IS isreal taking advantage of te greek economic saga,?

Crazy. The whole world is going crazy!

p.s. did u get my email?

Firstly they are right to demand payment for services supplied .

Secondly this shrine can hardly claim poverty , given the amount the pilgrims and tourists drop in the boxes every day all year round .

Thirdly the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not built on the Dome of the Rock , but on the spot that Saint Helena identified as being the Tomb of Christ ( the one the stone blocking the doorway got rolled away from ) .

The Dome of the Rock ( which is a shrine , not actually a mosque ) is up on the old Jewish Acropolis site , and covers the ancient " high place " the peak of the original rocky hill , on which a variety of Deities have been worshipped for millenia .

The assortment of denominations of monks who reside in these places are hardly good advertisments for taking up the Christian Life , and their frequent bouts of ecumenical fisticuffs ( You can view those on You-Tube ) seem to indicate that their master's injunction to " Love one another " is given less attention than it arguably warrants .

Personally I couldn't care less if the Israelis kicked the whole smelly lot off the pier at Jaffa .

But the Israelis are not silly enough to provoke their own supporters overseas by systematically impeding the pilgrims from visiting the " holy places " -- this story is all about stirring up a storm so that the Freeloading by the monks can continue .

From the legal point of view they are correct in asking to be paid for services rendered. The measures they intend to take in case the amounts are not paid are very wrong because they effect so many people who visit the Holy City.

That would also affect their tourist trade and that will be a heavy blow to their economy since they make an enormous profit out of the millions of visitors of many Christian denominations.

The claims for moneys owed to the Israelis is a constant issue for many years now since the Archdioceses have land and estate properties all over Israel. I fear you have missed some episodes of the long serial. Financial issues were the reasons of the previous Archbishop's removal.

On the general, Israel lately is rather more friendly towards Greece in view of the common exploitation of the Mediterranean AOZ as they have been divided and that would be more profitable for them than the amounts owed. Taking into consideration that for years back, relations with them were rather tense, not to say hostile, due to the Palestinian issues that Greece was in full support of.

Most likely, if the article is not one of the usual exaggerating ones that lately are posted against Greece, then a very serious reason will be for their demands. And certainly I don't believe it has to do with the crisis. Besides, the Holy Sephulcre is common, so to say, property for all Christian denominations and Vatican is the major one. Do you think they would dare to go against it?

Doesn't surprise me. Israelis will take advantage of any opportunity to earn free money.