the protector of the Churches" and "the Holy Land has been usurped by (Palestinian leader) Arafat," BosNewsLife monitored Friday, January 10.
"…As in the story of the Prodigal Son, the Jews too must go outside and embrace the Christians as their beloved children. I believe that this is the true path shown by the Star of Bethlehem," Father Iosif wrote in the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Father Iosif, who lives in the region, noted that "the Jews are still waiting for the Christians to come to them and atone for anti-Semitism" before making such a move. But he said "the Protestants have already done so, having engendered a mass movement of Christian Zionists."
He was "sure that Eastern Orthodox Christians will come to Israel, too, and acknowledge the Jews’ spiritual fatherhood." The article appeared amid controversy surrounding this week’s Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born.
ARAFAT
Father Iosif praised Israel’s decision to ban Arafat from entering Bethlehem saying that "a murderer of Jewish children does not belong in a temple built to honor the nativity of a Jewish child." However Father Iosif warned that Arafat, a devout Muslim, used the tensions between Jews and Christians to promote himself as the protector of the Christian faith.
"If this modern-day Herod sets his foot inside that place, I’m afraid that the spirit of holiness will flee Bethlehem, just like the Holy Family did 2,003 years ago," the priest said.
He added that Russian Christians responded "with a great deal of sympathy" to his testimony that Christians living under the Palestinian Authority "are the first victims of Arafat’s regime and are secretly hoping to be liberated by Israel."
FORMER USSR
"A considerable part of Christendom, Orthodox Christians of the former USSR, is completely ignored…" [by Israel]. "However, as a Russian-born Orthodox priest, I can witness that this group has a colossal potential of becoming friends of Israel," he said.
Priest Iosif said "Christian Arabs living in Israel are also hoping that Russia will reassume the role it once played in the Middle East prior to the Bolshevik Revolution", and become "a source of spiritual and material support for the Christian Arab community".
He accused the Jerusalem Patriarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church of being "a de-facto hostage of Arafat’s and cannot openly criticize his despotic, terrorist, anti-Christian regime."
