Breaking the cycle of ungrace means taking the initiative. Instead of waiting for his neighbor to make the first move

When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. (Prov. 16:7)

He just flat went ahead and "tore down the dividing wall of hostility" (Eph. 2:14 hcsb) that had stood between them for dozens and dozens of long, gray-haired generations. He wasn't appealing for peace but was proclaiming peace—"peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near" (Eph.

The fissures ran too deep. The haughtiness and hostility were too ingrained. No one had ever run for office on a Jew-and-Gentile reconciliation platform. They hated the ground the other had walked on. Their aims and desires were mutually exclusive. By a country mile.

It was not the creation of 760,000 Arab-Palestinian refugees that has created this hatred. It was this hatred that created the refugees. Had six Arab armies not attacked Israel to destroy it in 1948, there would not have been any refugees.

The Arab world has no peer when it comes to hatred - of the Western world generally, and especially of Israel. Israel-hatred and its twin, Jew-hatred, are the oxygen that the Arab world breathes.

As of the second decade in the twenty-first century, nearly all acts of terror around the world (as opposed to acts of terror confined to one country, as in the case of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka) have been committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. Of course the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. But this frequently noted fact is meaningless.

Therefore, there is no issue here of a holy text depicting people being ordered by their God to kill infidels or innocents.

We are always at our best when compassion enables us to recognize the unique pressures and singular stories of the people on the other side of our conflicts.

War is just an effect, not a cause.

Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are in business. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect or engineer.

Ronald Reagan said, 'Trust, but verify.' President Obama is 'trust, but vilify.' He trusts our enemies and vilifies everyone who disagrees with him.