It has been an interesting few days with the United States renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf while also doubling down on spying directed against Greenland in expectations that it will be acquired as a US territory sometime soon. Meanwhile, some of us who have been watching developments in what has been described as Donald Trump’s “peace initiative” trip to the Middle East, which might also have included a stop in Istanbul to sit in with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, are now examining the pluses and minuses as the travel has ended. In my mind, high grades should be awarded for two aspects of the trip. The first one is what he did do, and that was speak sensibly and decently in his address to the Saudi, Emirates and Qatari leadership when he specifically rejected a hegemonistic “neocon” inspired approach to US foreign policy, saying that independent countries in the Middle East and elsewhere are perfectly capable of acting to develop their economies and societies in such a fashion as to prosper and provide fundamental liberties for their citizens.

Trump put it this way in a speech that was widely publicized and well received by his audience: “But in the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more than they built, and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation builders’, Neocons or liberal non-profits, like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Baghdad and so many other cities. The birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves—the people that are right here, the people who have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your destinies in your own way.” Trump also cited how what he called the “great transformation” of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East “has not come from western interventionists…giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs.”

The second ray of sunshine was something that Trump did not do. He did not stop in Israel to kiss Benjamin Netanyahu’s ring even though he was in the neighborhood and it is widely being reported that he is not even any longer on direct speaking terms with the Israeli leader. Trump allegedly attributed the distancing of Netanyahu to what he referred to as “manipulation” but it is becoming clearer that the process he was describing was good old-fashioned espionage, with members of the Trump cabinet, possibly to include Tom Waltz the National Security Adviser, being tapped clandestinely to provide information on security developments and plans and/or options relating to the Middle East and possibly also to Ukraine. The Atlantic’s chief Editor Jeffrey Goldberg might have been involved in the process during a notorious top secret national security group phone call using the Signal system back in mid-March. Waltz was subsequently demoted and given the post of United Nations Ambassador, where he will be carefully scripted in terms of what he says and controlled in terms of whom he meets. Reports have also come in about other dismissals apart from Waltz for what is being described as “leaks” and “politicization.” Tulsi Gabbard, Director of the Office of National Intelligence, fired two top officials on Tuesday, a top analyst and the head of her National Intelligence Council, possibly connected to the allegations about spying or simply because they disagreed with some Trump policies, including his stance on China.

So those were the good parts. Somewhere in the middle are the transactional aspects of the trip. Saudi Arabia was closely tied to Washington due to a $142 billion arms package and other energy related deals. Qatar, in a move that has become notorious, gifted Trump with a Boeing 747 aircraft that will replace the current ageing presidential plane Air Force One that is designated for presidential travel. As the new Boeing is reported to be a flying “palace” in terms of its amenities and is estimated to be worth $400 million, it is a substantial gesture tying the two nations together. Nevertheless, there has been a tidal wave of criticism over where the plane goes after 2028, when there may be a new president if there is no Trump “third term.” Trump expects the aircraft to be a “gift” that he will graciously receive before turning it over to his presidential library, one of his corporate subsidiaries. The move smacks of corruption for many in the political world and in the media, even including a number of prominent Republicans. Trump does not seem to care.

As expectations were high when President Trump started his trip it is inevitable that there should be regrets over those possible initiatives that were not pursued. Prior to leaving Washington there was much talk that Trump would likely tell his Arab audience that the United States would be recognizing the Palestinian State as a first step in the actual creation of a physical entity with real independence from Israel and actual sovereignty. It certainly would have been a game winner for his audience and also for the majority of Americans, 70% of whom now do not support Israel. Internationally it would also translate very well to the worldwide audience that has been watching Palestinians being slaughtered on live television. That audience knows full well that Israel and Netanyahu only get away with what they are doing due to the complicity of the United States – both under Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The US is a partner in the genocide and provides the political cover that enables the slaughter to go on, not to mention the steady flow of Made in USA weapons that the Jewish state uses to carry out the actual killing.

