The Guardian Lets Its God Down

The Guardian, which tries to be the foremost anti-Israel daily newspaper in a tough competition between the New York Times and The Independent, not to speak of the Reuters news agency, repeated yet again the false analogy:

“If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed'

The Arutz 7 staffer, Tzvi Ben-Gedaliah, riposted:

And what if Abraham were to visit the Temple Mount?

and explains:

The Guardian article painted a bleak picture of an “Apartheid wall” and military checkpoints that supposedly have stagnated the city of Bethlehem, located immediately south of Jerusalem. This idea was also used by anti-Israel NGO's (see NGO Monitor's "The NGO's that Stole Christmas" [by Gerald Steinberg] posted on Arutz Sheva for details.)

Yes, Abraham could not accompany Isaac on to the Mount, especially with wood and a knife.

Actually, the comparison is worse.  The reporter, Phoebe Greenwood, quoted a Father Ibrahim Shomali, a parish priest, who indicated Joseph and Mary would struggle to get into the city, let alone find a hotel room.

"If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed," says the priest of Bethlehem's Beit Jala parish. "He would either have to be born at a checkpoint or at the separation wall. Mary and Joseph would have needed Israeli permission – or to have been tourists.  This really is the big problem for Palestinians in Bethlehem: what will happen when they close us off completely?"

First of all, her "history" is skewed.  She includes this bit:

A strip of Israeli settlements built on 18 sq km of what was once northern Bethlehem threatens to cut the city off from its historic twin, Jerusalem.

But since Bethlehem and Jerusalem were historically Jewish (David was made king in Bethlehem and then mvoed to Jerusalem, for example), one need inquire what "history" is she refering to? Made up Arab history?

Secondly, Mary and Joseph were Jewish. On the way to Bethlehem they could have gotten shot or stabbed or, at the least, stoned by Arabs.


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P.S.

Honenu: Jewess Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount

A Jewish woman who went up onto the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, Monday morning, was arrested, following claims by police and Muslim Waqf authority that they noticed she was praying, according to the Honenu legal aid organization. The woman was detained for questioning by the David District police

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