And why? Not because of Israel. From the VOANews, with thanks to RG:
Israelis say the number of Christians in Israel has not declined. There has actually been a slight increase, bringing the total number of Christians close to 120-thousand. “In Israel they [the Christians] have a small percentage of increase, that is 1.4 pecent of increase per year, which is about the same as that of the Jews in Israel,” says Daphne Tsimhoni, a professor of modern Middle East History at Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology.
Leon Hadar, a Middle East analyst and author of the book, Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East, says attitudes toward Christians in Israel may be changing. “There is an interesting development, in which some of the Russian immigrants who came to Israel, probably around 300-thousand to half-a-million are not Jewish, says Mr. Hadar. “They are Christians. And it is quite possible that, if that community – we are not talking about an Arab-Christian community, but an Israeli Hebrew-speaking community – becomes integrated into Israeli society, Israel will become less and less of an exclusive Jewish state, and will become more open to integrating Christians into Israeli society.”
Some observers say Christians in the Middle East have fared better under secular governments. Jonathan Adelman, professor of political science at the University of Denver, Colorado, says the rise of fundamentalist Islam is a concern.
“When they hear that Sharia law needs to be introduced, which basically means that Christians cannot testify in court as equals, that they are inferior – this is something that is very hard for any minority in the world, does not matter if they are Christians or not – very hard to understand or to accept in the 21st century, which is about tolerance and is about modernity. That’s why we’ve had millions of them get up and flee to other parts of the world, where they don’t feel threatened.”