaughtered more than 90 unarmed Jews there in 1929. With the help of the British they attacked a hospital convoy (1948) and murdered over 30 people being evacuated from Mt Scopus--it happened in Jslm, Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

You wrote: "U can rfere to US diplomatic history documnets as reported by US Counsel General in Jerusalem which will confirm my view and discredit yours."

Which documents? Cite them?

You wrote: "It's better to stop this worn out lies and recycled propaganda about the mythical "seven Arab Armies"which attacked those poor jewish souls;there was absolutely right in attacking foreign invaders-but were wrong because they were weak,poorly trained,disunited and emoralized-why? Because Arab rulers sold their souls to the devil-the British mandate against the Muslim Turks in a historical betryal."

Clearly you believe that it is right to kill those with whom you disagree. It is that attitude that has guided and brought shame and degradation on the Palestinian people. What a waste and tragedy. It need not have been and should not continue to be. Peace is the way, peace and a willingness to share the land.

And last: Jews lived in what is today called the "Moslem world" for more than a millennium before the Prophet Mohammed was born. They have all been virtually driven out of those lands by Arabs and other Moslems. More than 1,000,000 Jews have been absorbed into the State of Israel. There are 3 or more generations of millions of Arab refugees, but no Jewish refugees because Jews did not want their brethren to be homeless. What about the Arabs and their brethren???????????????????

Ms. Andoni,
The Palestinians control Bethlehem now but you do not mention that... nor do you mention that with a little inspiration they could actually take advantage of Bethlehem's importance to Christians to help grow the local Palestinian economy. It might help if Hamas and Fatah would halt their demonstrations in Bethlehem long enough to stop scaring off Christian tourists. Israel would welcome further growth in Bethlehem's tourist economy.

At Bethlehem and the Christian places of Palestine, the Israelis put up the walls and divide the peoples. And the American Neocons support it. Now many of the Christians in Palestine have left - they cannot get support. The same thing is happening in Iraq. They talk about the Iraqi War as though it were progress. Prior to the War, Saddam protected Christians (as well as women and Jews). His deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, was even Christian. Saddam would not allow terrorists a free hand in Iraq, and rightfully executed many of them. He protected the culture in Iraq, and the ancient Chaldeans, the venerable people of the Bible. Then along came the Neocons who sold us a load of bull and now 1/3 of the Iraqi Christians have left, and many have been raped and killed. There is an ongoing and major assault on Christendom among these venerable peoples in Iraq and Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East. Don't swallow the load of bull that the Neocons are dishing out that it is necessary to destroy these cultures in order to spread goodness about the world from the barrel of a gun. Rudy, McCain, Huck, Hill - all the same - all Neocons!

Ms. Andoni,
The Palestinians control Bethlehem now but you do not mention that... nor do you mention that with a little inspiration they could actually take advantage of Bethlehem's importance to Christians to help grow the local Palestinian economy. It might help if Hamas and Fatah would halt their demonstrations in Bethlehem long enough to stop scaring off Christian tourists. Israel would welcome further growth in Bethlehem's tourist economy.

Ms. Andoni typifies why there is no peace between Arabs and Israelis.

What does her dishonest description of an incident in 2002 have to do with the question, which pertains to conditions in 2007? Ms. Andoni apparently cannot resist unleashing her anti-semitic vitriol, regardless of its relevance.

She lauds and empathizes with "fighters" whose sole goal is to murder Israeli citizens and eradicate the State of Israel.

She labels the fence designed to prevent those depraved butchers from entering Israel as an "apartheid wall". Sure, Ms. Andoni. We all know that the Muslim states throughout the Middle East are models of openness, tolerance and democracy.

If you realy want to understand this conflict read RACHEL CORRIE's memmos from palestine before she was crushed by the terrorist israeli soldiers.

Many points in this piece can be debated but one seems clear to me. Palestinian Christians believe they have suffered grievously at the hands of Israel. The American media has tried to portray these people as being on 'our' side in the Arab-Israeli conflict - nearly all testimony from Christians themselves suggests otherwise.

I see that Steve comes thru with his message of love and compassion on the day of Jesus birth. Like Israeli Jews, I would like Steve to look into his own heart and that of the soul of his own country, The United States. Is American behavior clean and honest? Would the fact that American men kill their women at a rate far, far higher than any muslim country. We have the highest murder rate of any country. Year after year we slaughter 16,000 to 17,000 innocents. It just so happens we don't call our deaths "honor killings" but they are just as dead.

