Anyone who watched to Pope and the mixed reactions he recieved from Jews and Muslims, is probably wondering how many Christians are left in Palestine. What is the future of Christians in the Middle East?

The influence of national poltical parties is shrinking, and movements like the Muslim brotherhood and others are gaining power. As the Middle East has turned against the influence of Western-based culture and politics, more and more Christians have turned to immigration as a solution. Christians have left Palestine, out and away from the Israeli occupation, but also in other countries they feel diminished, and are struggling with their identity, which was a National-Patriot based identity and not religion based. The green flag waving over many demonstrations and meetings in the Middle East begs the question if, as a minority, are they really welcome? See the mass slaughter of Pigs in Egypt which followed the Swine Flu. The Copts in Egypt are a tiny minority tolerated as garbage collectors. The slaughter of the pigs cleary did not happen for medical reasons.

For me, the question is what do Muslims in the Arab world know about Christianity? What are the similarites between Christian ignorance about Islam in the West and ignorance about other religions in the Middle East?

There is a huge gap between the West whose view of Islamist as anti democratic and the East who think they should participate in Democratic election. However if you to www.worldopinion.org you will see that inside the Muslim world there is also a split. Pakistanis believe-83% that they should participate but Turkey and Jordan the figure is around 50%. So there is alot of ambivalence about Islamist wining and than canceling the democratic system they used to get into power. The Hamas is a good example of this.

The USA encouraged the election in Palestine but when Hamas won they immediately distances themselves. I think this is a challenging issue, as you can not eat the cake- democracy- and keep it- abolish Islamist parties.

What is your stand on this?

Israel has very complicated relations with Turkey. It has excellent relation with its Army supplying Turkey with drones. But it needs to figure out how not to lose the Erdogen support, as it can play a crucial role in its negotiations with Syria. Mid East politics are very fluid game of interests. Maybe Israel can learn from the mistakes of Gaza. But basically its whole attitude to the Muslim world has to change and be reconfigured. Israel while based in the Mid East looks and acts too much like an American extension. It needs,especially now, with Obama, to talk and use a different language. But as most Rabbis in Israel are fundamentalists in their outlook,there is scant hope for a dialog that would be constructive.