Israel Alone Protects Middle Eastern Christians

In her native Syria, writes Hadeel Oueis, her fellow Christians tended to look favorably on the regime, brutal though it was. In their view, it at least provided them with a modicum of protection—which they could lose if they ever proved unfaithful. Oueis explains that this attitude is typical of Middle Eastern Christian communities, with one exception:

Palestinian Christians . . . publicly criticize Israel and advocate for the abolition of the Jewish state, despite the fact that if this were to occur, the Christians of Palestine would be the first to suffer. The Palestinian Christians, as most of the Christians in the region, are treated unequally and face many challenges posed by Islamists in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority itself were responsible for many human-rights violations against Christians that included land theft, denial of employment, and economic boycotts. In Gaza and other cities controlled by the PA, Muslims who have converted to Christianity are at the greatest risk. They are often left defenseless against cruelty by radical Islamists who murdered some converts or indigenous Christians.

Despite this, many Palestinian Christian influencers and intellectuals continued to complain publicly about Israel’s treatment of them. . . . Much of Arabic-speaking Christian intellectuals’ strong hostility to Israel is motivated by the Islamic persecutions they endured. These Christians intended to demonstrate to Muslims that they shared an enemy.

Despite their efforts, however, Palestinian Christians have never been treated equally by organizations such as Hamas. . . . . Many Palestinian Muslims refused to mourn Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian deceased journalist who spent her life opposing Israel, because she’s not a Muslim.

The answer for improving the life of Christians in Israel is not to support the rhetoric of Islamist organizations and militias like Hamas or to collaborate with their sympathizers like the CAIR organization in the United States. . . . Fragile U.S. backing for Israel would only lead to another civil war in the Middle East, which could jeopardize the few Christians left in the region.

Read more at Christian Post

More about: Hamas, Israeli Christians, Middle East Christianity, Palestinian Authority

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF