Western Standard - March 06, 2026


The Last Christians of the Holy Land

Topics
last Christians of the Holy Land
Mentioned
Jack Benjamin Netanyahu Rony Bezalel Yul Smatrek Jaffa Christian Zionists Edomar Ben-Gavir Itamar Ben-Gavir Mahatma Gandhi Mike Huckabee John's Gospel Galilee Kibbutz
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Episode Stats


Length

23 minutes

Words per minute

116.55

Word count

2,724

Sentence count

158

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

16

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Holy Land is not merely a region, but a spiritual compass point, the meeting place of God, history, and identity for billions of people across the world. For the Jewish people, it s the ancestral homeland promised and fought for since antiquity. For Muslims, Jerusalem holds a profound significance as well. The Al-Aqsa Mosque stands as Islam s third holiest site, tied to the Prophet Muhammad s night journey in early Islamic history. For Christians, the same land is the setting of the life and ministry of Jesus.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 One day this small light will explode and will light all the area in the Middle East and the world. 0.92
00:00:30.000 The Holy Land
00:01:00.000 For billions of people across the world, it's not merely a region, but a spiritual compass point.
00:01:06.840 The meeting place of God, history, and identity.
00:01:11.060 For the Jewish people, it's the ancestral homeland promised and fought for since antiquity.
00:01:16.840 Jerusalem was the heart of the ancient kingdoms, the seat of the first and second temples,
00:01:21.800 and the symbol of an enduring covenant.
00:01:24.160 It remains a cornerstone of Jewish identity and longing.
00:01:28.460 For Christians, the same land is the setting of the life and ministry of Jesus,
00:01:33.480 from Bethlehem to the Galilee to Jerusalem.
00:01:37.520 It is where the central events of the Christian faith unfolded,
00:01:41.580 giving the land a sacred geography that has shaped a global faith.
00:01:46.580 For Muslims, Jerusalem holds a profound significance as well.
00:01:50.980 The Al-Aqsa Mosque stands as Islam's third holiest site,
00:01:55.120 tied to the Prophet Muhammad's night journey in early Islamic history.
00:01:59.740 These layered claims, religious, historical, and emotional,
00:02:03.880 have made the Holy Land one of the most revered and contested places on earth.
00:02:25.120 On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a large-scale attack into southern Israel,
00:02:37.000 killing over 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages,
00:02:41.560 triggering a full-scale war with Israel.
00:02:45.760 In response, Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip caused extensive destruction,
00:02:51.040 high civilian casualties, and widespread displacement.
00:02:55.120 A ceasefire in October of 2025 eased fighting and allowed some aid in, but violence and humanitarian suffering continue.
00:03:11.040 In December 2025, I was invited by the Israeli government to witness firsthand what the situation was on the ground.
00:03:17.700 As with any government, I was cautious about accepting an invitation
00:03:24.040 concerned that what I see would be one-sided propaganda.
00:03:35.580 So I'm in Tel Aviv now, in usual Air Canada form.
00:03:40.600 They lost my bags.
00:03:41.800 so i'm stuck uh in a desert country in my quasi snowsuit for the next few days and not expecting
00:03:51.720 to have uh my summer and desert gear for at least a few days so and we're out all my equipment's
00:04:01.640 in that bag so it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a rough start but we'll see how she goes 1.00
00:04:11.800 They did their best to show us a variety of perspectives, but generally from the Israeli side of things.
00:04:25.060 What I saw from the Israeli perspective should shock anyone who's been watching the news.
00:04:30.520 What they endured was terrible, but it was still just one side.
00:04:35.340 just down the road i visit the site of the nova music festival massacre
00:04:41.900 the scale of death there was unimaginable young kids just there to have a good time
00:04:47.560 were butchered i spoke with one of the survivors a young man probably in his late 20s or early 30s
00:04:54.140 barely made it out alive just days later he was mobilized by the idf to go into gaza
00:05:00.740 I thought about how I would feel in similar circumstances
00:05:04.780 Seeing my friends butchered before my eyes
00:05:07.980 And then being handed a weapon to go in and do justice to those who had done it
00:05:12.540 I can't help but suspect that I would not conduct myself according to the rules of civilized warfare
00:05:18.860 Wouldn't I want to seek revenge?
00:05:22.240 Wouldn't I want to hurt them just the way they hurt me?
00:05:25.280 many in the west understand this conflict through very two-dimensional lenses westernized jewish
00:05:34.820 israelis versus radical islamic palestinians western conservatives have generally seen in
00:05:41.080 israel an outpost of our civilization fighting back the barbarian hordes of radical islam 1.00
