In Depth:  Middle East

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Middle East: ‘sleep-deprived and anxious’

Middle East: ‘sleep-deprived and anxious’

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

‘We are sleep deprived and anxious,’ evangelicals at the centre of the Middle East conflict have told en, ‘but we keep faith in God.’

As the conflict involving Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran reached ever-higher temperatures, staff at Christian TV station SAT-7 reported how they are caught right in the heart of the terrifying situation.

Gaza conflict: let’s go back to Scripture
politics & policy

Gaza conflict: let’s go back to Scripture

Krish Kandiah
Krish Kandiah

What is a Christian response to the recent Israel and Gaza conflict?

The 7 October marks one year since the terrible attack by Hamas on Israel. According to the Israeli government, over 1,195 people were killed, including the later deaths of hostages in Gaza. At least 815 were civilians and 282 women and 36 children were among the dead. It was a cruel, brutal and wicked attack that has left 100 hostages still unaccounted for.

Middle East: fear and calls for prayer

Middle East: fear and calls for prayer

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

Middle East Christians are expressing a mix of fear, confidence in the gospel and calls for prayer as the region approaches the anniversary of Hamas’ deadly terrorist attacks on Israel – and reels from events in Lebanon.

At Christian TV station SAT-7, audience relations manager Marianne Awaraji said: ‘Perhaps God has placed all of us at SAT-7 for such a time as this, to be a voice for those who cannot speak, to bring the hope of Christ to a region that has lost hope for a better future.’

Gaza: can Christianity now survive?

Gaza: can Christianity now survive?

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

Thirty out of the estimated 1,000 Christians still left in Gaza have been killed, according to local church sources.

And as Gaza’s Christian population continues to shrink, down from about 3,500 before the war began, commentators fear that one of the oldest Christian communities in the world may be literally dying out.

Gaza: Christians resilient as war goes on

Gaza: Christians resilient as war goes on

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

‘Jesus is in the rubble’ according to a Middle Eastern pastor, as Gaza continues to face intense Israeli military action and fears of war spreading accelerate.

Rhiannon de Laune (see photo), from Christian charity Embrace the Middle East, was quoting a Bethlehem pastor, Munther Isaac.

Gaza: Christians continue to serve

Gaza: Christians continue to serve

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

The appalling death and destruction inflicted by both sides during the current Israel/Hamas conflict in the Middle East has horrified the world. But even amidst the carnage and destruction so visible on our TV screens day after day, churches and Christian organisations are bringing help and hope to the region, even though they too have also become intended or accidental targets of the violence.

Christian TV station SAT-7, which broadcasts across the Middle East, reports that shelling caused severe damage to a new cancer ward at the Anglican Church-funded Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. An explosion in its courtyard, thought to have been caused by a misfired Gazan missile, killed almost 500 people sheltering there. The hospital continues to operate as best it can, however, and has been accepting patients from other besieged hospitals that have had to stop working.

Letter

Middle East prayer

Date posted: 1 Jan 2024

Dear Editor,

I want to thank you for your excellent coverage of the Gaza war. We all want peace in the Middle East and must pray earnestly for it! As an intercessor, I pray that the body of Christ will wake up worldwide and pray as never before.

Precious gold from a Middle-Eastern furnace

Precious gold from a Middle-Eastern furnace

Gordon Robertson

Book Review PERSIAN VOICES

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Palestinian Christians urge Western believers to repent

Palestinian Christians urge Western believers to repent

Nicola Laver
Nicola Laver

Palestinian Christians have urged Western church leaders and theologians to repent of voicing ‘uncritical support for Israel’ and ‘re-examine’ their positions.

A group of Christians, including Kairos Palestine, Bethlehem Bible College, and Christ at the Checkpoint, has published an open letter saying they ‘grieve and lament the renewed cycle of violence in our land’.

Middle East: ‘Jesus can change terrorists’ hearts’

Middle East: ‘Jesus can change terrorists’ hearts’

Luke Randall
Luke Randall

While world leaders have devoted a countless number of hours to finding a seemingly impossible solution to the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis, Misha Vayshengolts, who serves with International Mission to Jewish People in Israel, believes that ‘Jesus is the answer’.

In an interview with en, Misha spoke about what life is currently like in Israel, how recent events have impacted his work as a missionary, and why he thinks Jesus is the solution to the crisis.

‘As the warning sirens sounded he asked me to preach’

‘As the warning sirens sounded he asked me to preach’

Paul Rees

Daryl Fenton, the leader of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ) for Israel, turned to me as the warning sirens went off for the third of six times and asked: ‘Could you preach at the morning Communion tomorrow at Christ Church Jerusalem?’

I informed him that I would be flying home on EasyJet and so unable. He handed me the lectionary readings and said pick a passage to preach on.

‘This will sear Jews and Arabs for years to come...’

‘This will sear Jews and Arabs for years to come...’

Joseph Steinberg
Joseph Steinberg

Isaiah 40:1 ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’

When I was eight years old, I remember sitting in front of my family’s black and white television while watching the Yom Kippur war unfolding in front of my eyes. It was exactly 50 years ago and, as a Jewish boy growing up in the USA, it was my first realisation that there was a country named Israel that Jewish people call home.

Middle East: New narrative needed as 5th election looms
letter from the

Middle East: New narrative needed as 5th election looms

Salim J. Munayer

Recently the Israeli Prime Minster announced his coalition government could not keep its majority and, in few months, on 1 November, we will have another election in Israel, the fifth election in three years.

There are many factors that have contributed to the inability of Israel to have a stable government, and many point to the nature of the election system or the presence of small political parties that are empowered beyond their political representation. Yet, in recent years, the national religious narrative has been increasingly gaining traction among the political power junction of the Israeli state. This narrative sees the state as an instrument to redeem the land from others – as it was promised to the Jews by God – and calls for Jews to create the conditions for the coming of the Messiah. It also sustains that the authority in the land needs to be Halacha, the rabbinical Jewish law.

Could Ukraine follow Syria’s tragic path?

Iain Taylor
Iain Taylor

As the war in Ukraine grinds on, many commentators are looking for historical parallels to point towards how the conflict might end, what the impact may be on those forced to endure it and what life might be like afterwards.

The experience of Aleppo, in north west Syria, may provide a few clues. Early on in the Ukrainian conflict a BBC correspondent said that, if we were unaware of what Russian battle tactics look like, ‘then we had not been paying attention’. He drew a direct line between what Putin’s military did, first in the Chechen capital Grozny during the war of 1999–2000, which resulted in the United Nations calling it ‘the most destroyed city on earth’ by 2003, and then Syria.

Christian opens first café in Syrian suburb

Iain Taylor / Open Doors

Cities are full of cafés and restaurants. In Ibrin, a suburb of Damascus in Syria, there wasn’t one – until a local Christian recently returned to open the town’s sole café.

The Syria conflict began in 2011. A year later Joseph Hakimeh, his wife and three children were forced to flee Irbin, just a few of the thousands of Syrian Christians then internally displaced.