need to add title here

Christians of the Holy Land

April 22, 2012 4:00 PM

The exodus from the Holy Land of Palestinian Christians could eventually leave holy cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem without a local Christian population. Bob Simon reports.

Christians of the Holy Land

60 Minutes OverTimeThe last Christian village in the Holy Land

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by milantwentyseven April 29, 2012 6:20 PM EDT
by milantwentyseven
After almost a week of following the "discussion" on your report on Israel I am more saddened than ever.
I am trying to figure out what people are thinking but it's difficult.
Do the Palestinians really think that all the people who fire off emails cursing Israel are on their side and will rush to help them?
Even Mr. Arafat,who didn't get much right knew very well that the west hated the Jews but that didn't mean they could care less about the Arab world. They were afraid of them, but that doesn't translate into anything but letters to the editor.

Do peace groups from around the world who have embraced the Palestinian cause to the exclusion of all others never wonder why it is that there are no Arab "Peace Now" groups anywhere in sight? When they sit around the campfire what do they talk about? Women's rights? Gay rights? Freedom of religion? Yes there are some groups who will do Israel a favour and sit at the same table as them but that is the extent of their concession. (As long as they don't have to walk through the same door as the impure Israelis).No deal will ever be made unless Israel meets all their demands.


Would America make a deal with another country if they knew as Israel knows now, that if the situation was reversed and the Palestinians had the power and the Israelis were asking for a deal,
the Palestinians wouldn't give Israel the sweat off their dog's nose?

Do those who claim to their horror that some Palestinians have their rights restricted not wonder why it is that the first new Palestinian controlled "state"... Gaza.. offers only a fascist dictatorship with more Jihadi training camps than schools? Let's not even mention the various Mafia clans.

The sad fact is that if the Palestinians devoted just 1% of the their time, effort and resources toward constructive peaceful goals the Israelis would have no excuse for not sitting down in earnest.
Mr. Fayyad has done great things along those lines but it's only a matter of time before Hamas forces him out because he is not bloodthirsty enough. Meanwhile Fatah spends all their time making sure an Israeli symphony orchestra doesn't play in London and excavating under the temple in Jerusalem to prove that the temple never existed.

If,as most everyone on this site confirms,the Israelis are zombie war criminals who have slaughtered millions of totally innocent children in their pajamas, does it make sense for the Palestinians who apparently don't know anything about violence to continue to fight?
Try plan B. Put out real peace feelers... make a deal even if it's not perfect. (That's what you have expected Israel to do for the last 30 years) and see what happens.

I know nobody wants to admit this but the truth is the Palestinians know deep down that the only possible way to get a satisfactory result is to talk to the Israelis like human beings because as they know, the Isaelis are human beings and despite all the sewage you read they will make a deal if only they can rest assured that the other side was serious too.
Take a chance... make an effort...the evil Israelis are not nearly as terrible as eveyone likes to think .They are just as sick of all this as you are. Talk to them... you won't get anything at all from any of your Arab neighbors you know that for sure and you certainly won't get any help from newspapers in New York or England and least of all from someone on a computer in his parent's basement!

Peace..try it

Respectfully

milantwentyseven
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by JossefPerl April 29, 2012 3:47 PM EDT
This program is appalling; it is a sequel to Leslie Sthal's hachet job in the 60 Minutes program on the archeological excavations in the City of David, in which she argued with the findings of archeological experts because the name of David was not discovered and accused Israel in using the City of David to indoctrinate Israeli soldiers. What makes this piece by Bob Simon even more appaling is that this time the hachet Job is done by a Jew like Bob Simon who shows so much concern for the future of Christianity in the Holy Land and so little concern for the future of Jews in the Holy Land and the lives of Jews blown up by suicide bombers, as he reacts very casually to Ambassador Oren claim that the wall was established to save Jewish lives. In the 64 years of Israel's existence there has never been a single case of targeting Christians. The claims made by the Palestinian businessman on this show that none of his Christian customers ever complaint about Muslim extremism and that the difficulties all come from Israel is such a big fat lie as to be laughable. What this comment really shows is how afraid Palestinian Christians are to critisize Palestinian Muslims and how safe they feel in criticizing Israel.

