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Egypt attack on Coptic Christians: Wake up, President Sisi! ISIS is murdering your Christian children

Fri, 26 May 2017 19:19:00 -0400

The first thing I read on Friday morning was that 28 Egyptians in the Sinai had been murdered by terrorists, with more than 20 others wounded. And my first thought was clear and to the point:

Maybe this will finally wake up the Egyptian authorities.

The grisly attack, carried out with firearms, took place on an isolated road in the Sinai desert – a sparsely populated region of Egypt where some believe ISIS is setting up a new base of operations in the wake of their losses in Iraq and Egypt.

The victims belonged to a church group of Coptic Christians and many of them were children. They were on their way to pray at the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor.

Coptic scholar Samuel Tadros described the scene in the New York Times, “The terrorists waited on the road like game hunters. Coming their way were three buses, one with Sunday school children. Only three of them survived. Their victims were asked to recite the Islamic declaration of faith before being shot.”

Of course it wasn’t the first attack on Egypt’s Christians this year. It seems like just yesterday when, on Palm Sunday, two Cairo churches were bombed, and during those twin assaults a total of 45 people were killed and 126 injured.

Maybe this will finally wake up the Egyptian authorities, I remember thinking at the time.

In March, just weeks before, and again in Sinai, hundreds of Christian families fled their homes after ISIS threatened to slaughter them. And it wasn’t an idle threat – seven Christian men were found dead, their bodies discarded along roadways like so much trash.

Last year was no better. In May 2016, I wrote, “A riot – based on a salacious rumor – led to ferocious violence against a Coptic family in El-Karm, located in Egypt’s southern province of Minya. Some 300 raging Islamists stripped a 70-year-old mother naked and paraded her, shamed and weeping, through the streets of her hometown, while torching seven Christian houses.

“Then on December 11, a suicide bomber attacked St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, killing 29 and injured dozens.”

At the time MEMRI reported, “Jihadis took to social media to express their satisfaction, even before any organization claimed responsibility. Many ISIS supporters shared posts on social media … explaining why Egypt’s Coptic Christians deserve punishment, while others vowed that Egyptian Christians will either be expelled or slaughtered.”

ISIS has since identified Christians as their “favorite prey.”

After the murder of Sinai’s Christian children on Friday morning, and perhaps due to President Donald Trump’s recent demands that Arab countries aggressively rein in their terrorists, Fox News reported:

“Egypt's military fought back against the attackers who stormed a bus full of Coptic Christians and killed 28 people on their way to a monastery to pray, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Friday.”

“The Egyptian military struck bases where the attackers had trained, the president said without elaborating. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Egypt’s Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of the Islamic State in the region.”

Is it too much to believe that this most recent bloodshed, particularly targeting children, has finally awakened the Egyptian authorities?

We can hope. And we can certainly pray. But only time will tell.

Why Wonder Woman is an inspiration to us all

Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:04:00 -0400

On Oct. 18, a rather unusual and unexpected news story materialized on my computer screen, and it came as a pleasant respite from the rest of the headlines.

You might even call it comic relief.

I needn’t remind anyone that America is mired in the most outrageously disgusting presidential campaign in history.

The Middle East is aflame on several fronts, threatening to explode into one massive inferno, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.

Russia, armed and dangerous, is elbowing its way into renewed superpower status, and Vladimir Putin has actually been smiling in recent photographs.

The Far East is rumbling with ominous threats, including North Korea’s repeated success in testing nuke-capable ballistic missiles.

In the midst of it all, on Oct. 18, we learned that the United Nations has selected its “Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.”

And the new ambassador is … Wonder Woman!

I have to confess: At first, it was a little difficult to take this announcement seriously.

My own choice might have been Malala Yousafzai, the brave Nobel Prize-winning Pakistani teenager who took a Taliban bullet for the sake of women’s education.

Or maybe Aung San Suu Kyi, who courageously endured 15 years of house arrest, only to step into the future as Burma’s prime minister.

Or even Theresa May, who emerged from the U.K.’s controversial Brexit referendum as a worthy successor to Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher.

On the other hand, consider the context: While cartoonists are being threatened and even murdered for their artwork, some of today’s world figures seem (alarmingly) to resemble cartoon characters.

So maybe, all things considered, the U.N.’s choice of a comic book superhero — Wonder Woman — makes perfect sense.

I must confess that I expected more negativity from the feminist universe. After all, it hasn’t been so long since certain scholarly types frowned upon women who were smart and strong and savvy if they also happened to be glamorous.

Thankfully, those days seem to have passed. In fact, the U.N. even received some kudos from the feminist quarter. The Mary Sue, a feminist comics site, applauded the choice: “Wonder Woman is a great, easily recognizable symbol of what women can become once freed from a patriarchal society.”

And, of course, there was the potentially controversial matter of Wonder Woman’s attire – you’ll not likely find a hijab or burkini in her closet.

As New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman carefully pointed out, there is an “outfit issue”:

“Wonder Woman does most of her power work, as we all know, in a star-spangled strapless bathing suit and knee-high boots, with a healthy amount of cleavage and leg on display. Her clothes have not, to put it mildly, caught up with her politics — or many other people’s, for that matter … [But]In the end, the United Nations determined that, ‘You have to look beyond the superficial to her actions…’”

I couldn’t agree more. We all definitely need to look beyond the superficial.

I, for one, am all for a beautiful, sexy, strong, kind, loving and heroic female, comic or otherwise, serving as a role model for girls and young women all around the world.

But there’s another plus to the U.N.’s choice. As our Nobel Prize-winning poet Bob Dylan would put it, the new ambassador is “forever young.”

Until this week, I hadn’t realized that Wonder Woman is 75 years old. And she’s still rocking the bright red bustier and star-spangled shorts.

If that isn’t an empowering inspiration to us all, I don’t know what is.

Jews, Christians and UNESCO's Jerusalem resolution

Fri, 21 Oct 2016 15:24:00 -0400

UNESCO chose a rather odd time to ratify its resolution against Israel’s “occupation of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif” and Jerusalem’s Old City.

The declaration, which was initially submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan, officially claims those sites as the “Cultural Heritage of Palestine.” In doing so, it disavows Jerusalem’s historical and religious connection with both Judaism and Christianity.

The Resolution was passed on Tuesday, October 18 during the week of Sukkot, one of three great Jewish Feasts that have for at least 3,000 years beckoned pilgrims to Jerusalem.

And in recent years Sukkot – the Feast of Tabernacles – has also drawn thousands of Christians to the Holy City.

And so it was that this year, while the Israeli media bemoaned the UNESCO resolution, Jerusalem’s streets throbbed with singing, laughter and rejoicing.

The irony was unavoidable. Joyful festivities, celebrated in real time, loudly and cheerfully drowned out the abstract words of the resolution.

During the feast, family gardens, terraces, verandas as well as plazas and eateries are, for the week, enclosed in fabric walls and roofed with palm branches and other greenery. These “booths” remind the Jewish people of their desert trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. Such fragile, temporary shelters are meant to recall the need for dependency on God, and his deliverance from evil powers.

As a Christian sojourner, I’ve lived in Jerusalem for 10 years. And I’ve become increasingly aware of how deeply the roots of my own Christian faith are anchored in the ancient soil of Judaism.

Like many Christians, from time to time I visit what is sometimes called “The Wailing Wall,” where Jews wept for centuries over the loss of their land. Today, believers of myriad traditions fold scribbled prayers into the cracks and crannies of the wall’s surface, sensing that somehow that God seems a little closer, a little more attuned.

One can only wonder how an organization like UNESCO –recognized as a global guardian of the world’s most precious heritage sites – is able look upon the massive, archeologically-acclaimed Herodian stones of the Jewish Temple’s Western Wall, blatantly deny their history, and solemnly declare it a solely Muslim site.

Groups of Israelis as well as foreign Jewish visitors also make their way to the Temple Mount (despite stringently enforced and brief hours of admittance). They are forbidden to carry Bibles or prayer books, sing or even move their lips in prayer. They find this appalling.

And they aren’t the only ones.

Christian tourists also visit the Temple Mount, equally scrutinized lest they demonstrate the least indication of obvious worship. One of my friends’ Bible was confiscated from her backpack by guards at the security checkpoint. It was never returned to her.

Of course Christian tourists also visit the Western Wall by the tens of thousands to sing, pray and marvel at the sight of a Bible story come to life before their eyes. They’ve toured Bethlehem and Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. And now they stand praying in the shadow of what was once the Temple of God.

UNESCO’s resolution is infuriating to Israelis, not only because of its historical, archeological and political deceit, but also because it attempts to seize Judaism’s holiest geography.

Less has been said about our Christian heritage and its scandalous denial, but it is equally undisputable. For starters, there is ample archeological evidence of a pre-Islamic Christian basilica buried beneath the Al Aqsa’s present structure. Mosaic tiles continue to be unearthed.

But even more compelling are the biblical accounts of Jesus, recording his own visits to the Jewish Temple.

He was carried there as an infant to be consecrated to God. At twelve, he was “found him in the Temple courts, sitting among the teachers and asking them questions.” Other notable visits involved his expulsion of moneychangers, and his grim predictions of the Temple’s destruction.

And this year, there is even greater irony. Because it was during Sukkot – the Feast of Tabernacles – when Jesus went “up to the temple courts and began to teach.” (John 7). He declared – probably during a traditional Sukkot water ritual – “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink…” The temple guards took note of him saying, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”

Attempts to de-Judaize – and thus de-Christianize – Jerusalem and the rest of Israel seem to have begun in earnest in 2000 at Camp David, when Yassir Arafat famously informed President Bill Clinton that there was never a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. This latest UNESCO resolution is simply a continuation of that mythology.

Meanwhile, as Jews and Christians celebrate Sukkot, the ongoing strategy to remove their history, faith and heritage remains rather absurd. And, judging by the sounds of singing, laughter and rejoicing, its foolishness is only exceeded by it futility.

Pastor Abedini: ‘I was a bargaining chip’ – What I wanted to tell Congress

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 12:00:00 -0400

You may recognize my name. I’ve been in the news recently because I was one of the three prisoners with dual US-Iranian citizenship that Iran released in January. This week I was scheduled to testify to a congressional committee but my testimony was cancelled.

I was set free the same day that the Obama administration paid the Iranian government $400 million dollars in cash.

Here’s how it happened:

I was born in Tehran, Iran in 1980, and grew up in a devout Shi’a Muslim home.

When I was 14 years old, Hezbollah – the Iranian terrorist militia – recruited me. They said I was one of “the best and the brightest” of young Iranians and they had big plans to groom me as a jihadi warrior, fighting Iran’s enemies.

At first I was dazzled by this golden opportunity, but didn’t take long to figure out that the mullahs who were in charge were not especially pure and righteous.

More and more I asked myself, “Is this really Islam?”

A few years later, I left Islam altogether. In 2000, I converted to Christianity and gained a wonderful new life.

But it was a dangerous decision.

Even more dangerous was my preaching. But, I was determined to serve God and not man.

Then, on September 26, 2012, I was arrested and locked up in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.

The cruelty of Iran’s prison system is notorious. They violate the human rights of those imprisoned for sport. I was severely beaten during interrogations, kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time, lied to, threatened, and frequently abused. On one occasion, I suffered life-threatening internal injuries. This continued for 3 and a half years. I am a U.S. citizen.

Then, on January 16, 2016, a prison guard roughly awakened me.

Now what?

I had been through so much violence and deception that I didn’t know what to expect.

I prayed and tried to calm myself, but remained uneasy, even when I was told that I was to be released and flown to America.

Soon two other American prisoners and I were driven from Evin Prison to Mehrabad Airport.

“The plane and the pilot and everybody else is ready,” one of my former interrogators told me. “You’re going to be free.”

But it didn’t happen that way. At the airport, we waited while an Iranian intelligence officer talked on a cellphone just beyond our hearing.

“Something has gone wrong,” he reported after he hung up, “and you can’t leave yet.”

Instead, the three of us were led into a closed room – no windows, no way out, no further information. We guessed that the Iranian authorities were playing psychological games with us. Again. It was one of their favorite tactics.

After many hours, we heard the latest spin: Our plane couldn’t take off until another aircraft had arrived.

Something was also said about money changing hands.

At the time I didn’t believe it – I thought America would never give Iran money. As much as I was concerned for my own well being, I knew the mullahs. I knew they would use that money to torture thousands more people, maybe hundreds of thousands. They would use it to boost their power on the backs of the millions of Iranians who are good people and who want freedom.

I wanted to be free so badly, but I didn’t want my freedom to cause more death and more torture.

In the end, it wasn’t my decision.

We tried to sleep as we awaited our release, increasingly unsure what the next day would bring.

Finally, after 20 hours we were led to a plane. We buckled ourselves in and I breathed a sigh of relief when the aircraft finally left the ground.

Only months later did I learn about the $400 million in cash that was loaded on the “other” airplane.

That’s why I’m speaking out now.

I knew some people involved in the process legitimately cared about me, but I also know the truth. I am not free because I am a US Citizen. I am free because I was useful for negotiations. And only for a brief moment in time. If I hadn't been useful I would still be there.

During the 3 and a half years of my imprisonment, there was no income for my family. When I returned to America, I was virtually homeless. My wife, my family and I were victims of unbelievable trauma. We are still suffering because of it in countless, painful ways.

Yet I was informed when our flight from Iran landed in Germany that I would have to buy my own plane ticket back to the US. They didn’t even intend on helping me get home. Without the kindness of friends like the Rev. Franklin Graham, I would have been stranded in Germany. In spite of all I had experienced, I felt completely dispensable.

How could so many people go to such great lengths, including a airplane full of $400 million in cash, and yet a plane ticket home for me was, as I was told, “not in the budget.”

I love America and am proud and honored to be an American citizen. I am so grateful for all those who advocated for my release: pastors and church-goers, Democrats and Republicans.

But it is clear to me that I was a bargaining chip in a much larger political game. And once that process was over, well, I nearly had to buy my own plane ticket home.

Today I am deeply thankful to God and the United States that I’m free. Please, do not read an ounce of ingratitude in this.

But as a Christian, I was willing to die for my faith.

Now for the rest of my life I will wonder if my freedom has made it financially possible for Iran to abuse and imprison countless others – those like me who reject their radical theology and dictatorial oppression.

If that’s the case, I pray I can make up for it with my own courage and commitment. The Iranian regime is the single greatest financier of terrorism in the world and the foremost abuser of human rights. They kill innocent people for fun. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Now they can kill with some American money.

For the rest of my life I will stand against the Iranian regime, and for the rest of my life I will oppose anyone who enables their evil.

That’s what I would have told Congress this week if I had the chance.

Attacks on Christian communities in France are growing. Why aren't we hearing about them?

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 09:50:00 -0400

In recent months, Islamist terrorists have brutalized France, horrifying the world with vicious, bloodthirsty murders and mutilations.

In Paris, an ISIS attack in November killed 129 innocents and injured 352.

In Nice, on Bastille Day, a truck driven by an ISIS sympathizer mowed down 84 holidaymakers and injured scores of others.

And now we learn of yet another vicious attack. As Fox News reported on Tuesday,

“Two attackers slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest and critically injured at least one other person early Tuesday in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen before being shot and killed by police, a French security official said.

“The priest, identified by Sky News as Jacques Hamel, was dead at the scene, and another person, possibly a nun, was clinging to life, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.”

French President Francois Hollande later announced that the two neutralized assailants had pledged their loyalty to ISIS.

This latest account shines much-needed illumination on an ugly and unexposed sequence of anti-Christian incidents.

On the part of authorities and the media, a persistent lack of attention obscures – perhaps intentionally – the loathing Islamist terrorists hold toward both Jews and Christians.

Thanks to the careful scrutiny of international Jewish publications, attacks by radical Islamists on French Jews and their businesses, synagogues and cemeteries are better known.

There have been innumerable such assaults; perhaps the most widely reported was on January 9, 2015 at Hyper Casher, a Kosher supermarket in Vincennes, where four hostages were murdered. Tablet Magazine listed 25 such incidents in 2014 alone; many more have taken place since.

In response, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), 10 percent of French Jewry has relocated to Israel since 2000.

Unfortunately, similar attacks on Christians are rarely recounted, although ISIS has made its intentions clear: “the Christian community… “will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam. We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women….”

Certainly Islamist radicals have not ignored this proclamation, even though accounts of their successful efforts may be hard to come by.

Only a scouring of Catholic news reports exposes an ongoing litany of desecration, arson and abuse. For example, a recent newsletter from Federation for Europa Christiana recounts (in French) the following:

“At Martigues…three successive attacks in May 2016: first the pastor extinguished a malicious fire on the altar of the church of the Madeleine. This same priest was later attacked and his eye was blackened….

“Then, at the Saint-Genest church, the same priest discovered the open tabernacle and communion wafers thrown to the ground…

“In April, 2016, all the crucifixes and crosses were shattered at the cemetery of La Chapelle-du-Bard….”

All told, 810 attacks on French Christian places of worship and Christian cemeteries took place in 2015.

Meanwhile, the National Catholic Register reported on June 6,

“In recent weeks, Catholics in France and Belgium — countries still recovering from brutal ISIS attacks — have been hit with numerous acts of violence and aggression, including fires set in churches, an assault on a priest, the desecration of a tabernacle.

“More than 100 Catholic websites… of churches and congregations were hacked by suspected Tunisian cyber-jihadists who call themselves the Fallaga Team.”

Tuesday’s murder of an 84-year-old priest, the grave injuries to a nun, and the hostage-taking of Catholics attending Mass suggest an escalation of these shadowy activities.

For political and ideological reasons, whenever possible French politicians (along with many other European authorities) continue to downplay such attacks. In response, few major media sources bother to report them.

Nonetheless, as the jihadi saying goes, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People.” Islamist radicals consistently target Jews and Christians.

And, widely reported or not, the facts on the bloodied ground speak for themselves.

40 years after Entebbe: My interview with Iddo Netanyahu

Tue, 05 Jul 2016 14:14:00 -0400

Editor's note: The following article originally appeared on the website of the Philos Project. For more, click here.

Independence Day is the most joyful summer holiday in America. The Fourth of July is fêted with barbecues, outdoor gatherings of families, friends and spectacular fireworks displays.

Forty years ago, July 4, 1976, was a festival of special significance as America celebrated 200 years as a nation. Massive events were scheduled, historic tall ships graced waterways, and the Stars and Stripes fluttered in towns and cities across the land.

Unexpectedly, on that holiday morning, a different news story nearly upstaged the USA’s party. But as they read the bold face headlines, the American people quickly saw that they had one more reason to rejoice:

“Israeli Airborne Troops Rescue Hijacked Hostages”

On June 27, 254 passengers had been kidnapped during the hijacking of an Air France plane; 148 of these captives were later released, and only 94 Israelis and Jews and the 12-person flight crew remained as hostages. And now they languished in a scorching, filthy airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda. Would they be shot? Or ransomed? They had faint hopes of rescue.

On July 4, Israeli soldiers secretly flew to Entebbe in four Hercules cargo planes. The task force included the elite Sayeret Matkal unit (the “Unit”), led by Lt. Col. Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, along with Air Force pilots, Golani infantrymen and other forces.

The rescue was a deadly gamble. Up until the last minute, the Israeli government vacillated about whether it should be approved; the planes were already in the air before the go-ahead was given.

Yet against all odds, all but three hostages were safely rescued. And only one Israeli soldier was killed in the operation – the commander of the elite special forces unit, Yoni Netanyahu. Following his death, the Israeli government decided to rename the mission “Operation Jonathan.”

Iddo Netanyahu, Yoni’s brother, himself a member of the same Unit, researched and wrote about the raid, publishing two books about it, one of which, “Yoni’s Last Battle,” appeared in English.

On this 40th anniversary of the raid, another book has appeared, in Hebrew, titled “Operation Jonathan First Hand.” This is a collection of testimonies written by 35 men of Sayeret Matkal who participated in the raid and its preparation. Israel’s Ynet News received pre-publication exclusivity to the material and has released a three-part seriesbased on the accounts.

It seems that the men of the Unit decided to publish their accounts, for the very first time, as a response to numerous erroneous and misleading reports that have appeared over the years about the raid and about their commander Yoni.

The author of the Ynet series, Ronen Berman, writes, “Yoni Netanyahu’s memory has suffered several blows since the operation because of ego and politics. That was the case when the most comprehensive and thorough investigation of the operation, written by his brother Iddo, was unjustifiably presented as a biased version of events. That was also the case when some tried to minimize (Yoni) Netanyahu’s part in the planning of the operation and in leading it.”

With all this in mind, I asked Iddo Netanyahu to tell me more about Entebbe, his brother Yoni’s legacy as the commander of the operation, and what Iddo has learned in the process of documenting the story.

* * *

First of all why have you devoted some much time to research and writing about the Entebbe Operation?

“Because I believe in the need to document history correctly. I am the son of a historian, and maybe this view of mine is in my genes. But I think that for anyone really, truth is important. Ten years after Entebbe, I saw things being written and said about the raid and about Yoni that were patently false. And so I wanted to document the facts.

“At that time, I was the first person to interview the Unit’s participants in the raid. Strangely enough, the army did not do so, being satisfied with interviewing only one officer of the Unit. Thus, the military documentation was erroneous and slipshod, and a false account took hold in the army, which in large measure served as the basis for nearly all the subsequent literature about it.”

The raid has been described as a textbook hostage rescue operation. Yet it had to be accomplished in just a matter of days. What were the biggest risks the rescuers faced?

“There were several risks. One of them was the fact that if the Hercules cargo planes would be shot and incapacitated by missiles or even gunfire, there would be no way for the men to come back. This was due to the simple reason that Israel did not have the capability of rescuing them.

“The second, more immediate risk was to 33 men of the Sayaret Matkal unit, who were the first to land and who carried out the heart of the operation. Their task was to storm the terminal, kill the terrorists, fight the Ugandan army, and free the hostages. Just six people were to enter the large hall in the first seconds, where all 10 terrorists might be. The Unit wasn’t used to those kinds of odds.

“In a rescue operation like this, you don’t enter spraying fire, because you’ll be killing the very people you’re trying to rescue. You have to enter the hall and first determine where are the terrorists – who might be aiming their weapons on you – and only then shoot them. It’s very dangerous. As it turned out, there were only four terrorists watching over the hostages in the hall. The rest were elsewhere.

“The soldiers would also be facing an unknown number of Ugandan troops. Again, there were only 33 Sayeret Matkal members confronting numerous Ugandan soldiers in the building and around it.

“These seemingly poor odds were brought up by the Unit’s soldiers in discussion with Yoni, and he had to address them. Yoni believed that the men could overcome these odds because they were far better soldiers than the terrorists or the Ugandans, and he tried to calm their fears. He stressed the same thing in his last briefing to his men, before they took off for Entebbe, ‘You’re better soldiers than anyone there and you will succeed.’

“The men have said that he was able to give them tremendous confidence in their ability. So yes, it was an operation with great risks, but it succeeded – because of good planning, good execution, and the courage of the soldiers.”

How did Yoni help convince the powers-that-be that the operation should move forward?

“Well, not only he. But Yoni himself met with the Defense Minister, Shimon Peres, who called him in for a one-on-one meeting – something unheard of, that is, a defense minister meeting in this way with a lieutenant colonel. But Peres wanted to know firsthand from the man would lead the rescue party whether he thought the plan would succeed.

“Yoni explained to him why he thought the odds were very favorable and told him that the number of casualties among the hostages would be minimal. Peres was convinced.

“But Yoni wasn’t the only one making the case for the raid. In large measure, it was the officers in the army, who felt that the operation should be done, that caused the government to change heart. This was the same government that voted two days before the raid to agree to the terrorists’ demands.

The pressure upwards came from various men, whether the Deputy Chief of Staff Yekutiel Adam, who moved the preparations forward. Or from the head of the Israeli Air Force, Beni Peled. Or from many officers besides Yoni, including Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron who headed the ground operation. All this, in turn, influenced the Chief of Staff, Motta Gur, and finally the government and Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin.

“But Yoni’s meeting with the Defense Minister was without a doubt of crucial importance.”

Describe some of the intelligence that made the raid possible.

“The operation couldn’t have been undertaken if the hijackers hadn’t released the non-Israeli hostages. These were flown to Paris, and less than two days before the planes took off, an Israeli officer interviewed a few of them. They described where the hostages were located, how many there were, the floor plan of the building, and other details. The operation couldn’t be put together until the planners, both Yoni and his staff officers in the Unit, and commanders above the Unit, had that information.

“Another uncertainty was how many Ugandan soldiers surrounded the building.

“To answer that question, a member of the Mossad flew to Entebbe Airport in a small plane. He pretended that his aircraft was in trouble, managed to land there and took pictures both while he was hovering above the airport and while he was taking off afterwards. Those photographs proved that there was no huge Ugandan cordon surrounding the terminal.

“This agent phoned in his report, then sent his photos, which were given to the Israeli soldiers just as they were about to leave on the mission. The information allowed the Chief of Staff to recommend to the cabinet that the operation be approved.”

Were the Entebbe runway lights turned off at night?