The second “sin of omission” is related to the first in that it was expected that Trump would present the Israelis with an ultimatum to immediately end the blockade of Gaza and enter into a ceasefire without any pro-Israel loopholes that would lead to a peace agreement to end the bloodshed. Trump’s only comment on the issue came when he addressed food shortages in Gaza on Friday, saying that “a lot of people are starving” but the US is “going to get that taken care of”… His mediator Steve Witkoff went so far as to say that the US will not interfere in Israel’s slaughter of the Gazans.

Insofar as is known, resumption of aid or a ceasefire were not discussed with the Arabs, possibly due to Israeli intransigence over both issues, which means that Palestine was a blank spot on the president’s trip. While Trump was flying around and being feted, Netanyahu was calling up army reserves and insisting that his plan to wipe out Hamas and apply a final solution to Gaza would be adhered to.

I have in the past speculated that the day might come when President Donald Trump, he of a massive ego, might just become tired of his being manipulated and controlled by America’s Israel Lobby and by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. I thought, and hoped, that he might become so annoyed that he might move to take control of the so-called tail wags the dog relationship that has for so long put Israel in the driver’s seat. While I am loath to read too much into several recent developments, the first suggestion that all is not well in Washington’s relationship with what has been euphemistically referred to as “America’s best friend and closest ally.”

Many observers are now openly voicing their view that Israel and its all-powerful Lobby in the United States have corrupted and now control many aspects of government, starting at the top in Washington and working its way down to state and local levels. Witness the near worship of Netanyahu by groveling congress critters during recent visits to Capitol Hill if you want a tangible display of government serving no conceivable national interest. Or check out the “antisemitism” and anti-Boycott legislation currently moving through Congress that will strip all Americans of free speech and free association, leaving them able to demonstrate against or even criticize their own country or other nations with the single exception of the Jewish state. If you don’t believe that will happen, check out the current tale coming out of San Marcos in Texas at the hands of ardently Zionist Governor Greg Abbott.

Given that Jews constitute something like 3% of the US population the establishment of such control through bribery and the support of a compliant media is truly a remarkable achievement but one might plausibly argue that it has done terrible damage to the country as a whole and has contributed nothing to benefit the American people. Israel is currently carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians that is funded, armed and provided with political cover by the Trump Administration, following on to the model established by Genocide Joe Biden, which could be stopped with one phone call to Netanyahu from the White House. But, unfortunately, up until now no one has been picking up the phone.

I must admit to being shocked to have read some of the recent news coverage, mostly coming out of Israeli and other foreign media, of course, that is describing the rift between Trump and Netanyahu. The signs that trouble could be brewing might well be dated back to January 11^th, when US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff demanding a meeting in Tel Aviv with Netanyahu. Netanyahu responded that it was a Saturday, the Sabbath, but Witkoff, acting under orders from Trump, insisted and the meeting was held. It turned out to be a tense exchange which included a demand that a ceasefire for Gaza drawn by the White House be implemented, and so it was, though Netanyahu later proceeded to withdraw from it and recommence hostilities before it entered phase two on March 1^st. A demand by Trump that Netanyahu should visit him in Washington in early April followed and there were reported disagreements about the Administration’s tariff plan and about US negotiations with Hamas without Israel’s input. Discussions also concerned US discussions with Iran to restore a program (JCPOA), canceled by Trump during his first term in office, to monitor the Iranian nuclear program to prevent it from being weaponized. Netanyahu was demanding a “Libyan Solution” which would have been a war including US forces that would have basically destroyed Iran’s defensive capabilities, something that even a White House disinclined to deal with reality realized would never be accepted in Tehran. Netanyahu was reportedly also angry at the Trump Administration’s resistance to his own plans to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians while also going to war with the Iranians.

So, the US move to negotiate with Hamas directly, sidelining Israel, started the rebellion on the part of Washington and it was followed up by the negotiations with Iran, again without Israel’s input. And there was also the issue of US negotiations with Saudi Arabia, again without including Israel, over the Kingdom’s intention to develop its own civil nuclear program. And finally, there was last week’s decision to enter into a ceasefire with the Houthis after direct negotiations, described by the White House comically as a “capitulation” by the Yemenis. Some observers accepted the language but have been questioning who had done the surrendering in a war that cost in excess of $1 billion and which accomplished nothing. Israel, for its part, was not involved in either the talks or the agreement, leading an aggrieved Netanyahu to vow to “defend ourselves alone”.

