Globe Trot: Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter of wounded Palestinian

ISRAEL: A three-judge panel in Tel Aviv convicted an Israeli soldier of manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed Palestinian assailant as he lay wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would support a pardon for the soldier, who said in court he shot the man because he deserved to die, but Israel’s defense minister appears to oppose a pardon.

NORTH KOREA: In spite of leader Kim Jong Un’s weekend boast, experts say a fully developed inter-continental ballistic missile capable of threatening the United States is likely years away.

BRITAIN’s ambassador to the European Union, Ivan Rogers, resigned, making British negotiations over exiting the EU—scheduled to begin in March—more difficult.

SUDAN: A Khartoum court acquitted Sudanese pastor Kuwa Shamal, arrested a year ago, of “national security” crimes but continues to hold two others who face the death penalty.

At a long-standing SIM medical clinic near Yida refugee camp, Christmas Day for some medical workers meant dodging gunfire: “I spent my afternoon lying on the floor, praying fervently for protection, more scared than I had ever been in my life.”

TURKEY: A Turkish court last week denied an appeal for the release of Andrew Brunson, the American pastor held since October and accused a month ago of being part of a terrorist organization. U.S. Embassy officials were allowed to visit Brunson for the first time, as was his wife. She confirmed he’s imprisoned alongside 11 Muslims who are “devout,” and not violent, and that he’s allowed only one book in solitary confinement—and it’s the New Testament. Yesterday was Brunson’s 49th birthday.

SYRIA: U.S.-led coalition jets last week supported a Turkish army operation near al-Bab in Syria but did not use weapons, according to the Pentagon. But apparently Syrian and Turkish forces did, in some of the worst video footage of civilian carnage I’ve seen in this five-plus-year war. Al-Bab, like Manbij, also in Turkey’s sights, is about 30 miles from Turkey’s border with Syria. It seems Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is playing for territory, with U.S. assistance. Or if Turkey is aiding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, then the United States is too, having called for his ouster. What Syria is becoming, in my view, is World War I–level nonsense carnage meets the United States aiding Saddam Hussein while he gassed his own people 30 years ago—all lessons learned, and in the last century. I wish I was optimistic President-elect Donald Trump or Congress will sort it out better.

But on Jan 1, the 2017 World Day of Peace, clergy in Aleppo gathered for a joint prayer service—Syriac, Chaldean, Maronite, and Evangelical—to pray for peace and an end to war in their country and the return of kidnapped clergy.