The Israeli Government is currently considering a proposal allowing the State to seize ecclesiastical properties; and to tax churches retroactively to the tune of an estimated $186 million. Cardinal O'Brien of the Jerusalem Diocese stated the crisis in no uncertain terms:
"Betraying international treaties and centuries of practice, all Christian properties, except churches themselves, are being taxed tens of billions of dollars. This includes hundreds of agencies including Christian schools, hospitals, homes for the needy, health-care centers, and pilgrimage centers such as the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem. Many church assets are being frozen, fines threatened, and hundreds of thousands of dollars seized from Christian churches in actions that will curtail freedom of worship."
His Eminence also requested prayer in this "unprecedented discrimination against Christians."
Most American Christians are under the mistaken impression that Israel is some oasis of religious freedom in an ocean of intolerance. That description actually fits Israel's neighbor Lebanon, more accurately. The Pew Research Center actually ranks Israeli religious freedom as lower than Cuba and Somalia. It's well-known that the Israeli authorities look the other way to desecration of Christian sites and other more aggressive acts against Christians.
An important question here is why the US Government not only continues to support countries like Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia but opposes governments tolerant of Christianity like Syria and Iraq. The Trump Administration even recently declared Hezbollah an 'Islamic terrorist group' in spite of the fact that Christians serve in Hezbollah and that they are fighting the aggression of the Wahhabi Cult. Who is giving Trump advice on the Middle East? Oh yes:
The former CEO of Exxon, who gave the Boy Scouts to the Gay Mafia; 'Rainbow Rex' Tillerson. Rainbow Rex is more loyal to the drug addicts and perverts in Wahhabi-run Saudi Arabia than he is to the U.S. He had not a peep of criticism for the recent Saudi purges; and in fact, today praised their humanitarian efforts in Yemen. Which includes ethnic cleansing of Yemeni Christians, incidentally.
Rainbow Rex also hasn't had a word to say about Israeli seizures of Christian properties, nor for that matter, about the ongoing church-seizures in Turkey. He has never said anything in praise of Russian humanitarian aid in Syria; nor about Syrian Christian churches reopening after the fall of ISIS. In fact, Tillerson gave Trump the false intelligence of a chemical-weapons attack leading the President to kill innocent people in a cruise missile attack on Syria last April.
Tillerson deserves to be impeached. He never should have been appointed to Secretary of State in the first place. And Israel doesn't deserve a free pass simply because it is a US ally. We need an Administration willing---like Russia---to stand up for Christians and do the right thing.
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