“That was a major consideration, whether the planes could land in a darkened airfield. But the head of the Hercules squadron, Joshua Shani, assured the Chief of Staff that, yes, he would be able to do so. They had developed a mechanism for landing by radar, but it was not perfected. In fact, they had never yet actually done it on a darkened airfield. But Shani said, “We can do it.” The Chief of Staff didn’t quite buy it. “Show me,” he said. So Shani flew him all the way to Sinai, to an airport we had there, to demonstrate that he could land in the dark. But before the demonstration, unknown to the Chief of Staff, he practiced landing on that very runway during daylight. So he cheated a little.

“Once again, this shows the resolve of the officers from below. He was just a Lt. Col., like Yoni, and the same age. But the attitude of those officers was that this operation needed to be done.”

Things didn’t go as planned as the commandos raided the terminal building. Describe what happened.

“No operation ever goes exactly as planned, but like my brother’s deputy, Yiftah Reicher, said, the operation went more according to plan than any other operation he’d participated in.

“As the Mercedes – painted black to mimic Idi Amin’s limo – and two jeeps approached the terminal, they encountered two Ugandan guards, exactly at the spot where Yoni had placed in rehearsal such ‘Ugandan’ guards. They ordered the convoy to stop. The Israelis, who were wearing Ugandan uniforms, were able to get to within a few feet of them without problem, then shot at them with silenced weapons, but finally had to neutralize them with open gunfire.

“At that point the convoy rushed forward, and in seconds they arrived near the Old Terminal. Yoni stopped the vehicles at a spot that would give them cover. The got out quickly and moved toward the terminal. All went more or less according to plan up until then.

“But then the officer who was assigned to lead the force decided, for reasons unknown, to stop the charge. He took cover at the corner of the terminal and shot forward. That halted the entire assault. Nobody could pass him because he was shooting forward.

“This was a critical moment, because the terrorists would very soon realize that there was an invading force, and start mowing down the hostages.

“The officer did not move, despite Yoni’s shouts at him. But once he stopped shooting, Yoni himself moved forward and shouted to the men to follow him.

“At that point, they remembered what Yoni had told them before they left for Entebbe. ‘Things will go wrong,’ he said. ‘Thing will not go exactly according to plan. All you have to remember this: you have to reach the hostages as quickly as possible and kill the terrorists. Just do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal.’

“And that’s what they did, even as Yoni was hit by gunfire in those very seconds, while they moved forward.

“They entered the hall and succeeded in killing the terrorists before the terrorists could kill the hostages. Only three hostages died in the process. The Entebbe raid was a success.”

* * *

In the morning following the raid, around 100 weary but grateful hostages disembarked in Tel Aviv from the cargo hold of an IAF Hercules aircraft, welcomed ecstatically by thousands of Israelis. Only the death of one Israeli soldier, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, cast a shadow of sorrow over the celebration.

Hours later, in the midst of the July 4 bicentennial festivities in America, then-President Gerald Ford made a proclamation:

“Our own Bicentennial Independence Day was enhanced by an event at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. That action of liberation freed our own hearts to fuller understanding of the universal meaning of independence – and the courageous action sometimes required to preserve it.”

Silence is deafening as attacks on Christians continue to grow

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 09:54:58 -0400

The sights, sounds and scents of Jerusalem are kaleidoscopic and ever changing. When I first arrived in Israel in 2006, I realized that it would take a lifetime to see and appreciate the endless array of cityscapes, holy sites, museums, gardens, archeological digs and – most wonderful of all – the colorful people that surrounded me.

I suppose that’s why I wasn’t all that impressed at the sight of some ugly, spray-painted graffiti a friend pointed out to me in Bethlehem. “It’s Arabic,” she explained. “And it means, ‘First comes Saturday, then comes Sunday.’”

“And that means…what?”

“It’s a jihadi slogan. It means, more accurately, ‘On Saturday we kill the Jews; on Sunday we kill the Christians.’”

That was outrageous. But like a lot of new things, it was soon eclipsed by other discoveries. In fact, I forgot about it altogether till I attended IDC’s Herzliya Conference in 2009 – an annual policy and strategy gathering. That year, I wandered into a panel discussion about something I’d never heard of – “The Forgotten Refugees.”

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I was bewildered watching panelists and participants, who were speaking with great emotion about Jews – often themselves and their families – who fled Muslim lands between 1948 and 1970. What were they talking about?

Short version: after seeing their friends and loved ones imprisoned, tortured and sometimes killed, 850,000 Jews left behind their homes and millennia of history with nothing but the shirts on their backs. Many are now in Israel.

But it wasn’t until I actually began to research the story of those “Forgotten Refugees” that I began to understand the slogan: “On Saturday we kill the Jews.” Why? Because with virtually no Jews left to persecute in those Muslim countries, “On Sunday we kill the Christians.”

A few examples:

In 1948 there were about 135,000 Jews in Iraq. Today less than 10 Jews remain.

Since 2003, more than half of Iraq’s Christian population of 800,000 has fled. One horrific church bombing October 31, 2010, killing 58, made the news. But there was much more. As international human rights lawyer Nina Shea testified in a Congressional hearing:

“…In August 2004…five churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. On a single day in July 2009, seven churches were bombed in Baghdad…The Archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped and killed in early 2008. A bus convoy of Christian students were violently assaulted. Christians…have been raped, tortured, kidnapped, beheaded, and evicted from their homes…”

In 1948, there were some 100,000 Jews in Egypt. Today there are less than 50.
Since late 2010, Egypt’s Coptic Christian community – 8,000,000 strong – has been under assault – tens of thousands have fled.

In recent months, the Christians have been blamed for the demise of the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime.

In the span of just three days, between August 14 and 16, 38 Churches were destroyed; 23 were vandalized. Fifty-eight Coptic homes were burned and looted. Eighty-five Copt-owned shops, 16 pharmacies and 3 hotels were demolished. Six Christians were killed; seven Copts were kidnapped.

In 1948, there were around 30,000 Jews in Syria. Today less than a dozen remain.

Now hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians have fled; others are bleeding and dying, often targeted by Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels who demand that they convert to Islam or die.

And elsewhere? Just this past Saturday, a massacre in a Nairobi mall took the lives of 68 people. Their al-Shabab killers ordered all Muslims to safely leave the scene; they shot the rest.

On Sunday, more than 80 Pakistani Christians were killed in a church bombing.

Jewish friends, neighbors and colleagues are shocked but not entirely surprised by such stories. They are rather puzzled, however, by what appears to be a lack of anxiety, action or advocacy on the part of Western Christians.

“Yes, it’s horrific,” we seem to be saying, “But what can we do?”

If we Sunday people are indeed concerned about the survival of our ancient communities in the Middle East, we may want to heed the advice of the Saturday people:

Pray as if everything depends on God. And act as if everything depends on you.

Did Nobel Committee snub Malala Yousafzai because it was afraid to confront radical Islam?

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:45:12 -0400

Thanks to Facebook I watched the unforgettable clip of Jon Stewart’s touching interview with Malala Yousafzai this week on “The Daily Show” just this morning.

I was reminded of Malala’s story -- she became a well-known champion of women’s education as an eleven-year-old child in Pakistan, writing her own blog and demanding education for girls in her Swat Valley community.

Then almost exactly a year ago, she was rewarded for her efforts with a Taliban bullet to the head. For a few days her life hung in the balance. She survived, thanks to a gifted British medical team.

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And now on Wednesday – sixteen-years-old and gracefully garbed in a sparkling orange veil – Malala left the irrepressible Jon Stewart speechless.

The audience couldn’t stop applauding.

We were all captivated. This amazing young woman was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She had to win!

Only a few minutes after watching the clip, I got an email announcing the Nobel Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), located in The Hague, had been awarded the 2013 prize.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only person whose first reaction was a disappointed shrug.

Really?

How could that brilliant, courageous Pakistani girl be overlooked in favor of some faceless, virtually anonymous agency?

Questions linger. While we can only speculate one can’t help but wonder if there is a political reason why the secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee turned a blind eye to this daring young woman, a target of radical Islamist terrorists?

Scandinavia has certainly seen its share of Muslim rage. Riots raging in Malmo, Sweden. An epidemic of rapes in Norway. Seemingly endless threats and attempted assaults over the publication of cartoons depicting Muhammed in Denmark.

Meanwhile, the progressive leadership in the region has persistently clung to the idea that these events have been symptoms of economic inequality, not of any politico/religious agenda against western culture.

Is it safer for the Nobel Committee to ignore the reality of radical Islamist violence than to risk putting a spotlight on it?

Is it more comfortable to brush off Malala Yousafzai’s story as an unfortunate but isolated incident in some remote village?

Or is it simply politically incorrect to applaud her?

Malala has, indeed, put a face on the threat of terrorism, on the absence of women’s rights in radical Muslim countries, on the bloodthirsty mindset of those who hate western ideas – such as education – and on the indomitable courage of a real, modern-day heroes.

It’s true that the Nobel, once the gold standard for international achievement, has lost some of its luster in recent decades. But it still retains prestige, having once rewarded such giants as Andrei Sakarov, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi, Elie Weisel and more.

So why not Malala?

Naturally there are those who approved of this year’s decision.

The Guardian praised it, calling the OPCW “an unshowy agency” with a “striking success record.”

The immediacy of the Syrian crisis over chemical weapons and their destruction, which is now reportedly underway, could explain the focus on this otherwise obscure group, implying that the decision was made quite recently.

Even before the decision was announced, Tilman Brueck, head of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, stated that the prize should not go to Malala. Brueck told Norwegian news agency NTB that, “I’m not sure it would be suitable, from an ethical point of view, to give the peace prize to a child.”

Never mind the oft-repeated prophecy of future world peace in ‪Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them.’

Asked by host Jon Stewart what she would do if confronted by attackers, Malala explained why she should not use violence:

“If you hit a Talib, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty…You must fight others through peace and through dialogue and through education.

“I would tell him how important education is and that I would even want education for your children as well. That’s what I want to tell you,” she imagined telling her assailant, before adding, “now do what you want.”

If that’s not the embodiment of “peace,” I don’t know what is.

A scary, not merry, Christmas for Christians in the Middle East

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 07:00:40 -0500

Whether the words are “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays,” late December merriment is a given in many parts of the Western world. Either in honor of Jesus’ birth or just because it’s a colorful, glittery season, warm-hearted toasts to friends and loved ones are in order.

And it’s not unusual to hear cautionary warnings here in the United States such as, “Be sure to remember the less fortunate during the holidays.” Or, in more concrete terms, “Your donation is the gift that keeps on giving.”

All of this makes perfect sense in Western countries, where there’s plenty to celebrate and plenty to share.

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But what about the rest of the world? For example, what kind of Christmas can Christian communities in the Middle East expect – not only in the little town of Bethlehem, but beyond?

Apart from Israel, the region once known as the “Cradle of Christianity” is now comprised of Muslim-majority states.

In fact, in the lands of Judeo-Christian beginnings, the people representing those two pre-Islamic faiths are either dwindling or gone altogether. 850,000 Jews were expelled from their ancient homelands between 1948 and 1970. It is estimated that less than 50 Jews remain in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon combined.

And now Christians face the same fate.

In Egypt, the Middle Eastern country with the largest Christian population – at least 10 percent of the population – Christians are at great risk.

In August, at least seven Copts were killed and more than 200 churches and other Christian religious structures, homes and businesses assaulted in the worst attack on Copts since the 14th century. In October, Islamists on motorcycles opened fire on a Coptic wedding party, killing four, including two children. On December 18, a Christian husband and wife were assaulted by Muslim Brothers, who spotted a cross hanging from their car’s mirror.

Many believers who can flee Egypt are doing so; the rest are bracing themselves far continuing waves of violence.

In Syria, in a civil war that has killed more than 100,000, radicalized jihadis are increasingly targeting Christians. Earlier this month, 12 nuns from the village of Ma’alula were kidnapped; abductions, torture, mass killings and beheadings of Christians are reported frequently. An estimated 200,000 Christians have fled Syria; many are living in tents and recently faced days of sub-zero weather during a deadly winter storm.

In Iraq, Canon Andrew White, who is sometimes called the Vicar of Baghdad, reports that Christians are “frightened even to walk to church because they might come under attack. All the churches are targets… We used to have 1.5 million Christians, now we have probably only 200,000 left… There are more Iraqi Christians in Chicago than there are here.”

Meanwhile, an Iraqi imam declares that “wearing red Santa hats is the same as being converted to Christianity; this is a conversion ceremony introduced secretly by the Christians…” According to Sharia law, the imam’s statement is license to kill.

Christians in the Middle East may well celebrate the birth of Jesus with candlelight, prayers and good wishes. But an ever-deepening gloom has fallen, eclipsing festivities. Fear is pervasive, and the sudden demand to “convert or die” is a very real danger. Secular pundits have lamented this; Jewish historians have taken note. Even Britain’s Prince Charles has spoken out on behalf of Middle East Christians.

Yet, strange as it seems, there is little or no outcry from America's churches. Considering their deep roots in biblical history, you’d think they’d be paying closer attention.

A great champion for religious freedom, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is well aware. He aptly observed, in remarks to the British Parliament, that today “…the Patriarch Abraham would have a difficult time surviving in Iraq. Jonah would be hard pressed to make it to Ninevah. And Paul could scarcely travel the road to Damascus.”

Along similar lines, British MP Sir Tony Baldry pointed out that nowadays, in the face of Herod’s edict against Bethlehem’s infants, Joseph would be ill-advised to flee to Egypt with his little family.

Jesus would not be safe in today’s Egypt or anywhere else in the region.

And neither are his followers.

In Nazareth a Christian-Arab priest seeks full integration into Israeli society

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 07:00:40 -0500

On December 6, the son of Nazareth priest, Fr. Gabriel Naddaf, was assaulted and beaten and is now hospitalized. Fr. Naddaf, who is Greek Orthodox, has received death threats for years; the attacker went after his son instead.

Why the intimidation and violence against Fr. Naddaf and his family? It isn’t difficult to connect the dots.

In the Middle East, persecution against the region’s ancient churches continues to smolder, flare and rage out of control. Inflamed by Islamist ideology and specifically targeting Christians, brutality has escalated to unprecedented levels.

The cradle of Christianity is all but going up in flames.

Meanwhile, despite threats about Iran’s nukes and Hamas’ warnings of a third intifada, some Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel are well aware that they live in the region’s only safe haven for their faith. And they have decided to do more than give thanks.

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They want to defend their homeland, and a number of them have chosen to take action. Not only do they want to serve in the IDF, but they also are forming a political party and seeking reforms in Israel’s educational system, insisting that its curriculum include Christian history alongside that of Judaism and Islam.

Father Gabriel Naddaf leads this movement. He is articulate, bold and outspoken. He explained to the Jerusalem Report (Oct 7, 2013). “We want to be fully integrated into Israeli society... This land is holy to us too, and we are partners in it. We live under its protection and we should protect it along with its citizens.

“Given all that is happening in the region,” he says emphatically, “the time has come to discuss this. Now.”

Speaking at a September Jerusalem conference, Fr. Naddaf, Capt. Bishara Shlayan, and a Christian IDF reserve officer, Lt. Shaadi Khalloul, offered their historical perspective.

Technically they are not Arabs, they emphasized, but are part of an ancient Christian community -- a community that did not convert to Islam during the Muslims’ Seventh Century invasion.

“I think we should be referred to as Israeli-Christians,” Capt. Shlayan affirmed, rejecting the Arab-Christian label. “Yes, we speak Arabic. But our nationality is Israeli. And our religion is Christian.”

In fact, they are not only Christian Israelis, they are Zionists.

Theologically grounded in Aramaic and Assyriac liturgy and worship, this population has followed Jesus of Nazareth since he walked among them. Many of them even hail from Nazareth, his hometown – now Israel’s largest Arab city.

In their view, their spiritual heritage has been nearly forgotten, apart from within their churches. At the same time, neighboring Muslims harass and threaten harm while attempting to eradicate Christian shrines, signs and symbols.

In the meantime, thanks to Naddaf and his colleagues’ efforts, the number of Arabic-speaking Christians who have enlisted in the IDF has seen a threefold increase since 2010. The Times of Israel remarked that the number is sufficient to enrage Arab community leaders and politicians.

Of the December 6, Fr. Naddaf says, “My son very much wants to enlist, in the near future, and serve in a combat unit. He believes in what I do, that we all have a home here, that he also needs to give to the country. The country gives him his rights, and should receive what it is due in return. We all need to live here in peace, and protect the existence of the country that we live in, since our future is here.”

Today the young man is recovering from the assault that was clearly intended to send a message -- not only to him but to the whole movement.

Fr. Naddaf has found a strong ally in Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who commented at a recent weekly cabinet meeting, “I have heard about the threats of physical attacks by extremist elements in Israeli society against Christians, Christian Arabs who want to enlist in the IDF, who want to be part of the State of Israel. Against these people is an extremist group that is threatening them. We will not tolerate this; I will not tolerate this. We will use all of our tools to stop these thugs and we will allow whoever – Christian, Muslim and Druze – wants to link their fate even more to the State of Israel and wants to serve in the IDF to do so. We will protect them.”

Syria’s Christians – who will help them?

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 08:00:25 -0500

It all started during the early days of the Arab Spring -- another “peaceful” protest defying another despotic regime. Today, nearly three years later, that protest has exploded into Syria’s ferocious civil war.

Radicalized Sunni warriors have swept across the borders, seized control of moderate forces, and are waging jihad against Iran-backed President Bashar Assad and his Shia fighters.

News reports have grown increasingly horrific: Massacres. Chemical weapons. “Barrel bombs” designed to mutilate. “Infidels” beheaded on YouTube videos. The U.N. has given up trying to accurately update the death toll, which has soared beyond 100,000.

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And in the midst of widespread butchery, Syria’s ancient Christian community is being devastated.

Just days ago, Investors Business Daily reported, "the relentless carnage and horror that has engulfed Syria over the past two and a half years has taken a particularly heavy toll on the country’s Christian minority. An unknown number of civilians, including religious figures, have been kidnapped or killed or remain missing, in a conflagration that seems to have no end…."

Friday, my friend Judy Feld Carr emailed me. “I cannot understand,” she wrote, “why there is not one word in the media about the destruction of the churches in Syria. Nobody even mentions it!”

Judy Feld Carr knows more than her share about dangers emanating from Damascus, and about how an historic population’s way of life can be annihilated. Besides the torture, murder, or flight of thousands of 20th Century Syrian Jews, most of their synagogues, sacred books and millennia of their history are lost forever.

Carr also knows something about activism. Over the course of 30 years, she all but single-handedly smuggled, ransomed or otherwise snatched 3,228 Syrian Jews out of Hafez al-Assad’s iron fist.

Long before the Internet, she tracked down and telephoned courageous rabbis; hid coded messages in books, and identified urgently at-risk Jews. Gradually, Carr raised enough money to ransom them – usually one or two at a time.

Judy Feld Carr’s story is heroic – she deserves far more accolades than she has received. And her concern for Syria’s Christians is genuine. Like many other Jews, she asks why their plight is met with near-complete silence and inaction by Western Christians.

Mass graves have been found in Christian villages. Priests and clergy have been abducted, tortured and murdered. A dozen nuns from the battered Christian village of Ma’alula are still held captive, while their surviving co-believers remain hidden away from the fierce gaze of the “freedom fighters.”

Radical Islam’s hatred of Jews and Christians has long been inscribed in blood across the Muslim world. Today it continues to be writ large in Syria.

Chatter about peace continues, but nothing changes. Geneva II, scheduled for January 22, offers vague possibilities for a truce, but brutality continues to pound the Syrian people into submission or worse.

In October, Nina Shea quoted Syriac Orthodox archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, "We have shouted to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us."

The archbishop’s cry stirs many of us, including Judy Carr. In an interview about the ongoing violence in Syria, she remarked, “Thank God, there are hardly any Jews left there [to kill or torment]. The Christians are next.”

As the saying goes, "First the Saturday People, then the Sunday people."

Of course nowadays, smuggling Christians out of Syria isn’t the answer – hundreds of thousands have already fled, some barely surviving in squalid refugee camps.

Still it bears repeating that not so long ago, one determined woman – a Canadian housewife, mother and music teacher – took action, engaged others, and turned a deadly tide. If Judy Feld Carr could rescue more than 3,000 endangered Jews, what about us?

There are millions of believing Christians in the world. Perhaps together we can awaken dozing Christian leadership. Pound on political doors. Publicly protest. Inform each other. Broadcast the story. Support responsible relief efforts. Watch and pray.

Suppose every Christian took action to help our brothers and sisters in Syria. What might happen?

Syria's Christians face new threat -- "convert, submit to Islam or face sword"

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 13:00:16 -0500

“Convert. Submit to Islam. Or face the sword.” In recent days, the besieged Christian community in Raqqa - a city in northern Syria – has faced those three stark alternatives.

The terrorist group known as ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – made their demands after seizing control of the region. They required the local Christians to renounce their faith and embrace Islam, assent to extreme subjugation, or face death.

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On February 27, ISIS published a statement that an agreement had been signed by 20 of Raqqa’s Christian leaders.

Faced with losing their lives or denying their Christian faith, the community opted for dhimmi status – suppression as a “protected” minority – which requires them to submit to an array of demands, including the notorious jizya tax, which can be compared to Mafiosi protection money: purchasing their safety, but under strictly enforced regulations.

Raqqa’s Christians are now subject to an extreme version of Islamic Shariah law, which among other things forbids them to repair their war-torn churches, worship or pray in public, ring church bells, or wear crosses or other symbols of their faith. Bearing arms is, of course, forbidden, as are alcoholic beverages.

Even before the agreement was signed, on February 22 Lebanon’s Daily Star reported, “ISIS has imposed a strict form of Islam in Raqqa, enforcing the veil and banning cigarettes. They have doled out harsh punishments under Shariah courts for religious crimes, including beatings and executions. In Al-Bab, Aleppo, pictures showing ISIS fighters burning tons of cigarettes were recently published.”

The Christians of Raqqa chose “to sign the dhimma treaty over war,” the ISIS statement explained, and in return received a commitment by local ISIS commander Ibrahim Al-Badri – also known as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – that they would not be subjected to physical harm or religious targeting once the treaty was approved.

ISIS made the case for signing the treaty clear: "If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword."

This subjection of Christians and Jews to dhimmitude has a long history in the Middle East and throughout the greater Muslim world. Although it officially ended after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, its humiliating and unequivocal demands have never been erased from the behavior patterns of communities that suffered under it. And in various ways it is still enforced de facto in some modern Muslim states.

But in today’s Syria, where warlike militias compete to wield power, enhance prestige and impose piety, the command to convert or die is a familiar threat. And although dhimmi status may save lives temporarily, it is null and void if protection money isn’t paid or if the local authorities are somehow offended.

And although Syria’s Christians face exceptional dangers, they aren’t alone in their misery. In recent days, other Christians have also been violently attacked in the Middle East.

On February 16, three Korean pilgrims and an Egyptian Christian bus driver were killed, and more than a dozen injured in a suicide bombing as they drove across the Sinai Peninsula.

Korea’s New Straits Times reported, “The bus was carrying 31 parishioners from Jincheon Jungang Presbyterian Church, which is south of Seoul, and was attempting to travel from Egypt into Israel…the church had long saved money to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its founding with a trip to Biblical sites.”

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In Libya, on February 24, terrorists went door to door in a Benghazi apartment building, asking residents whether they were Muslim or Christian. Seven Egyptian Coptic Christians were seized, taken to a beach and summarily executed – each one shot in the head. An eighth Christian escaped and reported the crime. The outraged Coptic Church in Egypt has demanded further information, and the arrest of the terrorists.

In Syria and in Egypt, in Libya and beyond, Islamist attacks on Christians happen every day: rapes and kidnappings, maiming and murders, houses burned down; churches blown up. Recently in Nigeria, Christians have been massacred by the hundreds.

It’s so pervasive and so constant that our minds struggle to believe it.

Can you imagine a gang of hateful, heavily armed terrorists showing up at your door? Your terrified family is with you, and maybe a few friends. An angry spokesman orders all of you to choose – at gunpoint, then and there – to convert to Islam, surrender, or die.

Believe it or not, it’s an ever-increasing scenario.

In fact, in some form or other, it’s probably going on somewhere right now.

Why "Vicar of Baghdad" is 21st Century hero

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:00:12 -0500

News in the Middle East is rarely uplifting. On a daily basis, a roiling brew of fanaticism, insurgency and hatred boils over into country after country, yielding death and destruction.

In a region beset with such turmoil, it is highly unusual to come across someone who rises above the fray and – without a trace of cynicism – offers a message of hope. Thankfully, just such a voice was heard in Jerusalem this past weekend.

Reverend Canon Andrew White is an Anglican priest from Great Britain who is affectionately known as the “Vicar of Baghdad.” A large silver cross graces his chest; he walks with a cane and speaks with a faint impediment because of his personal battle with multiple sclerosis.

In 2003, shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, White reopened St. George’s Church in Baghdad. Today, he divides his time in several ways.

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He tends to the needs of the people in his war-torn parish, distributing food and medical care to both Christians and Muslims.

He travels across wide swaths of North America and Britain, seeking to raise awareness and funds.

