We are not done yet with the current war in Lebanon and clear signs of the next war have become very apparent and from a city seldom in the news. Nazareth is an old city in Israel’s Galilee.

It has a population of roughly 60,000 Arabs, with less than 35% of them of the Christian faith. Nazareth is not located right below the Lebanese border, and it is not in the West Bank or any other disputed territory. Nazareth is located between Haifa and Tiberias.

Nazareth has managed to remain below the radar for the greater part of Israel’s modern conflicts, Intifadas and violent clashes. Nazareth in all truthfulness is not even mentioned in Bible (in the Old Testament that is). It is not mentioned in the Talmud nor in the Apocrypha, not even in early rabbinic literature. In the Bible, 12 towns and 6 villages are mentioned as part of Zevulon’s territory, 45 cities in the area are mentioned by Josephus (37 c.e. – 100 c.e.), and 63 towns of the Galilee are mentioned in the Talmud, yet Nazareth is not mentioned once.

Nazareth became known through the New Testament, (compiled 300 years after Jesus) were it suggests that his parents, Joseph and Mary were residents of this town. Nazareth, according to the New Testament is where Jesus grew up and prior to that it was the site of the Annunciation, which is when one of God’s angels told Mary that she would mother Jesus.

Nazareth became a Christian holy site, yet has now been dominated by Muslims who have turned a new page for this mystical city.

Nazareth has become the key to understanding what Israel’s next war will be like. And the bright clue came about this week when two children playing in the street were killed by a direct hit of a Katyusha rocket propelled by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Mahmoud, 7 and his 3-year-old brother Rabia were playing soccer when the rocket hit.

Sheik Abu El-Walid Ghazalain stood by the lifeless bodies of these two young children and said to the press: “Israel has killed these two.” The Hezbollah has been pounding Israel with rockets for two weeks causing deaths, injuries and enormous destruction, but this Sheik, the spiritual leader of Nazareth’s Arabs blamed Israel for the war they did not start. “Israel could have avoided this,” said Abed Taluzi, 45, the father of the two children. “It could have been solved through negotiations.” The children’s aunt who was standing nearby when they were struck said: “I would sacrifice my life for (Hezbollah leader) Hassan Nasrallah. I hope victory will come to the Arab nations,”

These are all Israeli citizens. These are the Arabs the left claims like Israel and deserve our respect.

Mathew Wagner from the Jerusalem Post quoted Sheikh Abdel Salam Manasra, another spiritual leader of Nazereth and Secretary General of the High Suffi Council in the Holy Land, as he equated Zionism with idolatry. “Just as it says in the Bible that there were Jews who worshipped Ba’al [a type of ancient idolatry] so too there are Jews today who are Zionists,” said Manasra. “You are not a Jew as you should be if you [support] Zionism,” he added. “Zionism is a bad thing.” Manasra rejected the idea that Israel was a Jewish state or a homeland for the Jews.

These are the “model” citizens of co-existence (sic).

This week another model Israeli citizen of Nazareth was in the news. Professor Razi Peleach, a geography teacher was arrested in the north of Israel while taking pictures of military installations, and spying for the Hezbollah. Professor Peleach, a man of peace no doubt (sic). “The Arabs of the West Bank want and deserve their own country,” says Peace Now. “But the Arabs that live inside Israel just want equality”. Is that so? Is that what they want? Nazareth, a relatively quiet Arab Israeli city is the key to understanding the Arab mentality…

Zeev Shemer Ramat HaGolan ISRAEL

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