But this week, Trump sent the clearest message of all to Netanyahu. He has been planning to meet with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in the Middle East next week but will not meet with Netanyahu. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also canceled a planned trip to Israel at the same time, according to two Israeli officials, reinforcing the message sent by the president. The immediate cause of the rift was that Trump had apparently hoped for a major de-escalation and even a ceasefire in Gaza as a highlight of his trip for which he would have taken credit, but Netanyahu instead called up army reserves and ordered a major escalation. The Times of Israel reported that “Trump is disappointed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” citing two “senior sources close to the president.” And even opinion columnist Thomas Friedman in normally careful-about-its-reporting on Israel The New York Times is openly suggesting in a piece “This Israeli Government is Not Our Ally” that the Netanyahu government is no longer behaving as an American friend because of its regime’s extremist agenda.

Several reports, relying on what are claimed to be multiple sources inside the Israeli government, have now claimed that Trump has de facto cut ties with Netanyahu and will have no direct contact with the Israeli Prime Minister. Israeli government Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and former Ambassador to the US was in Washington on Thursday and was welcomed and met with Trump. He was reportedly told flatly that the US “will move forward on regional plans without coordinating with Netanyahu, accusing him of manipulation.” One report on the development went on to emphasize that what Trump hates most is being looked down upon and being manipulated, “There is nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as a fool or someone being played. That’s why he decided to cut contact with Netanyahu,” one US official speaking off the record added.

I know that those who read my articles will be interested to learn that President Donald Trump has appointed Martin Marks to be his administration’s liaison to the American Jewish community with the title Special Assistant to the President and Director of Jewish Engagement in the White House Faith Office. Marks, whose mother handbag designer Lana Marks served as US ambassador to South Africa in Trump’s first term, appears to be well qualified for the position as “Before turning to politics, [he] was a writer and owned a yoga studio in Palm Beach.”

To be perfectly honest I was a bit confused by the appointment as the US government already has an Office of the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism and a Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues actively promoting the Jewish/Israeli line at the State Department and even worldwide. And one might observe Trump’s entire cabinet is unrelentingly Zionist in its inclinations while Congress is discussing the so-called Antisemitism Accountability Act which will turn any criticism of Israel into a crime even more so than it is regarded as such right now, ask any one of the college students who are being deported! How much “liaison” protecting the most wealthy and educated 3% of the population against the curse of perceived perpetual Jewish victimhood is still warranted? And how will such “liaison” differ from the orders delivered directly from Benjamin Netanyahu, the “Chosen” leader, of the Jewish state of Israel to provide Trump and the rest of the US government with their marching orders, just as was the case with Genocide Joe Biden and his merry band of largely Jewish/Zionist cabinet members?

Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University has described the current Donald Trump regime as an “Israel First Administration” packed with Zionists at all levels. The State Department Press Secretary Tammy Bruce has declared that “Anyone who tries to touch Israel will wind up in hell.” But there are some who are still brave enough to go against the tide. The Institute for Historical Review, which is one of the few online publishers and free speech associations that still survive in the good old USA, has been confronting the Israel Lobby for forty-seven years. In an email that appeared last week they discuss another new Jewish appointment and laid out the problem in plain English that even Donald Trump might understand:

“Power, Priorities, and Puppeteers: Who Really Governs America?”: The nomination of Yehuda Kaploun — a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, Trump loyalist, and confidant of Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson — as US Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism underscores an uncomfortable reality: Zionist interests wield disproportionate influence over American politics, even as the nation fractures under economic despair. Kaploun’s appointment, framed as a defense against antisemitism, instead reveals a political dynamic that prioritizes the interests of world Jewry over the needs of ordinary Americans. Consider the timing. Household debt has soared to $18.04 trillion, credit card delinquencies hit 14-year highs, and inflation continues to erode wages. Yet policymakers focus on policing campus activism, cracking down criticism of Israel, while ignoring the collapse of social mobility. Kaploun’s own rhetoric comparing US universities to “1930s Germany” diverts attention from the rising cost of living and the United States’ fraying social fabric. Meanwhile, pro-Israel groups like AIPAC have funneled $100+ million into elections, ensuring bipartisan fealty to policies that prioritize Israeli interests at the expense of America. This is not governance. It’s an occupation by foreign interests.”