He also tries to bring together Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders in his never-ending quest to restrain religiously incited violence.

White’s indefatigable efforts entail his own medical issues, and they are acted out against an increasingly bloodstained backdrop.

Wednesday morning, Al-Arabiya’s headlines proclaimed that three separate bombs had ripped into the heart of Baghdad. Dozens were injured and more than 20 were killed.

Last month alone, 1,013 people in Iraq – 795 civilians, 122 soldiers and 96 policemen – died as a result of violence.

As Canon White spoke at Jerusalem’s Narkis Congregation on Saturday morning, he lamented that 1,096 of his own parishioners have been killed in the past five years.

Yet despite these horrific statistics, St. George’s continues to provide food and clothing for the neighborhood, and it maintains a clinic offering medical and dental help. And the church’s numbers have not diminished. Even some 600 Muslim women worship there (White makes a point of saying that he does not seek to convert them). Somehow, the church is holding its own.

But the same cannot be said for Iraq’s greater Christian community. Christians are vanishing, going the way of the Jews before them.

There were once 135,000 Jews in Iraq; according to White, only six remain.

And Iraq’s Christians have fled by the hundreds of thousands in recent years. Out of 1.5 million in 2003, only around 200,000 remain. “There are more Iraqi Christians in Chicago than in Iraq,” White said. “Chicago, Detroit and Sweden. That’s where you’ll find Iraq’s Christians today.”

This is particularly tragic, because both the Jewish and Christian communities in Iraq are ancient and indigenous. They are neither post-colonial nor the result of Western missionary activity.

In fact, Iraq’s Christian community is one of the oldest in the world, dating to the first century. An early tradition says it was founded by St. Thomas – “Doubting Thomas,” one of Jesus’ 12 disciples – and others who shared his faith. Many churches still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

Nina Shea, director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., writes, “American leadership has responded to the plight of Iraq’s Christians as if they are an inconvenient fact that gets in the way of ‘real’ American interests. In fact, Iraq’s Christian presence is critically important to its peace, democracy, and prosperity. The Christians are a segment of that population that is politically moderate, educated, skilled and well represented in the professions. Furthermore, without them, Iraq loses its religious diversity and its experience of coexistence with the religious ‘other.' Drained of this segment of its population, Iraq’s ability to succeed as a nation in any modern understanding of the term will be that much more difficult.”

The Christians who remain in Iraq today face constant danger; they risk being targeted for their faith or caught in others’ crossfire or suicide bombings. Many of them are penniless, and even if they could afford to flee, no safe haven awaits them; there is no Israel for Christians.

Feeding them, clothing them and treating their medical needs is the never-ending work of St. George’s Church.

Meanwhile, Canon White persists in alerting the West to Iraq’s diminishing Christian presence. In doing so, he embodies the remaining believers’ vulnerability and teaches us to weep with those who weep.

Such is the vocation of the indomitable Vicar of Baghdad.

Praying for him will strengthen his hands and honor his faithfulness.

And finding practical ways to inspire and encourage the remaining Christian believers in Iraq will let them know that they are surely not forgotten.

Christians in captivity -- the agony of waiting

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:45:32 -0400

Patience is in short supply these days. Despite our instant communication capabilities, just about everyone is waiting for something. The phone doesn’t ring. The cable guy never shows up. A check is always “in the mail.”

Last week I found my own patience stretched into a thin membrane by a pile of complaints – thankfully small ones. But mostly I was struck by the inevitable silence of waiting. When we’re hoping for answers, no news is far from good news.

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And in fact, it was bad news that distracted me from my own woes as a headline scrolled down my iPhone. “Asia Bibi appeal hearing postponed.”

Asia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian, and her name is familiar to those of us who follow international human rights. Her story is almost unbelievable – and all too true:

“In June 2009, Asia was involved in an argument with a group of Muslim women with whom she had been harvesting berries, after the other women became angry at her for drinking the same water as them. She was subsequently accused of insulting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, a charge she denies, and was arrested and imprisoned. In November 2010, a Sheikhupura judge sentenced her to death. If executed, Asia would be the first woman in Pakistan to be lawfully killed for blasphemy.”

Many have spoken out on Asia Bibi’s behalf, including Pope Benedict. Two prominent Pakistanis, Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister for Christian minorities, and Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab, were assassinated in 2011 for opposing Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws on her behalf.

Nonetheless, since 2009, this falsely accused woman has been on death row in a filthy prison cell, wondering if and when her death sentence will enforced. She longs for husband and five children. Day and night, in squalid surroundings, she fights off her fears, endures physical illness and prays.

Unsure if she will live or die, Asia Bibi waits.

Another story emerged last week from Iran, about US-citizen and former Muslim Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is serving an eight-year sentence because he “undermined the Iranian government by creating a network of Christian house churches and ... attempting to sway Iranian youth away from Islam."

Despite urgent requests for medical care – his body is internally wounded from abominable prison conditions including beatings and torture – he was denied treatment. Eventually, presumably under pressure from several international organizations’ outcry, Abedini was taken to a medical center, unshackled and even permitted a brief visit from a family member.

What happened after that? Once the encouraging proceedings passed, Abedini was still in pain, still bleeding from internal injuries. He remains hospitalized but untreated. Like Asia Bibi, he is the focus of much international prayer and non-governmental activism. Even the EU has spoken up, as has President Obama. But Abedini is entirely unsure about the future. Will he see his wife and two small children again? Will he live or die? He has been behind bars since September 26, 2012.

The family watches and keeps faith. Concerned people post and tweet and pray.

And day in, day out, Saeed Abedini waits.

Other captives are waiting, along with their loved ones, in Egypt. According to my friend and colleague, Coptic scholar Samuel Tadros, the big stories of church burnings and murdered Christians have diminished somewhat under Cairo’s new military regime.

But less publicized evils remain. Most notably, kidnappings are rampant. On March 20, MidEast Christians News reported that two young women, 17 and 18, were abducted in separate incidents just days before.

Coptic World observed, “Coptic children or adults abducted at gunpoint and held (and sometimes killed or forced to convert to Islam) by “unknown persons” in exchange for money—are on the rise in Egypt…”

Muslim kidnappings of Christians are also taking place in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and beyond. Captives are often raped, beaten, forcibly married, starved and eventually, if financial terms aren’t met, murdered.

Meanwhile, the victims’ loved ones worry, weep and console each other. Of course, like all believers they pray, recalling the ancient promise:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Is 40:31).

So hoping against hope, they wait.

Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and abuses have surged exponentially in recent years. At the same time, the United States government, once a global champion of religious freedom, offers dwindling intervention.

Reliance solely on the nations of the world to act, diplomatically or politically – with rare and notable exceptions – will likely result in the longest wait of all.

And waiting is agonizing.

Passover & Holy Week in Jerusalem: Remembering miracles

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:57:09 -0400

During the sacred week of Easter and Passover, Jerusalem’s streets are swept, sun-washed and graced by flowers of every color and fragrance, and sacred celebrations embrace both Jewish and Christian traditions, marking a season of miracles.

Ancient stories are told and retold, putting smiles on the faces of children and grownups alike, recounting freedom from enslavement, the triumph of life over death, and God’s intervention into a world of trouble.

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These are days when exuberant hope carries the whole city along in its excitement.

Palm Sunday saw the pathway from the Mount of Olives to the Old City teeming with joyous Christian pilgrims from all around the world, singing, chanting and waving palm fronds in remembrance of Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem.

At the same time, Jewish families and friends were arriving in Jerusalem from near and far by the tens of thousands. And at sundown on Monday, they congregated for the Seder – the deeply symbolic Passover meal that recounts the Israelites’ ancient flight from Egyptian slavery. The sounds of singing, storytelling and Bible recitation wafted from neighborhood windows.

The Passover story culminates, of course, in the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. And lest they forget the drama that led up to it, Jews continue to eat unleavened bread – matzo – for the rest of the week, recalling their hasty flight.

Meanwhile, Christians enter Holy Week reflecting on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Rituals of sorrow, repentance and loss represent myriad Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions.

Then every imaginable Christian custom converges into Easter, when the miracle of the Resurrection – the cosmic triumph of life over death – is spoken and sung and shouted inside sanctuaries and echoed in the ringing of church bells across the Holy Land.

For an entire week, both Jews and Christians remember, rejoice and return to the foundations of their faiths, both of which are deeply rooted in the miraculous.

But this year, the radiance of the holidays has been darkened by violence. On Sunday, the eve of Passover, a Kansas City Jewish Center and Jewish retirement home were attacked, allegedly by a former KKK “Grand Wizard,” and three people were killed. Ironically, all of the victims were Christians. The killer’s poisonous venom sickened both communities.

Also on Sunday, Nigeria’s infamous terrorist group Boko Haram murdered at least 200 Christians in attacks on several towns in Borno State.

And on Monday, just minutes after the Jerusalem siren heralded the Passover feast, a terrorist shot and killed an Israeli father near Hebron. The victim’s family also suffered gunshot injuries, and two were hospitalized.

Despite the millennia of their survival, Jews are never allowed to forget for long the anti-Semitic hatred that shadows them. And as the most persecuted religious group in the world, Christians also face unprecedented dangers.

The 20th century saw 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands between 1948 and 1970. Today, fewer than 5000 Jews remain in those Muslim countries, where Christians now face the same violence, pogroms, rapes and murders that drove out the Jews. As the jihadi saying goes, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People.”

Not many miles to the north of Jerusalem, Hezbollah’s spiritual leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has summed up his malignant worldview: "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death.”

But we “People of the Book” share a happier alternative. In the words of Moses, “… I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deut. 30:19)

It is true that Christians and Jews have significant religious disparities, and for the sake of mutual respect, we sometimes have to agree to disagree. Meanwhile, the tragic history of pogroms and anti-Semitic abuses, in the name of Christianity, has led to widespread mistrust.

But these days, we are learning to find common ground and to stand together on it. And it’s about time we did.

When Christians contemplate the oft-painted “Last Supper,” they don’t always recognize that it was a Seder, shared on the eve of Passover. Jesus broke the bread, blessed the wine, and at the end, as traditional Jews always do, he and his friends sang a hymn before they went out – to a Roman crucifixion.

For millennia, people have discovered and deepened friendships around dinner tables. And during this sacred season, Jews and Christians are sitting down together simply to break bread, enjoy good company, and invoke God’s blessing on one another.

Because, in reality, we are natural allies in an increasingly dangerous world. And we have good reason to join forces.

For one thing, whatever our challenges, we have not forgotten how to pray.

For another, when in comes to matters of life and death, we can count on each other to choose life.

And most important of all, we still believe in miracles.

The stuff of nightmares: Christians forced from homes in Syria's Kassab

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:00:27 -0400

An Armenian friend on Facebook alerted me to the tragic story of Kassab, Syria: On March 21, Sunni rebels violently expelled around 2,500 Armenian Christians from their picturesque and historic town.

Early that Friday morning, Kassab was violently attacked, its churches desecrated, its families driven out. Since then, Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists have occupied the town’s abandoned homes and businesses.

A large number of the terrified residents fled – mostly on foot – about 35 miles to Latakia, a Syrian Army stronghold. With a sizable Christian population, Latakia has struggled to provide them with shelter and sustenance.

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Although much of Syria’s Christian population is comprised of Syriac, Maronite and Eastern Orthodox believers, some 70,000 Armenians have long been part of the faith’s colorful tapestry. And though they have received little attention during the country’s civil war, thousands have had to flee, some 10,000 to Armenia itself.

As Kassab’s story became more widespread, eyewitness reports started to appear:

“Before sunrise, we woke up to the horror of a shower of missiles and rockets falling on our town. Thousands of extremists crossed the borders towards our town. Missiles were fired from Turkey to destroy beautiful Kassab and to celebrate the approach of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Kassabtsi heroes defended the town with their simple hunting weapons…”

“Two men, Minas Soghomonian and Joseph Kilaghbian, who called their own homes were greeted by militants who said, ‘We are enjoying your food’…. Another displaced Kassab resident, Paren Hovsepian … was told by the intruders, in Turkish, that he had nice furniture.”

“We had to flee only with our clothes. We couldn't take anything, not even the most precious thing – a handful of soil from Kassab. We couldn't take our memories…”

Particularly infuriating to Kassab’s displaced families was the report that Turkish soldiers, who were supposedly guarding the nearby border, did nothing to stop the invading rebels.

The Turkish government adamantly denies complicity in the attack on Kassab, but Armenians have not forgotten historic massacres at the hands of Turks, who decimated their communities in the early 20th century.

Kassab’s residents were not only expelled from their homes in 1909. They were driven out again in 1915, during the infamous genocide, when as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

The image of frightened families running for their lives with their children, their elderly and their disabled is the stuff of nightmares. And for me, that scenario was particularly disturbing, because I was already focused on an eerily similar story, but from another time and place.

