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This is something that we’ve been worried about for a while – the Sinai border with Israel.

It is routinely used by Bedouin to smuggle all kinds of things into Israel – drugs, prostitutes, weapons and terrorists. Until now, Egypt has had a tight control on access to the Sinai and few weapons and terrorists have been able to gain access. Not so now.

Libyan weapons are flowing unchecked into the Sinai and terrorists are having a field day – with a free hand to do what they want. This is NOT good news to anyone that wants to see peace in the Middle East. Hamas no longer needs to just shoot rockets into Israel from Gaza, they can now launch attacks over land on Eilat and into southern Israeli cities.

This is something that we’ve been worried about for a while – the Sinai border with Israel.

It is routinely used by Bedouin to smuggle all kinds of things into Israel – drugs, prostitutes, weapons and terrorists. Until now, Egypt has had a tight control on access to the Sinai and few weapons and terrorists have been able to gain access. Not so now.

Libyan weapons are flowing unchecked into the Sinai and terrorists are having a field day – with a free hand to do what they want. This is NOT good news to anyone that wants to see peace in the Middle East. Hamas no longer needs to just shoot rockets into Israel from Gaza, they can now launch attacks over land on Eilat and into southern Israeli cities.

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It is a sad fact that whenever Israel withdraws from a territory, that territory becomes a threat to Israel’s security. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah moved in and rained missiles down on Israel. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, Hamas moved in and rained missiles down on Israel. When Israel began withdrawing from Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, terrorist bombings skyrocketed – and Israel had to put a wall around the Palestinians.

And now, as Egypt descends into Islamism, our only exception to this rule may cease to be an exception. When Islamists take over in Egypt, they have promised to tear up the peace treaty with Israel. And guess what the Sinai will become?

It is a sad fact that whenever Israel withdraws from a territory, that territory becomes a threat to Israel’s security. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah moved in and rained missiles down on Israel. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, Hamas moved in and rained missiles down on Israel. When Israel began withdrawing from Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, terrorist bombings skyrocketed – and Israel had to put a wall around the Palestinians.

And now, as Egypt descends into Islamism, our only exception to this rule may cease to be an exception. When Islamists take over in Egypt, they have promised to tear up the peace treaty with Israel. And guess what the Sinai will become?

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Helping people see what is real is a long, exhausting (and frustrating) process. Reality is such a harsh environment to live in, most of us would rather spend time with the alternative. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live a place where the sky is always blue and everyone is just so… nice.

However, spending too much time in a fantasy world can kill you. Living lives of fantasy killed the US economy. Clinging to the fantasy that Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy killed six million Jews. The fantasy of a world without God killed even more via communism.

Helping people see what is real is a long, exhausting (and frustrating) process. Reality is such a harsh environment to live in, most of us would rather spend time with the alternative. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live a place where the sky is always blue and everyone is just so… nice.

However, spending too much time in a fantasy world can kill you. Living lives of fantasy killed the US economy. Clinging to the fantasy that Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy killed six million Jews. The fantasy of a world without God killed even more via communism.

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Let me take a break from the relentless gloom and doom that I’ve been presenting here. There’s really only so much insanity that you can take, and believe me when I say that I’m not having much fun, either. So, let’s talk about the plight of Palestinian Christians.

I’ve had direct and very personal experience with the obscene amount of persecution that Palestinian Christians must put up with in the West Bank. I am still in regular contact with a good friend who has been repeatedly imprisoned,  tortured and then banished. He has a wife and children in a village in the West Bank, but he can’t see them because the Palestinian Authority have tried to kill him several times, and almost succeeded the last time they tried.

Let me take a break from the relentless gloom and doom that I’ve been presenting here. There’s really only so much insanity that you can take, and believe me when I say that I’m not having much fun, either. So, let’s talk about the plight of Palestinian Christians.

I’ve had direct and very personal experience with the obscene amount of persecution that Palestinian Christians must put up with in the West Bank. I am still in regular contact with a good friend who has been repeatedly imprisoned,  tortured and then banished. He has a wife and children in a village in the West Bank, but he can’t see them because the Palestinian Authority have tried to kill him several times, and almost succeeded the last time they tried.

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The deputy head of the Red Cross in Gaza, Mathilde Redmatn, said this week.

“There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. If you go to the supermarket, there are products. There are restaurants and a nice beach. The problem is mainly in maintenance of infrastructure and in access to goods, concrete for example,”

- Red Cross: There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, The Jerusalem Post

Coming from an organization such as the International Committe for the Red Cross, this kind of statement is worth paying attention to. But, will the rest of the world listen?

The deputy head of the Red Cross in Gaza, Mathilde Redmatn, said this week.

“There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. If you go to the supermarket, there are products. There are restaurants and a nice beach. The problem is mainly in maintenance of infrastructure and in access to goods, concrete for example,”

- Red Cross: There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, The Jerusalem Post

Coming from an organization such as the International Committe for the Red Cross, this kind of statement is worth paying attention to. But, will the rest of the world listen?

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