Most families have been forced to move many times and with each new displacement, families lose or abandon more belongings. Not many of them by now have clothing appropriate for worsening weather conditions.

Focus on the fate of Israel, its hostages in Gaza and the people of Gaza and south Lebanon means that little attention is being paid to other continuing crises around the world—Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar among them.

Shelters have opened in northern Lebanon to provide what everyone hopes will be a temporary lodging for the displaced Christian families from the new war zone along the border with Israel.

Migration has been a defining reality of the human experience; that is not going to change because of 19th-century innovations like national borders.

Dark days indeed appear to be looming ahead for Lebanon. Forces far beyond the control of its already embattled citizens—plagued by years of economic and political instability—are dictating their nation’s future.

The current Farm Bill, at $1.5 trillion, represents the largest spending package in U.S. agricultural policy history; 80 percent of the spending is directed to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.