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Who Will Stand Up for the Christians?


(New York Times) Ronald S. Lauder - Why is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? The UN focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference. The Middle East and parts of central Africa are losing entire Christian communities that have lived in peace for centuries. Half a million Christian Arabs have been driven out of Syria. Christians have been persecuted and killed in countries from Lebanon to Sudan. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not a loose coalition of jihadist groups, but a real military force that has managed to take over much of Iraq. Where it truly excels is in its carnage, rivaling the death orgies of the Middle Ages. "They actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick," Chaldean-American businessman Mark Arabo told CNN, describing a scene in a Mosul park. "More children are getting beheaded, mothers are getting raped and killed, and fathers are being hung." Just as I will not be silent in the face of the growing threat of anti-Semitism in Europe and in the Middle East, I will not be indifferent to Christian suffering. Christians are dying because of their beliefs, because they are defenseless and because the world is indifferent to their suffering. Good people must join together and stop this revolting wave of violence. It's not as if we are powerless. I write this as a citizen of the strongest military power on earth. I write this as a Jewish leader who cares about my Christian brothers and sisters. The Jewish people understand all too well what can happen when the world is silent. This campaign of death must be stopped. The writer is the president of the World Jewish Congress.
2014-08-20 00:00:00
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