"There Is No Other Country Here That Is Worth Fighting For": Onward Israel's Christian Arab Soldiers

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"We don’t live in Syria, where Christians are not allowed to speak...or in Iraq, where churches are bombed. We live in a Jewish state, which is democratic and free. As Israeli Christians we see ourselves as part of this state and not as part of those who oppose it." 

That's the clear message from Israeli Arab Moran Khaloul, a Christian resident of Nazareth, explaining to the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv why he and a number of like-minded Nazareth Christians, who (to the wrath of many Muslim Arabs, including members of the Knesset who've been trying to get a young Greek Orthodox priest who's been encouraging the trend sacked by his superiors) are joining the IDF in increasing numbers,  keen to defend Israel.

"That’s why more and more of us are realizing that there is no other country here that is worth fighting for," observes another, also mindful of the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the region.

"Ultimately, from a religious point of view, we are one. Jesus was a Jew, his mother was a Jew, and his 12 disciples were Jews," reasons an Arab Christian teenager who intends to join the IDF following his imminent leaving of school.
 
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Hat tip: reader and blogger Ian G