Tis the season
It’s precisely at this time of the year when Christians worldwide celebrate the birth of a Jewish baby in Judea that the irony of the situation we face today becomes apparent.
Michael Kuttner
As politicians, media and the general public alike seem oblivious to this situation let me elucidate.
The Christmas story revolves around Bet Lehem (Bethlehem) just down the road from our Judean hometown of Efrata and a stone’s throw from where our Matriarch, Rachel, is buried. It involves inns overflowing with visitors, temporary accommodation in a manger, visits by three VIP’s from the east and exotic gifts.
All these aspects recited as part of the theological ritual of the season and by accompanying carols are accepted without difficulty or challenge by the faithful. Every year it is dramatized in plays performed by millions of school children and portrayed in Churches on every continent.
Without fail, heads of state as well as politicians from the left to the right, issue annual messages of inspiration usually incorporating some aspect of the Bethlehem narrative.
So far so good.
What, then, you may ask is the irony?
The supreme hypocrisy, inadvertent or deliberate as the case might be, is to ignore and in many instances deliberately distort the historical facts and thereby conveniently hijack and negate any Jewish connections.
First and foremost, conveniently and usually written out of the whole saga are the Jews living in Judea. Who were the residents of Bethlehem? Of course, they were Jews but you wouldn’t pick that up if you pay close attention to all the nativity scenes enacted at this time of the year. In fact, thanks to millennia of ignorance and deliberate distortion, Jews have been effectively ethnically cleansed.
It gets worse however the more attention you pay to the details.
Proof that repeating a lie long enough will eventually transform it into the truth can be gleaned from the fact that millions today believe that the inhabitants of Bethlehem were Palestinians and that in fact Palestine actually existed. This litany of lies has been so successful that not only are Jews now cleansed from the story but they also have now vanished from any historical connection. Thus, it is easy for Abbas and friends to claim that Jesus was the first Palestinian “martyr” and by implication to assert that Islam existed at a time when it had actually not been invented.
The next revisionist fable that needs to be confronted concerns the occupiers.
Who illegally occupied Judea at this time?
We all know it was the Romans whose colonial occupation policy is well documented. Thus, our Judean ancestors were occupied by the Roman Empire. Well, you wouldn’t know it if you listen carefully to what goes on at this time of the year.
According to the United Nations and endorsed by every Christian country in the world today as well as by major Church denominations, it is the Jews who are the occupiers of territory in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. While they all sing hymns of praise to the Jewish baby born in a Judean Jewish town they are at the same time demonizing and delegitimizing the presence of Jews in those very same areas.
How hypocritical and disgustingly cynical can they get?
Bethlehem was a convenient resting place for Jewish pilgrims making their way to the Temple in Jerusalem. That is why there were many inns and why it was always hard to find a room there. It was Jews who were making pilgrimages to the Capital. However, according to today’s warped embrace of historical revisionism as peddled by the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. Jews have no connection to either Jerusalem or the site of the Temple on Mount Moriah. This lie, first invented by Arafat and his Islamic advisers is now the “gospel” of the UN, thanks to resolutions co-sponsored by New Zealand and adopted overwhelmingly by the immoral majority.
No wonder those of us who know anything at all of Jewish history can only look on incredulously as every year at this time the same old distortions are reinforced. It is no use looking to Jewish “machers” involved in interfaith activities or political “feel good” gestures to actually gird their loins and finally point out the truths being trampled beneath the dirty distortions.
Recognition of double standards is not part of diplomacy and that is why there is a glaring silence.
This silence by Israeli and Diaspora Jewish leadership alike only emboldens the liars and those who prefer to look the other way.
Here is proof of how this cowardly acquiescence results in further conspiracy theories being cooked up and prepared to be swallowed by the multitudes.
Any informed observer of events in this part of the world knows that there has been a drastic decline of Christians living in Islamic/Arab countries primarily due to the fact that freedom of religions other than Islam is precarious or non-existent. Unsurprisingly only in the Jewish State have their numbers increased while in the PA and Hamas controlled Gaza they are vanishing. In 1950 the population of Bethlehem was 80% Christian. Today, thanks to the “benign” policies of the PA and years of Islamic “tolerance” the percentage of Christians remaining there is a pitiful 12%.
Logically one could have assumed that the blame for this situation lies squarely and fairly at the door of those in charge of protecting their citizens, name the kleptocracy in Ramallah and the terror gangs in Gaza. However, logic and common sense does not kick in where Jews and Israel are concerned.
That is why at precisely this time of the year Catholic and Anglican clergy resident here found it an opportune time to blame the Jewish State for their co-religionists’ woes.
To make matters worse the Archbishop of Canterbury who usually is balanced, tolerant and has a warm relationship with the UK Jewish Community, used the same slanders in a piece in the UK Sunday Times. Among other accusations he stated that “the growth of settler communities contributes to the decline in the Christian population in the Holy Land.” Of course when the term “holy land” is used it means as far as the ordinary parishioner is concerned only one place – namely the Jewish State (although the PA has tried hard to hijack the term).
This poisonous piece timed exquisitely for the season of goodwill and gleefully published by the ever-eager media has justifiably caused uproar. It is so outrageous that even the usually ultra-cautious Board of Deputies has been moved to protest and demand a retraction. Of course, by now the damage has already been done.
Never backward in joining the chorus of anti-Jewish/Israeli bashers, an adviser to “peace angel” Abbas has made a seasonal contribution.
Full details can be viewed here, courtesy of PMW.
https://www.palwatch.org/page/29700
These latest versions of the medieval blood libels go down a treat with the masses.
Israel and the Jewish People do have stalwart and sincere Christian friends in numerous countries who speak up and know the truth. Unfortunately, their voices are usually drowned out by the raucous haters. It’s time for us, together with our friends, to seize the initiative and tell it as it really is.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
I became a Christian in 1970 and then went to a Bible College in Sydney and I was appalled by the anti- Jewish theology that was taught after my second year by a new principle. My protests were strong and caused me to be expelled form the college and so I spent almost 10 years in Israel where I truly examined all of the facts from all aspects of historical and archaeological, and I also met many Arabs who loved identifying as Israelis as they had more freedom and opportunities than the Arab world offered them. Some spoke of the pressure that some of the anti-Israeli Arabs put upon them. These days in Australia I tell all who will listen the truth that Jesus was and always will be a Jewish person and his disciples were all Jewish. All the writers, except Luke, were Jewish. The early church was 100% Jewish and the Scriptures used in the early church was the Jewish Scriptures and so to claim any distance from the Jewish people in regard to the historical origins of Christianity is to speak total distortions of the truth to the point that a total lie is created.
Even the transubstantiation where the claim that the Jewish people killed the Son of God and therefore they are lost forever is a lie from the pit of Hell itself and must be resisted totally and completely.
In the eternal economy of God there is always an Israel and the descendants of Abraham through Isaac all have a very special place in the heart of God. To be Christian and to hate or oppose the Jews is anathema to God Himself!