Hanukkah: The Light Version            

13/12 Ron Ross | The Jewish festival Hanukkah is also known as The Feast of Dedication or the Festival of Lights. It is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt (2nd century BCE). The date this year is Sunset December 21 until Sunset 29: the first day of Hanukkah is December 22nd.

Middle Israel: Obama's real message to the Arabs

11/12 AMOTZ ASA-EL, Jerusalem Post Columnist | ... Some still think the Middle East will continue to dominate America's agenda, and one pundit has even announced with great confidence that Obama will put an end to what he described as Israel's " free lunches."

Well - ha.

FOR ONE thing, with the American economy losing more than half-a-million jobs last month alone, and almost 2 million since January, it would be ludicrous to expect Obama to care a fig right now about Ismail Haniya, Bashar Assad or Moshe Feiglin's latest exhortations. The future of Citigroup, AIG, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors is at stake.

This is, of course, quite regardless of the fact that Israel never got a free lunch, whether from America or anyone else.

A review of Defying Death. By Stuart Robinson

10/12 Bill Muehlenberg | Father Zakaria is a modern day Apostle Paul. Like Paul, he has evangelised extensively around the world and led countless people to Christ. He is a bold apologist willing to take on all comers. And he has paid a heavy price in terms of persecution, opposition, imprisonment and hatred. His was a story waiting to be told – and finally it has been. The 75-year-old Coptic priest has had an amazing journey, and he is still going strong. Stuart Robinson deserves a lot of credit for making his life and work accessible to us all.

Zakaria Botross was born in Islamic Egypt. In 1964 he had a powerful encounter with Christ and his ministry in and around Cairo began to bear immediate fruit. Full-blown revival is the best way to describe so much of what followed from his labours. Many people came to Christ, healings were common, and genuine discipleship was taking place on a massive scale.

He learned early on about Islamic hatred and persecution. His older half-brother was a powerful preacher as well – until a group of Muslims ambushed him, cut out his tongue, and then murdered him. Being an oppressed minority, Christians lived in constant realisation that the authorities might at any moment come knocking at the door. Zakaria would himself spend much time in prison, his longest stint lasting for 318 days.

Obama Hopes to Reboot US Image among Muslims

11/12 Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | President-elect Barack Obama says he will try to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name — Barack Hussein Obama — in his swearing-in ceremony.

"It's something I intend to follow through on," Obama said in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. "We've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular. So we need to take advantage of that."

The Shalit story, more than 870 days later

Guy Senbel for Guysen International News - Editorial of the week, October 25, 2008 | We would like to bring the attention of our readers this week to the situation regarding the release of Gilad Shalit, Israeli soldier and French-Israeli citizen, held as a hostage by the Hamas in Gaza for more than 870 days. Along with journalist Florence Aubenas, who was a former hostage in Iraq, and popular Sephardic French singer Patrick Bruel, Noam Shalit, father of the young soldier hostage in Gaza, held a press conference on Wednesday, October 22, in Paris. Noam Shalit came to Paris from his home in northern Israel to ask the French government to get more involved in working for the release of his, 852 days after he was seized.

Noam Shalit is asking this of the French government because his son is also French, just like Ingrid Betancourt, held for several years by the FARC in Colombia. Public opinion still sees her as the former Franco-Colombian hostage. France got involved in her release and gave Ingrid Betancourt a hero’s welcome when she arrived in her country of adoption. She became the French ambassador for the concept of freedom, and is now leading a political battle in the name of justice.

The image of Gilad Shalit is not the same as that of Ingrid Betancourt. The media often paints a picture of him as simply a prisoner of the Hamas. As a corporal in the IDF, the Israeli army often pictured negatively by the press, Gilad Shalit was doing his military service. His image is of prisoner of war, no doubt the reason why mobilizing public opinion for him has been so difficult. Seizing him as a hostage was a political act. Kidnapping a soldier while he is doing his military is a military act. Should people not mobilize for him simply because he was seized while serving in the army?