Farenheight 666

Another Guest Post by http://muqata.blogspot.com/

Christian Missionaries are a growing problem in Israel, and in the town of Or Yehuda in particular.

Last week, "Jewish Messianic" Christian missionaries canvassed the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, and distributed hundreds of New Testaments and anti-Jewish missionary material -- much of it geared specifically towards children.

In response, Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon organized teams of youngsters to go house to house, collecting the distributed materials, while he drove around in his car and loudspeaker system imploring residents to get rid of the books.

While Aharon continued driving around the city, some of the teenagers gathered all the books, dumped them, and lit a bonfire.

You can predict what happened next.

Israel's media has been having a field day with this "book burning" story, and every radio station has used the quote, "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people"

Haaretz's headline screamed, "Orthodox Jewish youths burn New Testaments in Or Yehuda"

Maariv reported that hundreds of yeshiva students took part in the book-burning...but Aharon told The Associated Press that only a few students were present, and that he was not there when the books were torched.

"Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were," he said.

He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a commandment to burn materials that urge Jews to convert.

"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

Calev Myers, an attorney who represents Messianic Jews, or Jews who accept Jesus as their savior, demanded in an interview with Army Radio that all those involved be put on trial. He estimated there were 10,000 Messianic Jews, who are also known as Jews for Jesus, in Israel. (Haaretz)"

There's a law against missionising to minors in Israel, but the police rarely have the time or manpower to deal with it. So while Mr. Myers wants everyone involved put on trial (for what, I don't know), the Israeli police don't really the address the illegal actions of Myers' clients.

Israel's media is so concerned about the actual "book burning," that they willfully ignore the Christian proselytizing towards children. As long as they can repeat over and over "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people" -- that's all that matters.

Personally, I was a lot more bothered when Harry Potter books were burned in New Mexico.