Dr Paul Allen

“One may understand   a push for a cease-fire for humanitarian reasons or for tactical military needs, but this call for a cease-fire is directly linked to the advent of a Muslim religious month,” writes Dr. A. S. Ibrahim for World. Ramadan is a time when  Muslims around the world observe a month of fasting, prayer, and reading the Quran. “When Muhammad had the chance, he didn’t seek a cease-fire nor did he voice concerns that the fighting was violating Ramadan.” The backlash of Israel  dishonouring Ramadan should be viewed in the context of Islamic history and the teachings of the Quran. “As Israel knows all too well, the fight goes on, Ramadan or not,” writes Dr. Ibrahim. Go Deeper:   Read the full article by Dr. Ibrahim on World.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario: It’s the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and an opportunity emerges for the terrorists of Hamas to attack the heartland of Israel. Would they refrain from launching the attack to observe their holy month? Now, move from the hypothetical scenario back to reality. As the Israel-Hamas war continues, many politicians and media pundits have come together in a concerted effort to pressure Israel for a cease-fire in Gaza during Ramadan. Why exactly? It is a holy month for Muslims, we are told, so Israel must stop its military operation. The fanciful pattern is now predictable. A politician or a celebrity issues a demand and posts it on social media to millions of keyboard “followers,” who then repost and simply repeat the demand without the least intellectual effort to fathom its core. One may understand a push for a cease-fire for humanitarian reasons or tactical military needs. Still, this call for a cease-fire is directly linked to the advent of a Muslim rel...

The October 7 Terrorist Attack Early on Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists broke through fencing along the Gaza/Israel border. While in Israel, Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, assaulted, and kidnapped Israeli men, women, and children. It should be noted that Hamas launched the terrorist invasion during a religiously significant time for the Jewish people, which was during the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) at the end of a Jewish festival (Sukkot). We deliberately use the word “terrorist” to identify those who invaded Israel because they are, by definition, terrorists. A “terrorist” is defined as  “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” That is precisely what Hamas did on October 7. They used unlawful violence and intimidation against civilians to achieve their desired political ends: the destruction of the State of Israel. This is absolutely undeniable. A call for the extermination of the J...

In the complex realm of international conflicts, seeking a simplified narrative that paints all parties with the same brush is often tempting, leading to the dangerous notion of moral equivalency. We saw this on the weekend rallies by Palestine supporters marching and chanting death to Israel in Melbourne and Sydney. Politicians, police and the media chose moral equivalency.  This concept suggests that both sides in a conflict are equally responsible for the violence and suffering without delving into the nuances and historical context of the situation. One case where this myth often surfaces is in discussions about the Hamas attack on Israel. Understanding the Conflict The conflict between Israel and Hamas has deep historical and political roots that extend far beyond the headlines. It is vital to recognize the complex backdrop against which these incidents occur. The modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the early 20th century, and its root causes include land dispute...

Rich Gregory  As the war in Israel ramped up over the past week, social media accounts across the Christian  spectrum exploded with quotations from Psalm 122:8, which commands, “Pray for the peace of  Jerusalem!” That statement raises some critical questions: should we be praying for the  peace of Jerusalem? Or even, Why do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? I want to answer those questions by covering  1) What is happening in Israel,  2) What it  means, and  3) How we should think about it as followers of Jesus Christ. What is Happening? These following paragraphs represent a rather grotesque oversimplification, but understanding how to think requires a basic understanding of some broad brush strokes in the geopolitical context.  On May 14, 1948, the modern state of Israel was formed. The Jewish people – fresh off the horror of the holocaust – began returning to the land of their forefathers from a multi-millennial exile. While this return ...

Israel is full of ancient ruins, but who destroyed what and when? Earth’s magnetic field is helping researchers identify remains of wars described in the Bible. According to the Bible, the Holy Land was a frequent target for conquering empires: from the ancient Egyptians to the Arameans, from the Assyrians to the Babylonians. Of course, the good book interprets these tragedies from a religious standpoint, usually as divine retribution for the sins of the ancient Israelites. But many of the wars mentioned in the biblical text were historical events. Settlements were often burnt down and, in some cases, were rebuilt only to be sacked again a century or so later – leaving archaeologists today puzzling over multiple layers of destruction and struggling to figure out who destroyed what and when. Questions about the dating of ancient sites in the Levant are not purely academic. They lie at the heart of the longstanding debate over fact and fiction in the Bible. Now a new scientific technique...

Two sites are competing for the title of the real Bethsaida. Only one can be right, one would think, and el-Araj does have a layer from the time of Jesus and the apostles – but there’s a twist to this Galilean tale. Sometime between from the first century B.C.E. to the early first century, a fishing village arose where the Jordan River enters the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The name Bethsaida literally stems from that description: “house of hunting,” i.e., fishing. In the year 30 or 31 C.E., tetrarch Herod Philip upgraded the village to a polis named Julias, according to the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. Then, in the third century, the historical record goes silent on Bethsaida-Julias until the fifth century. Archaeology shows that is when the Byzantines built a church in the town over the putative home of the apostles Andrew and Peter. And then the city’s location was lost. “Bethsaida is the last missing city of the gospels,” Steven Notley of Nyack College told Haaretz dur...

  The cultures and the political status of the Levant (Syria-Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean area) are disrupted around 1200 BCE by mass, armed invasions of Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia by groups collectively known as the Sea Peoples.  The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III (1184–1150 BCE) left written records and temple reliefs depicting how the Sea Peoples were defeated in naval and land battles, but other areas were not as lucky. For example, the important seaport city of Ugarit in northern Syria was destroyed by the invaders, leaving an economic and political vacuum that is eventually filled by the Phoenicians and their Mediterranean seaports at Tyre and Sidon. The Hittite kingdom in Anatolia is also defeated by the Sea Peoples and was never able to recover.  This in turn allowed encroachment on their territory by the Assyrian and Amorite dynasties in northern Mesopotamia. Egyptian hegemony over Canaan was severely affected, although archaeological evidence...

On September 9, 1839, a little boy was born into the Hatfield clan of West Virginia. His given name was William Anderson Hatfield. But while still quite young he got a nickname from his own mother that perfectly described his sinister disposition and aggressive nature. She called him  Devil Anse . The name stuck fast. Around the same time, his little cousin, also called Anderson Hatfield, who was mild-mannered and kind, earned the sobriquet of  Preacher Anse . So Devil Anse and Preacher Anse both grew into their names. Devil Anse was the leader of the Hatfield clan throughout the bitter decades of the infamous Hatfield-Mccoy feud. And although over a dozen people lost their lives and several more were imprisoned, Devil Anse survived the feud and avoided jail time. The infamous New Year’s Night massacre of 1888 was plotted at his instigation. That was the night eight Hatfields, at Devil Anse’s behest, surrounded the Mccoy cabin and opened fire, killing two young girls. Sev...