"I fear Christians will be depopulated once and for all from the land where they have maintained continuous presence since the time of Jesus." - Faresa Abraham

1930s, Jerusalem, Palestine Church of All Nations, Gethsemane, photographed by the Palestinian Albina Brothers. The Church of All Nations was built by the Franciscans between 1919 and 1924 on the relics of an ancient Byzantine church next to the Garden of Gethsemane. ‘Gethsemane’ is derived from the Aramaic word for ‘olive press’ as the garden has many olive trees, eight of them thought to date back to the time of Jesus Christ.   Pals  @palsofnations

"I fear Christians will be depopulated once and for all from the land where they have maintained continuous presence since the time of Jesus." - Faresa Abraham

Fares Abraham

@faresabraham

@USAmbIsrael Huckabee told @TuckerCarlson that in Palestinian schools, we are taught from age five that "the greatest thing is to kill." 

 

Mr. Ambassador, I was one of those five-year-olds. 

 

Your demonization of Palestinians is a fictionalized hallucination that failed to teach me, and millions of other Palestinian youth, the hate you claim is our heritage.  Obviously, that education system prepped me well to excel in the U.S. and become a contributing, proud American citizen.

 

I am not claiming Palestinians are perfect. We have many internal failures and a desperate need for major reforms. But to cast an entire population, including Christians, as potential suicide bombers when asked if we can visit our own churches in Jerusalem is a level of political and unethical recklessness I never expected from a Christian Ambassador. 

 

Are you truly willing to continue confining 5.5 million people forever, including your own brothers and sisters in Christ, for the sins committed by a few? 

 

Even when you fail the Christians of Palestine, God will remain their vindicator no matter how many walls and checkpoints you and your friends continue to build. 

 

https://x.com/faresabraham/status/2025262352401076346 

 

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US envoy Mike Huckabee says it would be ‘fine’ if Israel took all Middle East land... [Tucker] Carlson pointed out that this area in modern geography would include “like, basically the entire Middle East.... The Levant … Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon – it’d also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq...”

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East – or at least the lion’s share of it.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement.

Carlson – who recently made disputed claims that he was detained at Tel Aviv airport in Israel – asked Huckabee about a biblical verse in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will receive land “from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites”.

Carlson pointed out that this area in modern geography would include “like, basically the entire Middle East”.

“The Levant … Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon – it’d also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq,” Carlson said.

Huckabee said: “I’m not sure it would go that far, but it would be a big piece of land.”

He continued: “Israel is a land that God gave, through Abraham, to a people that he chose. It was a people, a place and a purpose.”

Pressed by Carlson on whether Israel has the right to that land, Huckabee responded: “It would be fine if they took it all...”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/20/mike-huckabee-israel-middle-east-tucker-carlson

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]  

The Guardian view on Trump’s Board of Peace: serving private interests more than public good. As aid trickles into Gaza, Washington channels $10bn into a body chaired by the president. Peace in the region rests on law and sovereignty, not ego and brinkmanship

The Guardian

Editorial

 

Fri 20 Feb 2026 12.52 EST

In Gaza, aid still trickles in at levels relief agencies say are far below what is required. Temporary shelters are scarce. Reconstruction materials are restricted by Israel’s controls on goods entering the territory. Conditions, say the UN, remain “dire”. The violence has not stopped: Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since the ceasefire began. The announcement that the US would transfer $10bn to President Donald Trump’s newly convened Board of Peace is hard to reconcile with the reality on the ground. Even worse is that Washington has paid only a fraction of its UN arrears – $160m against more than $4bn owed.

This raises the obvious question: why is a private initiative being capitalised so heavily while existing UN mechanisms remain severely cash-strapped? Funnelling state funds into a body chaired by Mr Trump suggests foreign policy is serving private interests, not the public good. The board has ambitious plans. Rafah is to be rebuilt within three years with skyscrapers. Gaza is to become self-governing within a decade. An International Stabilisation Force is expected to begin deployment, eventually numbering 20,000 troops. These are dramatic claims. But their delivery is largely notional.