I wonder what Iraqi's thought as bombs rained down on them - what did we do to America. Iraq was wrong in 1991 and paid a terrible price. But since then, what did they do to hurt America enough to get killed?

Do you understand that Israeli textbooks do NOT show the green line or West Bank? Have you ever been in a synogogue or Jewish school in the West Bank? I have and you will hear hatred strong enough to curl your hair.

Get off your self-righteous high horse and admit we are all frail humans who sin. We are all made in G-d's image and ALL of us should realize how far short we come to G-d's ideal for us.

Perhaps you should write something about the Yom Kippur War. You remember, that's when the Arabs attacked Israel on the occasion of it's most holy holiday. Isn't that when your friends wound up being occupied? After they got their asses kicked after attacking a people on their sacred holiday?

While we are at it, how many billions of dollars have been given to the "Palestinians" and how much of that actually went to make their lives better as opposed to what went to Arafat's foreign bank accounts or to buy weapons that just make life worse for all involved?

Don't you think that if all that money had been spent on real education (not the hate teaching that is done), infrastructure improvements, business opportunities, etc, that things would be vastly different for the "Palestinian" people now?

I am sick of the death and destruction mentality of your Muslim neighbors. I am sick of their suicide bombings, random rocket attacks, wallowing self pity, honor killings, and general barbarism. I want to see Hezbollah annihilated..completely destroyed. I want to see Hammas eating ham. I want to see all those sick, hateful bastards finished off so the innocents among them can finally have a chance to make a peaceful society

Neil and Ze'ev - Just remember, Israel does not belong in Bethlahem. It's NOT our town and it's not our land. Divide the land fairly and then we can build a wall 1000 feet high on the border. You cannot keep expanding the settlements and taking additional land and also expect peace with the Palestinians.

An example is the municipal boundries of Jerusalem which were tripled in size, unilaterally in 1967 by Israel, over historical dimensions of the City. Jerusalem now extends to the doorstep of Ramallah. Look at the municipal boundries of Ma'ale Adumimim. It encompasses over 30 square miles and stretches all the way to Jericho, enough land for many hundreds of thousands of settlers. The same thing is happening in Ariel where the move to incorporate the outlying settlements into Ariel on the theory that Ariel will stay in any peace agreement. The plan is to quadruple Ariel's land size with this tactic.

It's easy to take shots at Palestinians. It's not too easy to look into our own souls and examine our actions.

Perhaps you should write something about the Yom Kippur War. You remember, that's when the Arabs attacked Israel on the occasion of it's most holy holiday. Isn't that when your friends wound up being occupied? After they got their asses kicked after attacking a people on their sacred holiday?

While we are at it, how many billions of dollars have been given to the "Palestinians" and how much of that actually went to make their lives better as opposed to what went to Arafat's foreign bank accounts or to buy weapons that just make life worse for all involved?

Don't you think that if all that money had been spent on real education (not the hate teaching that is done), infrastructure improvements, business opportunities, etc, that things would be vastly different for the "Palestinian" people now?

I am sick of the death and destruction mentality of your Muslim neighbors. I am sick of their suicide bombings, random rocket attacks, wallowing self pity, honor killings, and general barbarism. I want to see Hezbollah annihilated..completely destroyed. I want to see Hammas eating ham. I want to see all those sick, hateful bastards finished off so the innocents among them can finally have a chance to make a peaceful society

Merry Christmas to all, and to the Zionist invaders and war criminals:

1. The Zionist invader is occupying stolen land that it acquired by force, with an assist from the world’s superpowers, and so has no grounds for complaint when it is attacked in return by the displaced native population.

2. Israel continues to increase its illegal acquisition of Palestinian land in the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza. It has withdrawn from Gaza (for the moment) but continues to suppress the economy and limit access to vital resources such as water, fuel and electricity.

3. Israel's policy regarding water supply in the West Bank is illegal and discriminates on racial grounds. It flagrantly breaches international law which requires Israel to ensure proper living conditions for the occupied population and to respect the Palestinians' human rights, including the right to receive a sufficient quantity of water to meet their basic needs.”

4. Israel is violating the international law on water since the water resources in the Occupied Territories were integrated into the legal and bureaucratic system of Israel, severely limiting the ability of Palestinians to develop those resources…

5. Israel’s use of groundwater of the Occupied Territories in the settlements is a breach of article 55 of the Hague Regulations.

