Muslims' Conversion Therapy On Gaza

Just 1,500-3,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, live in Hamas-controlled Gaza. While Muslim extremists have been accused of violence against Christian institutions, for most Christians the pressure is more subtle, according to a report by Ibrahim Barzak and Diaa Hadid:

The informal social pressure can range from strangers on the street urging them to embrace Islam to colleagues at work or university persistently discussing their Muslim faith with Christian colleagues. Particularly vulnerable to the advances are youth wanting to join Gaza's wider society and gain greater opportunities for marriage and jobs – as well as unhappily married Christians, since conversion to Islam is one of the few ways to get a divorce from their Church marriages.

Realvestment

Want to make a real difference in the Middle East? Consider supporting the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which just made a $50,000 donation to the diocese's Al Ahli Arab Hospital, the only Christian hospital in Gaza, to help make up for a cutoff of UN funding. Read more about the Jerusalem diocese's work here.

With Influence Comes Responsibility

David D. Kirkpatrick, writing in the New York Times about Egypt's assertive regional moves: Bringing Fatah and Hamas together, promising to end the Gaza blockade, and improving relations with Iran:

Egyptian officials, emboldened by the revolution and with an eye on coming elections, say that they are moving toward policies that more accurately reflect public opinion. In the process they are seeking to reclaim the influence over the region that waned as their country became a predictable ally of Washington and the Israelis in the years since the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Ministry Interrupted

My bishop, Jon Bruno, outlines the consequences of Israel's refusal to approval the application of the Bishop of Jerusalem and his family for residency permits:

The seizure of Bishop [Suheil] Dawani’s travel documents means not only that he cannot visit the Christian communities of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It also means he cannot minister to the Christian communities located minutes from St. George’s Cathedral: the brewmasters of Taybeh, the schoolchildren of Bethlehem, the unemployed and elderly of Jericho. And it means he cannot bring essential medical supplies and alms — as well as hope — to the patients at Ah Ahli hospital in Gaza. That’s right: One of the few hospitals ministering to 1.5 million residents of the Gaza strip — one of the poorest and saddest parts of the Middle East — is owned and supported by Episcopalians around the world.

When Is A Palestinian State Really Not One?

When its leaders have the responsibilities of sovereignty without having sovereignty. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Hussein Agha and Robert Malley say Israel has options other than allowing an independent Palestine or waiting for Arabs to outnumber and outvote Jews in Israel:

Already, by unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, former prime minister Ariel Sharon transformed the numbers game, effectively removing 1.5 million Palestinians from the Israeli equation. The current or a future government could unilaterally conduct further territorial withdrawals from the West Bank, allowing, as in the case of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s West Bank government, or compelling, as happened in Gaza, large numbers of Palestinians to rule themselves and mitigating the demographic peril. The options, in other words, are not necessarily limited to a two-state solution, an apartheid regime, or the end of the Jewish state.

Withering Gaza

It looks as if the Obama administration erred in pressuring the Palestinians to try to squelch temporarily a report on Israeli abuses during the Gaza war. U.S. policy should be aimed at building up the Abbas/Fatah government, not making it look like a toady of Washington and Israel in the eyes of the Palestinian people.

The Need For Health Care Reform In Gaza

CNN on the perils of getting breast cancer in a society where "it's very taboo to speak about the woman's body."

Satan's Backrub

What the world needs now is more medieval misogyny. Not. Though its Muslim culture has always been relatively conservative, Gaza's self-appointed church laddies, the New York Times reports, are turning up the heat when it comes to women's clothing and public displays of affection. Cover up, women, lest "the devil play in the minds of men." The good news is that even the Hamas-controlled government is worried that it's going too far. Dealing with lunatics can tempt a regime with the heavenly ways of moderation.

So You Think Hamas Is Crazy

When a fringe group in control of a mosque declared the Gaza Strip "an Islamic emirate," Hamas provoked a confrontation that left at least 13 dead and then blamed it all on Israel.