Worryingly, there’s no clear legal authority defining the board’s mandate. Last November’s UN security council resolution authorised the board solely for Gaza as a temporary, two-year transitional administration. Mr Trump – who holds veto power in the board and the authority to interpret its remit – thinks otherwise. He claims it can intervene in other global conflicts. The board is not embedded within existing UN structures, perhaps intentionally sidestepping the lengthy coalition-building with regional partners. If its objective is to generate headlines, then the board has succeeded. The question is whether the guardrails are keeping pace with the public relations.

In a recent European Council on Foreign Relations paper, Muhammad Shehada argues that the US’s top-down, externally designed economic model risks remaking Gaza as a tightly managed enclave – with Palestinians restricted to new heavily surveilled compounds while the strip is dotted with residential towers, datacentres and seaside resorts. Mr Shehada is not wrong when he says Mr Trump’s plan poses a blunt question: is Gaza the home of its people – or a prize for outside powers and profiteers? Palestinians are not getting much of a say, yet the answer will shape their future.

Gaza lies in ruins. What unfolded, many experts say, was a genocide. Yet... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/20/the-guardian-view-on-trumps-board-of-peace-serving-private-interests-more-than-public-good

ICE is now the highest -funded law enforcement agency in the US... ‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks

Karen Newton: ‘I am not a dangerous criminal. I don’t even have parking tickets.’ Photograph: Lydia Goldblatt/The Guardian

 Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone’

Jenny Kleeman

Sat 21 Feb 2026 01.00 EST

When Karen Newton left home in late July 2025, she knew that international travellers were being locked up in immigration detention centres in the US. “I was aware,” she nods. “But I never thought it would have any impact on my holiday.” Karen, 65, had a British passport and a tourist visa. She hadn’t been abroad for eight years, and was keen for some guaranteed sun. “I really just wanted to get away from the house.”

She and her husband, Bill, 66, had an ambitious itinerary that would take them through California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and then on to Canada over two months. Las Vegas wasn’t to Karen’s taste: “Way too commercialised.” She much preferred Yellowstone, where they saw Old Faithful, the famous geyser, as it shot boiling water into the air, and got up close with some extraordinary wildlife. “There was a bison right next to the car. Another time, a wolf walked past.” Her eyes sparkle at the memory. “It was just amazing.”

The dream holiday ended abruptly on Friday 26 September, as Karen and Bill were trying to leave the US.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice 

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Billionaires want Ballrooms. The rest of us want clean water; safe neighborhoods; good schools, libraries, & museums; National Parks; playgrounds; PBS; good job opportunities for ourselves and our children; affordable heath-care; AND PEACE.

Political cartoon from 1906, by artist William Balfour Ker

 

letter I just wrote & sent to my elected leaders

Dear America,

This month, so far, saw snow and bitter cold ending & Ramadan and Lent beginning & Aloka the Peace Dog arrive in Washington Dc with the Buddhist Monks walking for peace. 

Winter is ending, flowers will soon start to bloom- will the flowers be blooming be on America's grave?  I hope not.

This month, so far, also saw church leaders highlighting threats "to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes, restrictions on freedom of movement for worshipers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem."

Many Americans can't afford health care, home heating bills, or eating out, but our elected leaders keep opting to invest oodles of our hard earned tax dollars into a very foreign country called Israel and the military-industrial complex that has been aggressively polluting planet earth, exasperating racist hate & freely bombing babies and children in impoverished refugee camps.

PLUS the Trump Administration and its minions are doing all they can to undermine and destroy the United Nations, international law, and ICC International Criminal Court... Golly Gee I wonder why.

Meanwhile American battleships and troops are gearing up to bomb Iran. 

American politicians and billionaire business owners (plus many a wanna be) have been borrowing vast sums of money to invest in building numerous land and energy gobbling data centers/hyperscalers that fuel AI delusions. 

We need good jobs- real jobs- not AI... and certainly not war. 

We need to be working with the international community before it shuts us out completely. 

Billionaires want Ballrooms. The rest of us want clean water; safe neighborhoods; good schools, libraries, & museums; National Parks; playgrounds; PBS; good job opportunities for ourselves and our children; affordable heath-care; AND PEACE.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

'In Israel's eyes, we are terrorists' | In search of Palestine: episode 1 – video... In Search of Palestine

Saint Valentina was from Caesarea of Palestine... The ancient Latin name “Valentina” means “strong, vigorous and healthy.”

