Israel cabinet decided to pass a legal initiative that would give a 3 year prison sentence to anyone who treats the Nakba of 1948 as a special event. This is an outrageous idea: it is the sum of the hopes of the Israeli Nationalists that the Palestinian minority in Israel will somehow disappear. It expresses a total denial of Palestinian history.

This compliments the denial of the Holocaust, which Israel has fought for the last 60 years. Denial of your history means that either you are an inventor of gas ovens, or you are just a victim of your own victimization complex. Denial of the right to express your mourning over events that happened to your family and many other people is a cruel and unusual punishment.

This is such a debasing ministerial call that Israelis of all walks of life should be ashamed of. It takes away the right of Jews to fight against Holocaust denial. The Turks have tried it against the Armenian minority: no mention was allowed of any massacre of Armenians by Turks. Of course the ban collapsed, and the Turks look worse for it. This is a bankruptcy of any moral standing by the present Israeli cabinet, and will make it easier for all the enemies of Israel to justify that another war as the only way. If your existence and history is denied, what do you have to lose?

Visit www.haaretz.com for more on this.

Anyone who watched to Pope and the mixed reactions he recieved from Jews and Muslims, is probably wondering how many Christians are left in Palestine. What is the future of Christians in the Middle East?

The influence of national poltical parties is shrinking, and movements like the Muslim brotherhood and others are gaining power. As the Middle East has turned against the influence of Western-based culture and politics, more and more Christians have turned to immigration as a solution. Christians have left Palestine, out and away from the Israeli occupation, but also in other countries they feel diminished, and are struggling with their identity, which was a National-Patriot based identity and not religion based. The green flag waving over many demonstrations and meetings in the Middle East begs the question if, as a minority, are they really welcome? See the mass slaughter of Pigs in Egypt which followed the Swine Flu. The Copts in Egypt are a tiny minority tolerated as garbage collectors. The slaughter of the pigs cleary did not happen for medical reasons.

For me, the question is what do Muslims in the Arab world know about Christianity? What are the similarites between Christian ignorance about Islam in the West and ignorance about other religions in the Middle East?

American Muslims and Jews have been communicating in different ways in the past few years. This video is a year old, but I think it speaks to the progress that is being made here in America, irrespective of the regress taking place abroad.

Yes, I think there are many ways. But I think that trust and confidence is low. People are not willing to move forward. Nonetheless, it should be noted that mosques, churches and synagogues have been dialoguing in various parts of the country. There is an exchange happening, but it is not at a point of critical mass. It is low-level and while such exchanges are opening hearts and minds, there is always more to be done. The need is always there.

Perhaps writing a poem, painting a portrait, composing music, planting olive trees in the promised land.  Maybe we start a SIRIUS radio station that can be heard every where and where we just talk and get others to call, email and chat with us!