The IHR point is well made and applies to Biden, Trump and Congress as well as to the 38 states that require citizens to sign documents or swear oaths pledging themselves not to support any boycotts of Israel if they wish to receive benefits or jobs. To even suggest that Israel and American Jews are some kind of victims who must be protected at a time when they are actively engaged in genocide and complete ethnic cleansing of literally millions of Palestinians.

My principal complaint with the government Jewish agenda is that it creates two classes of people before the rule of law, i.e. those who are Jews and must be protected and the rest of us who, on the contrary, will face the consequences if we so much as criticize Israeli or Jewish behavior. Ironically, we can criticize our own country or any other country in the world, but not Israel. If we are a legal resident or a student on an educational visa who crosses the line we can have that status erased and be deported without any due process. It also means that any encounters with law enforcement or government that has any taint of being critical of Jews can lead to two level justice, as many foreign students in the US are currently discovering.

A story last week out of Crown Heights Brooklyn illustrates precisely what I mean. Israel’s monstrous Security Chief Itamar Ben-Gvir, who believes in killing all Palestinians if it becomes necessary to remove them, was in town being cheered on by a large crowd of the indigenous Ultra Orthodox Jews. A local resident, a woman in her thirties, wondered what all of the noise was about and went out to take a look. She was immediately set upon by a large crowd of roughly one hundred, which screamed at her that she was a “Palestinian demonstrator,” which was not true. She “feared for her life as she was chased, kicked, spit at and pelted with objects by [the] mob of Orthodox Jewish men. She recalled how ‘They were shouting at me, threatening to rape me, chanting death to Arabs. I thought the police would protect me from the mob, but they did nothing to intervene.’ As the chants grew in intensity, a lone police officer who had joined her sought to escort her to safety back towards her apartment. They were followed for blocks by hundreds of men and boys jeering in Hebrew and English. Video shows two of the men kicking her in the back, another hurling a traffic cone into her head and a fourth pushing a trash can into her. She was beaten and kicked and even had a large garbage can thrown on top of her.” The woman later recalled how “I felt sheer terror. I realized at that point that I couldn’t lead this mob of men to my home. I had nowhere to go. I didn’t know what to do. I was just terrified.” After several blocks, the officer moved the woman into a police vehicle which prompting one assailant to yell, “Get her!” but the crowd erupted then in cheers as she was driven away. Interestingly, there were many police officers in the immediate area, presumably to protect all the rioting Jews from attacks by antisemites, but they had not intervened while the woman was being pursued apart from the one officer who came to her assistance.

One might well ask how a group composed of little more than 3% of the US population has managed to gain control of the nation’s foreign policy, its legislature and executive branches, its media, its entertainment industry, its financial institutions, and its elite universities while also making the United States subservient to the wishes of a monstrous small state located seven thousand miles away and composed of its coreligionists? Well, it helps to have a great deal of money liberally applied to corrupt the existing political and economic systems, but that is not necessarily a good place to start as one might reflexively be accused of wielding a trope much favored by antisemites when discussing Zionist Jews, the group of which we are speaking. Alternatively perhaps, one might take an oblique approach by observing how the highly privileged and protected Zionists in question get rich living in America while having true loyalty to apartheid Israel, something that normally might be considered untenable if not borderline treasonous.

Recent reports suggest that there are upwards of 23,000 Americans serving in the Israeli Army (IDF), most of whom are presumably dual nationals with Israeli citizenship. Under existing law, they should all lose their US citizenship but that will not happen as Congress and the White House have both been bought. Indeed, they are being given a golden handshake by the US Congress with a new bill currently in Congress which would extend some US military benefits to the notional American citizens who are currently carrying out the Gaza genocide as members of the IDF. One such clown Congressman Brian Mast, who served in the IDF, even parades around Congress in his Israeli military uniform and no one says squat.

