Bob Simon’s Sixty Minutes segment titled Christians in the Holy Land can be legitimately accused of the journalistic crime of omission, and for those with an ungenerous spirit, Simon may be blamed as well for the act of commission. Simon simply ignored the obvious in covering the status of Christians in the Holy Land: the fear and intimidation Palestinian Christians suffer from at the hands of the Muslim-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

In a polity such as the PA, not to mention Hamas in Gaza, where Sharia law governs to the extent that any law other than the “law of the gun” exists, Christians feel excluded and discriminated. That alone may explain the increased pace of Christian flight from the Palestinian territories since the mid-1990s when Israel left the cities of the West Bank to PA control and since Hamas began to rule Gaza in 2007. Such factors as economic pressure, lack of safety and the rule of law, the increasing dominance of Islamists, and above all intimidation through violence and the threat of violence, have been contributing factors in the fleeing of Christians from the Holy Land.

Reverend Dr. Bill Harter, a Presbyterian Church USA pastor who has logged more than 40 missions to the Holy Land pointed out to a State Department top official (in the presence of this writer) that what Palestinian-Christians say in public is vastly different from what they say in private. To maintain their safety and to hold up their bona fides as loyal-Palestinian patriots, they must denounce Israel more vociferously at times than Muslims, otherwise they might be accused of collaborating with Israel. The consequences for not cooperating with the Palestinian propaganda machine can be most severe: rape of daughters and wives, torched businesses and, ultimately, death by a bullet or a knife.

Privately however, where there are no prying eyes, and when it is anonymously whispered, ordinary Palestinian-Christians reveal their suffering at the hands of their Muslim neighbors and roving gangs of Islamic extortionists. Their methods do not differ much from the Mafia – Pay or Die, but Christians are targeted specifically because they are not Muslims, and these militant Muslim extortionists get a free pass from the Gaza and Ramallah regimes.

The only utterances ordinary Christian-Palestinians can make on a public microphone or a television camera are anti-Israel statements. Did Simon expect them to denounce the PA? Simon’s life was not on the line, theirs was…

The second factor in Simon’s hatchet job (on Israel) is to ignore the fact that the top clergy and leadership of the Christian-Palestinian community have been co-opted by the PA, as well as by other Arab dictatorial regimes. Popes (Coptic Pope in Egypt) bishops, clergy (Rev. Mitri Raheb, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, and others) and politicians like Hanan Ashrawi enjoy pay and position given to them by the PA. Moreover, all of these figures know that defaming Israel carries only credit and no danger to themselves from the Israelis. On the other hand, speaking ill of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas will carry a death sentence for them and their families.

In a piece published by the Gatestone Institute in 2009, Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim reporter for the Jerusalem Post wrote that Christians have complained about acts of intimidation and land theft by Muslims, especially those working for the Palestinian Authority. And, if that wasn’t enough, several Christian women living in these areas have complained about verbal and sexual assaults by Muslim men.

Toameh recounted hearing stories of shakedowns by Muslim gangs. He writes: “Over the past few years, a number of Christian businessmen told me that they were forced to shut down their businesses because they could no longer afford to pay “protection” money to local Muslim gangs.” Abu Toameh pointed out that this is not the story Palestinian Christians tell western reporters.

Abu Toameh reported that, “Ironically, leaders of the Palestinian Christians are also to blame for the ongoing plight of their people because they refuse to see the reality as it is. And the reality is that many Palestinian Christians feel insecure and intimidated because of what we Muslims are doing to them and not only because of the bad economy.”

Toameh continued, “When they go on the record, these leaders always insist that Israel and the occupation are the only reason behind the plight of their constituents. They stubbornly refuse to admit that many Christians are being targeted by Muslims. By not talking openly about the problem, the Christian leaders are encouraging the perpetrators to continue their harassment and assaults against Christian families.”

Simon must recognize that Israel is an open society and the only democracy in the region where religious freedom, women’s rights, and human rights are enjoyed by everyone, albeit, security concerns such as prevention of terrorist attacks necessitated the construction of the defensive barrier, which Simon concedes reduced Palestinian terrorist attacks by 90%. Conversely, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas rule in Gaza are hardly open and democratic. Western and local reporters are harassed, intimidated and at times murdered, which may explain why all the reporters covering the “Holy Land” prefer to live in the safety and security of Jewish Jerusalem, where they can and do defame Israel regularly with no adverse consequences.

What is clearly undeniable to any objective observer is the persecution of the Christian minorities throughout the Middle East, including the Holy Land. The increase in such persecution comes in direct proportion to the rise of Islamism and Salafism throughout the region. Christian Copts in Egypt that comprise over 10% of Egypt’s population, and form the authentic and indigenous Egyptians, preceded the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century CE, are fleeing in the hundreds of thousands. In Iraq, the Iran inspired Shiite-Muslim government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is affecting the ethnic cleansing of the ancient Christian community. And, in the rest of the Arab Middle East, the electoral victories of the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates have increased the persecution of Christians and their subsequent exodus from the region. In Israel alone, the Christian community is secure and growing in numbers.

Simon decidedly agrees with the idea that the 2009 Kairos Document authored by Palestinian Christian clergy is meant to promote “peace” between Israel and the Palestinians. Simon called it “unprecedented,” and went on to say that “the published document called Kairos, criticized Islamic extremism and advocated non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation which they called a sin against God.” He should have asked the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) what they thought of the Kairos Document, which he naturally did not. The CCAR denounced the Kairos Document as “supersessionist and anti-Semitic.” The rabbis considered the Kairos Document to be extremely hostile to Jews and Israel and totally one-sided. And in what is clearly an act of commission, Simon elevated the rabidly anti- Israel and anti-Jewish Rev. Mitri Raheb (one of the authors of the Kairos) to that of a peacemaker.

Simon and his producer Harry Radliffe failed to bring balance and fairness on a subject that required serious study and thought. But then, Simon, like the Palestinian Christian authors of Kairos know that while exposing the ugly reality of Islamist intolerance carries deadly consequences, abusing Israel by perverting reality does not. (Copyright © 2012 FrontPageMagazine.com 05/01/12)