Official Blog

In his May 17th op-ed, New York Times’ columnist Richard Cohen features the ups and down of business for a micro-brewery in the West Bank village of Taybeh. In addition to being known for its beer, Taybeh is also known as the only all Christian village left in the West Bank as Palestinian Christians have emigrated due to conflict, occupation and economic upheaval.

In his op-ed, Cohen describes how the brewery is making a comeback after the debilitating violence of the second intifada– part of the “fast-growing West Bank economy” that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is working to facilitate, with the help of entrepreneurs like brewery owner, David Khoury. Cohen points to “development” and “self-empowerment” as the long-term alternatives to Palestine’s massive international aid and ultimately the path toward statehood and peace. However as he also writes, “logistics remain a nightmare,” with checkpoints, settlements and closures making the normal flow of commerce very difficult. Cohen concludes with a call for all of us to visit Taybeh (and have a beer while you’re at it!) if we hope for a cosmopolitan Middle East to emerge out of the rubbles of conflict:

“And if you think the Holy Land could ever be a place where a Jew from Odessa drinks Arab beer in Tel Aviv made by Palestinian entrepreneurs with a joint called Foley’s in Brookline and a factory in a West Bank village with a church — and thinks nothing of it — then you should get behind Taybeh by paying it a visit.”

David Khoury and his wife Maria Khoury returned to the Holy Land in 1995 following the Oslo Peace Agreement to boost the economy and raise their children with centuries’ old Palestinian Christian values and traditions. If you visit Taybeh, you might also stop in at their church, Saint George Greek Orthodox Church (their cousin Fr. David P. Khoury is the priest). The church’s website describes how it builds “awareness of Orthodox Christians in the land of Christ’s birth and seeks assistance in helping Orthodox Christians stay in this little Christian village preserving their heritage and traditions of two thousand years.”

I highly recommend this piece from Moment Magazine by Professor Marshall Breger
http://www.momentmag.com/moment/issues/2010/06/Opinion-Breger.html Marshall served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations and is a highly regarded legal scholar.

Traveling in the Holy Land this week I spent Sunday in the Negev in southern Israel visiting Ben Gurion Univ, an impressive school with a nice campus strangely overrun by cats. It is on the edge of the town of BeerSheva which the prophet Elijah fled to fleeing King Ahab. I then had a great dinner with an Israeli friend at the old port in Tel Aviv. Monday I visited the the city of Jericho in the West Bank. Jericho has been continuously inhabited for 10,000 years. An archaeological dig on the site reveals the ruins of the city Joshua marched around before famously blowing his horn.  Modern Jericho is a sleepy town that is a true oasis in the desert. It sits at the base of a barren and pock-marked mountain that makrs the site where Jesus fasted for forty days following his baptism and where he endured his temptation. Today you can ride a cablecar (I’m not making this up) from the center of Jericho up near the top of the mountain to the site of an ancient monastery inhabited by a solitary elderly Greek Orthodox monk. A great ride. From the top you have a spectacular view of  the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea and the hills of Jordan. There’s also a beautiful InterContinental resort on the edge of town that would be a great place to go for a relaxing weekend.  Yesterday we were in Bethlehem which is a friendly and historic town but which is also marred by the security/separation wall which at 28 ft. tall seems ever visible.  We had great meetings with the our good folks at  Bethlehem Univ, and we enjoyed their kind hospitality.  The university is run by Catholic brothers and is a special place, a real oasis of a different sort.

Today I worshipped with a group of local Christians, many fellow Americans, and a large group of German pilgrims at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Rev. Mitri Raheb, is the thoughtful and eloquent pastor of this small congregation in the heart of Bethlehem. For any interested in learning more, I recommend his book, I Am A Palestinian Christian. –TD

I’m attending a theology conference in Bethlehem and just heard a powerful presentation from Sami Awad, a well-known Palestinian Christian and nonviolence advocate. Sami told the story of his two visits to concentrations camps in Poland and how transformative this has been to him and his thinking about his life and work. Sami, along with an American Jewish participant and a Turkish Muslim, were given permission to spend a cold November night in a children’s cell at the concentration camp. The story of his experience is powerful as is the way in which it gave him a better understanding not just of the pain of the Jewish people, but of their continued fear. And his own thinking about his commitment to nonviolence has been transformed from a principled means of resisting oppression to a means of healing the fear and pain of the other. Really powerful stuff. — TD

It was encouraging to see such an august and respected institution as the Chicago Council on Global Affairs call on the U.S. government to take seriously the role faith plays in the lives of billions of people.  Check out the WashPost story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022305103.html?hpid=moreheadlines Engaging religious actors and institutions is uncomfortable to some in the U.S. government and is even considered out-of-bounds by others, but we neglect them at our peril.  The good news is there are many in our civil and foreign service and in our military who are doing this work already, but they lack for leadership which understands the stakes and truly empowers them and others.  Religious faith and belief in a higher, transcendent order is both the source for many acts of selflessness and compassion, heroic deeds, moral order, and things that serve the common good.  Likewise, it can be a motivating force for conflict, violence, and destruction.  But we ignore it at our peril.