Rising Arab Christian enlistment in Israeli army

[al-Hasani]

Last updated: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:19 AM

Mohammed Mar’i
Saudi Gazette

RAMALLAH – The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday said that there has been a significant rise in the number of Arab Christians joining the Israeli army in the past six months.

The report said that the Israeli army does not provide precise numbers of Christians serving in its ranks but quoted a group that supports and works toward more Christians joining the army as saying that the rise is significant and that there are currently 300 Christians serving in the army, 157 of them in the conscript army.

According to the report, Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek-Orthodox priest active in the group which was founded in 2012.

According to figures presented at a meeting sponsored by the Israeli Defense Ministry late last year in Upper Nazareth, 84 Christians joined in the last half of 2013. In the past, Haaretz said, that was the number that joined over 18 months. The forum says there are dozens more waiting in the wings.

Haaretz quoted Maj. Keren Azar, commander of the Tiberias draft office where most Christians come to sign up, as saying that most hopeful new recruits “want to be in combat units. Some want positions or professions they can use when they get out.”

The report quoted the forum, which also keeps statistics on volunteers for national civilian service, as saying that no fewer than 429 young Christian women are now serving within this framework.

The community’s old-timers told Haaretz that the issue of Christians joining the army has arisen every few years since the establishment of Israel, sometimes as a result of internal disputes.

For example, 10 years ago – during the period when the demand was being made to build the Shihab Al-Din Mosque in Nazareth near the Church of the Annunciation – more Christians joined the army.

Supporters of the initiative told Haaretz that, this time, the impetus for the rising numbers might be coming from outside Israel – attacks on churches in Egypt and the beheading of priests in Syria have strengthened the view that the Arab world cannot be relied on, and therefore integration into Israel is the best protection for them.

But opponents say this viewpoint mainly serves the Zionist interests of the right, in a form of “divide and conquer” of Arab Palestinian society in Israel – Druze, Muslims and Christians.

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Israel have recently published a statement against youngsters from their community joining the army. They say Christians are being encouraged to join the army to bring them “into the Zionist melting pot of Israeli society to create a unified national Zionist narrative,” which will lead to a loss of their Arab-Palestinian identity. “This goes against all human values and the national Palestinian conscience,” the statement said.

Rising Arab Christian enlistment in Israeli army | Mid-East | Saudi Gazette

I wonder what the Zionists are up to this time around.

@Hazzy997

 

[Falcon29]

Israelis always had something against us Muslims and Arabs alike and would do anything to get us to resent one another as they did in Lebanon a couple decades ago by supporting the phalangist militant group.

However, this shouldn't concern you, it's most likely a financial thing. Most Palestinian Christians live lives just like the rest of the Palestinians and they are all pretty secular and modern in the West Bank.

Here's a good read though...palestinian Christians sending a message to Michael Oren....:

Christian Palestinians: Israel 'manipulating facts' by claiming we are welcome Israel News | Haaretz

Here's some information that Interior Minister Eli Yishai might want to consider: Since the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, its Christian communities have expanded 1,000 percent.

This information might have excited the Americans who read a March 9 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal written by Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, about Christians being forced out of Arab countries but flourishing in Israel.

Of course, Oren does not mention the Christians who lived in the country before 1948 and fled the horrors of war or were expelled by us - and who, like their Muslim compatriots, were not allowed to return to their homes after the establishment of the state.

He does, however, bring up the Jews who were expelled from Arab states. (Zionist ideology wants to have its cake and eat it too: It wants all the Jews from around the world to immigrate to Israel, and for this purpose it sent special emissaries who not only prepared the flying carpets but also encouraged and intensified the panic and flight; in the meantime, it complains about bans on Zionist activity and about the expulsion of Jews. )

Nor does Oren mention the systematic decline in the status of Jews from Arab states, who became third-rate citizens after they moved to Israel, a proxy agent of the enlightened West (a fan of slaves and other countries' natural resources ) in the barbaric Middle East. He is too busy with current matters:

"As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries," he writes. Of all the countries in the region, he adds, a Christian community is thriving only in the State of Israel.

Oren distinguishes between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In these Palestinian areas, he says, the Christian community is dwindling: "Christians in those areas suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region."