Beyond the Americans in the IDF, there have been several odd appointments at high levels in the US civilian bureaucracy, including the latest naming of a former Israeli Defense Department and UN Israeli Embassy employee whose husband still works at the embassy to a top position on the National Security Council. Merav Ceren will be the Director for the development of the relationship between Israel, Iran and the US. It is a highly sensitive position and one can only speculate on how she got a clearance, though it is presumed that she is a dual national, which in and of itself should have been a warning sign. Her appointment gives Israel an unusual advantage in internal policy discussions just as the Israeli government has launched a new campaign to pressure the American government to start a war with Iran rather than continue with negotiations toward a nuclear deal. Ceren previously worked at Senator Ted Cruz’s office in Washington, which may have been her stepping stone to the job as Cruz’s loyalty to Israel and all that pertains to it should be unquestioned and he is the recipient of millions of dollars in pro-Israel political “donations.” She also worked for the neocon Iran-hating Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. How she was named to the position she now holds should be considered in itself a huge security breach, one of many already experienced in Trump’s first hundred days, where loyalty to Israel Trumps all other factors, as the expression might go.

The trajectory of Meyav Ceren reminds one of another Israeli woman dual national who truly stood out when it came to serving Israeli interests from inside the United States government. Sigal Pearl Mandelker might be worthy of the nickname “Queen of Sanctions” because she was the Department of the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (OTFI) under the first Trump administration. She handed out the punishment and cranked up the economic pain up for countries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Russia during her time in office from June 2017 until October 2019 when she finally resigned after being under pressure from people like me.

OFTI’s website proclaims that it is responsible for “safeguarding the financial system against illicit use and combating rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins, and other national security threats,” but it has from its founding been really all about safeguarding Israel’s perceived interests. Grant Smith notes how “the secretive office has a special blind spot for major terrorism generators, such as tax-exempt money laundering from the United States into illegal Israeli settlements and proliferation financing and weapons technology smuggling into Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons complex.”

To be sure most of the Jews with whom I am in touch are appalled by that activism of the Mandelkers and the Cerens and even more so by what is happening in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon at the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist enablers, but what we are talking about here is institutional and tribal Jewry which together have the distinction of being referred to as the Israel Lobby, which an increasing number of observers have to come to believe to be something like all powerful and the unofficial government of the United States in many relevant areas.

Ron Unz’s recent article recent article Trump vs. Harvard in a Political Wrestling Match examines the issue of Jewish supremacism and, among other factors, identifies the various mechanisms used by Jews to enhance their enrollment at top universities. He mentions in passing how Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner got into Harvard without having the level of academic achievement that normally would have been a prerequisite. It was possibly accomplished through an institutionalized “Harvard Price,” an under the table donation of several million dollars from the wealthy Kushner family. I personally recall attending an elite university in the 1960s and hearing Jewish classmates boast of how “they” comprised 40% of the first-year students. A friend of mine at Yale told me of similar boasting among the “Sons of Eli.” Forty per cent participation for 3 per cent of the population is certainly an astonishing rate of success.

Unz uses available educational data bases to demonstrate that the disparity was not due to greater intelligence or academic performance among the Jewish applicants. He concludes that “Based on these figures, Jewish students were roughly 1,000% more likely to be enrolled at Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League than white Gentiles of similar ability. This was an absolutely astonishing result given that under-representation in the range of 20% or 30% is often treated by courts as powerful prima facie evidence of racial discrimination.”

My rewrite of the famous quote by Lord Palmerston regarding “interests” to have it reflect the reality of Israel and its powerful friends would go something like this: “I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that Israel is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual friend of the United States and of enlightened western values. By design, Israel has no eternal allies. Its interests are indeed perpetual but center on its own success at aggressively portraying itself always as the victim while also advancing its own tribal interests.” I admittedly tend to think often about the enemy we of the western Christian tradition have been nurturing at our breast for decades in a spirit of tolerance, a viper that is only setting out to corrupt and then destroy us, manifest particularly at this time of year, when the life and death of Jesus Christ ought to be rightly celebrated. Alas, in today’s Israel what is truly remarkable is the government’s open suppression of Christian identity and worship without any complaint coming from Washington or from the other nominally Christian nations of Europe.

