This month both Israel and Cyprus were reminded of an important lesson in searching for offshore oil and gas: nothing is guaranteed until you start to drill. Lebanon should pay attention. As recently as early September, Shemen Oil and Gas Resources – an Israeli company chaired by former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi […]

I’VE spent most of my career covering Middle East politics. I always thought it was its own unique field. But, in the last few weeks, I’ve felt myself to be at a real advantage trying to explain American politics. You see, it turns out that all those years covering Sunnis and Shiites, Israelis and Palestinians, […]

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has congratulated the families of the nine pilgrims who were released on Saturday following a 17-month kidnapping ordeal in Syria but called for setting free two bishops and three priests abducted there. During a mass on a pastoral visit to the Metn district, al-Rahi said: “We congratulate their relatives on their […]

Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria. The nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were abducted in Syria’s Azaz last year were freed Friday night after prolonged efforts to release them. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said that “Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria.”   General […]

President Michel Suleiman lamented on Friday that the international community was not sufficiently sharing the burden of the displaced Syrians, who have put a severe strain on Lebanon’s economy. Suleiman told the ambassadors of major powers and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly that “the participation of countries in sharing the burden of Syrian […]

The "Top 25 Cities in the World" list had refreshingly surprising additions and rankings — Paris came in at a lowly 22 while Bruges and Cape Town tied for 11th place. Budapest and Florence tied for second, while the very top spot was seized by the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende in central […]

WASHINGTON,DC (Aid to the Church in Need) – The media seems indifferent or fearful of criticizing the criminal and terrorist activities of Muslim extremists-or journalists get the story plain wrong. Glaring case in point: a recent BBC report, covering the rebel attack on the ancient Syrian Christian village of Maaloula, claimed that "the fighting in Maaloula is the first such attack on a notable Christian community since the start of the uprising. Residents of many Christian villages around Homs and Hama have been fleeing the violence along with members of other communities, but had not up until now been attacked themselves."

Yet, young Christian girls are being raped and murdered, while Christian churches, monasteries, homes, and workplaces are being systematically destroyed. Syrian Catholic bishops have warned that their country is becoming a "second Iraq" owing to similar patterns of Church attacks and forced expulsion and kidnapping of Christians. During Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror, Iraq’s Christian population plummeted from 1.4 million to fewer than 300,000. Many of those Christian refugees settled in Syria, which was considered, at that time, a more tolerant country.