This statement sparked the following rebuke from Yisrael Medad, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, to post a comment: "Mr. Ambassador, Your repetitive use of 'West Bank' is unfortunate. Not only is it incorrect geopolitically, historically and legally; not only does it go against the direction of your superior, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who calls the area 'disputed'; but it is simply damaging diplomatically. Use 'Judea and Samaria,' please." And here we have the Israeli right wing airing its dirty laundry in public, or at least in front of whoever bothers reading the more than 240 reader comments.

The Wall Street Journal also published four letters rebutting Oren's article. Geographic definitions were the least of the concerns expressed by Rev. Robert O. Smith of Chicago, who wrote: "The biggest problem with Mr. Oren's analysis, however, is that it stands in sharp disagreement with the perspectives shared by those he presumably wants to protect. Mr. Oren seeks to speak for Palestinian Christians before he has spoken with them."

And Oren's piece did, in fact, anger these Christian Palestinians. Eighty prominent Christian Palestinians signed a letter sent to the ambassador last week in response to his article, accusing the ambassador of manipulating the facts.

"Your attempt to blame the difficult reality that Palestinian Christians face on Palestinian Muslims is a shameful manipulation of the facts intended to mask the damage that Israel has done to our community," they said in the letter. "The exaggerated growth of the Christian population in Israel that Mr. Oren claims is due primarily to the immigration of Russian Christians whom Israel was unable to distinguish from the Jewish immigrants pouring into the country after the fall of the Soviet Union."

....................

 

[al-Hasani]

@Hazzy997

I am not the least concerned. I regard an Christian Arab as my equal brother just like I do that with an Muslim Arab. We as Muslims should respect the people of the Book and fellow believers in the 3 Abrahamic religions. This does obviously not mean that we agree with their beliefs which we believe have been corrupted.

The point here is not Christian Arabs being Christian Arabs. I mean you have tribes of a Bedouin stock in Jordan being Christian.

The most worrying thing is this below which the article states very correctly in my opinion.

"Leaders of the Catholic Church in Israel have recently published a statement against youngsters from their community joining the army. They say Christians are being encouraged to join the army to bring them “into the Zionist melting pot of Israeli society to create a unified national Zionist narrative,” which will lead to a loss of their Arab-Palestinian identity. “This goes against all human values and the national Palestinian conscience,” the statement said."

The Christian Palestinians should not be naive and be taken as hostages by that regime. The Muslim Palestinian must encourage their brothers and sisters of the Christian faith to be aware of the dangers and encourage national unity. The more united the Palestinian people are the better for their struggle and the lesser influence the Zionists will get. Fewer infiltrations as well.

 

[Falcon29]

@Hazzy997

I am not the least concerned. I regard an Christian Arab as my equal brother just like I do that with an Muslim Arab. We as Muslims should respect the people of the Book and fellow believers in the 3 Abrahamic religions. This does obviously not mean that we agree with their beliefs which we believe have been corrupted.

The point here is not Christian Arabs being Christian Arabs. I mean you have tribes of a Bedouin stock in Jordan being Christian.

The most worrying thing is this below which the article states very correctly in my opinion.

"Leaders of the Catholic Church in Israel have recently published a statement against youngsters from their community joining the army. They say Christians are being encouraged to join the army to bring them “into the Zionist melting pot of Israeli society to create a unified national Zionist narrative,” which will lead to a loss of their Arab-Palestinian identity. “This goes against all human values and the national Palestinian conscience,” the statement said."

The Christian Palestinians should not be naive and be taken as hostages by that regime. The Muslim Palestinian must encourage their brothers and sisters of the Christian faith to be aware of the dangers and encourage national unity.

I agree, I just looked up and read this carefully...it is to distort our Palestinian identity. Hopefully the youth can see around this, it's surprising because all the people I know from the West Bank have many Christian friends and they all get along fine. People aren't that religious over there. This doesn't have anything to do with Palestinian internal relations but rather more politics by Israel.

 

[al-Hasani]

I agree, I just looked up and read this carefully...it is to distort our Palestinian identity. Hopefully the youth can see around this, it's surprising because all the people I know from the West Bank have many Christian friends and they all get along fine. People aren't that religious over there. This doesn't have anything to do with Palestinian internal relations but rather more politics by Israel.

Exactly and I know this too. Arabs of a Muslim and Jewish background got along all over the Arab world. But the Zionists have tried to portray a false narrative of the opposite being the case. Look at the cases of Yemenis of the Judaic faith and Iraqis of the Judaic faith, Moroccans of the Judaic faith etc.

