The Patriarch of Jerusalem tells Ed West that the only thing that will keep the faithful in the Holy Land is a lasting peace.

'Thank you for this interview, I hope you can help us through your good influence on the news," says the man opposite me, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The Catholic Herald, September 25 2009

Dan Wooding, 68, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS).

In this story, he writes about the his peaceful return to the Bethlehem Bible College to meet with its founder, Dr. Bishara Awad.

By Dan Wooding, ASSIST Ministries, Sep 28, 2009

The unholy relationship between religious Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Christian Evangelical Zionists continues to bring amusing stories.

"Receiving tens of millions of dollars annually from Christian preachers and enlisting their support against political initiatives is a great deed. But exposing our children, heaven forbid, to their doctrines? There is a limit"

Read this interesting commentary by Akiva Eldar, Haaretz, Sep 29, 2009

A group of Jewish extremists attacked on Sunday afternoon two young Armenians and destroyed a cross near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in East Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israeli settlers such as these have attacked for years members of the clergy in the Armenian Quarter. Today the Armenians who were assaulted Sunday are not being protected, but rather expelled.

Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh for PNN

Nashat Filmon said in a visit to Bible Society in the UK that Israel and Palestine were both to blame for the recent war in Gaza.

“War is a crime. Both parties are equally responsible for the recent war and the destruction that has taken place,” he said.

After few talk-backs challenged the "equally responsible" in the original news item, Nashat Filimon writes a talk-back for "Come and See" to clarify: "There is no question about who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor, we all know that. The challenge here is taking responsibility of the provocative actions knowing that it will harm us and the whole nation"

Christian Today, Sep 17, 2009

Vatican sources said Pope Benedict XVI was preparing to convene a Synod of Bishops for the Middle East to be held in October of 2010, to address the trials and tribulations of the Christian population in the region.

Patriarchs and other representatives from Eastern churches arrived in Rome Sept. 18, and the pope was to meet with them the next day to discuss the initiative, the sources said. An announcement of the synod was expected in coming days.

By John Thavis, Catholic News Service, Sep 18, 2009

One of the most senior Catholic churchman in the Middle East has predicted that Jerusalem's already diminished Christian population will shrink within seven years unless urgent steps are taken to reverse their exodus.

Patriarch Fouad Twal, who was invited to Britain by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the charity that helps suffering Christians, said the population in the holiest city for Christians would fall from 10,000 today to little more than 5,000 in 2016.

By Ed West, Catholic Herlad (UK), Sep 18, 2009

A 4th or 5th century church in eastern Saudi Arabia has been fenced off ever since its accidental discovery 20 years ago and its exact whereabouts kept secret.

By DONNA ABU-NASR, AP, Sep 1, 2009

It’s one thing to be an Eric Cantor and make vague murmurings about Obama’s Israel policy being insufficiently supportive of Israel. That at least presents a vaguely legitimate political argument.

But Huckabee is off in wingnut land. He’ll probably be holding hands with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and John Hagee and praying for the End Times over the fields of Armageddon. Scary stuff folks. Republicans, if there are any of you out there, do something to avoid making your Party the laughingstock of the democratic world.

Richard Silverman writes about Huckabee's visit to Israel