as christians around the world prepare to celebrate easer tomorrow. israel s ambassador to the u.n. is calling attention to the persecution of christians in the middle east. compares it to the plague the jewish people have suffered through the ages. op-ed for the wall street journal. over the past century another exodus driven by a plague of prosecution has swept across the middle east. and emptying the region of christian population. persecution is especially virulent today. middle east expert and fox news contributor lisa. thanks for joining us today. when you see some of these facts, you any, it s almost like it just doesn t get the attention that it should be getting. just a couple things, you know, we can talk about it as of the turn of the century, the 2 0th century, christians made up 26% of the middle east population. now it s less than 10%. conversely, israel is the only country where the christian population is rising.
birthplace of jesus, all those places. north korea. have lost their christian population and no one seems to care in the u.s. why is it all these church groups are focused on the middle east no one seems to care about the persecution of christians. people care and people call attention to it it but it s not in the moments that we need them to call attention to. you are absolutely right. it s happening in egypt and north africa and pakistan. all over the region. but what ends up happening is in that moment when we want to negotiated, for example, with iran, we are focused on that negotiation. we re not calling for this americans who are being held there to be released. we re not calling for pastor abedino, the christian held there to be released. christians are. you have to ask what is the sensitivity towards christianity? it s a threat to islam? and a lot of these born muslims are turning to christian yeant because they want to worship god. they are finding haven in christianit
press that they had hide all of the orphans in near by caves to try to protect them. and what make its more concerning is the naech of the rebels themselves inside. they are fighters that is an al-qaeda linked syndicate group and a well known extremist group in syria. and remember, it is the christians in syria that support president assad. it is showing the sectarian strife. the rebels are targeting christian villages. and there is a lot of fears raised that an attack on president assad by the united states would weaken his ability to protect the christian villages allowing the religious extremist to move forward. it is a complicated a liiances of the spoider web are in syria in the civil war.
mentioned the polls that he is watching the numbers and it begs the question. how does he if he back pedals on this does he creativitily doing. it putin saying we ll handle and put a cap on the chemical weapons and we have it covered, how do does that look? as americans hear rebel forces and the folks that we would be helping by attacking are attacking the christian villages and russia deeply enmeshed in this. they have bots on the ground and a big naval base and they have munitions there and the american people we need to save face. we have to maintain it and now we have to bomb. when they think of the possible ramifications of this. there is plenty of reason to say not. this is the take away.
the latest violence comes as we learned that the situation is growing worse for egypt s christian population. islamist attack 50 churches there. one scholar said they may have seen the worst day of violence against egyptian christians since the 16th century. the orthodox pope there is in hiding. the violence unfolded on street level on wednesday. (gunshots) incredible video. said to be taken by a supporter of the ousted president morsi.