00:05:45.880 as constantinople held out against the ottoman turks free evangelical judeo-christians in
00:05:53.100 particular, they see in modern Israel a continuation of biblical Israel, with all the lands therein
00:06:00.300 promised eternally to the Jewish people. It's essentially how I understood the conflict from
00:06:05.300 my own upbringing in evangelical churches as a teenager until relatively recently.
00:06:16.220 Western leftists tend to view the struggle through the lens of modern post-colonial and
00:06:20.860 intersectional identity politics. Dark-skinned, poor, Arab Muslims oppressed by lighter-skinned, 0.58
00:06:28.640 wealthy Jews who are Christian adjacent. In their worldview, one side has more identity points than 0.54
00:06:34.860 the other, and is therefore more deserving of their support. With time, and now some limited
00:06:41.580 on-the-ground experience, I've come to see the Western cheerleaders on both sides as dangerously 1.00
00:06:46.760 incorrect. They're both wrong.
00:06:59.000 Completely overlooked by both are the last Christians of the Holy Land. While
00:07:04.380 broadly considered to be Arabs today, many of them are the descendants of
00:07:08.260 intermarriage with Arabs and those predating the Islamic invasion of the
00:07:12.000 fifth century. They have lived there since Jesus began his ministry two
00:07:16.080 millennia ago. They have as much right as anyone to be there. It's hard to dismiss these people
00:07:21.440 as radical Islamists. The Christian population of the West Bank has declined only slightly since
00:07:27.300 the UN partition and the Israeli War of Independence in 1947 and 48, from an estimated 70,000 to the
00:07:35.280 current estimate of 47,000. Still, their proportion of the population has declined from approximately
00:07:42.120 11% to just 1% today. It is driven in considerable measure by the huge influx of Palestinian refugees
00:07:49.900 from what is now Israel proper into the West Bank at the significantly lower fertility rate
00:07:55.720 of Christians vis-a-vis Muslims. Many Christians have emigrated to Western countries through
00:08:04.160 their connections abroad and the advantage of their own superior ministry-run educational
00:08:09.000 institutions. And they're being driven to leave.
00:08:14.320 Rony owns a shop near the Church of the Nativity
00:08:17.140 in Bethlehem, producing and selling hand-carved
00:08:20.140 nativity scenes and other Christian imagery to pilgrims.
00:08:24.200 The Franciscan church can trace his family here back a thousand years.
00:08:29.260 So you've lived here your whole life?
00:08:31.900 Yes, my family is one of the old family who lives in Bethlehem
00:08:35.800 like over a hundred years ago you know how far can you trace your family back according to the
00:08:40.520 franciscan you have for the last 600 years very accurate the date of birth death and marriages
00:08:45.800 so you could trace you could trace your family back 600 years here yes for my father and my
00:08:50.120 mother's side that's not like ancestry.com hey that's just the franciscan records just the
00:08:54.200 franciscan but you can find some tombs with this with the carving for another 200 years wow
00:09:01.080 Rony says it's not Muslims driving Christians out, as many of us believe.
00:09:08.080 A lot of people tell you, like they tell you, sell your house, it can make you money today.
00:09:14.080 Tomorrow the Israelis will take it to you, they will not pay. 1.00
00:09:18.080 Or it will be destroyed at what happened in Gaza.
00:09:21.080 This is propaganda.
00:09:22.080 What do you mean take it?
00:09:23.080 Look, I mean, the Israelis confiscated many lands and many property still now.
00:09:28.080 Now my family, we lost 70% of our lands for the Israeli building settlements. 1.00
00:09:34.340 We lost all the lands from between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, behind the town of Rachel.
00:09:38.720 It's all our family lands and we have British, we have the Turkish document and we just lost
00:09:43.940 it.
00:09:44.940 They built the wall, we don't have access to our land and they took it.
00:09:48.020 The people of Bethlehem are often subject to random gate closing, which seals them off
00:09:53.160 from the town or lock them inside.
00:09:57.260 Rony says it makes Bethlehem into a large open-air prison.
00:10:01.040 Seeing the walls and the guard towers for myself,
00:10:04.140 it's hard not to see his point.
00:10:06.320 It makes economic life extremely difficult,
00:10:09.120 and it's just easier to leave.
00:10:10.860 Most of the settlements are supported by Anglican 0.93
00:10:15.440 and these crazy new Christians religion in America. 1.00
00:10:18.980 This money is sent to kill us and kick us 1.00
00:10:21.620 from our land, from our property.
00:10:23.540 We are the family who are living here hundreds of years.
00:10:26.240 We cannot move. We cannot live.
00:10:28.760 And who is supporting Israel is the Christian community. 0.76
00:10:31.960 And this is more dangerous. 0.69
00:10:33.200 So the knife that Israel used to kill us 1.00
