Merging Palestinian Believers with Jewish Believers
Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 9:26 pm
Shalom! I understand that there is enmity between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. I also understand that that puts the Church (and by that I mean all Christians) in a very difficult place, since many Believers in the Holy Land are Palestinian/Arab, many more so than there are Messianic Jews. In my own parish, we have a prayer intention book where you write intentions and they are read aloud during Mass for the parish to pray for. Every week I write down to pray for "Peace in Jerusalem and the blessing of Israel." But if one particular priest is offering Mass, he always skips over the "blessing of Israel" part, because there are some Middle Eastern families who might be offended by that. (I live in a University town -- very diverse population.)
So the Believers are put into situations where the Church teaches them that "Salvation comes from the Jews", while at the same time, if they do not participate in attacks against Israeli soldiers, etc., they run the risk of being marked as traitors and being killed.
So my question is this: Is there any possible way to unite the Believers on both sides of this issue in order to find peaceful solutions? Personally, I see the biggest problem is with the leaders of Hamas and Fatah; the Muslim leaders who have killed any Palestinian who is able to work peacefully with the Israelis. Is it possible for the Christian Palestinians to be resettled in Israel and protected against retaliation by Islamic factions, and how would we convince the Israeli government to do this?
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So the Believers are put into situations where the Church teaches them that "Salvation comes from the Jews", while at the same time, if they do not participate in attacks against Israeli soldiers, etc., they run the risk of being marked as traitors and being killed.
So my question is this: Is there any possible way to unite the Believers on both sides of this issue in order to find peaceful solutions? Personally, I see the biggest problem is with the leaders of Hamas and Fatah; the Muslim leaders who have killed any Palestinian who is able to work peacefully with the Israelis. Is it possible for the Christian Palestinians to be resettled in Israel and protected against retaliation by Islamic factions, and how would we convince the Israeli government to do this?
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