After leaving Europe, we crossed over into Istanbul, drove across Turkey, then Syria and Lebanon. After dropping me off he went through Jordan and Iraq as well, before reaching the Iranian border. Can you imagine a lone American driving through those areas today? Sadly, my beloved Middle East where I was born, raised and formed towards priesthood has been reduced to a pitiful quagmire of failed states, financially desperate economies and/or victims of violence and Islamism.
At the heart of all this is the unresolved situation of the Arabs of the Holy Land who were and still are in the way of the foundation and expansion of Israel. The 1917 Balfour declaration setting up a proposed Jewish homeland, warned that this dream could in no way prejudice the rights of both Christian and Muslim indigenous Arabs, and this was further ensured by British, US, and UN authorities up and beyond the foundation of Israel in 1948. One hundred years on and there is still no real political accommodation for Palestinian Arabs as envisaged for decades as a “Two state solution”
I would seriously argue that this is at the very heart of the malaise of the Middle East. What Arab of either religion would not be outraged by such continual injustice and cruelty? This is at the core of Islamic terrorism, as Arab nationalism (largely spearheaded by Arab Christians) failed to work and Muslims desperate for justice felt naturally that “Allah” was the only answer. Every neighbouring Arab nation has been bombed by Tel Aviv, save Egypt and Jordan, both neutered by huge US aid!
Recently, it was painful to watch the 7th meeting between Trump and Netanyahu in 2025. The latter boldly asserted before his American audience that Israel was the protector of minorities in the Region, especially Christians. What a lie!
How many of us as pilgrims in the Holy Land have endured the ritual spit as we pass by Israelis?
How many Christian shrines in the Holy Land have been vandalised?
How many Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem have been fooled in selling their ancient lands to the Israeli settlers?
The continual Mass exodus of Arab Christians from all these countries (especially and most recently in Iraq) never stops. Palestinian Christians emigrate to the very ends of the Earth (e.g. Australia, El Salvador, Chile). It was they who often were the political and educational elite and their eclipse has permitted the Regime to demonise Islam all over as terrorists, never allowing the question to be asked: From where did this hatred and fanaticism emanate?
This has changed the entire world. In 1979, I was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Isfahan of the Latins. In that very same year a ferocious revolution broke out in Iran, forever altering the complexion of the Middle East and indeed the whole world. Could it have happened if there had been justice in Palestine? A big question!
In the last two years we have seen on our screens some of the most horrendous and barbaric suffering of our new Millenium. 70,000 dead and still counting; enforced starvation; imprisoned Gazans unable to leave (even for emergency medical reasons). It has all been described by the UN as a Genocide.
As Trump said before his victory last year: “Israel is winning the War but losing the World!”
As Professor John Mearsheimer observed, the Lobby—which has largely controlled U.S. and U.K. foreign policy since the time of Lyndon Johnson—has been totally exposed. There is no justice for Arabs in Gaza or the occupied (UN’s description) West Bank, and the US has allowed the state of Israel to do anything and everything to crush the Arab movement for freedom with total impunity. Torture in Israel is not forbidden. When the truth comes out it will be as grisly as the German atrocities of two generations earlier!
Thinking back to October 7th, 2023 (what an irony, liturgically)… Why did Mr. Netanyahu ignore security warnings from British and Egyptian sources that something was cooking near the frontier? Why the delay of several hours before any response at all? The hypocrisy involved here knows no bounds! Hamas was bankrolled for years by the U.S. and Israel to divide and conquer. To separate Gazan Arabs from their counterparts in the West Bank was to erode any move towards the two-state solution.
One hope in this sad equation is that in the protests around the World there are large numbers of Jews who feel betrayed and outraged by the action of Israel in their name. Prophetic voices like Dr. Gabor Mate (with Dr. Finklestein and a host of others), a Holocaust survivor who, despite being a long-time Zionist, has said that now he realises the terrible injustice against Palestinian Arabs. All of this violence sadly has only promoted the hateful specter of antisemitism and Islamophobia, manifested in the most violent of crimes.
As Traditional Catholic Christians, we can never fall victim to the hateful response of antisemitism! Our Faith, our Tradition, is built upon the foundations of the Torah, the Prophets, the Psalms and the Temple Worship. Our Jewish brothers and sisters are vulnerable, like we are, to the snare of secularism. The pitiful and shallow substitutes for authentic Catholic Christianity have proved disastrous! Similarly, many Jews feel that their religious faith is now often being subverted by the nationalism of Zionism, whose founder Theodore Herzel was an Atheist.
Confounded with all this is the hysterical heresy of Christian Zionism, so utilised by Mr. Netanyahu, as Christian fundamentalists excitedly see the modern political State of Israel as fulfilling the prophecies of old concerning the Israel of God!
As members of the “New Israel of God,” as St. Paul calls the Catholic Church, we beseech Our Blessed Lady, Virgin of Israel and Conqueror of all heresies, to obtain for the world at this time justice for Palestinian Arabs and a new peace in her homeland and region!
