For more than a decade, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem has suffered noise and damages to homes from excavation work for a “Bible Park,” and residents fear they will be pushed out entirely.

The nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) was written for a Cold War standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It can only be effective now if it includes new nuclear powers like Israel.

Since chef Fadi Kattan was a child getting underfoot in his grandmother’s kitchen, the preparation and communal eating of the burbara pudding has been a pre-Christmas symbol of the coming of the holiday on the Palestinian West Bank.

Patriarch Sabbah: “When you celebrate Christmas, remember that in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, life is not a Christmas life. It is not the blessed life of the new redeemed humanity. The song of the Angels is far away.”

The Vatican issued a statement insisting that it is “absolutely necessary to reactivate direct dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians “to achieve a two-state solution.”

The United States has dithered on establishing any policy to help bring an end to a conflict now in its eighth decade.