Big Story on the Little Town
by Keren Packman Alpert, Director of Education

I usually use this space for educational and spiritual matters. But the winter holidays left me with time to watch television, and this was not necessarily a good thing. Now I have to vent my frustration and you are my captive audience.

Now, I am no expert on Israel. I have never been more than an educated tourist, a grateful pilgrim. Yet, the news from the town of Bethlehem (Beit-Lechem) over the winter holidays showcased how far removed from the truth the world media’s reporters are.

Here is what I know from my office at 14 Mile and Telegraph:

- Bethlehem was the scene of a major Palestinian terror struggle during the latest intifada.
- Palestinian terrorists holed up inside the Church of the Manger (traditionally held to be built on the site of Jesus’ birth) for weeks on end, desecrating the site and using it as a place from which to shoot at Israeli soldiers.
- Christians, who used to comprise 70% of the Bethlehem population, have left Bethlehem en masse and it is now only 30% Christian.
- The Israelis have been constructing a security fence at various points in Israel in order to lessen Palestinian terrorist incursions into Israel. I have seen the fence at several points throughout Israel, including this last trip when I crossed the “green line” to visit my cousin in Kiryat Sefer. The fence is sometimes just a gully, other times a concrete barrier. It is no more offensive than the concrete barrier on I-696 by Coolidge Road or even the fence that separates Grosse Pointe from Detroit at Alter Road.
- You must pass through the security fence to get to Bethlehem.
- Bethlehem’s Christmas festivities have become less popular for Christian pilgrims.

So, here is what I don’t know. There are lots of barriers to visiting Bethlehem at Christmas time, some of which I have delineated above. Why then are Jews painted as solely responsible for the decreasing number of Christians who go to Christmas festivities at Bethlehem? And why is this culpability on the part of the Jews the party line for every reporter on December 25th, from CNN to NBC to ABC? Is the public conflating Jews’ rejection of Jesus as the messiah with limiting access in the vicinity of Bethlehem? And can we trust mainstream media’s reporting on anything when they got this story so wrong?

If understanding leads to peace, what road are we on now?

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