In a 250-year old Cologne inn named “Em Kölsche Boor,” Pericles, a Greek waiter serving me a sturdy fare of broad beans and smoked bacon, regaled our table with this joke pertaining to his motherland’s economic predicament: By happenstance, three housepainters showed up at the same time at the portal of paradise, an Armenian, a German and a Greek.  http://www.uwesiemon.blogspot.com/2011/12/world-matters-for-once-proud-to-be.html Read more

If you were an anti-Semite dedicated to spreading your hatred of Jews, what charges exactly would you make in 21st century America? menorah You would avoid the blood libel—too medieval to write of sacrificing Christian children to make Passover matzo. That kind of stuff circulates in Arab lands or Pakistan, but won’t sell in suburban America. And the “Christ-killer” material is also dated, what with Vatican II, Evangelical support for Israel, and the like. There are two charges you would... Read more

An important part of Terry was devastated by the abortion. Her innocence, her fun-loving nature, and her self-confidence were all deeply shaken, first by an unpleasant sexual experience and then by a pregnancy that she feared and yet did not want to terminate. She later told me of these feelings and then added: ‘I thought that my special relationship with you was over.’ http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/12/4420 Read more

The Palestinian Authority has done little to protect Christians against assaults by Muslims — including rape, intimidation, land theft and financial extortion. But these are all “sensitive” issues that many Christian leaders do not want to discuss in public out of fear of being accused of serving the Israeli “propaganda machine.” http://www.hudson-ny.org/2685/arab-spring-christians Read more

“Hanukkah” means “dedication.” Originally, the term referred to the rededication of the purified Temple after the Maccabees’ stunning military victory. But as the story of the martyrs shows, the victory was also associated with the heroic dedication of the Jewish traditionalists of the time to their God and his Torah. If Hanukkah celebrates freedom, it is a freedom to be bound to something higher than freedom itself. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577100341793596390.html Read more

Of the countless threats of Arab violence in the run-up to the November 29, 1947 Partition Resolution and in its wake, none has resonated more widely than the warning by Abdul Rahman Azzam, the Arab League’s first secretary-general, that the establishment of a Jewish state would lead to “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.” http://www.hudson-ny.org/2669/haaretz-newspaper Read more

His misunderstanding of Israel is evident in his underlying assumption that appears in his columns repeatedly: that were Israel to just leave the settlements, peace would flow like a river. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=249685&R=R102   Read more

And there is the rub. While we are told not to speak ill of the dead, it is no less crucial to have the record of their lives straight. Critics’ personal affection for Hitchens should not obscure the fact that he had a troubling bête noire in Judaism and indulged freely in some of the most barbarous and defamatory stereotypes about the Jewish people. One year ago, Benjamin Kerstein laid bare Hitchens’s views of Judaism, the Jewish people, and the... Read more

Gerry’s note: Before I serve up George Weigel’s list, here’s my own suggestion for that theologically-minded friend or relative–my new THEOLOGY OF JONATHAN EDWARDS. A week ago it was #5 on Hot Books in Religion and Theology at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Theology-Jonathan-Edwards-Michael-McClymond/dp/0199791600/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323988580&sr=1-1 Now here’s Weigel: If memory serves, this past year saw electronic books top printed books in the sales figures at Amazon.com. Be that as it may, books — real books — still make wonderful Christmas gifts. Here are some recently... Read more

As the ascendant Muslim Brotherhood tries to project itself as a responsible actor, including by hosting credulous New York Times columnist Nick Kristof for a home-cooked meal, it is important to recall these kinds of statements. Over the past two weeks, I have interviewed seven Brotherhood parliamentarians-to-be. Far from being moderate, these future leaders share a commitment to theocratic rule, complete with a limited view of civil liberties and an unmistakable antipathy for the West. http://www.tnr.com/article/world/98471/kristof-egypt-muslim-brotherhood Read more