As the Kassab reports began to emerge, I was reading the oral histories of two young Polish Jews, each of them fleeing, on foot, from the Germans in the early 1940s.

My interest in these Jewish teenagers was personal. One of them became a physician in America. Only recently had I learned that, as a youth, Dr. Joseph Rebhun jumped off a train to Auschwitz, was shot in the head and somehow survived.

His story mattered to me because, years later, this same Dr. Rebhun saved my life in a California hospital.

The other young refugee whose story I was reading would become his wife, Maria.

In their separate accounts, each of these young Jewish survivors described the terror that gripped them while running from German bombs and hiding from live gunfire. They spoke of summoning all their strength to help weakened siblings and elderly parents to a safe haven. They related the desperation of mothers carrying infants while struggling to protect toddlers.

As I read, I breathed in the grateful thought, Thank God those terrible days are over.

Then I heard about Kassab.

Clearly, such terrible days aren’t over at all. Not for Syria’s war-ravaged population. Not for Kassab’s Armenian Christians. Not as long as there are bloodthirsty killers inflicting devastation anywhere in this troubled world.

As these stories interwove in my thinking, I recalled a famous quote from Adolf Hitler.

In 1939, when he announced his plan to liquidate Poland’s Jews, he cynically remarked – as if to establish a prototype for his “final solution” – “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

On April 24, millions of Armenians worldwide will, indeed, speak of that annihilation. Genocide Memorial Day takes place every year on that date, in remembrance of the million and a half victims who died between 1915 and 1923.

In Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, hundreds of thousands will carry flowers to be placed around the genocide memorial’s eternal flame.

This year in particular, as April 24 approaches, maybe we should make a point of remembering the Armenians. And the Jews. And Kassab.

Along with lighting a candle in the window, as we offer up a prayer for a better world, perhaps we should also quietly repeat that simple vow: never again.

Francis in Bethlehem: Will pope hear about abuse of Palestinian Christians?

Fri, 23 May 2014 14:00:15 -0400

On Sunday and Monday, May 25 and 26, Pope Francis will visit the Palestinian Territories and Israel during his first papal trip to the Holy Land.

His Holiness will spend much of Sunday in Bethlehem, where roads have been repaired, flags raised, marching bands rehearsed, graffiti painted over, and security preparations cautiously organized.

The public will welcome the pope to the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth, where he’ll celebrate Mass at 11 am. His arrival will be greeted with jubilant throngs of ordinary locals who long for a word of blessing and a promise of peace.

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But what will the pope learn in Bethlehem?

In a scheduled meeting with the Palestinian Authority, he will doubtless hear from local politicians that the ancient city is suffering economically because of the Israeli security fence – in some places a wall – surrounding it. He is scheduled to meet Palestinian children at the Dehaishe refugee camp. He will most certainly receive complaints about the “occupation.”

But which occupation?

For centuries, Bethlehem was a Christian city, with believers comprising around 80% of the population as recently as 50 years ago. Today, however, it is less than 15% Christian, and that number continues to dwindle. Bethlehem is increasingly occupied by Muslims, some of whom exert great pressure on their Christian neighbors.

Since the Oslo Accords, it’s been the unspoken rule that “what happens to Christians in Bethlehem stays in Bethlehem.” That is beginning to change, however, thanks to young, courageous Christians like Christy Anastas.

In a hard-hitting video released in April, Christy described what life was like for her and her Christian family in Bethlehem, and why she has begun to speak out against the multiple injustices, lack of free speech and abuse of women in her hometown.

“Breaking through the silence and fear faced by so many Palestinians,” Luke Moon reported, “Christy described how her uncle, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, had to pay the al-jizyah, protection money that is often levied against non-Muslims. After some time her uncle refused to pay…. Because of his refusal to pay up he was murdered in front of his house.”

Christy even dared to say that if she had been Israel’s Prime Minister during the 2nd Intifada, she too would have put up a security barrier to stop the suicide bombings. This is especially poignant, because her family home is surrounded by the wall – on three sides.

Her story is alarming – she has received political asylum in Britain because of death threats from one of her own family members; others have disowned her. During a recent interview, I found Christy to be not only brave and eloquent, but utterly convincing.

And now, perhaps thanks to her courage, others are also speaking out.

Recently a young Bethlehem man – who will remain unnamed – told me about an attack on a Christian church. I passed it on to Dexter VanZile, who posted the story for CAMERA SnapShots.

“A Bethlehem Greek Orthodox Church (St. George's Church -- Khadar -- near Beit Jala) was attacked by Muslims during its annual St. George's Day services on May 6. ... Some local Muslims either tried to park a car too close the church and/or tried to enter the church during a service honoring St. George -- the initial instigation isn't clear. …Several then started throwing stones at the church.”

Windows were broken, one worshipper was stabbed, and several others were injured. We later learned later that a young man’s face was badly beaten, requiring two surgeries. And as a smart-phone video revealed, the police didn’t arrive promptly enough to prevent damage, injuries and terror.

Those aren’t the only stories. Now that the silence has been broken, reports abound about confiscated Christian property, honor killings and sexual molestation.

Will the pope hear about these abuses against Christians?

VanZile, who is Catholic, is doubtful. “The pope’s trip to Bethlehem highlights the bind Christians are in. If he doesn’t go, he misses an opportunity to show people how important the city is to Christians world wide. But when he does go, his presence will be used to score propaganda points to demonstrate just how wonderful Christians have it under the PA.

“It’s just a mess. It’s an open scandal and everyone knows it, but no one can really talk about it.”

Since it’s unlikely that Pope Francis will hear candid reports from local Christians during his rather formal visit to Bethlehem, I asked Christy Anastas what she would say to him if she had the opportunity. In her response, she surely speaks for countless others.

“I would ask the pope to recognize that the Palestinian Christians are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their problems are compounded because people only focus on the rock, Israel, but ignore the hidden injustices of the hard place – the Palestinian territories. These territories are increasingly being impacted by radical Islamists, whose ideologies are similar to those of Hamas....The pope must look at regional trends [such as Syria, Egypt and Iraq] and understand that the West Bank is just one small step away from replicating these.”

Kidnapped Nigerian girls: We must act fast against Boko Haram terrorists

Tue, 06 May 2014 16:03:52 -0400

Young girls who hope to improve their lives through education sometimes risk attracting the evil eye of radical Muslim terrorists.

One early lesson about Islamism and female schooling was taught to us by a remarkably courageous teenager, Malala Yousafzai. At 15 she was already an activist for education, encouraging young Pakistani girls to attend school and better themselves.

The Taliban shot her in the head.

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Malala is recovering from her injury, and undeterred by continuing death threats, she tirelessly pursues her mission.

Meanwhile, world attention has been turned to different group of young female students and another brutal scenario.

On April 14, the terrorist group Boko Haram abducted more than 230 Nigerian girls at gunpoint from their Chibok boarding school. Their heavily-armed kidnappers shot two armed guards, herded the terrified girls into buses, vans and trucks and drove them off into the night. Only a few escaped.

The girls’ devastated parents haven’t seen them since. They are beside themselves, desperate to rescue their daughters.

Recent reports have made the bad news worse, indicating that the girls are to be sold as wives to jihadis – for about $12 each. Or, perhaps, marketed by sex traffickers.

The story of the missing Nigerian schoolgirls first appeared in scattershot Western reports. But it failed to gain much traction, even after the kidnapped girls had been missing for more than two weeks.

Hannah Strange put it well in the Telegraph, “…such an event would be a major departure from the norm on our shores, but in the grim litany of almost weekly bomb attacks and killings that have come to characterize Nigeria’s five-year Islamist uprising, which has claimed an estimated 1,500 lives this year alone, it is, tragically, not quite as extraordinary.”

Initially, the Nigerian story was circulated almost entirely by social media, where it was increasingly Liked, Shared and Tweeted. Before long, the hashtag #bringbackourgirls appealed globally for help.

And now at last, major news agencies have begun to write about it. But why did it take so long?

Would the abduction have been more compelling to Western readers if 200 blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls had been abducted? Wouldn’t there have been myriad heartrending stories about their families, their photos, their hopes and dreams?

In fact, a group of bright, young African students may well be sold into sexual slavery or worse. And that’s only part of a larger nightmare scenario in their homeland

Thousands of Nigerian Christians have been slaughtered in recent years by Boko Haram, and thousands more have fled. Victims have been burned alive in their churches, murdered in their homes and massacred in the streets of the villages.

It has become a gruesomely familiar story.

The name Boko Haram is shorthand in the Hausa language for “Western education is sinful,” and its followers observe a Koranic declaration: "Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors."

In their view, any form of education that contradicts the group’s radical Islamist views -- including teaching Christianity in schools and churches -- is subject to ferocious violence and mass murder.

The education of girls is entirely forbidden. And the captivity, rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery of young women embodies Boko Haram’s low view of females. It also provides a menacing look at the Caliphate the group hopes to establish in Nigeria and the surrounding territories.

In many ways Boko Haram mirrors the Taliban’s fierce intentions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Which brings us back to Malala.

Tuesday, on her website, she held a sign saying “#Bringbackourgirls.” She and the Malala Fund are pleading with Nigeria and the international community for urgent action.

“These abducted schoolgirls are my sisters,” Malala told the New York Times, “and I call on the international community and the government of Nigeria to take action and save my sisters….It should be our duty to speak up for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who are in a very difficult situation.”

And last there is a tiny glimmer of hope. Fox News is now reporting that the White House plans to send a team to Nigeria that would include U.S. military and law enforcement personnel. Stressing that the kidnappings happened 22 days ago, spokesman Jay Carney pointed out,

"Time is of the essence. Appropriate action must be taken to locate and to free these young women before they are trafficked or killed."

As the saying goes, better late than never.

Tears for Israel’s murdered teenagers

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:00:09 -0400

There’s no question that Israel is located in a very tough and dangerous neighborhood. And these are especially grim days.

The brutality of radical Islamist militias – particularly ISIS – has stunned the world and now threatens the Israel/Syria border of the Golan Heights.

To the north, Lebanon is reeling from deadly explosions and increasing threats of violence, thanks to warring Sunni and Hezbollah (Shia) fighters.

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Meanwhile, a rocket assault from Gaza on Israel’s war-torn southern city of Sderot blew up a factory on Saturday night, sending flames and acrid smoke towering into the sky.

It would have been understandable for Israelis to have forgotten at least momentarily the fate of three young teenage boys -- Gil-Ad Shaer, Naphtali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach – who were kidnapped by terrorists on June 12.

Understandable, perhaps. But not in Israel. In fact, for 18 days, nothing has been closer to the Israeli people’s thoughts and prayers.

Even Americans with ties to the Jewish State sometimes fail to grasp the sense of extended family that exists within Israel.

And apart from out-and-out war, nothing strikes at the heart of the Israeli people more than terrorists doing harm to their children.

Not surprisingly, after the news of the kidnapping first broke, the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys immediately appeared on social media in both English and Hebrew, and similar posts continue day after day.

But far more extraordinary was the national outpouring of emotional and spiritual support for the families and the boys themselves.

Israel is a tiny country in comparison to the United States. But even on the state or local level in America, it is still difficult to imagine a call for the general population to recite a Psalm at a given hour as a united prayer for help.

“Today (6/17/2014) at 1:20 in Israel the entire country is asked to recite aloud Psalm 121 …for the return of our children…”

The request appeared and reappeared on blogs, email chains and was reportedly broadcast on some radio stations.

Meanwhile, prayers and supplications continued night and day at Jerusalem’s Western Wall – the “Wailing Wall, which it certainly has become since the kidnappings.

More than 30,000 worshippers gathered there on one night alone to weep and implore heaven’s help in securing the three young men’s safety and release.

And again, this past Sunday night, tens of thousands of Israelis, from secular to ultra-religious, gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to encourage the boys’ families and to pray for the captives.

However, as those of us who pray eventually learn, sometimes the answer to prayer is “Wait.”

And sometimes Heaven’s answer is “No.”

So it was today.

On Monday night, Israel time, the news everyone dreaded was announced in a press conference: “The IDF confirms bodies of 3 kidnapped teenagers found near Hebron.”

The Times of Israel reported, “The bodies were found at about 5pm, partially hidden in an open field. The parents were informed on Monday evening that the bodies had been found.”

After enduring more terrorist attacks than can be numbered, Israel has faced yet another body count – small in number but enormous in its shattering impact: Three more promising young men, lost to bloodthirsty terrorists.

Once again, the Israeli people weep. And rage. And wrestle with their God. They will sit with the families for seven days of mourning and share their tears. They will remember the joys of the boys’ childhoods, their accomplishments and their dreams.

