Israel vs. Christians, Again??

Only a couple thousand years ago, the Israelis saw to the execution of Christ.  Christ--from the cross--forgave them, 'for they knew not what they do.'  Following that day, the Jews were very unfriendly to Christians, but only killed one that we know of:  St Stephen.

While not a persecution (and no martyrs here, either), we find the State of Israel being unfriendly to Christians all over again.

Dreher was in Jerusalem during Holy Week, and found that the Israeli (Jerusalem) police were NOT allowing Christians into the Old City for Holy Week services.

...I’m staying at a hotel inside the Old City, where I was advised to book a room out of fear that the Jerusalem police would not let Christians into the Old City on Holy Saturday. This turns out to have been very good advice.

After an early breakfast in our hotel, a Christian friend and I decided to go over to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to pray. We got to the end of our street, which opens onto the plaza at the Jaffa Gate, and two Jerusalem police officers told us we couldn’t pass. Then she said we could leave, but there was no guarantee that we could get back in....

...The police officer at the gate said we could leave the Old City, but when we returned, to tell the guards at the bottom to phone her, and she would tell them to let us in. She was polite, and tried to be accommodating, but I told my friend that I didn’t want to risk not being able to get back in. My friend, who lived in Israel for years, told me that he doesn’t blame these cops. “They’re all Israeli millennials,” he said. “Many of them don’t like this any more than we do. These are their orders.”...

Apparently a group of Israeli 'zealots' is behind all this; they intend to 'purify' the Holy City by keeping all non-Jews OUT, thankyouverymuch.

 ...There is a broader controversy here that the worldwide Christian community should know about. It involves the activities of a radical Israeli settler group that aims to “redeem” Jerusalem by cleansing it of non-Jews....

The group is called 'Ateret Cohanim' and they invited John Bolton to speak at one of their gatherings.

Really.

What's old is new again, just like it is in the post immediately below this one.

Pray.