The Jewish Daily Forward, along with the israeli paper Haaretz, is pretty good reading.

You can get the Forward on the web. (For EO, go to google, type in Jewish Daily Foward, push enter., Read. Think. Try to avoid forming conclusions before reading.)

The US state department sponsored a project to study Palestinian text books in the schools to see if they spread hatred of Jews.

The study group consisted of 17 scholars representing universities in the US and Israel. The scholars were both Jewish  (mostly Israeli) and Moslem.

I have posted my message for next Sunday in a blog.  I have several starting points including the Book of Ruth for a message on the eventual failure of the use of violence and love as leading the way to what persists.

Here is my message for November 11, 2012.

Love Leads the Way (Book of Ruth)

Let's say Omar Khadr is a  Christian. When a child (as defined by law) he was visitng Christian friends in another country, they were suddenly attacked by large numbers of heavily armed Moslem foreigners. All of his friends were killed. Can you imagine being fifteen years old with strange men screaming and  shooting at you, and your friends lying splattered all over the ground?

In his panic, he may have thrown a grenade. In his position, i might well have thrown one, too - though I am well over 15.

Some time ago, I submitted a post in which I said the clergy should use some of their sermons tp relate our faith to situations here -     to. for example,  politics. I noticed that the response of clerics ranged from tepid to high Arctic. So let me try an example - using the very touchy issue of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The core of the sermon would be the meaning and importance of forgiving.

My sons (14 years old) are big on computer games. There are so many of theose games out there. And you know what? Almost all of them are about war and killing.

Then I check out the surviving comic books, often now coming out in book format. Just finished one called Commandos. It's second world war. the Japanese are yellow-bellies, little brown men, cowards, racially inferior.

Most of the discussion about Israel and Palestine has been nothing more than fuss and bluster. That's because most people who post have little knowledge of the nature of war, and so become suckers for the propaganda of both sides. We get windy statements about international law when, in fact, there is almost no effective international law dealing with this. We get tales of how the "other side" hides behind civilians when, in fact, all urban fighting leads to high civilian casualities, and always has done so.