They will honor Gil-Ad Shaer, Naphtali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach, and never forget them.

And, despite this devastating loss, this infuriating assault on innocent civilian families, this spiritually challenging disappointment, the prayers and hopes of the courageous Israeli people will continue to rise Heavenward….

I lift my eyes to the mountains-from where will my help come?

My help will come from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot falter; your guardian does not slumber.

Indeed, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.

- Psalm 121

The religious cleansing of Iraq's Christians

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 14:10:04 -0400

Just a year ago, after months of bombings, shootings and kidnappings, Baghdad’s Monsignor Pios Cacha made a grim prediction. He said that his Iraqi Christian community was experiencing the kind of religious cleansing that eradicated the country’s once-thriving Jewish community half a century before.

His rather prophetic words made headlines in Lebanon’s Daily Star: "Iraqi Christians fear fate of departed Jews."

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Father Cacha’s reflections couldn’t have been more prescient. As he knew very well, Iraq was once home to 135,000 Jews. Today less than ten Jews remain in the entire country.

And now, with the raging incursion of ISIS – a brutal Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group – the religious cleansing of Iraq’s Christians is nearing completion as well.

Iraq’s Christian community is hardly a western innovation or a colonial relic. It dates from the 1st Century, when two of Jesus’ disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) – preached the Gospel in what was then Assyria. There has been a Christian presence in Iraq ever since.

The heartland of their community has always been in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain. There, in recent years, the Christian population has swelled, as refugees from Basra and Baghdad have sought protection.

And now, as ISIS sweeps through Iraq, an estimated 150,000 have had to flee Mosul and their ancient Christian heartland, some for the second time in a decade.

Thousands of homeless families have surged into Kurdistan, where they have found provisional shelter and security, thanks to the Kurdish people and their battle-hardened Peshmerga militia.

Yet, strange as it seems, few in the West are aware of the Iraqi Christians' plight or their uncertain future.

My Hudson Institute colleague author Nina Shea writes, “The wave of persecution that has been directed at Iraq’s Christians after 2003 has never received much attention by either President Bush or President Obama’s administrations, but it has been a grave human-rights problem. The campaign against Christians has encompassed 70 deliberate church bombings and assaults, as well as assassinations, an epidemic of kidnappings, and other attacks against clergy and laity alike. In recent years, particularly since 2004, a million of Iraq’s Christians have been driven out of the country by such atrocities. This can be rightly called targeted religious cleansing, and it is a crime against humanity.”

Christians in the Middle East know very well about the ferocious system of Islam enforced by ISIS terrorists. When the group attacked Raqqa, Syria earlier this year, they gave the Christians three options: “Convert. Submit to Islam. Or face the sword.”

In order to save lives, Raqqa’s Christian elders chose to submit to ISIS’s 7th Century version of Muslim Sharia law and became dhimmis, a subservient, second-class minority under Islamic rule.

Among other severe demands, particularly about women’s dress, their oppressors also forbade the repair of war-torn churches, worshiping or praying in public, ringing church bells, or wearing crosses or other symbols of faith. Bearing arms is forbidden, and of course alcoholic beverages are banned.

The Christians in Iraq know all too well what they face as ISIS carries out its triumphant assault on Iraq – the terrorists’ vile reputation has preceded them. Images of ISIS beheadings, crucifixions, rapes, torture and mass execution have been widely disseminated on social media, including graphic YouTube videos.

To make matters worse, rather than offer assistance to their Christian neighbors, many Sunni Muslims in the area have simply turned a blind eye or even joined the invaders.

Iraq’s Christians have been left with little choice but to flee.

But where will they go?

In fact, the Middle East is overflowing with refugees. Millions of displaced Syrians are living in tents and shacks, particularly along the borders of Turkey and Jordan.

Thousands of Syria’s Armenian Christians have been relocated to Yerevan and its surrounding communities.

Coptic Christians have fled Egypt by the thousands since the so-called Arab Spring began. Those who remain are hoping and praying for better days under the new President al-Sisi.

And now most of Iraq’s remaining Christians are on the run, too, many of them leaving behind everything they own.

Canon Andrew White, the beloved Anglican “Vicar of Baghdad” reports, "Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been….The army [has] even fled. We urgently need help and support….We are in a desperate crisis."

Some fifty years ago, Iraq’s Jews were able to flee to Israel when they faced similar terror. But there is no Israel for Christians. Where can they go?

With that in mind, I asked my Hudson Institute colleague Hillel Fradkin, an expert on the Middle East, for his thoughts about their future.

“Considering the present developments in Iraq,” he said, “it is almost certain that Iraq will cease to exist as a united country. It will probably divide into three parts, one of which will be an independent Kurdistan. Since that’s home to another long-oppressed Iraqi minority – the Kurds – the Iraqi Christians’ best hope for surviving in the region may well be found in Kurdistan.”

Indeed, thousands have already found provisional shelter there. And as the rest of Iraq’s terrified Christians rush headlong into an unknown future, we can only pray for them as well.

May they find peace, renewed hope and protection – wherever their tragic journey takes them.

Israel unrest: 'Missing you in the bomb shelter'

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 02:00:08 -0400

The bomb shelter I share with my Jerusalem neighbors was uninhabitable when I first moved into our residential building five years ago. And that wasn’t surprising, since air-raid sirens hadn’t wailed over Jerusalem since the early 1970s.

Of course, Jerusalem wasn’t exactly peaceful all those years.

During the two Arab uprisings – intifadas – when terrorism cost Israel more than a thousand lives, no bombs, rockets or mortars rained down from the sky.

Instead, suicide bombers – many of them Hamas terrorists – blew up buses, pizzerias, coffee shops, wedding receptions and busy markets.

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It was only in the early 2000s, after Israel began to install its unpopular but highly effective security barrier, that suicide bombings became déclassé with the local killers.

Then, in 2005, in an ill-starred land-for-peace effort, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forced Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. More than 8000 Israelis reluctantly left behind their villages, synagogues and greenhouses. The IDF also withdrew from Gaza, ending the “occupation.” But not the violence.

It was after the “Gaza disengagement” that rocket fire from Gaza replaced suicide bombing as Hamas’ primary weapon of choice against Israeli civilians.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, over the years some enterprising souls had turned their bomb shelters into dance studios, libraries or man-caves. Others used them to stash worn out sofas, ripped beanbag chairs and various other items that had seen better days.

In fact, the only reason our shelter got cleaned out was that it was subject to floods. And during one particularly intense storm, three kerosene space heaters floated onto their sides, dumping their contents and filling the building with pungent fumes.

A team of workers arrived, cleaned out the shelter, and swept away the unlucky insects that were left behind. And the timing was excellent.

Because in 2012, during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem for the first time in decades.

By now, Gaza’s little “Qassam” rockets had been replaced by larger and more deadly Grad and Katyusha missiles. And some of them could reach Jerusalem.

Today, during this present Gaza operation, even longer-range missiles have been added to Hamas’ arsenal, propelled toward Jerusalem on several occasions.

The sirens have sounded again. But this time I’ve missed all the action.

Instead of sharing the danger with my neighbors, I’m receiving emails and texts with sly versions of “Having a wonderful time – wish you were here.” Or, more specifically, “Missing you in the bomb shelter.”

My reasons for leaving Israel for the U.S. were wonderful – my oldest son was relocating for law school in Washington; my youngest and his wife were welcoming their second child into the world.

I wouldn’t have missed either occasion for the world. Nonetheless, during the rocket fire and the ongoing ground operation, my heart was stretched tightly between my American family and my friends in Israel.

Being conflicted is nothing new for Israelis. As my good friend Ruthie Blum so eloquently describes in Israel Hayom, during times of war, Israelis are forever torn between parenthood and patriotism.

When rumors that the infantry was given the order to enter Gaza were confirmed, I was among many Israelis who heaved a huge sigh of relief. I even apologized to Netanyahu under my breath and on Facebook for having doubted the skillful manner in which he was handling Operation Protective Edge.

I simultaneously began to panic.

It is one thing to be convinced, as I was and still am, that a ground incursion (with Israeli soldiers going literally and figuratively door-to-door to snuff and stomp out terrorists and tunnels) is the way to go. It is quite another to cheer on such a campaign when one's own child is taking part in it.

An infantry reservist, my son was called up on July 9. Contact with him has been sparse, as he has had limited use of his cell phone. Nor did I get a chance even to give him a hug before he left….And though he is a married man, in addition to being one of the most mature, capable, talented and dependable people I know, he is still my baby….

Near or far, when friends and loved ones face violence – whether in combat or enduring terrorist attacks – there’s never enough information, never enough analysis, never enough personal contact.

Meanwhile, a heavy pall of sadness and silence falls across Israel at times such as this, and it includes sorrow for broken lives on both sides of the battle. Too many of Gaza’s children have been caught in the crossfire – sadly, some of them are even placed there intentionally. Israelis love life; they grieve over the death of innocents. And they know all too well that those who survive are forever scarred by the conflict.

During these times, Israelis come together as one family. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be included in that big family for eight years, even while cherishing my own small family in the USA.

There’s no question that if I were in Jerusalem, I’d happily join my neighbors in our bomb shelter, chasing off the fear and cherishing the camaraderie and solidarity.

But how I thank God that my own children don’t have to jump with alarm at the sound of a siren, rush to safety, or – like Ruthie – watch their kids head off for military duty.

May heaven protect the young soldiers who are going door-to-door, tunnel to tunnel, gunfight to gunfight, trying to restore peace and safety to their beloved country.

May bomb shelters and Iron Dome defenses continue to keep several million Israelis safe – mothers, fathers, babies, grandparents, disabled and elderly – while those deadly and relentless rockets fall.

May the innocent be spared from those who love death.

The last Christians in Iraq

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 11:00:24 -0400

Car by car, family by family, frightened Iraqi Christians by the thousands fled their ancient Iraqi homeland over the weekend. With broken hearts and little more than the clothes on their backs, they’ve left behind their houses, businesses, and churches – everything they’ve known.

The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group announced through their mosques on Friday afternoon that local Christians must either convert to Islam, pay an exorbitant Muslim tax – the jizya, which amounts to protection money – or leave the city. If they did not conform to these demands by noon on Saturday, July 19, there would be “nothing for them but the sword.”

Christianity is not new to the region. It was introduced by two of Jesus’ own disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) in the 1st Century.

But the ancient roots of Iraq’s Christianity have now been violently ripped out of the country’s spiritual soil.

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Most of the Nineveh Plain’s Christians – once numbering more than a hundred thousand – had already fled to Erbil and other destinations in Kurdistan before ISIS’s recent declaration, seeking the protection of the Kurdish Peshmerga’s warriors.

Now the rest of the refugees – many of the last Christians in Iraq – have joined them.

It’s not surprising that the vicious tactics of the IS/ISIS terrorists horrify most observers. As is often reported on social media – with substantial videographic evidence – they have beheaded, mutilated, raped, stoned and even crucified those whose behavior is “unIslamic” or whose religious convictions displease them.

The West has managed to muster a tepid response. For example on Sunday, a statement emanating from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s spokesman:

“...condemned in the strongest terms the systematic persecution of minority populations in Iraq by Islamic State (IS) and associated armed groups. He is particularly disturbed by reports of threats against Christians in Mosul and other IS-controlled parts of Iraq, including an ultimatum to either convert, pay a tax, leave, or face imminent execution…”

The UN, US, EU and numerous others have all denounced IS/ISIS.

But the various powers’ “strongly worded” official condemnations seem to be little more than indignant complaints.

President Obama, for example, has demonstrated no inclination to apply American muscle to ISIS. Speaking about their activities in Syria, he explained,

"What we can't do is think that we're just going to play Whac-a-Mole and send U.S. troops occupying various countries wherever these organizations pop up…."

Rather than fighting fire with fire, western leaders apparently imagine that diplomatic endeavors – including “strongly worded” denunciations – will stop zealous murderers in their tracks.

Really?

Obama and his cohorts seem to have an astonishingly high regard for their persuasive skills.

At the same time, they demonstrate only a dim awareness of the terrorists’ fierce religious fervor.

Devoutly committed to radical Islamist ideology – whether of the Sunni or Shia variety – fanatics like ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Iran’s ayatollahs quite sincerely view the West as the primary force of evil in the world.

Why would such “holy warriors” negotiate with western evildoers?

Only, perhaps, to deceive them.

In Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere, it is abundantly clear that such niceties as “dialogue” are of little interest to bloodthirsty savages.

In the meantime, as American strength diminishes around the globe, the dangers posed by radical Islamist groups like ISIS are exploding exponentially.