This is just another step.

Look at all those familiar faces. The first women in this video above I guessed was from Yemen without even knowing it beforehand. You can't tell apart. They have been brainwashed. All of them are even connected to their parents cultures but they cannot see the brainwashing themselves.

 

[Falcon29]

@al-Hasani

I could tell the first girl was Yemeni and she's a cute girl. Getting to the point, it's unfortunate they don't consider their identity anymore because they were naturalized in Israel. Had they spoken Arabic I believe they could trace back their culture.

You know in Gaza I know people who are married to Jewish woman. Pre 2005 era there were Jews and Palestinians in Gaza and some Jewish women chose to get married there and stay there.

So it goes both ways.

 

[al-Hasani]

@al-Hasani

I could tell the first girl was Yemeni and she's a cute girl. Getting to the point, it's unfortunate they don't consider their identity anymore because they were naturalized in Israel. Had they spoken Arabic I believe they could trace back their culture.

You know in Gaza I know people who are married to Jewish woman. Pre 2005 era there were Jews and Palestinians in Gaza and some Jewish women chose to get married there and stay there.

So it goes both ways.

Please watch the whole video or all 3. It's full of Yemeni Jews and other Arab Jews who are forced to be hostile from the outside but are not in reality to their ancestral homelands (Arab countries) when asked. Once again the same attempts of brainwashing and using the financial carrot as a weapon to erase the culture and force Zionism upon them. I did not know all this. Now this has made me even more anti-Zionist than before. Not sure if that was possible.

Yes, look at the ignorance shown on minute 3.35 and onwards after he had interviewed 4-5 other Yemenis before that moment in the clip.

I really advice you to watch all 3 clips since we get the full uncensored opinion from the street randomly. No propaganda. It's sad, sad to see.

 

[Falcon29]

Please watch the whole video or all 3. It's full of Yemeni Jews and other Arab Jews who are forced to be hostile from the outside but are not in reality to their ancestral homelands (Arab countries) when asked. Once again the same attempts of brainwashing and using the financial carrot as a weapon to erase the culture and force Zionism upon them. I did not know all this. Now this has made me eve more anti-Zionist than before. Not sure if that was possible.

Yes, look at the ignorance shown by the 2 Yemeni girls on minute 3.35 an onwards after he had interviewed 4-5 other Yemenis before that moment in the clip.

I really advice you to watch all 3 clips since we get the full uncensored opinion from the street randomly. No propaganda. It's sad, sad to see.

I watched it all and noticed a girl from Tunis and several people from Iraq and Morocco...

I know this is a sad development that they try to integrate to Israeli Zionist society...we should open our arms to fellow Arabs however some have really become anti arab in some ways....

Most aren't though...what can we do....

 

[al-Hasani]

I watched it all and noticed a girl from Tunis and several people from Iraq and Morocco...

I know this is a sad development that they try to integrate to Israeli Zionist society...we should open our arms to fellow Arabs however some have really become anti arab in some ways....

Most aren't though...what can we do....

Indeed. It is amazing that even so many want to go back and see no problem going back. That is a very positive sign. So not all of the Zionist propaganda works.

 

[Falcon29]

Indeed. It is amazing that even so many want to go back and see no problem going back. That is a very positive sign. So not all of the Zionist propaganda works.

Do you notice how he differentiates between non Ashkenazi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews? Most in Israel are like that...the European generations basically and that's why there is racism and fascism in Israel's society today. They things against Indian or Arab Jews or Iranian Jews, some of them do.

 

[al-Hasani]

Do you notice how he differentiates between non Ashkenazi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews? Most in Israel are like that...the European generations basically and that's why there is racism and fascism in Israel's society today. They things against Indian or Arab Jews or Iranian Jews, some of them do.

Yes, it's pathetic.

They can call them whatever false and newly constructed identity ("Israeli" - LOL) but they will always be Arabs that just happen to be of the Judaic faith, a fellow Abrahamic faith, just like millions of Arabs who are Christians. They can make false and illegal entities but not change such things. Bunch of illegal Eastern European imports with no ties to the ancient ME and our beloved regions plotting against us and making our region a hell. Insha'Allah they will not succeed with their evil plans as long as we are alive.

It's strange that I do not get any notifications as of late.

 

[Falcon29]

Yes, it's pathetic.

