destroyed a statue of Jesus<\/a> in the village of Debel in southern Lebanon. The same week, a video showed an IDF vehicle destroying a large solar energy panel near the same Lebanese Christian village.\u00a0<\/p>\nThere were also 180 reported anti-Christian incidents \u2014 from spitting at Christian clergy to defacing church property \u2014 in Israel in 2025, according to the Religious Freedom Data Center, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that tracks these incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In contrast to other Middle Eastern countries, Israeli law grants full rights to its small Christian community. But Christian emigration from both Israel and Palestine has increased in recent years, fueled by wars, financial instability, and anti-Christian acts by both Jews and Muslims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Appointment of special envoy <\/p>\n
Reflecting the growing crisis between Israel and Christians around the world, on April 23 the government appointed diplomat George Deek, an Orthodox Christian, to serve as special envoy to the Christian world. Deek previously served as Israel\u2019s ambassador to Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
In a statement announcing Deek\u2019s appointment, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said Israel \u201cattaches great importance to its relations with the Christian world and with its Christian friends around the world. I am confident that George, a respected and experienced diplomat, will greatly contribute to the friendship and strengthening of the ties between the state of Israel and the Christian world.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Sunday\u2019s meeting with soldiers, Netanyahu said that \u201cIsrael fights for the rights of Christians around the Middle East\u201d and noted that \u201cIsrael has Christian soldiers who fight for the defense of Israel and for our Christian brethren throughout the area, throughout the region, and beyond.”<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said he was \u201cimpressed\u201d by the soldiers\u2019 personal stories, \u201ctheir commitment, their sacrifice, their achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juergen Buehler, head of the evangelical International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, said it was gratifying to be invited to the meeting, where 17 evangelical Christian soldiers and about 20 Arab Christian soldiers spoke at length with the prime minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an extraordinary meeting, which lasted for at least one-and-a-half hours. At first, the prime minister went around and greeted each soldier personally. It was a very open discussion,\u201d Buehler said.<\/p>\n
Given the opportunity to share some of the challenges of being a Christian IDF soldier, \u201can Arab Christian soldier told Netanyahu that he doesn\u2019t face any challenges in the IDF for being Christian, but when we go home, it\u2019s a different reality,\u201d Buehler related.<\/p>\n
Buehler said the gathering was particularly important after the back-to-back incidents in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne purpose of the meeting was to signal from the government that Christian soldiers are appreciated. Christians here are a minority within a minority within a minority, so it provided a unique window for the government to see why we serve. We are Zionists, but there are issues when you are a minority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buehler said the soldiers told Netanyahu that the government must work harder to raise the profile of Israel\u2019s small Christian population.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael needs to make sure that the next generation of Israelis are taught that Christians are part of the state of Israel and that there are many Christians around the world who stand with Israel,\u201d Buehler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shadi Khalloul, a Maronite Christian from northern Israel, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael needs to normalize that Christians have a place here in this country, and it must stop Jewish and Muslim extremists. These extremists like the ones we saw in southern Lebanon do not represent the Israelis, the IDF, or the Jewish spirit,\u201d said Khalloul, an IDF veteran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM \u2014 Catholic soldiers were among the three dozen young Israeli servicemen and servicewomen invited to speak with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16469],"tags":[244,5765,243,10674],"class_list":{"0":"post-49352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-benjamin-netanyahu","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-catholic-news","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israel-defense-forces"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116488462897396044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}