6. Israel is in breach of Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which prohibits an occupying state from discriminating between residents of occupied territory; since the quantity of water supplied to the settlements is vastly larger than that which is supplied to the Palestinians.

7. Israel is in breach of article 6 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. Examination of the current division of water between Israel and the Palestinians leads to the conclusion that this division violates Palestinian rights and contravenes international water law.

8. Even Israel’s own human rights organization considers them to be racist, illegal and “discriminates on racial grounds”.

9. Israel hogs 80% of the regions water supply to keep their swimming pools full and lawns green, while leaving the Palestinians less than half the amount considered necessary of minimum health requirements by the WHO and USAID organizations.

10. The Zionist war criminals have killed more than 6 times the number of Palestinian civilians, as Palestinians have killed Israeli civilians.

11. The Zionist war criminals have killed more than 17 times the number of Palestinian children, as Palestinians have killed Israeli children.

12. Your repeated excuses that you drop leaflets to warn civilian population centers that are about to be bombed back to the stone ages, and apologize after the fact, are disgusting.

13. Your constant whining that suicide bombers kill women and children, a tiny fraction of the women and children slaughtered by the Zionist war criminal, is disgusting in the extreme.

As a Muslem (not Arab) I am ashamed of what the Palestinians do and have done. Intentional murder of innocents in shopping malls, restaurants, buses, and other places is not the Muslem way. I am also ashamed of the Muslem establishment for not condemning what is clearly Palestinian terrorism and murder.
By publishing an article written by a supporter of these terrorists (excuse me, I mean "fighters") the Post only encourages this behavior.

The Palestinian gunman referred to here, who took refuge in the Church of the Nativity in 2002, are the same 'brave freedom fighters' who regularly and indiscriminately murdered israeli men women and children - before the security fence the author calls the "apartheid wall" was built. It is much, much safer now in Israel because of it. This is a fact. An inconvenient one for apologists for terrorists like Lamis Adoni and former President, Jimmy Carter, but a fact all the same.

Ze'ev Silverman
Beer Sheva, Israel

What nonsense about "Palestinian "fighters" (i.e., terrorists) taking "refuge" in the Church of the Nativity. They forced their way in at gunpoint, desecrated the place by using it as a toilet, and the religious leaders in charge couldn't wait to get them out. Israel never "bombed" the church; if they had, the terrorists wouldn't have lasted a day. This is typical of the big lies of the Paestinians - after all, if you can justify the intentional murder of civilians, merely telling lies of this sort is so much easier. What we have here is an Arab Christian trying to out-Muslim the Muslims in her anti-Israel attitude, so she won't appear to be less fanatic in her beliefs, and increase the Muslim discrimination her people already suffer.

I'm grew up in Missouri. I could care less whether or not Israel is made up of mostly Jews, Christians or whomever. I have no preference for any religion over another. I'm agnostic.
I have a big problem with the State of Israel. The way it has treated and continues to treat the Palestinians. I could give a F that most all of those people that mistreat them are Jewish, so you can't pull that anti-semite card. The facts are these:
1. The Holocaust was real and terrible and the Jews in Europe were persecuted and displaced for many years.
2. That fact doesn't give a people the right to displace and persecute another people.
No matter what you want to say about idiots like Ahmadenijad, the fact is, the Israeli state continues to persecute and dehumanize Palestinians. The reason they have to continue to persecte them, is because they are working to forestall a resolution to a fundamentally unjust situation.

Bravo to Lamis Andoni for focussing on the transcending love of the Christmas message.
Those who attack her piece fail to employ the context in which Palestinians have lived - the context is a determined colonial settler state (Israel) to obliterate the name of Palestine and to empty its people from the land. Is it any wonder that Palestinians resist further dispersion and loss of land and home to accommodate Israel's ethnic cleansing.

A refreshing, uoplifting article, especially at this time in history. Your proof readers missed on, however. It's Eid al Idha not Eid al Doha.

Thanks.

Nice ! Let's concentrate on the positive.

