Bombing of Christian Pastor's Home Brings Messianic Jews Into Spotlight
Son injured, father on Hamas' hit list, but Jewish extremists are possible suspects too

By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
March 27, 2008

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Police in Israel are considering all possibilities as they look for the person who sent a booby-trapped gift basket to the home of an American Christian pastor in Israel.

The pastor's teenage son was seriously injured when he opened the basket that was delivered to his home a week ago during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Suggestions that the culprits may be Jewish extremists -- not Palestinian terrorists -- have focused a spotlight on the battle over beliefs that sometimes happens inside Jewish Israel.

Sixteen-year-old Ami Ortiz suffered third degree burns over much of his body, a collapsed lung, two broken arms, and eye injuries. Two of his toes had to be amputated. The blast was powerful enough to blow out windows in the apartment.

Ami's father, David Ortiz, is a Christian who has worked extensively in the Palestinian areas, telling Muslims about Jesus. Some Muslims have become Christians because of his efforts, and Ortiz has been threatened because of his proselytizing.

Ortiz, a Christian, also leads a small Messianic Jewish congregation in Ariel. (His wife is Jewish and therefore Ami and his five siblings are considered Jewish, according to Israeli law.)

Messianic Jews are Jews by birth who believe that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah. They believe in both the Old and New Testaments, and some celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays.

But religious Jews often resent Messianic Jews as missionaries. As one Israeli commentator put it, "zealous ultra-Orthodox (Jews) stand out among those who persecute missionaries."

But if the attack on the Ortiz family was intended to damage the Messianic Jewish community or turn Jews away from it, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

David Ortiz told Cybercast News Service that people from Ariel who previously would not talk to him have been coming to the hospital to express their sympathies.

Since the attack, there are have been numerous articles in local newspapers detailing the persecution of Messianic Jews, who number about 15,000 out of Israel's population of 6 million.

Attorney Calev Myers, the founder and chief council of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, said there are "isolated pockets" of persecution against Messianic Jews in Israel but mostly what they face here is "systematic governmental discrimination."

There is ongoing persecution in two southern Israeli cities -- Arad and Beersheba - where Messianics are harassed in various ways with little police intervention. The Baptist House in Jerusalem -- a meeting place for Messianic Jews -- recently was burned in what police are now calling an arson attack, although they have not apprehended the culprits.

Over the last four years, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice has handled almost 200 cases of alleged discrimination, such as government refusal to renew passports and to register the births of children born to Messianic couples, Myers said. In other cases, critics have mounted campaigns to have Messianic Jews fired from their jobs.

If the bombing at the Ortiz family home proves to be the work of Jewish extremists, it would definitely mark "an escalation," said Myers.

Aaron Rubin, the head of anti-missionary activity at Yad L'Achim, wondered why anyone would even ask his organization about the attack.

In the 50 years since the organization was founded, he said there have never been any suggestions that his group is violent. Rubin described Yad L'Achim as an "educational organization" intended to un-brainwash Jews.

According to Israeli law, it is not against the law to "missionize" (except to minors). However, the practice is severely frowned on and even feared here. Nor is it against the law to convert to another religion. But it is against the law to offer financial or other inducements to encourage someone to change his religion.

Not everyone believes that the attack was carried out by Jewish extremists. Hannah, a Messianic Jew who lives in Ariel, said everyone in the "peaceful" town is in shock.

The most tension the Messianic Jews ever experienced in Ariel was in the late 1980s, she said, when the Yad L'Achim would knock on believers' doors, snap their pictures when they answered, and then put up posters in town warning people against them.

The majority of Ariel's population is secular. Religious Jews range from ultra-Orthodox Haredis to Russians who eat pork and celebrate Christmas.

Santa Clauses and Christmas trees are sold in the city's shopping center at Christmas, and one store sells pork, she said. If the Jewish extremists haven't bombed the pork shops, why should they go after an individual, Hannah wondered.

On the other hand, David Ortiz is on Hamas' hit list and the group put out a fatwa - a religious edict - calling for his death several years ago, she noted. The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the gift basket bomb and Hamas bragged that it had used an Israeli Arab to bring in the bomb, she said.

There have been several Palestinian terror attacks outside the gates of the community over the last few years, including one at the city's hotel, one at the gas station and at least one at the nearby bus stop.

Hannah wondered if it wasn't easier for the residents of Ariel somehow to think that the attack had been carried out by Jewish extremists with a score to settle than to believe that an Arab terrorist had made his way into the heart of their peaceful community.

"God knows exactly who they are," she said. "They won't get away. We want to see them brought to justice [and for it to be] the last time they ever do anything [like this]."