ANT KATZ

Christmas 2015 will long live in the hearts of Israelis – and particularly West-Bankers – as it has suffered one of the lowest visitor numbers in many years, mainly due to the unfortunate violence that has descended on the country for over three months.

This is catalogued in the Jewish Report coverage of last night’s Christmas Eve festivities in Bethlehem, or lack of it, see “BETHLEHEM IS SUFFOCATING!” SAYS WEST BANK TOWN’S MAYOR.

But there are always rays of sunlight amid storms. Six users have already sent the very cute MP4 (right, CLICK ON PICTURE to view) to online.editor@sajr.co.za in the past 48 hours.

It is a short and funny event in which a group of frum Jewish men hum two Christmas carol tunes

Two heartwarming tweets from Bibi

The following two tweets were sent out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past week, and are also appropriate:

ABOVE: Pictured is a Christmas greeting from Lt. Ruhi Dabas, a
Christian Israeli soldier protecting the country’s border with Gaza

LEFT: Sgt. Fadi Khurani, another Christian Israel Defence Force soldier on the Gaza border

RIGHT: A seldom-recognised side of the Israeli tolerance to people of all faiths – a greeting that was sent out earlier this week by the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria. “Warmest wishes for blessings of shalom (peace) and prosperity for all of us and for Israel and South Africa this festive season and for 2016” read the message from Ambassador Arthur Lenk and “the Israeli Embassy Team.”

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Related read

• Season’s greetings to Christian fellow-Zionists in which we show a video of Celine Dion surprising the Canadian Tenors (which was a set-up orchestrated by Oprah) and sings the last bit of “Hallelujah” with them on stage. They are totally flabbergasted – join the over 3-mil others who have enjoyed this short video.