We do not need to hide in holes in the ground in bunkers. Only cowards do this. May our amazing IAF pilots find you soon. If not them, then by all means may Shabak pull your IP and forward it along to the proper authorities. This is my wish for a peaceful New Year.
Rachel
Tel Aviv

As a Jew, I find it amazing that neither side to this conflict ever admit they did wrong. Obviously, the world knows of Palesinian terrorism and indeed it has been appauling. The Palestinians have crossed the barrier from freedom fighters to terrorists.

However, I am more familiar with Jewish mistakes and immoral actions. Starting with a close relative who was in the Irgun and bombed and killed innocent civilians along with British soldiers. He also fought in the 1948 war of independence. While some of the actions were appropriate to war, some were not, including taking over arab villages and threatening with death any inhabitants who would not leave.

However, it is the settlement activity that is the most immoral. I have cousins, nephews and nieces living in Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel, Har Homa, Giv'at Ze'ev and Modi'in Ilit. I can assure you that the primary reason my settlers live in the West Bank is to prevent a Palestinian state. As each generation matures they reach further into the Palestinian territory. The occupation is to protect these settlers much more than to protect Israel proper, as defined by the United Nations.
The Occupation is brutal and dehumanizing and I have witnessed all sorts of perversions of human behavior by the IDF and settlers.

I ask any of the Jews who have commented on this article, have you ever attended shul in the West Bank? I have many times. If you want to hear absolute hated and the most vile talk imaginable listen to the rabbis and settlers talk about arabs and Palestinians.

Until Israeli Jews drop the pretense of perfection and at least admit to themselves that they are capable of, and have committed, the same inhuman, immoral behavior as Palestinians there will never be peace. Israel has 99% of the power in this relationship and thus has 99% of the responsibility to act. Right now, based on my visits to Israel and discussions with my relatives what Israel wants is Palestinian subsurviance, a source of cheap labor, with Palestinians divied up into "reservations".

The Annapolis peace talks will drag on for years until Israel increases it's settler population from 500,000 to a million. At that point a Palestinian state is impossible. Jews should seriously think about what this means to the future of a jewish state.

I am not trying to pick on us jews, it's just that I cannot tolerate anymore the self-righteousness of some of the commentators. Arab terrorism is well documented in the west with screaming headlines, but Jewish terrorism is not as well known. If you think all of Israels actions are defensive, you are naive. Some are and many are not. The settlement enterprise was deliberatly designed to appeal to the Eretz Israel crowd as well as to prevent a Palestinain state.

Until some greater power knocks the heads of both Israelis and palestinians and literally imposes a settlement to the conflict, nothing will happen.

Nice to see that the Washington Post has not lost its anti-Israel slant on the Middle East. We can always tell when it is Christmas by all the anti-Israel rhetoric we see abouding from the Post and other papers worldwide. For your information, the IDF never bombed the Church of the Nativity when Palestinian terrorists holed up inside it. They destroyed many of the Church's books and artifacts and started the fires there using Church antiques and papers and books. These are the same Islamists who today have threatened and murdered Christian Arab activists and driven the almost 80% Christian arab population to almost 12% in only a few short years. Israel has no "apartheid wall" or even separation wall around Bethlehem. Why not ask the tourists who are there now when they get back if they ever saw such a structure? We do have military posts near an area higher than a road leading to Jerusalem that is popular with Palestinians looking for an afternoon's shooting at Israelis. Perhaps this is the "wall" that Ms. Adoni refers to. We especially enjoy Ms. Adani's brief comment regarding the truth about muslim fundamentalism where she downplays it. What else could we expect from one of Al Jazeera's most eloquent propagandists? The truth about the State of Israel is that she has always maintained protection of ALL holy sites in the Holy Land. We shudder to think what would happen if we let the Waqf control the Western Wall as it has the Al Aqsa compound where Jewish antiquities attesting to the Jewish homeland are dug up with bulldozers by the Arabs on the other side and left broken in huge mounds of dirt. The only thing we see them doing is attempting to destroy our heritage and culture not, as Ms. Adani would have anyone believe, that they are the "protectors" of all faiths in Israel.

In 2002, Palestinians were celebrating the inhuman national pastime of blowing themselves up in the vacinity of Jews. The Palestinian Authority -- ruling over 97% of the West Bank -- refused to arrest any terrorists or confiscate boms or weapons used against Israelis. When Israel surrounded the terrorists in Bethlehem, those killers took bombs and guns into the Church of the Nativity to further show their disrespect and murderous contempt for Christianity and all things decent. Tell the truth and write about your national shame. Then we will all live as one!