The Peace Walk “a powerful reminder that peace is practiced step by step. In a divided time, this is what it looks like to stand up for the best of who we are. Love demands endurance. Peace is strength.” MLKIII

Whether on a long road or a church stage, Aloka remains a steadfast support to the venerable monks, proving that peace is a journey shared by all beings...

Church leaders highlight threats to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes (Arnona), restrictions on freedom of movement for worshippers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem.

"Yesterday, I was honored to welcome the Buddhist monks to Washington National Cathedral, to learn from their example, and as Christians to recommit ourselves to the way of peace for all people. We are so grateful, so inspired, and so grateful that the monks are calling out the best in all of us as they make their pilgrimage among us. Their commitment to embody and bring peace to us all. Our response–across all that seems to divide us as a nation–reveals how united we are in our longing for peace, God willing, our readiness for peace. The monks, like all our spiritual masters of all faiths, including Jesus, remind us that true peace begins in the human heart, and in genuine peace offerings to those we love, the we struggle to love, and even those we would consider our adversaries." Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC, USA

Bishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans that pave the way for more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory

Her father’s war grave in Gaza was bulldozed by Israel. Amid the grief and anger, she wants answers... " “They have no respect for the living, so why would they respect the dead?” Wilma says of the Israeli government."

Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked : The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

‘A violation of our history’: Palestinian uproar over Israel’s plan to seize historic West Bank site- Residents of Sebastia say heritage project is pretext for massive land grab and expansion of Jewish settlements

US politics: After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel. It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned

"The true irony is, state terror does not make a state safer. When democratic states adopt the methods of tyrannies, they become weaker. Their global credibility frays. They sacrifice the legitimacy they once held that distinguishes them from the regimes they claim to oppose."

The Women Who Shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026 "The genocide did not begin with concentration camps and gas chambers; it started with apathy and silence in the face of injustice, and with the corrosive dehumanization of the other. Today, and always, we need to remember this." Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

"We call on Israel to immediately cease such actions against UNRWA premises, respect the Agency’s mandate, lift all restrictions imposed on its activities, and fully comply with its obligations under international law, in line with the latest advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 22 October 2025 on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian territory. "

Dear America,  Funding and arming terrorism and violence is evil and wrong: America should not be funding, arming, defending, or trusting today's Israel in any way, shape or form.

A barbaric new era has already begun as Americans are duped into being wage slaves for billionaires who have no respect for basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws.

Golden Rule Thinking IS GOOD

Our land and resources are being gobbled up for AI data centers for what purpose? Is it for the greater good of tax paying citizens- or is it to feed the greed of corporations and companies that already use our data to charge us as much as they can at every turn.

Real freedom, justice, and democracy are being embezzled by corporate greed and political corruption to empower Israel and war.

"ISRAEL SAYS" is not God talking.

Israel has a right to exist, but Israel has no right to starve and displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine.

The vast majority of Americans are not wealthy & the taxes that We The People pay are being diverted into funding religious bigotry and terror via Israel's cruel war on the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine. HAMAS cruelty and stupidity echoes Zionist cruelty and stupidity and on and on it goes. Neither approach will build peace or security.

The weapons industry and a global war machine- AND INJUSTICE- burgeon with American tax payer funds.

Violence is a problem- not the answer.

"The United Nations is the only place on Earth where all the world's nations come together to discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This intergovernmental organization born out of the ashes of the Second World War remains indispensable to the pursuit of world peace, justice, equality and sustainable development" https://www.un.org/en/

The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties.  https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-palestinian-refugees-the-right-of-return-under-international-law/441

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

'In Israel's eyes, we are terrorists' | In search of Palestine: episode 1 – video... In Search of Palestine

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/feb/17/in-israels-eyes-we-are-terrorists-in-search-of-palestine-episode-1-video

More than two years after Israel’s devastating war in Gaza began, the West Bank has become an increasingly volatile front in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. While international recognition of a Palestinian state has gathered momentum, the situation on the ground is moving in the opposite direction. Israel’s government has advanced new annexation legislation, settlement growth is accelerating, and daily life for Palestinians is becoming more restricted and precarious.

