"Israel tries to recruit Christian Arabs; Campaign sparks identity debate" by Karin Laub | Associated Press, December 28, 2013
What, not even AmeriKan troops in the fight for them?
NAZARETH, Israel — Dozens of Israeli soldiers respectfully rose from their seats as the Israeli national anthem began playing. The tinny recording of ‘‘Hatikva,’’ an ode to the Jewish yearning for the Land of Israel, wrapped up a ceremony, held in Hebrew, during which speakers thanked the troops and handed out awards.
It looked like a typical motivational gathering for soldiers of the Jewish state — except that nearly all those in uniform weren’t Jews and Hebrew wasn’t their first language.
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Just wanted you to know what through which prism my jews, I mean news, was be delivered.
They were Christian Arabs, a minority that has historically viewed itself as part of the Palestinian people and considered service in the army as taboo.
People forget they are under the Israeli boot as much as the Muslims.
The gathering — a pre-Christmas nod to Christian soldiers, who nibbled on cookies and chocolate Santas — was part of a new push by Israel’s government and a Greek Orthodox priest to persuade more Christians to enlist.
The campaign has set off an emotional debate about identity among Christians, a tiny minority within Israel’s predominantly Muslim Arab minority. So far the numbers of Christian Arabs enlisting is negligible, but with the community’s fate possibly at stake, tempers have flared and each side has accused the other of using scare tactics and incitement.
Father Gabriel Nadaf, the priest promoting enlistment, said Christians must serve in the army if they want to integrate into Israeli society and win access to jobs. ‘‘I believe in the shared fate of the Christian minority and the Jewish state,’’ he told the conference, held at a local hotel.
I wouldn't hook my wagon to that star.
His spokesman warned that unlike Israel, the rest of the Middle East is a dangerous place for Christians. ‘‘They are burning churches, they are slaughtering them [Christians], they are raping the girls,’’ said the aide, Shadi Khalloul, referring to the targeting of Christian communities in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere by Islamic militants.
That is so unfair because it is untrue and a complete lie. The sectarianism is a Jewish narrative to support a divide-and-conquer strategy carried out by covert intelligence operations. The fact that Muslims and Christians (and Sunni, Shiite, Kurd, Turk) have intermarried and lived with each other in relative peace and harmony for centuries is conveniently ignored.
Not only that, Muslim celebrations of Christmas were totally ignored, as was the genuine feeling of good will towards Christians expressed because of the outward display of religion. Muslims respect that; they do not respect atheism or secularism.
Arab Christians opposed to army service — the large majority in the community, according to its spokesmen — say the real goal is to divide and weaken Israel’s 1.7 million Arabs, made up of Muslims, Christians, and Druze, who follow a secretive offshoot of Islam.
He's right, and true Christians -- like me, Catholic but still Christian -- are peace-loving people!
‘‘It’s an old Zionist scheme,’’ said Basel Ghattas, a Christian Arab member of parliament. ‘‘Christians are an inseparable part of the Arab community, and they will not let this pass.’’
And jwho benefits when Christians and Muslims are at each others throats?
Israeli Arabs, who make up just over one-fifth of Israel’s 8 million people, are part of the patchwork of Palestinian identities created by conflict and displacement.
Gee, who did that?
They are the descendants of those who stayed put during the war over Israel’s 1948 creation, at a time when hundreds of thousands of fellow Palestinians fled or were driven out.
Yes, it's called the Nakba and it is the ugly story of the Khazarian usurpers theft of land and ethnic cleansing.
Those Palestinians have lived in refugee camps for 65 years now -- meaning GENERATIONS have known NOTHING BUT!
Roughly half of the world’s more than 10 million Palestinians now live in the diaspora, while the rest live in Israel and in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 war — the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem, sought by Palestinians for a state. Of Israel’s Arabs, about 128,000, or less than 10 percent, are Christians.
Related: Official says Israel plans new settlement construction
In your face, world!
Army service is mandatory for Jews, though not all are called up.
And the real nut jobs, the fundamentalist Zionist zettlers, are exempt for religious study as they are armed to the teeth by the Israeli government.
Druze leaders signed up their community for army service in the 1950s, and Druze men have been conscripted ever since, while Muslims and Christians are not required to serve.
Currently, close to 1,500 non-Druze Arabs serve in the military, 70 percent of them Bedouins, a separate and impoverished community where the military is often the employer of last resort.
Just like AmeriKa.
But also among those serving are 208 Arab Muslims and 137 Arab Christians, said army Major Shadi Rahal. The numbers of Christians volunteering for the army has remained relatively steady, ticking up only slightly from about 40 year in the past to around 50 to 55 annually now, Rahal said.
One of the volunteers is Captain Arin Shaabi, a 28-year-old Christian from Nazareth, the town of Jesus’ boyhood and the center of Arab Christian life in Israel. She enlisted in 2010, after completing her law studies. Since 2011, she’s been a prosecutor in a West Bank military court, in the thick of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Shaabi identifies as a Christian and an Israeli, and has a tattoo of a cross inked into her left hand. She said she helps defend the Holy Land and isn’t troubled by prosecuting Palestinians on security charges often linked to Palestinian nationalism. ‘‘I stand by what I do, 100 percent,’’ said Shaabi. ‘‘I don’t have dilemmas.’’
Some people don't have consciences.
She’s paid a personal price, including harassment in Nazareth, a city of 80,000 people, 70 percent of them Muslims. An assailant once threw a rock at her car.
No missiles strikes on the house?
When leaving her father’s house for her military base, she’d wear civilian clothes over her uniform to avoid being targeted. She says fear of a community backlash is keeping down the number of recruits.
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