February 16, 2006
Menaced Holy Land Christians
By Robert
Novak
WASHINGTON -- Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop
of Washington, D.C., is taking an increased interest in the desperate
plight of Christians in the Holy Land -- to the point of politely
and privately asking for help from George W. Bush. Immediately at
stake is the West Bank village of Aboud, whose Christian roots go
back two millennia, and which now is threatened by Israel's security
barrier.
Aboud is the current
object of Israeli policy that has contributed to heavy migration
of Christian Arabs, promising further reduction in their present
1.7 percent share of Israel's population. Following previous security
barrier construction that effectively expelled villagers from
olive groves, Israel in October 2005 ordered new land confiscation
to extend the barrier. Aboud's 2,300 residents, about half Christian
and half Muslim, are being deprived of their water supply by the
new construction.
"I am afraid
that what is happening in the Holy Land is that we're losing the
presence of the Christian community," Cardinal McCarrick
told me. As leader of his faith in the nation's capital, he seeks
friends on both sides of any political divide. Accordingly, the
Cardinal told me the West Bank's Christians are endangered by
Palestinians (particularly since Hamas's election victory). But
there is no question for the Holy Land Christian Society, seeking
to save their co-religionists, that water-hungry Jewish settlers
benefit from the security wall.
Catholic sources
divulged to me that McCarrick, who recently had been called into
the White House to discuss foreign trade, brought up the condition
of the West Bank Christians with President Bush. Acting as though
he had heard this for the first time, the president turned to
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and asked him to look
into the problem.
Jordan's Muslim King
Abdullah earlier this month met with members of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops to discuss the plight of the Christians. The
Vatican has indicated intensified interest. But so far, there
is no sign that Hadley or anybody else in the Bush administration
has engaged this problem. A Catholic contact with the White House
talked to Elliott Abrams, the presidential aide handling the Middle
East. Abrams responded that the barrier is required for Israeli
security. Abrams gave the impression that he is not concerned
with Christian Arabs.
But U.S. intervention
may be needed to save the village of Aboud, which according to
local tradition received the Christian faith from Jesus himself.
Christ is said to have preached at the place in Aboud where the
ruins of the Messiah Church stand. Jesus and the Holy Family would
have traveled the Roman Road, near Aboud, on the route between
Jerusalem and Galilee. The village's Orthodox church was built
in the 4th Century under the first Christian emperor of Rome,
Constantine.
Religious tradition,
however, does not deter Israeli policy. The new barrier will confiscate
39 percent of the village's olive fields and take over the aquifer
that supplies one-fifth of the West Bank's total water supply.
In October, construction uprooted 500 grapevines in Aboud. Twelve
kilometers of the barrier will be built on Aboud's land, and the
villages of Al-Lubban and Rantis also will lose more territory.
All this is justified
as protection against terrorists, but the Holy Land Christian
Society rejects that. "It is clear that the security barrier
is not about security but the annexation of land for the expansion
of settlements in the West Bank and Israeli control over the water
supply," argues a society paper. Israeli settlements Beit
Arye and Ofarim were built on land taken from residents of Aboud.
The problems of the
Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Aboud do not resonate in American
politics. The evangelicals have signed a blank check to Israel
in the interests of security in the Middle East. Of the many Roman
Catholic members of Congress, only the venerable Rep. Henry Hyde
(in the last year of his long career) has shown much interest
in the subject.
That is why Cardinal
McCarrick's involvement is encouraging for the champions of Holy
Land Christians. He will visit the West Bank next month and may
meet with Karen Hughes, under secretary of state for Public Diplomacy,
for the sake of a few Christians in an ancient city.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
