US News

Unwelcome mat for O where Christ was born

JERUSALEM — President Obama paid a visit yesterday to a sacred church in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, but there were reminders that not everyone here is ready to turn the other cheek.

Obama visited Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, a holy site to Christians as well as Muslims built on top of the grotto where Jesus is thought to have been born. Bethlehem is in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Just before Obama arrived, the leader of the Bethlehem mosque, which sits just across the square from the church, declared, “America is the source of all evil in the world — we will not give up our land.”

Posters around Manger Square, which is flanked by both the mosque and the church, called Obama the “the murderer of Muslim children.”

Police cleared the square of protesters who frequently hold up signs calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners, including one being held in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Because of a violent sandstorm, Obama had to abandon his helicopter and take “the beast,” his armored limo.

The route forced him to slow-roll through an Israeli checkpoint, and up a road where, during the second intifada, some Israeli vehicles faced random gun attacks from above.

The church itself was taken over by gunmen at the time, forcing a long standoff with the Israeli military.

geoff.earle@nypost.com