From the Global Front in Israel

April 4 – 10, 2026

Missiles, Humility and Primary Sources

First, a perspective to always keep in mind. To whom does it belong?

There is nothing quite like five weeks of relentless missiles falling from the sky inflicting random death to provoke a bit of self-reflection.

Add to that ingeniously deceptive enemies who both overtly and covertly seek my culture’s destruction, and the question is inevitable: how then shall we live? Really live?

In most of the West, in vast regions where there are not missiles or death squads, there is, nonetheless, no shortage of opinions, moral outrage, and rigid judgmentalism for some; fear, despair and weariness for others; and for both a host of slowly deadening hedonistic pleasures.

In this part of the world, in the East and Middle East, where there is an entire smorgasbord of both secular and religious authoritarianism, it is much the same, except for this: the primary difference, I think, is that more people here are, quite literally, hell-bent on annihilating anyone, any group, that does not comply with their given doctrine.

The West – in my mind, America and Western Europe – is not yet where we are in the East and Middle East, but it’s on its way.

East or West, how do we separate from these cultural forces while still participating in the wholesome aspects of community? How do we live in our increasingly toxic world without being infected by it? And how do we do so while embracing life, understanding what’s true and even knowing joy?

The practical challenge this week, and in the days to come, is this: how do we know what’s true, what isn’t true, what matters and what doesn’t matter?