Spicy Hanukkah Beef Stew

November 9, 2023

Hanukkah (Festival of Lights) is an eight-day festival celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple following the Maccabean Revolt. It is celebrated by lighting the hanukkiah or the nine-branched menorah every night, reciting special prayers and enjoying fried food. This feast falls during the cold, dark months of winter, so what’s better than a hearty

Turning Children into Terrorists

Over 50 years ago, Israel’s first and only female Prime Minster Golda Meir famously stated, “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” More than half a century later, things have not changed. Meir’s words still ring true today as Israel faces a persistent and ever-increasing threat

A Storm Brewing in the North

Israel experienced a heat wave over the summer so extreme that one day in August, flights at Ben-Gurion airport were delayed because the heat was affecting technical systems and control units. But it wasn’t just the temperature that spiked over the summer. Tensions in the north of Israel also spiked with Hezbollah—an Iran-backed terror

Battling Terrorism in the Biblical Heartland

Israel’s biblical heartland is facing a big problem. In the land of milk and honey, terrorists have established a hornet’s nest from which springs a never-ending stream of violence. The base is Jenin, a hotbed of terrorism in northern Samaria. Over the past year, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in July, residents of

“Hatikvah”—The Hope

There is something wonderfully moving about standing among Israelis as their national anthem is sung. As you hear the passion in their voices and see the tears in many eyes, you realize how the words of the “Hatikvah” (The Hope) have shaped the thinking of a nation and helped keep the Zionist dream alive

Leadership Training Israeli Style

It’s Friday afternoon in Beit HaKerem, the Jerusalem neighborhood where I live. There are fewer and fewer cars on the road as a pre-Shabbat (Sabbath) hush begins to descend. However, it’s a different story in the park on the other side of Herzl Boulevard, where an exuberantly noisy group of 20–30 young Israeli children

The Four “Seas” of Israel

Every tourist shop in the Promised Land stocks a range of brightly colored t-shirts proclaiming that the wearer of the particular garment has dipped a toe in the four “seas” of Israel. The claim is a bit of an overstatement, really. Only two of Israel’s famous waterbodies—the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea—meet the

A New Page for Israel

The new year is traditionally rung in to the soundtrack of well-wishes. In the days, hours and minutes before bidding farewell to the old year and stepping into the new, friends, family and perfect strangers typically great each other with words of hope for peace, love, joy and everything precious and beautiful in the

The Quirks of Israel—Life is a Song

From the pen of CEO Peter Fast comes the ninth installment of the Quirks of Israel. Join Peter on a journey through the wonderfully peculiar culture, traditions, heritage and daily life of this singular nation as he unpacks, introduces and celebrates the quirky aspects that make Israel so wonderfully unique. Jerusalem is a city

Pomegranate and Apple Sukkot Strudel

Sukkot is a week-long festival centered around rejoicing and thanksgiving in God’s protection and provision. The feast is synonymous with building a sukkah (or sukkot for plural), a hut-like structure that serves as a reminder of the flimsy shelters the Israelites lived in during their 40 years in the desert following the Exodus from Egypt.

To Life!

July 12, 2023

The images grip your heart. A broken father—grief streaming in rivulets down his cheeks—rocking the lifeless body of his two-year-old daughter after the toddler and her pregnant mother were supposedly killed in an Israeli airstrike. A mother’s tears pooling on the picture of a beaming preschooler—riotous curls framing an angelic face—as she cradles the

Missing: A Palestinian Partner for Peace

July 12, 2023

People often talk about the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It’s simple, they argue. Divide up the land. Allow Israel to keep a portion of it, and give the other portion to the Palestinians—including eastern Jerusalem, Gaza and a large parcel of Judea and Samaria. These are actually the terms the Jewish leaders

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