Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

As Christians prepared for Christmas and Jews for Hanukkah (both were on December 25th this year), the United Nations (UN) Security Council voted on Resolution 2334. Initially it was sponsored by Egypt, who announced a delay after a phone call from President-elect Trump. The next day, 23 December 2016, New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela jointly sponsored it and it passed 14 to 0 (including permanent members UK, France, China and Russia). The United States abstained. Israel was furious, protesting to all ambassadors of Security Council member nations who have embassies in Tel Aviv . Terminology Two-state solution: An independent (Arab) Palestine and independent Israel living peacefully side-by-side in territory west of the Jordan River. This has been the position of the international community for decades, stretching back to the 1930s and 1940s. Israeli settlements: Settlements are Jewish Israeli communities built on land captured from the Arabs in the Six-D...

A powerful prophet, a promising potentate, a perishing Philistine, and persistent paranoia - welcome to the Book of I Samuel. This book tells us the transition from the time of the judges to the birth of Israel’s monarchy. Another way to look at it is the theocracy of Israel, where God was king, evolved into a man-led monarchy. Seen in this context, Israel’s monarchy is not a sign of progress nor a divine promotion. I Samuel starts with the birth of the most credible prophet in Israel since the time of Moses - Samuel. Following this is the birth of the Israelite monarchy, the rise of Saul and David, and their bizarre interaction. Highlights include the rise of Samuel, the destruction of Shiloh and journeys of the Ark, the temporary neutralising of the Philistine threat, David’s victorious confrontation of Goliath, and David’s life as a fugitive from Saul. As usual in Scripture, there is no whitewash of the main characters. The story is told as it is. The book ends with the deat...

Among the most desirable and least obtainable commodities in the world is peace. In the last century, we had two world wars and dozens of regular wars since. We even had a very dangerous ‘Cold War’ where the American and Soviet superpowers avoided direct conflict, but they facilitated several proxy wars while pointing nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles at each other. We even now have a ‘war on terror,’ which, in reality, is a war with global jihadism. In addition, there are global hotspots, mostly in Asia, where a miscalculation or lack of statecraft could result in a regional or global conflict. These ‘hotspots’ include the Korean Peninsula, China-Taiwan, India-Pakistan, Israel-Iran, Israel-Arabs, the Syrian war and the threat of the Islamic State. Yet, even in prosperous and relatively peaceful societies, there is a shocking lack of personal peace. Rates of anxiety and depression are at record levels, especially in prosperous peaceful countries like Austra...