They can call them whatever false and newly constructed identity ("Israeli" - LOL) but they will always be Arabs that just happen to be of the Judaic faith, a fellow Abrahamic faith, just like millions of Arabs who are Christians. They can make false and illegal entities but not change such things. Bunch of illegal Eastern European imports with no ties to the ancient ME and our beloved regions plotting against us and making our region a hell. Insha'Allah they will not succeed with their evil plans as long as we are alive.

It's strange that I do not get any notifications as of late.

Me too, it's been occurring here and there I see people tag me in posts and I never get notifications and I get only half of thanked posts nowadays...

Btw, aren't Jews originally Hebrews in the Middle East? Before they went to Israel? Even Jesus was middle eastern but this new generation if European Jews have a odd identity to them they think it's the real race or Jewish race they hate being identified with their past roots.

 

[al-Hasani]

Me too, it's been occurring here and there I see people tag me in posts and I never get notifications and I get only half of thanked posts nowadays...

Btw, aren't Jews originally Hebrews in the Middle East? Before they went to Israel? Even Jesus was middle eastern but this new generation if European Jews have a odd identity to them they think it's the real race or Jewish race they hate being identified with their past roots.

The one thing I don't understand is how can they be successful in their attempts of making people that are no different from you and me, the only difference being that they follow another of the 3 Abrahamic religions native to our lands, can be brought up to hate their ancestral homelands and everything about it despite having blood ties to those countries. It really baffles me. Somehow the prevalent thought among a considerable portion, thankfully far from all, is that they will get killed at the first sight that they visit Sana'a, Casablanca, Damascus, Baghdad etc. It's pathetic. Once again this is due to Zionism. The same Zionism that brainwashes poor and vulnerable Palestinian Bedouins and a large section of the Christian Palestinian population.

The problem has always been the Ashkenazi Jews and the Zionism that they brought with them. They are also politically the dominant class while culturally, such as Hebrew studies, cuisine, music, art etc. the Sephardic and Mizrahi (Arab Jews) are the dominant group. Also in terms of trade if Im not mistaken.

It is the Ashkenazis with a distant past to the ME region who are causing most of the problems because they don't know about the ancient ME region and its social fabrics, history etc. They are basically emigrants to a whole new region for them. All filled with hatred due to the supposed Holocaust which the remaining Jews had nothing to do with. Hence their paranoid state.

I love this second guys answer. Haha. The one seen when looking at the video.

 

[Falcon29]

The one thing I don't understand is how can they be successful in their attempts of making people that are no different from you and me, the only difference being that they follow another of the 3 Abrahamic religions native to our lands, can be brought up to hate their ancestral homelands and everything about it despite having blood ties to those countries. It really baffles me. Somehow the prevalent thought among a considerable portion, thankfully far from all, is that they will get killed at the first sight that they visit Sana'a, Casablanca, Damascus, Baghdad etc. It's pathetic. Once again this is due to Zionism. The same Zionism that brainwashes poor and vulnerable Palestinian Bedouins and a large section of the Christian Palestinian population.

The problem has always been the Ashkenazi Jews and the Zionism that they brought with them. They are also politically the dominant class while culturally, such as Hebrew studies, cuisine, music, art etc. the Sephardic and Mizrahi (Arab Jews) are the dominant group. Also in terms of trade if Im not mistaken.

It is the Ashkenazis with a distant past to the ME region who are causing most of the problems because they don't know about the ancient ME region and its social fabrics, history etc. They are basically emigrants in a whole new region for them. All filled with hatred due to the supposed Holocaust which the remaining Jews had nothing to do with. Hence their paranoid state.

You couldn't have said it any better and this prevalent thought is due to government and media propaganda. It's even reached American Christians here who actually believe Christians are mass murdered in our countries and if they step foot into Egypt they will be killed. This is nonsense and such propaganda damaging to the mind should be considered a criminal offense. It's like Nazi propaganda....

Egypt and especially Cairo is full of Christians and churches I've been there more than enough times.

I honestly don't get how these elements in the media manage to pull it off but they fund anti Islamic activity in the millions of dollars. I remember seeing an report on it.

 

[Parthianshot]

Mizrahi jews are usually the ones who vote for right conservative parties, while ashkenazis lean towards liberal leftism. Mizrahis are the nationalist israelis and they dont wanna return to the countries of their parents, and I cant blame them.