Synopses & Reviews
The plight of Christian minorities in the Middle East is one of the 20th century tragedies to which we pay least attention. - Stephen Crittenden
For too long the plight of Christian Arabs has been put on the back-burner or ignored altogether. - Rev. Malcolm Hedding
The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community. - Justus Reid Weiner
As far as the 'peace process' is concerned, Christians are notable by their absence - Walid Phares.
It took 2000 years of persecution, exile, forced conversion, pogroms, and, finally, the Holocaust,for the world to understand that the only effective and just final solution to millennia of Jewish persecution could be nothing less than the recognition and restoration of the Jews' right of self-determination in their ancient homeland through the rebirthing of the Kingdom of Israel as a modern democratic state.
In The Christian State, Schwimmer brings to the forefront what the international community, in its zeal to impose its so-called two-state solution, willfully ignores: the plight of Christian minorities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Gaza Strip. In doing so, leaves no doubt as to the perilous fate that would await Christians if the international community succeeds in its quest to create a single, Muslim-majority Palestinian state. Schwimmer then goes further, detailing, with numerous contemporary examples, the persecution and privations Christian minorities face not only in the Middle East, but worldwide. Schwimmer then proposes what should have been the obvious solution long ago: a Christian state - a Christian state that would have an Israeli-style right of return that grants any Christian setting foot on her soil instant citizenship. It is time that Christians had a Christian homeland, with secure, internationally-recognized borders and a Christian army capable of defending them.
But Schwimmer does not stop there. Having established the need for a Middle Eastern Christian state, he proceeds to show how everyone - Jews, Christians and, Muslims - would benefit from a Christian state.
Five million Middle Eastern (i.e., Israeli) Jews may not be loved by theirneighbors, but at least they are respected - and, when threatened, feared.They are secure. Twelve million Middle Eastern Christians, on the other hand, are powerless and anything but secure, depending, in all places and at all times, on the goodwill of others for their condition. Why? Because the Jews are united, in a sovereign state, with an army to defend it, while Christians, are scattered across the Middle East, with no state and no army. The result is there for the whole world, if it cares to look, to see: Bethlehem, where the Christian Savior was born, is, as it late mayor, Elias Freij, famously predicted, well on its way to becoming a town with churches but no Christians.
Give the Christians of the Middle East their own state, says Gene Schwimmer. The Christian State is the book in which he says it.
Synopsis
Christianity is the world's most popular religion, with 2.6 billion adherents worldwide. It is also the most persecuted. Despite its overwhelming worldwide majority, there are many countries where the majority is a minority and Christians suffer the worst harassment, discrimination, persecution, violence and even death. Ironically, one of the worst places in terms of Christian suffering is the very place where Christianity began, Judea and Samaria-commonly called the West Bank-as well as the nearby Gaza Strip. Only a few generations ago, when the Muslim majority refused to accept the presence of the Jews in the Jews ancient homeland, the world had a solution: partition of the disputed area and the restoration of a portion of the Kingdom of Israel to its original owners, to be reconstituted by them as what remains today, the only Jewish state. Today, it is the Christians of Judea, Samaria and Gaza who are persecuted and threatened with extinction. In this book, I argue that was right for the Jews in 194i7 is right for the Christians today: partition of the West Bank and Gaza between Muslim and Christian, and the creation of a Christians state.
Synopsis
Schwimmer addresses the ongoing persecution of Christians in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and offers a solution to the ongoing problem--the partitioning of the West Bank and Gaza between Muslim and Christian to create a Christian state.