The joke, if that's what it is, goes like this: "You'll have to forgive us Jews for being a little nervous. Two thousand years of Christian love have worn down our nerves."

That says it all, doesn't it? The scars of antisemitism and missionary activity, the pathos-drenched sense of humor, the contempt for Christianity - this is certainly how I regarded our local majority religion as I was growing up. When I was a child, Christianity was like the big, stupid bully: at once idiotic, and overwhelmingly powerful. Couldn't they see how ridiculous their religion was? A virgin birth? Santa Claus? An Easter Bunny? A messiah who got killed, but actually died for our sins? And yet, these were the people running our country, telling us which days we get off from school and which we don't, and playing their insidious music every winter.

By Jay Michaelson, The Forward, May 13, 2009

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 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

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"

"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"

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