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Three weeks later, Israeli forces decided that it was worth the propaganda risk. On April 2, tanks rolled into Bethlehem, the various militias took cover in the Church of the Nativity, and thus began a five-week siege that grabbed the stunned world's attention. Unfortunately, as the press reported the tense days in which Israeli snipers picked off militiamen who tried to sneak out for food and in which the clergy in charge of the church appeared to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome and became increasingly supportive of the interlopers, little was said about the years of tension in which Bethlehem and its neighboring villages were terrorized and transformed almost beyond recognition. Hammer's book fills those gaps for Western readers.

Hammer has little sympathy for the Ta'amra leaders. One leader who now lives in exile, Hammer calls "a sociopath whom the intifada had elevated into a freedom fighter." And Hammer has little confidence in the government of Ariel Sharon, "a man without vision, relying only on escalating military tactics to maintain a tolerable level of terror." He believes that Sharon's "dependence on retribution alone to put down the uprising promised only the perpetuation of the dismal status quo."

A Season in Bethlehem is a moving account of an annus horribilis. It offers no particular hope for the conflict's resolution or for the restoration of Christian society around Bethlehem. Both miracles and massacres are part of Bethlehem's history. Pray for a miracle.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Joshua Hammer's A Season in Bethlehem is this month's selection for CT's Editor's Bookshelf. Elsewhere on our site, you can read an extended interview with Hammer and buy the book online.

More information is available from the publisher, including an excerpt.

Newsweek ran an excerpt.

Hammer discussed the book on NPR's Fresh Air.

PBS's Frontline also covered the Church of the Nativity standoff in Bethlehem.

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December 2003, Vol. 47, No. 12