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Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
Proverbs 10.12
I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
Gospel according to St John 8.12
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Every day, I wake up and stare at the new illegal Israeli settlement right in front of my kitchen window. It’s been a very different life as a Greek-American living in a Palestinian Christian village that my husband loves so much. This morning, after listening to news that I didn’t understand about a church building put on fire and terrible hate slogans about Christ, I started to call all of my friends to get some information from the ground. Sometimes, just because something is in the news doesn’t mean it happened exactly that way. It was a great comfort that so many people were extremely busy that some of us didn’t exactly know or understand the details of what happened. Somehow, we try every day to continue a normal pattern of working or functioning with terrible evil all around us. How does one keep sanity with such craziness? May God have mercy, since I feel that we’ve gone backwards to the first century.
Finally, at the end of the day, after speaking with Bishop Demetri of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, he confirmed that two unknown men wearing black masks, who broke a bathroom window, attacked the seminary on Mount Zion in Jerusalem before dawn. They threw a homemade bomb, setting the building on fire. The fire department responded by putting the fire out without anyone being hurt in this awful hate crime. Graffiti on the outside walls written in Hebrew blasphemed Christ. My dear friend Dan said that the relics of St Philoumenos were kept at the Mount Zion Seminary until 2009, before being returned to the Church of St Photini at Jacob’s Well, where fanatic settlers brutally killed the saint on 29 November 1979. Bishop Demetri helped me understand that the seminary of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has operated for more than 300 years with local and Greek teachers giving instruction to about 15 students, aged 12 to 17, in general education and in Greek, English, and Arabic. The new principal is Hieromonk Nicholas, a Greek-Australian. He replaced the late Fr Photius, who served as a principal for over twenty years. The community is peaceful and a witness for Christ’s love and peace.
This vicious attack on our precious holy sites today comes after fanatic settlers also burned a mosque near Bethlehem on Wednesday morning. This terrible violence on Palestinian Christian and Muslim holy places is occurring on the 21st anniversary of the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron by an American-born Israeli settler, Baruch Goldstein. May God forgive him. However, I surely challenge my church leadership to have a loud voice for a just peace.
May the Light of Christ shine in this terrible dark time in the world and may the Love of Christ overpower evil. Let us pray to see the humanity in each other.
(no date)
Maria C Khoury
(no URL available, sent to me as a cut-and-paste)
Editor:
THIS is what Ted Cruz praised when he spat on Arab religious leaders. May God forgive him his blasphemy. Why is there is no outcry in the US Congress when Jewish settler terrorists attack? WHY? That’s why I hate Ted Cruz and his ilk so bitterly.
V V Putin stands up for Palestinian Christians. The USA kicks them in the face. I seem to see a difference…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
27 February 2015. Zionist Pigs Rough Up Palestinians Protecting Land From Jewish Squatters
Tags: Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Holy Land, Israel, Israel Lobby, Israeli settlement, Jews, occupied Palestine, Palestine, Palestinian Christians, Palestinian people, Palestinian territories, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, Zionism
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Zionist cops rough up Palestinians protecting their land from “settler” squatters. One can be anti-Zionist and not be anti-Semitic. That’s my position. The Israeli Settler State is a temporary Crusader State. Judaism is permanent and a respected religion. There’s little convergence between the two. Ponder that if you will… one last thing, the settlers are the terrorists, not the Palestinians… get your mind right…
BMD