Because I am a Christian, many people assume it is my religious faith that is the primary motivation for my advocacy for Israel. But that is not the case. Like all true Zionists, my strongest motives are more visceral, more mysterious than any creed or pledge.

This is scandalous. Instead of preventing evil, God has chosen to use it against its will. He has chosen it to instruct us. His use of evil, and his method for defeating it, are shocking. And yet they are his means for bringing joy from sorrow, gain from loss, life from death. Why? It is all about the power he has given us to choose.

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Last week and back-to-back, Netanyahu and Erdogan made day trips to the Russian capital for personal meetings with Vladimir Putin. Polite to both, he also dismissed the worries that brought his guests to Moscow. Why?

Like the setup for a volleyball slam, Putin launched an easy serve with greetings for the Jewish holiday of Purim. Netanyahu returned the volley by comparing today's would-be Persian empire to yesterday's enemy of biblical lore, Haman. With a smile on his face, that's when Putin spiked the ball. That happened "in the 5th century BC," he said. "We now live in a different world."

As the US sends B-52 nuclear bombers to South Korea, North Korea must decide whether or not it wants to go to war. Because of North Korea's close ties with Iran, supplying missile and nuclear technology, conflict there could light a short fuse to the Middle East.