Source: I.W. Quinn, November 18, 2023
“O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.”
The little town of Bethlehem, the historical birthplace of the Christ Child, is always teaming with throngs of Christians this time of year, mostly visitors seeking to share in honoring his birth. Christians comprised 80% of the town’s residents until 1995 when the Palestinians gained control. Now that the town is under the Palestinian Authority, the number of Christians has shriveled to 20%.
The Palestinian leadership now dominating the sacred site has announced that there will be no honoring of Christ’s birth this year – only a single Christmas Catholic mass. The municipality declared on Facebook and The Telegraph that “in honor of the ‘martyrs’”(ie. terrorists) “and in solidarity with our people in Gaza” all Christmas decorations and trees will be removed because their people simply “were not really into celebration.”
This year, Christmas comes amid the backdrop of brutal war. The world could not need the honoring of the birth of the Christ Child more than it does today. Contrary to the Palestinian misconception, the celebration of Christmas is not a raucous party event, but rather a quiet time of reflection for the coming of peace and good will among men.
The war the Palestinians are grieving, was not waged by Judeo/Christians. It was waged by their own savage jihadists – brutal barbarians unleashing bloody fury against God’s innocent civilians who were simply seeking to live according to His will and to raise their children and their children’s children to honor Him. The not so innocent barbarians, who spent two years planning their heinous attack, knew full well that they were sacrificing their own unawares among them. They did it anyway. For a subhuman ideology. For annihilation.
O Little Town of Bethlehem. Christmas snuffed out. To grieve for the “martyrs,” terrorists, who committed unspeakable crimes against Jews and all of humanity.
Lights of the tree of hope in the midst of darkness, of good in the midst of evil, ordered snuffed out. They can extinguish the lights of the tree, but never the lights of goodness and hope in the hearts of the world.
