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Is the only appropriate Christian response to the violent events of the Middle East one of unconditional support for the Jewish cause and unilateral resistance to the plight of the homeless Palestinians? No. What he, like so many in the west forget is that there are Palestinian Christians, many of whom are Orthodox, and most of whom are as persecuted by the Israelis as they are by their Muslim Palestinian fellows. A prayer or two for them would be a more appropriate response.

It may be, as Owen suggests, that US support for Israel dates mainly from post 1967, but at the risk of introducing history into the discussion, the US was rather a late-comer on the scene. As early as 1840 Palmerston was bombarded with petitions from British Christians asking him to ensure that the British Government returned the Holy Land to the Jews so that the conditions necessary for the Second Coming would be realised. Similar thinking lay behind the Balfour declaration of 1917. The modern American Christian Zionists simply come at the end of a long line of such Protestant thinking.

To say that:
Finally, the British grew tired of trying to find a solution that would pacify both the Palestinians and the Zionists and turned the matter over to the newly formed United Nations is far too kind on the duplicity and cowardice of the Attlee Government.

The most appropriate Orthodox response is to pray - especially for the unfortunate Palestinian Christians.

John