In a June 5 article for Al-Monitor, “Israeli army tries to lure Arab Christian recruits,” my colleague Botrus Mansour analyzed why the Ministry of Defense decided to send recruitment notices to Christians and the implications of this action. The notices are invitations to volunteer for service, and do not obligate anyone to serve.
Mansour examines the dilemma facing Christian Arabs in Israel. He notes that the mainstream of the Arab population in Israel opposes the enlistment of Christians because they see it as a public relations ploy, rather than a genuine attempt to integrate Christians into Israeli society as equal citizens. This group also considers it a move to split the Palestinian minority in Israel by dividing Arab Christians from fellow Arab Muslims. Mansour concludes his article by saying that the recruitment effort will not succeed without the full integration of young Christians into Israeli society. While it is hard to contest this point, there are a few other points about the issue that he ignores.
The trend of Christians enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the demand by some of them to change their nationality, and thus self-determination, on their Israeli IDs from Arab to Aramean is not the result of institutional manipulation. Christians enlisting is a grassroots phenomenon, from the bottom up. The reality of the Middle East has created this situation, as the winds of change sweeping across the region have brought an end to Arab nationalism and the entrenchment of religious identity in its stead. As a result, Christians find themselves under increasing threat in the Arab world, especially when compared with their relative safety in Israel.
The Middle East may be the cradle of Christianity, but Christians are now being persecuted in their place of origin. In Iraq and in Syria, there are fears that systematic ethnic cleansing is underway with the intent of emptying those countries of Christians. Massacres, rape, forced conversions, protection rackets, kidnapping of young girls, beheadings, crucifixions and bombings and burning of churches are now situations faced by Christians throughout the Middle East.
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