In a new series, reporter Matthew Cassel travels through the West Bank to document what daily life looks like under deepening occupation. Starting in Hebron and moving north to Ramallah, villages outside the city, and finally Nablus, he meets people across generations to ask: what does the idea of a ‘Palestinian state’ mean today? 

Saint Valentina was from Caesarea of Palestine... The ancient Latin name “Valentina” means “strong, vigorous and healthy.”

Saint Valentina of Caesarea of Palestine 
Died: c.308
Feast Day: July 25
Saint Valentina from Caesarea of Palestine (her name means strong and healthy) died during the reign of the Emperor Maximian II. 

St. Valentina and her spiritual sister St. Thea, would not worship pagan idols, kicking over the pagan fire sacrifice and incense before the altar in protest. 

They were immediately tortured, beaten and finally bound together and burned to death.  

 

February 10th, is St. Valentina the martyr of Palestine

Saint Valentina was from Caesarea of Palestine. She was small and known for wearing old, worn out clothing.

One day, when she was with her friend Thea, they joined a group of Christians gathered to hear the Holy Scriptures. Local officials broke up the meeting, grabbed Thea and tortured her.

Valentina yelled, “How long will you torment my sister?” When the thugs heard her, they grabbed her, too. Valentina was dragged away to be burned on an altar which had already been prepared by the heathens. Kicking the altar with her feet, she knocked it over. Then, Valentina and Thea were tied together and burnt alive.

Saint Valentina’s Christian bond with Saint Thea was so strong that whether or not they were natural sisters, they were spiritual sisters. And, Saint Valentina was not going to let Saint Thea be martyred without her.

The women died for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in 308.

The ancient Latin name “Valentina” means “strong, vigorous and healthy.”

We honor these Holy Virgin Martyrs on February 10 and July 18.  https://thenunsgarden.org/saint-valentina.php

Whether on a long road or a church stage, Aloka remains a steadfast support to the venerable monks, proving that peace is a journey shared by all beings...

Peace Dog Photo Credit: Palm Jariya

Aloka the Peace Dog 

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This morning, our faithful companion Aloka took his place right on the stage during the Peace Gathering at Legacy Church in Wytheville, VA.

 

While the venerable monks stood to share their message, Aloka sat on the ground right beside them. He looked truly dedicated to the mission. Whether on a long road or a church stage, Aloka remains a steadfast support to the venerable monks, proving that peace is a journey shared by all beings.

Photo Credit: Palm Jariya

 

May you and all beings be well, happy and at peace.

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122117404935164116&set=a.122097429435164116

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Aloka the Peace Dog 🐕—the loyal companion with the peace heart on his forehead. Walking the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace journey with the Venerable Monks across America. Spreading peace and loving-kindness, one paw-step at a time. 🐾  

Aloka the Peace Dog 

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The Story of Aloka - Many people often ask about Aloka’s breed! While we aren't exactly sure, we estimate he is about 4 years old and likely an Indian Pariah dog.

 

His journey is truly special—he was once a stray wandering in India who began following the Venerable Monks. He walked with them for over 100 days across India, very much like the #WalkForPeace we are on today! 

 

Though his exact birthday remains a mystery, his loyalty and peaceful spirit are clear to everyone he meets.

 

May you and all beings be happy and at peace.  

 

 

The venerable monks and Aloka have returned home. May their mission for peace stay with all of us. #AlokaThePeaceDog

 

Aloka the Peace Dog 

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On Day 112, our home temple, Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center, was filled with overwhelming joy! During the Homecoming ceremony, Aloka took a moment for quiet contemplation, settling into a beautiful peace pose right in the middle of the event.

 

He seemed so happy to finally be home, surrounded by the thousands of people who gathered to welcome the venerable monks and him back. It was a powerful sight to see so many hearts joined together, ready to continue the path of peace as one community.

 

May you and all beings be well, happy and at peace.

#WalkForPeace #PeaceWalk #BuddhistMonks