Sorrow and Hope

Current Issues

China’s Hand in Israel

In Chinese tradition, the pig with its characteristically fat face and big ears is a mark of prosperity. It is appropriate then that as the Chinese year of the pig draws to a close, the world must take note of the prosperity and spectacular economic ascent of the People’s Republic of China. How exactly China

Continue Reading »

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Every Christmas thousands of Christians flock to Bethlehem to celebrate the holiday close to where Jesus (Yeshua) was born. They marvel at the 40-foot Christmas tree, bow their heads at the Church of Nativity and sing Christmas carols in the frosty night air. Once Christmas is over, Bethlehem returns to normal. The tree comes down.

Continue Reading »

Iran Lied: Could Millions Die?

In a much-hailed agreement in 2015, the major world powers surrendered their best leverage—stiff economic sanctions on Iran—in exchange for concessions from Tehran that supposedly would prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons. Just four years later, Iran managed to undo two of the most important concessions in that agreement while threatening to undo

Continue Reading »

Educate for Life—or Death?

Since the early 19th century, summer camp has been a part of life for virtually every Jewish child worldwide. It began as an effort to provide a place for children living in poverty to spend some restful time enjoying the great outdoors, away from crowded apartments and teeming, sweltering cities. Today, summer camp has become

Continue Reading »

Jesus Who?

We live in an era of fake news, conspiracy theories and half-truths. Detractors of the State of Israel are experts in tactics of disseminating disinformation in their ongoing campaign of misrepresenting the history of the Land of Israel as a means to taint various facets of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Repeating the same lies over and

Continue Reading »

Extreme Measures

Riots in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) capital, just north of Jerusalem. Palestinians are throwing rocks and explosives. A 21-year-old Israeli captain and his soldiers must calm the violence. The situation could turn deadly in an instant. Someone hands a Molotov cocktail to a six-year-old boy. Despite warnings shouted in Arabic, the boy inches toward

Continue Reading »

The Gaza You Don’t See

A 2017 report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that nearly one in three of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip lives below the poverty level, and 33.7% of the population lives in a level of deep poverty, which the PCBS defines as being unable to meet “the minimum required

Continue Reading »

Anti-Semitism: The Chilling New Normal

Historian Paul Johnson has said, “What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis make sense.” It goes by many names: bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, intolerance. Most often, it falls in that broad category of “racism,” which

Continue Reading »

Unlivable: Israel’s Efforts to Prevent a Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

In August 2012 the United Nations (UN) published a report painting a picture of the dismal future awaiting the people of Gaza. Come 2020, the document said, the coastal enclave would be unlivable. In the seven years since the UN tabled its report, the situation deteriorated almost beyond predictions. Some 2.1 million people live in

Continue Reading »

A Singular Solution: A One-state Approach to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

The two-state solution sounds final—the long-sought answer to the Middle East’s most intractable riddle. But what if it’s not the only “solution” to the problem? What if it’s not even a plausible one? What alternative can there be to the “solution”? There is another possibility, hovering as both a promise and a threat: the one-state

Continue Reading »