Today I posted on Amazon a review of a new book, actually an updated and enriched version of Whose Promised Land? by Colin Chapman. I called it “the most complete, the most objective and the most practical” of my whole shelf-full of books on this subject. My review includes a brief summary of the book […]
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Last week I shared with you my own story, “Meditation on My Home in Lebanon.” As I did so, I kept thinking about the many thousands of Lebanese who lost their homes during the Lebanese civil war. In response to my sadness about the little house in Beit Meri, many people including Lebanese, sent me […]
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Watercolor painting a gift to me from Tara Dunn I made a mistake in my book. Let’s just say that I was wrong. In the epilogue of In Borrowed Houses I said that the little stone house around which my whole story revolves would outlive all of us. My actual words were: “It will […]
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The Lebanese author of this story is known to me. She prefers that both her name and the name of the center where she works be withheld, not for her own sake but to protect the privacy of the refugee children whose stories she tells. In these two stories, the focus is on the children, […]
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Did you see the evening news about the starving Syrian town? The pictures of children crying for food? The 11-year-old boy too weak to walk? The little chests with rib bones protruding? All of it is even more shocking, because while the people of Moadamiya starve to death, barrel bombs delivered by airplanes of Assad’s […]
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Several years ago I was in Burlington, N.C., and needed a place to spend a couple of hours while my daughter was in a meeting at Elon University. Someone recommended a little coffee shop on the main street past the campus. There was, they told me, a comfortable place to sit and read my book. […]
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(Note to readers: I have changed the original title of this piece to emphasize the point of my article. You are encouraged to read it again and think with me about this and similar commonalities or needs that might help us to create peace between us and the Middle East.) A few days ago […]
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A Middle Eastern Love Story By Martin Accad Director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, Lebanon Maryam was born a Muslim. Her society required her to live as a Muslim and eventually to die as a Muslim as well. Youssef was born a Christian. His society too required him to live and die […]
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By Jan Therien Bethlehem, November, 2015 “Litany- a series of petitions for use in church services or processions, usually recited by the clergy and responded to in a recurring formula by the people. Synonyms: prayer, invocation, supplication, devotion. A tedious recital or repetitive series. Synonyms: recital, recitation, enumeration, listing, inventory”. Also, “a resonant or […]
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(My friend Jan Therien traveled to Israel and the occupied West Bank late last year. It was her first visit ever to any part of the Middle East. Before she left, I asked her to take notes and be prepared to write her impressions for my website. Below is her first contribution. FF) East Jerusalem. […]
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