00:10:36.400 is made by the American Christians and European communities.
00:10:41.360 It's not the enemy I expected to be named.
00:10:47.880 Taipei doesn't sit on quite the same holy ground as Bethlehem,
00:10:51.560 but it is the last Christian village in the West Bank,
00:10:54.620 and it's under siege.
00:10:57.200 Taipei is surrounded by five Israeli settlements deemed illegal under international law,
00:11:02.720 one of which is directly on their land.
00:11:07.440 It is a curious scene as I enter the village.
00:11:11.520 There are Christmas trees and Christmas lights on shops and homes as if I were back in Alberta.
00:11:17.600 I can hear jingle bells playing from a speaker in Arabic as I walk up the steps to the Greek
00:11:23.280 Meclakite Catholic Church of St. George.
00:11:27.520 Father Jack is about the closest thing I've come
00:11:30.100 to meeting the real St. Nick.
00:11:32.160 He's preparing for evening mass,
00:11:34.340 wearing a long, dark blue getup,
00:11:36.580 a crucifix around his neck,
00:11:38.360 and sporting a long white beard
00:11:39.660 that would make him unmistakable
00:11:41.100 if he were dressed in red and white.
00:11:43.120 He's a bit jolly, but not too jolly.
00:11:45.960 I am originally Palestinian from Jaffa.
00:11:50.420 Where is the oranges?
00:11:51.200 You're originally from Jaffa?
00:11:52.520 Yes.
00:11:53.280 best oranges yes but i am here to serve our community the smallest in the village 200 per
00:12:03.440 people about 54 families unfortunately recently we lost two families that leave to
00:12:14.000 to the immigration, to the states, and to Guatemala.
00:12:19.000 We are sad because we are encouraging people to stay here
00:12:24.000 because as a Christian in this Holy Land,
00:12:27.000 we have a message from Jesus.
00:12:29.000 To be witnesses, as he says in the St. John Gospel,
00:12:35.000 you will be my witnesses from Jerusalem to all over the world.
00:12:44.000 During the summer's attacks, people in surrounding Muslim communities were killed.
00:12:52.460 Teba saw no casualties, but several were injured.
00:12:55.980 The Israeli government has done nothing about these attacks.
00:12:59.220 Father Jack has requested to give testimony against extremist settler attacks 15 times,
00:13:04.880 but has not been interviewed by police once.
00:13:07.900 So when we make a statement for the attacks of the settlers, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin, the Orthodox and the Armenian adopt this statement and came to Taipei with a delegation of quietly 25 representatives of diplomatic representation in the area.
00:13:37.900 And everybody of these diplomats spoke about our problem in Taipei, our problem in the area
00:13:49.900 because not Taipei alone in this situation, because all the villages in east, northeast
00:13:58.900 of Ramallah were attacked by settlers, by kids of the hills, as they called them.
00:14:06.900 Kids of the hills?
00:14:08.460 Yeah, yeah.
00:14:10.640 They killed people there.
00:14:13.180 In Taipei, thank God, we don't have anyone killed by settlers.
00:14:18.880 But many of our people were each broken arms, open head, yeah.
00:14:29.900 Faith binds this small community,
00:14:32.780 with priests of the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, and Mechilkite churches
00:14:36.400 playing leading roles spiritually, pastorally, politically, and in education and medicine.
00:14:42.740 When they issued a plea for help, their senior patriarchs in Jerusalem took up the call.
00:14:48.320 They attracted some limited international condemnation from the Vatican and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee,
00:14:54.380 although he walked it back under pressure soon after.
00:14:59.460 Father Jack is no river-to-the-sea jihadist.
00:15:01.920 He takes no issue with Israel's borders as defined by the 1948 Green Line.
00:15:07.300 But he seems to have a deep understanding of what is driving radical Israeli settlers
00:15:12.020 beyond Israel's borders onto their land in the West Bank.
00:15:17.700 Who gave them the right to proclaim and to call God?
00:15:25.120 We are the elected people of God. 0.67
00:15:29.280 That means God is a racist.
00:15:31.920 He prefers people than others.
00:15:35.920 This is God?
00:15:39.920 No.
00:15:41.920 From here we can explain many things, theological.
00:15:47.920 I say another time, I am not against Jews,
00:15:51.920 I am not against Israelis, but I am against the policy 0.99
00:15:55.920 that Israel is acting against us.
00:15:59.920 Hardline Zionism manifests itself in several ways, one of which is the settler movement.
00:16:05.920 Every single place, every single land, every little spot, everything is the truth.
00:16:11.920 Not only single things for other people, only for us.
00:16:14.920 And we won't give anybody else just for us. That's what we believe.
00:16:29.920 That movement's two most prominent leaders
00:16:40.080 are National Security Minister
00:16:42.080 Irmar Ben-Gavur
00:16:43.580 and Finance Minister
00:16:45.180 Bezalel Yul Smatrek
00:16:48.120 They are members of
00:16:50.180 small but extremist parties
