May (Web-only) 2002

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Lack of tourism, weight of economic struggles mount in Israel
For over a year, the Holy Land's tourism industry has been staggering in the face of renewed violence. "Now, it's a disaster," convention organizer Hanna Barag tells the Chicago Tribune. "Would you go to a place where they are shooting and blowing up coffee shops?"

Because religious travelers are putting off trips to Israel and business conventions have cancelled Israel dates—up until 2007—the tourism industry has toppled. Barag's own trade convention business was forced to close last November. Christianity Todayreported last month that tourism, once one of the Holy Land's strongest industries, has declined 45 percent since 2000.

But tourism does not exist in a vacuum. The dramatic drop and related economic woes have caused political turmoil that escalated in the firing of 11 Cabinet ministers on Monday.

Pedophilia: an incurable disease?
In researching the effectiveness of Megan's Laws, which require convicted pedophiles to notify their communities of past convictions, George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni extensively studied various methods to treat pedophilia. He writes in the Chicago Tribune this week that much of what the Catholic Church has done in response to clergy pedophilia assumes that it is a curable disease.

The sad truth is that pedophilia is almost never cured. Pedophilia is not a normal sex drive but an obsession, a strong impulse difficult to control. It has been characterized as a chronic, progressive condition that can never really be cured. The fact that pedophiles are rarely cured is reflected in the fact that even if jailed and treated, they continue to act out their impulse.

Consequently, Etzioni concludes that psychoanalysis, ...