Well, like they say, "When it rains, it pours!"

This and last week, it's been one story after another about how the anti-Israel consensus is building here in North America—even among evangelical Christians.

Today we turn our attention away from the evangelicals (for now) and toward the secular media.

Last Sunday, on CBS's popular "60 Minutes" newsmagazine-format TV show, veteran journalist Bob Simon did a recognizably slanted segment on the Middle East entitled "Christians of the Holy Land." You can watch it by clicking here.

Bob begins by reporting the exit of large numbers of Christians from the Palestinian territories. He fails to mention, however, that many of them fled when Arafat put a price on their heads in the 1990s. In those days, we had many friends in the West Bank, most of whom we knew in connection with our tour ministry. There were two Palestinian brothers in Bethlehem, for instance, who owned and operated several tourist shops and an olive-wood factory. They were accused of being "collaborators" with Israel (maybe because they did business with people like us who operate tours to Israel) and we heard later that they had fled to North Africa with their families to escape Arafat's wrath.

Their sudden departure saddened us greatly. My wife and I had been guests in the elder brother's home. Marcia had purchased some of their products. They took a liking to her and shipped her a lovely Nativity set which we received after we got back home to Texas. She corresponded with them for a time, but we lost track of them when they fled the country.

Many Palestinian Christians, like these brothers we knew, have had to flee persecution at the hands of the Palestinian Authority—especially those who were evangelical believers. Keep in mind that terms like "Palestinian Christian" or "Palestinian Church" are catch-all phrases that include Catholic, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, and Ethiopian groups. They represent traditional, works-based religious systems that evangelicals find largely incompatible with the true Gospel of the grace of God. 

However, there are some evangelical believers among the Palestinians, just as there are numerous Arab congregations on the Israeli side of the border (particularly in the Galilee). These are our brothers and sisters in Yeshua, of course, so we are always sensitive to their needs and hardships. How can we do any less?

To his credit, Bob Simon does point out that the Israeli wall and checkpoints were a response to Palestinian terrorism and that they have been effective (he says terrorist attacks are down 90% since the wall was erected); however, much of the rest of what he says in the "60 Minutes" segment is clearly and unapologetically spun in favor of the Palestinians. There's even a favorable mention of the controversial, anti-Israel Kairos document that he says won the endorsement of 13 liberal religious denominations (true, by the way).

Media bias against Israel is nothing new—and it's ironic, in a way, since so many Jewish folks work in the news and entertainment industries. In fact, Bob himself is Jewish. Irony upon irony, but not all that unusual! Some of the most shrill anti-Israel voices come from the American Jewish community. Go figure!

Here's a thorough and illuminating analysis of the 60 Minutes segment from a blog in the Jerusalem Post: click here

If you'd like to let CBS know that you're not pleased with the "Christians of the Holy Land" segment, click here.