“Only with people, with community” will the Holy Land remain holy, says Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the region’s Roman Catholic leader. But the number of Christians in Israel and the West Bank is declining at an alarming rate.

"Something is changing," says an Israeli sociologist, "and I don't know, but I think it will come here. It's very difficult to believe the whole Arab world will be in riots and Jerusalem and West Bank are going to be quiet."

How Palestinians and Israeli settlers share water resources is "critical to the peace process."

Rami Elhanan and Mazen Faraj are members of the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a grassroots group that unites bereaved Israelis and Palestinians who have lost immediate family members to the Middle East conflict. Together they promote a message of dialogue, reconciliation, and peace.

Read more of the Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly interviews with American Jews about Israel.