I am of Lebanese Maronite ancestry from the region of the cedars. My ancestors left the region of Mount Lebanon between 1882 and 1912. The dreadful Ottoman's cared not about the Christian peoples and the continued persecution and attempted genocide at that time. My sister married a Melchite Catholic, born in Haifa after the end of that empire and under the British Mandate of the region of Palestine.Let me also state that I understand full well that Rabbinical-Talmudic Judaism hates Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am not writing this from a religious perspective, only a political one. Reality is what it is. That being said, who are we to doubt the mysterious ways of God? Can we really think that he hates the Jewish people? Can we really believe that he wants them annihilated? Any people? No, he wants them brought to the fullness of the faith and redemption.
Notwithstanding the above, I believe in the right of the State of Israel to exist within secure and stable borders and in peace. One cannot rewrite history. The Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations and Sykes-Picot accord and later, the United Nations made this a reality. We govern ourselves by Laws, not by the rule of thugs and murderers such as the Black September or the PLO or Al Qaida or ISIS. The Arab nations rejected the UN partition which then gerrymandered around the population of Jewish and the ancient Philistine peoples. Had they accepted it, there would have been a viable nation-state of Palestine on more land today than it could ever hope to achieve now. The map above does not lie. The facts do not lie.
The Arabs continually attacked the "Zionist entity." Only now, do some see a better way.
Many believe that modern Israel's creation as a return for the Jewish people on their ancient land is in biblical prophecy. Yet, to believe that, one might claim that to be a Christian Zionist, is a heresy. I don't know about that.
What I know is this. The land was given by God to the Hebrew nation. The Psalms tell us that he "chose the tribe of Judah, mount Sion which he loved." Out of Judah came forth our redemption and those people of the Old Covenant have been brought together to a land where one day they will fully come into the New Covenant. If that makes me a Zionist, so be it.
Politically and militarily, both sides in this conflict have committed egregious acts. Yet, it is this tiny piece of land which the Jews have made bloom while the "Arabs," and the Palestinians are no more Arab than the Lebanese. Assyrians or Egyptians, the real Arabs have for decades and abused these people to keep the focus of their own peoples on the "Zionist entity" rather than their own shortcomings.
If Jerusalem is not the capital city of Israel than what city is? What city could possibly be? God established Jerusalem as Israel's capital. If one wishes to argue that this modern-state of Israel is not of God, that is a valid debate, but God permitted its creation and out of it, He will bring the full redemption of His Chosen People through His new Israel, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Under the UN partition plan, Jerusalem was to be a UN-administered city. That is of no consequence today. In two wars where Israel was attacked by the Arabs, 1948 and 1967, Jerusalem was captured first in part and then reunited. It was the Arabs that caused Jerusalem to be fully taken by Israel.
To the victor go the spoils.
Let's be clear. Palestine never existed as a nation-state. After the collapse of the Roman empire, it was a desolate land of a low population under the domination of the Mohammedan conquests. The Ottoman's dominated most of the region until they lost it after The Great War. The Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as a Capital City is bogus and fraudulent. It never was their capital, they never had a state. Most of what was their region is in what was Transjordan, now, the Kingdom of Jordan. Israel is never going to give up Jerusalem and the continued resistance to the recognition that it is and will always be undivided and Israel's capital prevents a viable peace agreement. The losers have always been those in the West Bank and Gaza strip but it is not Israel that has done it to them, it is their own filthy masters.
But the leaders of that Church, the new and true Israel have failed. For a thousand years, since the end of the Last Crusade, the Church has left billions of souls to perish in what can at best be described as the greatest Christian heresy, Mohammedanism. They have refused to call the Jewish people home. Five hundred years ago, these betrayers wrote of the Scandinavian countries and have since made no attempt to bring them back from the errors of Lutheranism. Since Vatican II, it has only gotten worse.
In 1980, Joseph Clark became Prime Minister of Canada and made a commitment, never realized, to recognize the reality of Israel's existence and determined to move Canada's embassy to the State of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he failed. Now, the President of the United States who promised this in the election campaign and has not decided to do it. The Arab world is self-destructing. They eat each other. They have destroyed the most beautiful lands of Chaldea and Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Mount Lebanon. Arabs in Israel vote, hold passports, have all the civil rights as any Jewish citizen and own land and business.
Today, the Bishop of Rome issued a statement wading into the decision already taken by the President of the United States. It is a blatant and mischievous attempt to insert himself into something that is none of his business. He should spend his time preaching Jesus Christ and Him Crucified and Resurrected and leave the politics for the real politicians. CruxNow calls it a "crisis." The only crisis is the state of the Catholic Church.
Whatever this Bergoglio can do to deflect from his formal errors he will do. This is a diversion on his part to deflect attention away from his heretical promulgation of Holy Communion for those living in adultery.
The Cardinals have their job, it is far past time for the kittens to do it.