The mayor of Bethlehem says his town is the target of an Israeli conspiracy aimed at economically choking the birthplace of Jesus and driving away its inhabitants.
In an interview with ABC Radio in Australia, Dr. Victor Batarseh claimed that in addition to building a wall around his town, the Israeli government is convincing foreign travel agents to dissuade their customers from visiting Bethlehem when they come on Holy Land pilgrimages.
Batarseh rejected reporter Mark Colvin’s suggestion that perhaps Christian pilgrims are cautioned against spending too much time in Bethlehem because of the armed terrorists operating there and that Israel’s security barrier was really built to keep suicide bombers out of neighboring Jerusalem.
No, for Batarseh this is all a conspiracy. Forget that Bethlehem was a major source of Palestinian terrorism against Jerusalem prior to the building of the wall, and forget that if Israel had wanted to choke Bethlehem it could have done so long, long ago.
The only explanation the Palestinians are willing to accept is that Israel wants to see the demise of what Batarseh calls the “cradle of Christianity.” Notice the clever attempt to turn more Christians against Israel.
This is one of the reasons human efforts could never achieve peace here, even if the Bible didn’t teach us that only the coming of Messiah will end the conflict. Palestinians are born and bred to believe that the Jewish state is a blood-sucking society that only seeks the destruction of anything non-Jewish.
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4 comments so far ↓
1 Rob // Aug 29, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Right… just like the attack on the twin towers on 9/11/01 was orchestrated by the Bush Administration to give them an excuse to attack Afghanistan.
2 Marsha Carol Watson // Aug 30, 2007 at 5:21 am
Ryan, this is an excellent article. You have explained it clearly and accurately. It is all a part of the enemy’s plan to place a wedge between Jews and Christians…..
3 Marie // Sep 1, 2007 at 3:25 am
Bethlehem should be occupied by the Jews anyway as far as this Christian is concerned it was given to them by God. Let this fool spout his nonsense I, for one, am not listening. The muslims are driving, or trying to drive out, everyone but followers of the false god, allah, from the Middleast they can just kiss off. When I go to Israel in a few years I will just have to skip Bethlehem.
4 Tony // Dec 25, 2007 at 9:51 pm
We Christians should make demands that any peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians should be that Bethlehem stays in Israel’s hands!
Christ after all was Jewish so I definately believe his people should control Bethlehem!
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