About Paul Widen
Son of A Preacher Man: A Swedish Christian in the IDF
Fredrik recently finished basic training in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade. Together with thousands of other soldiers he is waiting on a base a few miles from Gaza, ready to be deployed in case the ceasefire between Israel … Read More
The Gaza Death Toll Dispute
The Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi recently claimed that the death toll in Gaza has been inflated (read the original Italian article here and a summary in English here). His estimates, based on a conversations with a Palestinian doctor and Palestinian … Read More
Live from Sderot
The Homefront Command has outlawed public gatherings in the towns bordering Gaza, which in effect means that people here have been told not to go to shul. Jews, however, take issue with governments telling them that they can’t pray. So … Read More
The Proverbial Chicken Is Coming Home to Roost
It is a rainy Monday night in Jerusalem, day three of the Hanukkah war against the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza. I just met a family from Ein Tzurim that spent the day in Jerusalem. Ein Tzurim is a religious … Read More
Coping with Christmas in Bethlehem
The Palestinian Authority decided to spend $50,000 on Christmas decorations in Bethlehem this year. The decoration committee is headed by city council member Zoughbi Zoughbi, who is excited about the prospect of lighting up this small city just south of … Read More
A Place for Prayer
Every year, the Israeli Postal Authority receives thousands of letters from around the world addressed to God. The issue of this specific type of undeliverable mail is presumably faced by postal authorities in other countries as well, but in Israel … Read More
After the Truce
The informal truce between Israel and Hamas that was brokered this summer through Egyptian assistance started to unravel on November 4th when IDF soldiers darted 250 meters into the Gaza Strip and blew up a tunnel. Four Hamas terrorists were … Read More
Visual Dispatch: Gaza Before The Truce
Just hours before I arrived on the Israeli side of the Sufa border crossing to Gaza on Monday, the IDF killed three terrorists affiliated with the Islamic Jihad as they were planting a roadside bomb a few hundred meters away. … Read More
Visual Dispatch: What Shavuot Means For Israeli Unity
In the Torah reading for Shavuot, which we just celebrated, we read, "…and they encamped in the desert, and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain" (Exodus 19:2). The Hebrew word for "they encamped" is plural, while the following "Israel encamped" … Read More
Visual Dispatch: Jerusalem Day
Forty-one years have passed since Jerusalem was reunited as a result of the Six Day War. A couple of days ago the streets of Jerusalem were thus once again packed with revelers that slowly made their way, singing and shouting, … Read More
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