Here’s an interesting look at the “secure” town of Bethlehem today, and what it was like when it was under IDF control:
It’s been eight years since I last set foot in Bethlehem. As a Jewish Israeli tour guide, I am forbidden by law to endanger myself and go to this once colorful city. Gone are the days when thousands went to Bethlehem. Tourists, pilgrims from around the world, shoppers, and Israeli Arabs and Jews came. Gone are the days when you could eat the best falafel and humous in the little stone building across from Rachel’s Tomb. I remember the bargains. There was the wonderful flea market in the Bethlehem shuk .
[…] WE ATE in all those lovely outdoor cafés in and around Manger Square. We walked around with our tourists and enjoyed the ambiance and atmosphere.
Many times I stayed overnight with my pilgrims on Christmas Eve. A few times we were near Manger Square and I remember the sweet sounds of the choirs which came from all over the world to celebrate Christmas in the city where Jesus was born. Each sang the familiar Christmas carols in its own language. It was glorious. The Catholics came in droves from all over the country. They came for midnight Mass amid great pomp and ceremony and, as a guide, I had the privilege of seeing and participating in many of these celebrations. I often had an opportunity to talk to reporters. Some were just tourists themselves and I tried to make them Zionists. Sometimes they listened. We became friends. Those times are over.
[…] I REMEMBER one morning many years ago, in the ’80s, when I arose early on a Christmas morning. I looked down from my second-floor window overlooking Manger Square. What to my wondering eyes did appear? No, not Santa and his reindeer, but Israeli soldiers all over the square with big blue plastic bags. At the approach of dawn, they were leaning down and filling them with cigarette butts, candy wrappers, leftover food and all the trash the pilgrims and tourists had dropped the night before.
[…] TODAY, BETHLEHEM is a virtual ghost town at night. No one dares venture out. There is no security and no rule of law. Most of the Christians have left, and the few stores and shopkeepers who remain have a hard time making ends meet.
And when the PA has its hands on it unfettered, look for the elimination of Christians there, just as has happened in Gaza. Ninety percent of the 3 million Lebanese Americans are Christian. There’s a reason for that. The religion of tolerance™ is not quite so tolerant as it claims to be.
For cryin’ out loud, Meryl, send this to the Episcopalians and Presbyterians right away. When they find out what’s being done to their co-religionists, I bet they’ll drop their fussing about Israel and rise up in righteous wrath about the persecution of Christians.
But I wouldn’t bet a lot. How much more delicious to lecture Jews on morality and avoid the stickiness of dealing with Muslim persecution of Christians. That could lead to ill feelings or…I shudder even to suggest it…charges of “insensitivity.”