00:16:51.680 in Israel's parliament, the Knesset
00:16:53.660 and are vital coalition members
00:16:55.980 in keeping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
00:16:58.260 in power
00:16:58.800 Both men live on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, have unabashedly defended many cases of settler violence, including the murder of civilians, and support ethnically cleansing Arabs.
00:17:12.560 Most Westerners have no idea how truly extreme these men and their parties are.
00:17:18.260 Their parties are relatively small in Israel's Knesset, but many consider them the tail, the wags, the dog, and Netanyahu's fragile coalition government.
00:17:28.800 Even many Israelis I met, proud Zionists all, spoke the names of these two men with undisguised disgust.
00:17:36.980 These Israelis know that the extreme settler movement represented by these coalition partners makes peace impossible, if the Palestinians wanted it, and has done immense damage to Israel's image abroad.
00:17:49.980 But they remain key players in the government and exert considerable influence.
00:17:58.800 Father Jack says the Western belief that Hamas intends to eradicate all Christians
00:18:03.300 is Israeli-Zionist propaganda and not the truth on the ground.
00:18:07.680 Hamas is not against Christians.
00:18:11.580 Hamas is fighting for the liberation of Palestine.
00:18:15.800 But he is fighting in his way.
00:18:18.900 We are fighting in our way.
00:18:20.980 Non-violence.
00:18:23.060 Okay?
00:18:23.240 I find it difficult to believe, but I'm not living there.
00:18:39.440 Perhaps he's correct, or perhaps he's speaking softly for fear of reprisal from Hamas.
00:18:44.920 I'm not in a position to judge what's in his heart, but he struck me as a genuinely authentic man.
00:18:51.300 He holds up Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent resistance to British rule in India as his template.
00:19:00.060 But for peace to happen, he says, the illegal settlements in the West Bank must go.
00:19:05.620 We hope that one day they will do something.
00:19:12.960 At the end of the tunnel, there is more light.
00:19:16.180 One day this small light will explode and will light all the area in the Middle East and the world. 0.92
00:19:27.400 Saving the Palestinian issue problem, all the world will have peace and serenity. 1.00
00:19:36.100 However much many Israelis stand against settler attacks,
00:19:40.100 there seems to be little appetite for dismantling the settlements themselves.
00:19:43.640 Like many moderate Israelis, Father Jack points to the cabinet ministers,
00:19:50.520 Edomar Ben-Gavir and Bezalel Yul Smatrek,
00:19:54.960 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as implacable obstacles to peace.
00:19:59.120 it's a sad christmas in taba with its economy depressed by the war and the long string of
00:20:17.980 settler attacks that escalated in june 2025 like the vanishing christians of bethlehem 0.99
00:20:24.240 they desperately want the support of the west and the broader christian world
00:20:28.640 If Father Jack speaks for the Palestinian Christians, they feel utterly abandoned.
00:20:35.680 Support for Israel among much of the political left and the West collapsed some time ago,
00:20:41.220 and has cratered further as left progressive political parties have built Muslim diasporas into their voter coalitions.
00:20:48.800 Until recently, the Western right has been almost unanimous in its unqualified support for Israel's side in this protracted conflict.
00:20:56.540 This is reinforced by evangelical Christian Zionists who make up a critical part of the U.S. Republican Voter Coalition
00:21:04.240 and play a still important part in Canadian and other Western conservative parties.
00:21:10.220 There are signs that this rock-solid support is beginning to crack,
00:21:14.460 manifesting itself in heated schisms among American Republicans.
00:21:18.320 We hope that one day the Almighty God will send us His peace
00:21:24.420 and we will live together as in the Holy Bible said
00:21:30.220 that the lamb with the lion will be together.
00:21:34.820 I'm far less optimistic than Father Jack
00:21:37.400 that any mutually satisfactory compromise can be reached
00:21:40.420 that would bring peace to the Holy Land.
00:21:43.780 Witnessing the Kibbutz and Nova Festival sites
00:21:46.740 that saw massacres by Hamas,
00:21:49.240 I could understand the need for revenge and security
00:21:52.020 in the hearts of many Jewish Israelis.
00:21:54.420 But their brutal military actions will only radicalize reasonable and moderate Muslims. 0.97
00:21:59.860 It's a catch-22.
00:22:02.460 And forgotten in all of this are the Christians.
00:22:06.020 There isn't a terrorist among them.
00:22:08.420 They're an ancient people and have a claim to their own land.
00:22:13.700 The Christians of Bethlehem and Teba are being dispossessed of their tiny patch of it.
00:22:19.520 God may not forget the last Christians of the Holy Land, 1.00
00:22:22.280 that they have been forsaken by their fellow Christians here in the West.
00:22:33.140 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 0.91
00:22:52.280 Thank you.