[Politics Megathread] The Polis and the Laity for May 04, 2020

A Tale of A Christian from Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth was an example of someone who was willing to stand alone to do what was right, and Jesus also would not encourage anyone to choose the lesser of two evils. One must always stand with Christ and do what was right, no matter the cost. A Palestinian Christian man named Azmi Bishara who is originally from Nazareth is an example of someone who is willing to stand alone and do what is right.

His family was one of the lucky Palestinian families that got to stay and were not expelled in 1948 to dilapidated refugee camps. He did the unthinkable and was able to become an MK in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). Then, in 2000, after around 18 years of occupation, the Lebanese Resistance Movement (Hezbollah) was able to force the Israeli army to withdraw from Lebanon after 18 years of a brutal occupation in which numerous massacres of the natives were committed and in which there will prisons that contained torture chambers in which the natives were tortured.

As a proud Arab, Bishara spoke out and praised Hezbollah for driving the Israeli occupiers out of Lebanon. But then the Israeli Courts (which remember now, Israel is supposed to be the only democracy in the Middle East, and democracies should allow free speech) indicted him for praising Hezbollah. But, Bishara beat the charges (https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/28/world/israel-tries-legislator-for-praising-hezbollah.html).

The Israeli Army and the Israeli "justice" system were not going to accept being defeated by Hezbollah and Bishara, and they were waiting on their opportunity for revenge, just as the Pharisees were not going to allow Jesus to defeat them on earth. They got in the summer of 2006 when Hezbollah kidnapped a few Israeli soldiers to use it as leverage for a prisoner exchange. Israel responded by trying to destroy all of Lebanon, but once again the Lebanese Resistance Movement drive them out. After the war, they figured since Bishara praised Hezbollah in the past, they would have an easy time saying he was spying for Hezbollah during the war, so they charged him with that even though they had no evidence (https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4941686,00.html). Bishara fled to Qatar and has lived there ever since (https://www.yahoo.com/news/knesset-black-sheep-qatar-insider-azmi-bishara-024558073.html).

In 2011, the Syrian Civil War broke out, and many Arab Christians thought they had to ally themselves with Bashar al-Assad to survive. But, many of the made their deal with the devil, because Bashar al-Assad is literally the devil. Is it worth siding with the "Protector of Christians" if they man is slaughtering his own people, to include women and children? I don't think so, and neither did Bishara, and he has come out against the Syrian regime and Bishara wants democracy in Syria (https://www.azmibishara.com/en/books/syria-way-suffering-freedom).

So, Bishara is standing alone. The Israelis do not like him, many secular Arab nationalists are mad at him due to him abandoning Assad, and many of the Islamists do not like him because he is a leftist Christian. So, here Azmi Bishara of Nazareth stands alone and vulnerable standing for what is right, just as Jesus of Nazareth did.

/r/OrthodoxChristianity Thread