Melkites Caught in the Middle
The regional and religious ties that Melkite Catholics have to the Middle East make the Israeli-Palestinian war even more difficult to process than it already is.
America Must Stay Out of Other Nations’ Ethnic Conflicts
The same pitfalls of well-meaning Americans going on the internet and crying for the United States to involve itself in ethnic conflicts applies just as well in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as in the case of Ukraine.
No Prince, No Peace
President Donald Trump released his long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Tuesday, promising a “new dawn” for the region. This comes after the failed $50 billion plan presented last July by the President’s counselor and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Dubbed the “Deal of the Century” by the White House, it aimed to establish financial infrastructure in the Palestinian … Read more
Why “Invent” the Palestinians?
This month, in Amman, Jordan, Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators met for their first time in 15 months to try to restart the “peace process.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian group that rules in Gaza, Hamas, has repeated its declaration: “The battle for the liberation of Jerusalem is closer than ever and, God willing, we will win.” … Read more
America Magazine Editor Touts One-State Solution
Anyone who has read my many posts and columns on the Holy Land and the political struggle between Israel and Palestine knows I have reservations about the Israeli treatment of Palestinian Christians in particular and those who inhabit the West Bank in general. I have consistently argued for the necessity of a two-state solution whereby … Read more
Israel and Palestine Give the Two-State Solution Another Look
Direct peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine will resume on September 2 in Washington, D.C. The announcement of the talks has been greeted with a polite but skeptical nod from the media and a rolling of the eyes from experts in the realpolitik of international affairs. The assumption behind these dismissals is that peace talks … Read more
A Meeting with the Prime Minister of Palestine
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and I are both graduates of the same university, the University of Texas at Austin. When I told him this morning that the Longhorn football team was #4 in the preseason rankings, he said, “That’s good, it’s bad when they are too high.” Fayyad’s caution about his beloved Texas Longhorns is … Read more
Remember the Palestinians
The Holy Land is a place of stories. Everyone has a story about Israel and the occupied territory called Palestine by those who live there. Many of the events are drenched in blood — often that of relatives present or past — which is why, when story is pitted against story, death against death, little … Read more
Hitler’s Mufti: The Dark Legacy of Haj Amin al-Husseini
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Ronald J. Rychlak says that while Pius XII was no Nazi collaborator, Hitler did have a strong religious ally… the grand mufti of Jerusalem. The Jewish Holocaust of World War II is a story of human tragedy, with real victims, real villains, and real heroes. Important questions often … Read more