Vandals Spray Hate Graffiti on Jerusalem Church

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Vandals spray-painted “Death to Christianity” and “Jesus, son of a whore” on a Greek Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem. The overnight attack on the Monastery of the Cross was the latest in a series of vandalisms of Christian holy sites. Extremist Jews sympathetic to Israel’s settlement movement are suspected. On Wednesday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that the vandals also sprayed “price tag” on the monastery’s outer wall… a form of retribution settlers and their sympathisers use in retaliation for acts they consider pro-Palestinian. Extremists carried out similar “price tag” attacks on other churches, mosques, and Israeli military bases. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the defacing of the church. Israel has 155,000 Christian citizens, less than 2 percent of its nearly 8 million people {according to friends who know the region that’s an undercount… they say that the actual figure is closer to 400,000 (5 percent of the population), mostly concentrated amongst immigrants from the former Soviet Union: editor}.

12 December 2012

Washington Examiner

http://washingtonexaminer.com/vandals-spray-hate-graffiti-on-jerusalem-church/article/feed/2055567#.UM4kh-THcZY

UN Upgrades Palestinian Status to Non-Member Observer State

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On Thursday, the UN General Assembly recognised the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a non-member observer state. 138 UN members approved the Palestinian bid, submitted by President Mahmoud Abbas, nine voted against it, and 41 abstained from voting. The move amounts to an implicit recognition of Palestinian statehood and increases the PA’s chances of joining other UN bodies. It also allows the Palestinian Authority to challenge the continuing construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the International Criminal Court. Before the historic vote, Abbas urged the General Assembly “to issue the birth certificate of Palestine”. He also reiterated that Palestinians would continue their efforts to achieve fully-recognised statehood.

Abbas submitted Palestine’s official application for recognition as an independent state in the UN in September 2011. An American veto in the Security Council blocked that bid. Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip greeted the Thursday vote with great jubilation, as it formally gives them global recognition. Now, the PA, which earlier had “permanent observer” status at the UN, joins the Vatican as the only other entity with non-member observer state status.

Exactly 65 years ago, on 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, allowing for the formation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence followed. The Palestinians demand the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, as a precondition for peace talks with Tel Aviv.

30 November 2012 (MSK)

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121130/177829129.html

Editor’s Note:

This is a good step. The Church supports the Palestinians… not the violent Zionists and their American sugar-daddies. If it wasn’t for American support, Israel would be forced to have serious peace talks with the Palestinians. As more than one Arab has told me, “So-called ‘terrorism’ will end when the USA ends its support of Zionist terrorism“. Amen.

However, to be clear… I oppose Zionism and all its works… I also oppose anti-Semitism and all its works. That’s part and parcel of a unified world view… to be against anti-Semitism, but to support Zionism, is a logical impossibility. Zionism is racism… anti-Semitism is racism… both are evil and all decent people must fight both.

BMD

25 November 2012. Archbishop Theodosios Hanna of Sebastia on the Zionist Aggression in Palestine

Shhh!!! Denouncing Israel‘s War Crimes is Anti-Semitism

Carlos Latuff

2009

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A Cabinet member sent me this (no URL available):

I’m very sorry to hear about some religious groups in the USA that support the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Such support can’t be justified from a Christian point of view; as Christianity is against any sort of occupation and injustice in it all forms and rationalisation. These groups need to re-read their Bible, because the Bible calls us to stand with the marginalised and the oppressed and not with the oppressors. Those who use the Bible to support Israel need to differentiate between God’s promise and Balfour’s promise (Balfour Declaration), because the occupation is the result of a promise given to the Israelis by Lord Balfour, not by God.

Archbishop Theodosios Hanna of Sebastia

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Orthodox Christians should be aware that Willard Romney was a violent and rabid supporter of the Zionist aggressors in Palestine. He was far worse than President Obama ever was. The Republican Party has bought into the fantasies of the “Rapture Right”; in consequence, no Orthodox Christian can vote for them in good conscience. Many of the konvertsy have “drunk the Kool-Aid”… do remember what Satan does. He baits his traps with seemingly-good things, and inattentive fools fall for them.

No Christian can vote for torture at black sites, constant warfare in foreign parts, the continued redistribution of income to the Affluent Effluent, and the demonisation of the weakest amongst us. When placed in the balance with that, one can see that the so-called Pro-Life Movement is nothing but a chimera… it allows people to think that they’re moral, but they’re really in favour of amorality. Yes… we should aid unwed mothers… yes… we should aid large families… yes… the state has responsibilities in redistributing income in such a way that families benefit. That’s why no decent person can vote for the present GOP. You see, the Republican drive to rip apart the social safety net would increase misery and increase suffering… and no decent person can vote for that.

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”, or, “Greed is good”… the choice is yours. Oh, yes… the GOP stands for the latter.

BMD

Patriarch Kirill Visits Bethlehem… Confabs with Abbas

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On Saturday, on the second day of his Holy Land trip, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias visited the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. After his visit to the Bethlehem church, built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, Kirill met with the Palestinian president at his office in the West Bank city. A statement from the president’s office cited Abbas as telling Kirill that his visit was historical and had political meaning. Abbas said, “We feel it comes from the leadership of the Russian people”, observing that Moscow supported peace and justice in the Middle East. The statement also quoted Kirill as saying the visit was special to him, and especially important “since Christ walked here. I’m fully confident that you’re committed to real peace, and your position is welcome because the people living here know the meaning of living in unrest”.

Kirill heads the Patriarchate of Moscow and all the Russias (Russian Orthodox Church in colloquial usage), a church with some 150 million Orthodox believers; he arrived in Jerusalem on Friday for his first visit since becoming head of the powerful church in 2009, and held prayers at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Over the course of his six-day trip, Kirill will also meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and King Abdullah II of Jordan, in a sign of his new importance as a global religious figure. Israel‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called his trip “the most important (religious) visit (to Israel) since that of Pope Benedict XVI” in 2009. The 65-year-old patriarch will visit Christian holy sites in northern Israel as well as in Jordan.

10 November 2012

Agence France-Presse

As quoted by the Business Reporter

http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/89927-russian-orthodox-patriarch-visits-bethlehem.html

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The First Hierarch of the MP, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias, praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, saying, “War always brings pain. We must achieve all of our goals peacefully. I thank you, Mr Abbas, for backing this position. We’ll pray for peace in the Holy Land”. The patriarch, for whom this is the first visit to the Holy Land since his election as First Hierarch in 2009, also thanked Abbas for supporting Christian shrines in the region.

10 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121110/177358302.html