Readers of David Goldman’s Israeli Christians may be interested in this report on the synod for bishops in the Middle East, quoting Rabbi David Rosen, an adviser to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, who spoke to the bishops yesterday: Rabbi tells synod that Christians in Israel enjoy freedom, equality from the Catholic News Service .
Meeting with reporters before he addressed the synod, the rabbi said Christian citizens of Israel have benefited from Israel’s democracy and its education, professional and economic opportunities.
“I don’t for one minute wish to avoid the fact that there are serious challenges for Christian communities,” he said. But he insisted the situation of Christians in Israeli is “totally incomparable” to the challenges they face in other Middle Eastern countries where democracy and equality are weaker.
. . . “The Christian communities in East Jerusalem and in the areas under the Palestinian authority are in a very different situation; they are part and parcel of a nation struggling for its self-determination, often a violent struggle,” he said. “In a situation of conflict, Israelis — if they perceive a threat — are not going to ask Palestinians” whether they are Christian or Muslim, because in that case “they are all part of a potential threat,” he said.
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