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A Season of Goodwill to All Except Israel
(Belfast Telegraph-UK) Colin Nevin - Christmas has become a time for organizations and individuals to release scathing diatribes blaming all of Bethlehem residents' ills on the State of Israel, such as Eamon McCann's article "Merry Christmas, War Is Over (Unless You Live in Bethlehem)." McCann states that mothers are "forced to stand endless hours at checkpoints," yet when I visited Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Hebron in the "West Bank" in October, all the checkpoints we passed onboard a local Arab bus were completely unmanned and we did not get stopped once all the way from east Jerusalem. Perhaps McCann needs to update his information before he lambasts the Israeli security precautions set in place to ensure safety from the unrelenting terror attacks which regrettably emanate from the heart of Bethlehem. I think as a New Year resolution we should use the name that God uses, namely Israel, rather than modern labels such as "Palestine" named after the Philistines, Israel's ancient and most bitter foes. Bethlehem, too, is in "Judea" - not the often-used "West Bank" which conveniently erases its inextricable Jewish link.