Indeed, Christianity in the Middle East is generally dying due the pressure exerted by Israel to make Palestinian life and religious practice as difficult as possible as well as broader regional issues including Israeli and US punishment and replacement of regimes in places like Syria and Lebanon which up until recently harbored substantial Christian minorities. Christians, generally speaking, find it easier to emigrate to friendlier countries worldwide than local Muslims as they often have established family overseas to help in the process.

The marginalization of Christians in Israel, recently driven by apartheid legislation and parliamentary declaration of Israel to be a Jewish state, has been around for a long time but it is particularly bad this year for both Christmas and Easter with refusal by the Israeli authorities to permit gatherings for church services and other celebrations. Only 6,000 security “passes” were issued by the Israelis to West Bank Palestinian Christians to celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter in Jerusalem this year unlike in the past when there would be 50,000 attendees. As a result, many celebrations and the usual parades have been canceled.

Father Ibrahim Faltas OFM, the Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, described how “Despite several high-level meetings, we haven’t been able to obtain more permits,” recalling that West Bank Christians face many restrictions on their freedom of movement during the year and wait for the Easter season to travel to Jerusalem to pray at the Holy Sites. Also, ancient churches in Gaza have been bombed and destroyed over the past year, probably deliberately, creating a sense of depression among the worshippers who are also very aware of their fellow Palestinians, many of whom are Christian, being slaughtered by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). On April 13, Palm Sunday, an early morning air strike destroyed the outpatient and laboratory wards in the Anglican church run Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. The debris from the airstrike reached the neighboring St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church which was preparing for the Palm Sunday celebration along with the homeless remnants of the local community residing in the church compound. The incident heightened the despair of the entire Christian community. The head of a Catholic aid agency described how “Christians are suffocating and are trapped in their own governorates (provinces) and towns unable to travel freely without harassment because they need special permits…” That is in spite of the fact that there has never been any violence or political unrest associated with the movement of the pilgrims, so it is widely regarded as little more than pure harassment by the Israeli authorities.

To be sure, Christian community and religious leaders have been aware of what exactly is going on and have protested to what would appear to be the appropriate Israeli government authorities, but generally to no avail. Their cause would be helped if majority Christian nations like the US and in Europe would speak up and put pressure on Israel for fair treatment for Christians, but they are generally silent due to their having been corrupted and intimidated by the various manifestations of the Israel Lobby active in their countries. Likewise, the media in those countries is very careful about what it prints or says about Israel or Jews as such criticism is a crime in many jurisdictions, something which is becoming increasingly the case in the United States and tied to evidence free deportations of those who object to what is occurring in Gaza.

The annual report by the Rossing Center, a Jerusalem-based organization dedicated to interfaith coexistence, documented 111 cases of harassment and violence against the Christian community in Israel and East Jerusalem in 2024. The report revealed a climate of hostility that, according to one of the study’s authors, Federica Sasso, only represents “the tip of the iceberg of a much larger phenomenon.” Of the 111 reported cases of assault, 47 were physical assaults primarily through “spitting,” a behavior that has evolved from subtle acts to openly aggressive displays. In several areas, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem, priests, nuns, friars, and monks “being easily identified are exposed to these attacks on a daily basis” with only rare intervention by the Israeli authorities.

Several years ago, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Israel, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that Christians have faced difficult challenges most particularly since the formation of Netanyahu’s latest far right-wing government in December 2022. According to Pizzaballa, his government has emboldened ultra-nationalist religious activists, many of whom are armed settlers, and some of whom have harassed male and female members of the clergy and vandalized religious property. Pizzaballa observed how “The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new. These people feel they are protected …the cultural and political atmosphere can now justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”

A colleague, Francesco Patton, the Custodian of the Holy Land, elaborated how “We are horrified and hurt in the wake of the many incidents of violence and hatred that have taken place recently against the Catholic community in Israel.” He described the desecration of a Lutheran cemetery, the vandalizing of a Maronite prayer room, urination on holy sites, destruction of sacred images and the spraying of “death to Christians” on church property, all taking place shortly after the new Netanyahu government was installed. He also noted “the responsibility of the leaders, of those who have power,” adding that the Israeli police routinely failed to investigate such incidents after the churches reported them.