A recent trip to a local outdoor produce market revealed a wide variety of locally grown produce on display, including many vegetables as well as colorful fruits such as strawberries, peaches and plums—beautiful things to eat. It is the beginning of the season, and the fruits and vegetables are fresh and plentiful. The abundance was amazing, and the market was buzzing as people milled about selecting the items they found appealing.

A year after British Prime Minister Cameron promised to legalize homosexual marriage by 2015, he touted Britain as “the best place to be gay, lesbian or transgender anywhere in Europe” (Telegraph, July 24, 2013).

The European Commission recently decided to refuse funding for Israeli projects in settlements beyond its 1967 borders and to place labels on settlement-made products to enable Europeans to boycott these items (EU Observer, July 16, 2013). However, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu sees the EU mandates as a threat to national sovereignty: “I will not let anybody harm Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Jerusalem… We will not accept any external dictates regarding borders” (ibid.).