• OPINION \ May 11, 2009
    reads 5222
    David Coffey is president of the Baptist World Alliance. The following is his column as it appeared in the April-June 2009 issue of Baptist World, a quarterly publication of the Baptist World Alliance

    "Sixty years ago, Christians constituted more than 25 percent of the overall Palestinian population in the Holy Land and almost 80 percent of the southern triangle of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Today, those numbers have dwindled alarmingly, due largely, though not exclusively, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a nutshell, Christians have lost hope in a land that once witnessed the birth of Jesus – the Hope of the world".

    David Coffey, Baptist World, April 21, 2009
    The Disappearing Christians of the Middle East
  • OPINION \ Jan 15, 2009
    reads 5102
    The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide vests or rockets. Israeli leaders have convinced themselves that the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

    To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other, jobless and hungry, in vast, sagging tower blocks. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean, and Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall – as they are doing now with more deadly force than at any time since 1967 – there is nowhere to hide.

    Johann Hari, The Independent, Dec 29, 2008
  • OPINION \ Jan 12, 2009
    reads 5553
    Jesus knew that His Father loved Him because He always did that which pleased Him. What will it take for God the Father to answer His Beloved Son's prayer?:

    "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

    Howard Bass, Jan 9, 2009, Special For "Come and See"
    The Answer to Jesus' Prayer in John 17
  • OPINION \ Jan 01, 2009
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    "Come and See" continues to bring different prespectives from the Holy Land regarding the Violence between Israel and Hamas.

    Rev. Alex Awad writes his point of view of what is happenning in Gaza: "There is no doubt that the Qassam rockets launched against the western Negev and Ashkelon by Islamic militants linked to Hamas cause great pain and anxiety for many Israelis. Most people agree that Israel has the right to defend itself. However Israel , as usual, has overdone it. Israel has a pattern of being extreme. “An eye for an eye” does not satisfy. It has to be more like one hundred eyes for one eye and one hundred teeth for one tooth.

    Alex Awad, Dec 31, 2008, Special for "Come and See"
    Regarding Gaza: One Hundred Eyes for one eye
  • OPINION \ Dec 29, 2008
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    A Palestinian Evangelical Christian leader, challenges Messianic Jews to consider their responsibility related to the bloody events of Gaza. He asks, “will you look me in the eyes next time we meet and shake my hands while the hands of your army are still wet with the blood of my people!?” He asserts the need for advocating a theology of peace rather than justifying a theology of war.

    Yohanna Katanacho, Special For "Come and See", Dec 29, 2008
    Reflecting on Gaza: An open letter to my Messianic Brothers and Sisters
  • OPINION \ Dec 23, 2008
    reads 5853
    The National Council of Churches has released a brochure castigating Christian Zionism as a dangerous movement that fosters fear and hatred of Muslims and non-Western Christians, as well as endangering peace in the Middle East.

    Jim Sibley, a Southern Baptist leader whose career has focused on Baptist-Jewish relations, set forth an opposite view in assessing the brochure: The NCC resorts to caricature and slander, particularly when accusing evangelicals of regarding Jewish people "as pawns in a cosmic drama of divine vengeance and retribution."

    Tammi Reed Ledbetter, Baptist Press, Dec 18, 2008
    Sibley: NCC wrong on Christian Zionism
  • OPINION \ Nov 28, 2008
    reads 3566

    In his column in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, 'Abd Al-Nasser Al-Najjar criticized the persecution of Christians in Arab countries,
    with a particular emphasis on the Christian population of the Palestinian Authority.
    From Memri web site, Nov 12, 2008

  • OPINION \ Oct 13, 2008
    reads 4294
    Transcript of the speech given by Botrus Mansour on Friday the 10th of October 2008 in Advocates International and Christian Legal Society conference in Washington DC for 1000 lawyers and judges from 106 countries around the world.

    Botrus Mansour is a Human rights lawyer, General Director of Nazareth Baptist School and co-editor of the “Come and See” web site who lives in Nazareth, Israel.

    Special For Come and See, October 13, 2008
    Thriving through diversity
  • OPINION \ Jun 17, 2008
    reads 4218
    Yossi Sarid, Israel’s Education minister in the early 1990-s writes about Jewish morality in modern days, on the eve of Shavuot.

    “The negotiations between Moses and God were not easy. That is the only explanation for the long stay on the mountain, 40 days and 40 nights, before the Torah was given. According to stubborn rumors that found their way through the concealing cloud, God insisted on more than Ten Commandments, and Moses begged him not to go too far: Even those 10 would be a tough burden to meet”…”Quite a few politicians stick to the ritual commandments while disparaging the Ten Commandments - to hell with morality, long live ritual”.

    Yossi Sarid, Haaretz, June 7, 2008
  • OPINION \ Jun 12, 2008
    reads 10923

    Eileen is the Reporter and Editor of "We are wide awake" writes about an encounter with a Christian Zionist in the location where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount:

    “The oppressed have become the oppressors. In the 21st century good people are unaware, ignoring or are in total denial of the injustice in the Holy Land. And what about all the Hebrew prophets, such as Micah who reminded the people of what the Lord requires: To be just, to be merciful and to walk humbly with your God!”

    "Nobody else spoke to me the rest of the evening or the next day. That was fine with me, for I was listening to the voice within and what I kept hearing was Luke 23:34: “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

    Eileen Fleming, OPED News, June 4, 2008

    Christian Zionism: The Fastest Growing Cult in USA