Comment on David Goldman, First Things: Disappearing Middle Eastern Christians, Disappointing Bishops

Disappearing Middle Eastern Christians, Disappointing Bishops | First Things

In 1967 Moshe Dayan intended to effect the annexation of Bethlehem into Israel. Due to a clerical, in the secular sense, error that did not happen. The golden moment passed and the Christian inhabitants of Bethlehem have been expelled. The occupation and desecration of the Basilica made unambiguously clear what the fate of the Church will be under Islamic rule.

Israel's effort to cast itself as the protector of religious minorities in the region foundered in Lebanon. This happened for several reasons, the weakness and disunion of the Christian community and the poor handling and alienation of Walid Jumblat and the Druse eventually snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. Another golden moment passed.

America was not ready and even under Reagan withdrew after encountering the murderous rage that destroyed the Marine barracks. It took the Americans almost another 20 years more to assimilate the doctrines that lead to our engagement in Iraq. Unfortunately the enemies of Western Civilization used that time also and their corruption of the elites in Europe and America advanced far enough to possibly again snatch a defeat for the West. Five years ago there was another golden moment that passed when America had the forces available to crush the Alawite Shia proxy National Socialist Ba'ath regime in Syria and transform the Middle East. Lebanon had its Cedar Revolution but the tide ebbed.

How many bites at the apple will those fighting for the legacy of Judeo-Christian Civilization get? On the tactical level there is some hope in Israel's warming ties with Greece, and possibly with the Eastern Orthodox and Slavic world. Three times in 44 years there have been opportunities to free the captive Christians of the Levant and forge an alliance between Christians and Jews that could have served as a model to the masses in the Middle East seeking some alternative to brutal, corrupt, and arbitrary polities they are subject to. Under the tutelage of al-Jazeera even the American campaign in Iraq is perceived as a failure by a weak and divided nation. In the absence of a convincing victory by the West the inhabitants will turn to the "strong horse' of al-Qaeda's Salafism or Iran's apocalyptic Shia Islam.

There may be one last chance as Iran pushes Israel to the existential wall to change the dynamic. This may be the time to swing for the fences because the alternative is retreat and defeat and the extermination of millions while the survivors face eventual subjugation by an ideology whose long night,

will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

- Sir W.L.S. Churchill, June 18, 1940