My wish for the year 2013 is for an end to the bloodshed in the land of the Arab peoples. I hope that the United States and its allies stop killing Arabs, and I hope the Arab people stop killing each other. From Syria to Iraq to Egypt and on, “the garden of Allah” is being watered with the blood of its own people. Sunni versus Shia, secular versus religious, this tribe versus that tribe, east versus west, and so it goes.

Is there a glimmer of hope? At this writing, there is atruce between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Ihope this truce spreads to all the surrounding countries and that this year we finally see peace “in the garden of Allah.”