We are all getting fed up with liberal American Jews like Simon, Beinard, Friedman and the rest of them in the American media, who in order to show the American public how "objective" they can be regarding Israel, as to advance their careers, are willing to join the anti-Israel propaganda and delegitimization movements. Mr. Simon is even willing to feign anger toward Israel's ambassador for the concern Mr. Oren showed about the content of this show even before the show was aired. Given 60 Minutes track record with anti-Israel propaganda there was a good reason to be concerned and indeed the show turned out to be exactly what the Ambassador was worried about.
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by alexanderazar April 29, 2012 3:27 PM EDT
One day after I am long gone, you will remember me and say, we should have stopped the nuclear program of Israel, abolished the Federal Reserve and kicked all secret societies, occultists, usurpers and Zionists out of our wonderful country, to keep it that way, but it is never too late, just remember that. "John F. Kennedy"
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by avonrower April 29, 2012 2:59 PM EDT
Thank you CBS for demonstrating backbone for this program. Israel can not and will not endure while it continues its colonization of Palestinian lands. Unbelievably, unconditional supporters of Israel refuse to see that the government of Israel pursues policies similar to those that were used in Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa - a tragedy for all the innocent and good people of Israel and Palestine and the American government is complicit for closing its eyes and ears to the crimes.
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by prudence1921 April 29, 2012 1:51 PM EDT
So far, 32,532 have THANKED Bob Simon and 60 Minutes, for the story on the Palestinian Christian exodus from Israel-controlled territory. If you believe "Journalists who tell the painfully honest truth about Palestinian life under occupation deserve our thanks, not political attacks" PLEASE sign the petition by Jewish Voice for Peace @
http://thankyou60minutes.org/
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by hbdmesq April 29, 2012 1:49 PM EDT
Let anybody who is not Jewish and can live in Israel in peace without being harassed or murdered give Thanks to G-d that this is possible.
If one is a Jew one can't do otherwise then praise that the promised land is being given back to whom it was promised!!
Have Christians forgotten their history....? Are they not thankful that in Israel they can live free!?[if at the moment/ for the moment not "really" threatened by Muslim fanaticism only because of-thanks G-d- the Jewish presence in the land?!
Are we so confused not to want to see the truth?
If you really never learned some objective history [not black colored by unbelievable lies ] then buy a simple text book like :Ken Spiro :Crash course in Jewish History............one may be surprised how brain washed
most of our world is.
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by shrink5683 April 29, 2012 1:19 PM EDT
It is a sad to read such anti semetic reports of 60 minutes. First off, there is no place Palestine. So where do the Christians Live? Israel!! Some comments were accurate, Untill the moslims killed off or chased the Christians out. Their lives in Israel were ok. I hope the world will wake up and smell the oder of the muslims and how they treat others and want to take over the world. The do not want peace. they want the world espcially Israel. Shrink5683
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by tepleroth April 29, 2012 11:03 AM EDT
While Christians are being persecuted throughout the Arab world, it is galling that Bob Simon chooses to focus on Israel, where Christians serve in the Knesset, foreign ministry, and supreme court. He totally ignores the fact that Muslim prejudice against Christians is the source of the problem. It is no coincidence that Bethlehem, when it was under Israeli control, was a Christian city, while now under the Palestinian Authority, Christians are only 20% of the population. The fact that some Christians may be inconvenienced by the security fence is the result of an intifada that was not of Israel's choosing. Israelis too were inconvenienced by exploding buses and murderous rampages. In the end, this report revealed more about 60 minutes than it did about Israel and Christians.
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by seeker0112 April 29, 2012 9:35 AM EDT
Israel treats Christians much worse than the "60 Minutes" showed. Most Christians citizens of Israel were expelled from their homes in 1948 but are still not allowed to live their hometowns, which are now for Jews only. When I visited a few years ago, my Christian taxi driver showed me his scars, where he had been shot by Israeli solders. When he was 17, soldiers held him down and broke his arm. Americans would never support Israel if they knew how Christians were treated.
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by 7969393 April 29, 2012 9:03 AM EDT
Can 60 minute do a piece on The Christian situation in Egypt and Syria?
Why are there always antisemitic stories on 60 Minutes. The statistic are clearly wrong. The population of Christians is rising in Israel. This is the only country in the middle east that the numbers are rising.
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