How does anyone in this country pay for summer camp?

Deseret News, 11 June 2021 I used to love summer: the heat, the beach, the afternoon thunderstorms, those sickeningly sweet, dye-infused, high-fructose corn syrup filled popsicles that suddenly appear in the grocery store. But now that I’m a working mom with two children, turning the calendar over from May to June fills me with dread. …

How a faith-based group you’ve never heard of is impacting American politics

Deseret News, 31 May 2021 Although the next presidential election is still 31⁄2 years away, some Republican hopefuls are already taking tentative first steps that could, eventually, lead to the White House. Top GOP leaders will be at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference, which will take place June 17-19 in Orlando, Florida, to court …

Is a ceasefire really a ceasefire if the fighting never ends?

Deseret News, 21 May 2021 My husband and I watched with relief as a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect at 2 a.m. Israel-Palestine time on Friday. As I finished cooking dinner at our home in West Palm Beach, Florida, he shared footage with me of Palestinians celebrating in the streets in the West Bank …

Don’t forget Palestinian Christians

Deseret News, 20 May 2021 Earlier this week, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians went on strike over Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza, violence inside of Israeli cities and efforts to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. In the Bethlehem area, youth have gathered to protest outside of …

The Long Road to Bethlehem Part Four

+972, December 19, 2015 “I’m leaving.” I tell people in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The words sound unexpected and foreign in every language, as though someone else is speaking them. While I’ve resigned from my post at the university and someone has already been hired to teach my fall classes, I haven’t given my landlady …

How to End the Eritrean Refugee Crisis

The Nation, December 2, 2015 Tesfu Atsbha, 35, stands in the alley behind an unmarked Eritrean community center in south Tel Aviv, just blocks away from the park where a memorial service was held for Habtom Zerhum a few days before. Zerhum, an Eritrean asylum seeker, was killed when he was mistaken for a Palestinian …

Old problems in Jerusalem’s Old City

IRIN, November 23, 2015 Faten Ghosheh, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother of five, stands on the roof of her partially demolished home in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Al-Aqsa Mosque visible behind her. She recalls the moment five years ago when Israeli forces arrived at 5am to tear down the two rooms and bathroom that her husband …

Eat the breakfast of a king and the dinner of a pauper

Roads & Kingdoms, November 16, 2015 One can learn much about labneh—that is, the version of the breakfast food that appears in Palestinian homes—through the word itself. Both the name and the substance labneh are derived from laben, yogurt. But it also shares a root with “block,” as in the substance used to build. And …

This is What the Israelis Really Want

The World Post at The Huffington Post, October 23, 2015 It’s Wednesday night. I’ve just left the memorial for Habtom Zarhum, the Eritrean asylum seeker who was mistaken for a Palestinian during the attack on the Beersheba bus station. Zarhum was shot by a security guard and was then “lynched”by an Israeli mob. They cursed …