If you’re a Christian, you obviously know that the Church of the Nativity was built in Bethlehem. Many other people know it too.
But do you know where Bethlehem is?
The game show “Jeopardy” on the ABC television network managed to outrage leftists around the world this weekend when host Alex Trebek told contestant Katie Needle that her answer “What is Palestine?” was not correct, and that the answer given by contestant Jack McGuire, “What is Israel?” was deemed correct by the judges.
Don’t worry, fans — Katie’s points were reinstated after the break without explanation, according to several viewers who posted the observation on Twitter. Go figure. But social media went ballistic anyway.
Could be one of my favorite Jeopardy moments of all time pic.twitter.com/2gpVLpDWlR
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan)
Technically, Bethlehem is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, although a final status has not yet been negotiated by the two sides in accordance with the internationally-recognized 1993 Oslo Accords.
Bethlehem is located in Judea on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria comprise the “disputed territory” that was recaptured by Israel from Jordan after the Hashemite Kingdom had seized and occupied those areas for 19 years following the 1948 War of Independence.
There does not exist any legal sovereign nation called “Palestine,” as much as the citizens of the Palestinian Authority have been hoodwinked by their political leaders into believing otherwise. Nor can that happen until they legitimately comply with international standards and properly negotiate a final status agreement with the State of Israel.
The sad fact is, the Christians of Bethlehem have been driven out of their holy city. There has been a massive propaganda campaign that is prominent and visible in any internet article one reads today, be it Wikipedia or any other piece using Palestinian Authority and Arab references. The blame is always laid at the doorstep of the Big Bad State of Israel that built the “apartheid separation wall” that separated the “poor Palestinians” from their land and “cut off Bethlehem from Jerusalem … isolating the former from the rest of the West Bank,” as one source, Counterpunch, accusing the Israelis of “ethnic cleansing,” put it.
The truth is a little different, and far sadder. The truth is, their own Arab brethren have driven them out, because they are Christians and not Muslims. The numbers tell the tale.
Seventy years ago, Bethlehem was 86 percent Christian. As of 2016, the Christian population had dropped to 12 percent – 11,000 people. In the entire Palestinian Authority, in fact, the most optimistic estimate of the Christian population today is estimated at just two percent.
In the State of Israel, a Jewish nation repeatedly attacked by Arabs, the 2013 estimate of the Christian population stood at around 161,000, comprising two percent of the total population. There are a total 1.84 million Arabs living in the State of Israel today. A significant number of Bedouin, Druze and Christian Arabs serve in the Israeli Army, in fact. Why? On the other hand, there are zero Jews living in the Palestinian Authority.
So what does that reveal about the credibility of the Palestinian Authority?