And where does this leave the Iraq’s Christians and other minorities whose lives are at stake? Sadly, they are well aware that no host of valiant defenders is going to come to their rescue. In fact, the Iraqi Army virtually melted away when ISIS appeared.

So for the Christians, “Convert, pay the jizya tax, or die,” means, quite simply, that there is little alternative but to flee -- except in a small number of villages over which Kurdistan has extended a protective umbrella.

Thus, most Christians have fled.

Still, some intrepid Iraqi Christians refuse to give up. “If we all leave, it sends the message that there is nowhere safe for Christians to live in Iraq — and this worries me,” Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche, told the Washington Post. “I’m not a vagabond. This is my home, and I will die here if necessary.”

Such fortitude is inspiring. And yet courage and determination cannot eclipse such excruciating losses. Whether Iraq’s Christians stay or go, nothing can remove the devastating sense of injury and injustice they are experiencing.

“Many Christians interviewed expressed a sense of utter abandonment and desolation,” the New York Times reported. They remarked that the sound of church bells mingled with the Muslim calls to prayer – a symbol of Mosul’s long-standing religious tolerance – “would likely never be heard again.”

Persecuted Christian: Will Pakistan's Asia Bibi be killed for alleged blasphemy?

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:00:20 -0400

Amidst wars and rumors of wars, the eyes of the world have understandably fixed themselves on the Middle East.

In Iraq and Syria, untold thousands have died and hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes and homelands. Myriad Yazidis, Kurds, Turkomen, Shia Muslims have escaped with the only the clothes on their backs.

And Christians – as it is often said – are being driven out of the Cradle of Christianity.

Those of us who pay close attention to the persecution of Christians and other minorities continue to report and update daily abuses in the Middle East. But that is far from the only place such atrocities happen.

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Nigerians are being slaughtered by the hundreds in their homes and churches; children are kidnapped, raped and sold into sex slavery.

North Korea’s believers are warehoused and starved in cruel labor camps and prisons, most of them never to be heard from again.

Mariam Ibraheem, who was imprisoned and sentenced to death for refusing to deny her Christian faith, exposed the depths of Sudan’s hardcore Sharia regime. Thankfully she is safe and free at last.

And then there is Pakistan, where a Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi, has been on death row for more than five years.

At times, much has been written about her. But these days, massacres and carnages elsewhere have stolen the headlines again and again.

With ISIS sweeping across the Middle East, who remembers Asia Bibi?

But remember we must. Because for years, Asis Bibi’s infuriating story and sorrowful face have embodied the unfairness of Pakistan’s deadly blasphemy laws.

And despite all the other troubles in the world, Ms. Bibi particularly deserves our thoughts and prayers right now. Her appeal hearing (rescheduled 7 times) has been set for October 16.

Summing up her case, Independent Catholic News reported,

Many have appealed to the Pakistani government on Asia Bibi’s behalf, including Pope Benedict.

Two prominent and courageous Pakistanis, Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister for Christian minorities, and Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab, were assassinated in 2011 for opposing Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws and for speaking out on Asia Bibi’s behalf.

Another brave Pakistani, journalist Farahnaz Ispahani, served as a member of the Pakistani parliament while her husband, Husain Haqqani, was Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S from 2008 to 2011.

Today – shadowed by death threats – the two of them live in exile in the United States.

I asked Ms. Ispahani why Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are so controversial and perilous to those who oppose them:

“Pakistan's blasphemy laws have become more pernicious and dangerous as the society at large has become more extremist and unwilling to share space with those of other beliefs like Pakistan's Christians, Hindus and Sikhs -- and even those of the same faith but of different sects like Ahmadi and Shia Muslims.

“Even religious and conservative Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam, like Professor Shakeel Auj of Karachi, have been gunned down for having a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding and interpretation.

“There is still a majority of Pakistanis who will not kill someone who believes or practices differently, but they have become fearful of armed and jihadi groups, and the madrasahs the killers come from.

“The protection by the Pakistan establishment of many of these 'good' extremists has given them a powerful place and voice in the society - both urban and rural.

“Pakistan and Pakistanis have paid for this militant mindset in their midst in the blood of innocents.

“As in the case of Asia Bibi, from the very outset, the other danger of these laws is that groups or mobs can exact petty personal revenge by a mere accusation of blaspheming.”

Because of such draconian rules and widespread fear of vengeful extremists, since 2009 Asia Bibi has awaited her fate in a grimy prison cell. Will her death sentence be reversed on October 16?

Or will she continue to live in limbo while the legal system postpones her hearings yet again?

Or will Asia Bibi be the first woman in history to be executed for allegedly breaking Pakistan’s treacherous blasphemy laws?

Far away from this nightmare scenario, most of can only watch. And wait with her in spirit. And pray for the speedy deliverance of an innocent woman.

May God have mercy on Asia Bibi. Kyrie eleison.

Malala has won the Nobel Peace Prize – and it’s about time

Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:48:20 -0400

Just about a year ago, the Western world held its collective breath, hoping against hope to hear that the courageous young Pakistani teenager, Malala Yousafzai, had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

A spokesperson for freedom, for education and the rights of women and girls, Malala emerged from one of the darkest places on Earth.

Malala has always stood in a class of her own.

At just 11-years-old, she became an international advocate of female education, writing her own blog and demanding schooling for girls in her Swat Valley community. In doing so, she faced off against the radical Islamist Taliban who had explicitly forbidden girls to read, write or think for themselves.

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Then, on October 9, 2012, Malala was rewarded for her tireless efforts with a Taliban bullet to the forehead. For days, her life hung in the balance. She survived, thanks to a gifted British medical team.

Thankfully, against all odds, and despite physical challenges caused by her injury, she recovered and seemed to bounce back stronger than ever. The next thing we knew, she had written a book, "I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" and was participating in a media tour.

One of her most compelling appearances was on Jon Stewart’s "The Daily Show," where she blew away host and audience alike with her eloquence, dignity and charm.

But alas, in 2013, the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to Malala. Instead, it went to a faceless committee, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), located in The Hague.

Many of us were disappointed and even aghast. A troublesome question was raised: Did the Nobel Committee snub Malala Yousafzai because it was afraid to confront radical Islam?

The question, of course, remained unanswered.

Nevertheless, today we can applaud, cheer and raise a toast to 17-year-old Malala for winning the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement is especially sweet after last year’s bitter disappointment.

Malala shares the prize with India’s Kailash Satyarthi, a long-time advocate for children’s rights. In an interview with CNN, Satyarthi said winning the award is “an honor to all those children who are still suffering in slavery, bonded labor and trafficking.”

The Nobel Committee made a point of saying that it is an important point for “a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, said of Yousafzai’s win in a statement to the Times of India: “She is [the] pride of Pakistan. She has made her countrymen proud. Her achievement is unparalleled and unequalled. Girls and boys of the world should take the lead from her struggle and commitment.”

All true. And it was equally true in 2013. But the world has spun around a few hundred times since then.

Groups like the Taliban have been eclipsed by the arch-radical ISIS – the so-called Islamic State. For months ISIS has left a horrifying trail of torture, rape, murder and enslavement, not only of Christians and Yazidis , but also of non-fanatical Muslims – notably including tens of thousands of young women much like Malala.

Maybe last year’s Nobel Committee hadn’t quite seen the danger that lurked in the Taliban’s ideology.

Maybe they weren’t fully aware that by defying the Taliban, Malala was resisting a far broader and more ominous movement of global Islamist aspiration and apocalyptic ambition.

Maybe the Nobel Committee finally got the picture.

In any case, the good news is that brave and beautiful Malala Yousafzai has finally won the Nobel Peace Prize.

And it’s about time.

Why American support for Kurdistan could soon become a matter of life and death

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 11:58:59 -0500

“Miserable. We are miserable.”

Faten, a young Christian refugee, confided her feelings with a shrug and a weak smile. Her English wasn’t the greatest, so she made sure I understood that she wasn’t criticizing the church that provides shelter for her and other family members.

She was simply stating the facts.

A colleague and I were visiting the Mar Yousef church compound in the Ankawa district of Erbil, Kurdistan. Ankawa is a Christian enclave in a mostly Muslim city, and it is packed to the rafters with refugees and their meager possessions.

In an odd way, it is rather colorful.

The church’s roofs and ramparts are strung with random items of laundry. Several classrooms have become sleeping quarters for 10 families each – 40-50 women and children per room. During the day, the rooms are piled to the ceiling with brightly printed mats that serve as mattresses by night. A huge pot of rice simmers just inside each door.

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Male refugees, even fathers and husbands, sleep in a different section of the compound. They mingle with their families during the day.

It was raining, and the air was damp and heavy with human smells – food, sweat and latrines. Bathing takes place in a cubicle with peeling paint, a rickety door and a cold water tap about three feet from the ground.

Two other cold taps on the grounds provide water for drinking, laundry and dishwashing. Beyond that, there is no running or hot water, no heat and the barest essentials to eat.

“We have no money to buy food,” Faten, who was once a schoolteacher, told me. “Daesh took everything ….”

Faten related that she has been a refugee twice. She grew up in Baghdad and lived there until after the U.S. invasion, when terrorist attacks on churches grew deadly. Around 2005, she fled Baghdad’s anti-Christian violence. She left her teaching job and made her way to Qaraqosh.

Then, just three months ago, the Islamic State – commonly called Daesh in Kurdistan – swept into Qaraqosh after decimating Mosul’s Christian community.

The invaders offered Qaraqosh’s Christians the usual three options: Convert, pay the jizya tax, or get out.

Otherwise, they would face the Islamist’s sword.

Needless to say, they fled. And they left with nothing. “They took everything,” Faten said. “ID papers, money. They looted our houses, our shops. Everything.”

An old woman, one eye obscured with the opaque whiteness of disease, interrupted us. She began to shout in Arabic or Kurdish – I wasn’t sure which.

I thought she was angry about our intrusion into her broken world. But no, she just wanted us to know that she, too, had lost everything. Her brief outburst ended in bitter weeping.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil, which includes Mar Yousef church, describes an unforgettable Saturday in July when, as he put it, “5,000 refugees came knocking on the church door.”

By the end of the next day, 12,000 families had arrived in Erbil. “This was after the ISIS/Daesh attack on Mosel and Nineveh,” he said.

The refugees from Qaraqosh arrived about a month later. “Today we’re caring for 150 families.”

Now there are approximately 120,000 Christian refugees in Kurdistan, representing nearly a dozen denominations. Hosting a total of 1.8 million homeless people, the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] certainly has its hands full.

For one thing, winter looms large on the minds of many. And it poses a deadly threat.

“I think it’s a disaster in the making,” a security expert told us. “Winterization of the tent cities is the most essential and urgent issue for the refugees. Somebody needs to replace the tents with ‘caravans’ [pre-fabricated dwellings with foundations] before the rain and snow start up and the mud starts to flow. But how’s that going to happen in a month’s time?”

And, of course, there are other dangers.

Before arriving in Erbil, we heard conflicting stories about atrocities in the West – beheadings, crucifixions, massacres, photos of which have circulated wildly through social media. We asked the archbishop about these reports.

“Yes,” he said. “Those things are indeed taking place. But not against Christians.”

According to ISIS/Daesh’s interpretation of Islamic law, Christians who leave their homes and possessions behind and obey their expulsion orders are spared physical injury.

Those who flee are not permitted to take food or water, a terrible hardship on children and the elderly. Some are injured in crossfire or other violence.

But it is primarily the Yazidis who continue to suffer the most cruelties, Archbishop Warda told us, “because they are not ‘People of the Book,’” which is how the Koran describes Christians and Jews.

Shiites and Sunni tribesmen who oppose the Islamic State also face horrendous abuses.

Kurdistan is a safe haven for refugees of myriad religious groups. At first glance, traveling from the airport to a hotel, Erbil appears to be an oasis of peace. And so it is – to a point.

But ISIS/Daesh has ventured dangerously close to Erbil and is within 10 miles of Dohuk, one of Kurdistan’s largest cities. Hundreds of thousands of people are safe today, but they may well be in grave danger tomorrow.

If ever an “autonomous region” deserved the West’s support, it is Kurdistan. The rest of Iraq is split in two parts – the floundering and inept Shia regime in Baghdad and the marauding Islamic State.

Thankfully, there is a third option – a sane, humane alternative to those two unappealing options. Kurdistan is pro-Western and genuinely hospitable to minorities, and its Peshmerga militia has proved itself courageous and valiant.

Let’s hope our oft-myopic Western leadership doesn’t foolishly overlook Kurdistan while continuing to prop up Baghdad. Kurdistan is a natural ally in a troublesome region and a budding economic force.

But that’s not all.

For the more than a million refugees who have taken shelter there, greater American support for Kurdistan could soon become a matter of life and death.