Everyone knows the importance of exercise; it’s difficult to pass by a magazine stand in the grocery store without seeing some kind of new fitness program or diet fad. Most people, however, don’t have the time to go to the gym for an hour or two to exercise.

Fortunately, it’s not about exercise so much as it is about physical activity. This can include just about anything, such as playing with the kids, walking the dog, or even spring cleaning. No matter what you’re doing, the key is to do something. By doing so you’ll improve circulation, reduce stress, and keep your heart and body strong.

In this article you will see how the annual ritual of spring cleaning can be a legitimate form of “exercise”. Just wait until you see how many calories you can burn! You’ll never look at that old broom the same way again.

Shaking Out the Cobwebs

The birds are chirping; the snow is melting. That can only mean it’s time for, yes, you guessed it … spring cleaning! So as you begin your trek out of hibernation, no doubt many of you have put on a few pounds from the festive holidays.

Not to fear, this spring you have access to the most accessible workout program in town, and you won’t find it at your local health club. The spring cleaning you’re doing or planning on doing can be an excellent outlet for physical activity. For example, while you are out in the garden raking the piles of leaves, you’re giving your back and arms a little workout. Now, it might not become the newest Hollywood fad, but you can do some serious calorie burning and get moving on that New Year’s Resolution you made again this year.

Not convinced? Keep in mind that when someone is working out at the gym or to an exercise video, all that is basically happening is that individual’s heart rate is becoming elevated and his or her muscles are making contractions in order to move the weights. On many levels, the spring-cleaning routine is even better than a traditional workout.

Why? Most people when they work out do so in a very fixed, linear pattern. Meaning, if they are training their biceps, they might stand in front of a mirror and proceed to curl the weight up and down. When was the last time in your daily life that everything was that balanced, stable, and stationary?

So when you’re raking, digging, or trimming the bushes, your whole body is moving in addition to your biceps contracting. You’re actually challenging your body more and usually burning more calories. Never thought of it like that before, have you?

The key with this, as in any fitness program, is the duration, intensity, and consistency.

Duration: You can burn a good amount of calories digging, but if you only do it for five minutes, the impact will still be minimal. Use a variety of chores to increase the time that you are active.

Intensity: You can make other activities more effective as a workout by picking up the pace a little. Hustle a bit more when you’re washing the car; you’ll not only make it a more effective workout, but you’ll get more work done. Move from one chore to the next and take some breaks in between.

Consistency: If you are going to plan on cleaning as part of your physical activity program, you’ll need to work out more than every spring. Get a routine down, such as every Saturday you’ll wash the car, on Wednesday you’ll pull the weeds, etc. You’ll start to see a real difference not only in your body and energy levels, but also in your home.

Don’t Forget to Hydrate

As you’re cleaning/working out, keep yourself hydrated. It becomes easy to get so caught up with your activities that you don’t drink enough fluids until you’ve become dehydrated. Stick with water or sports drinks if you’re working for an extended period of time at a moderate pace. Avoid sodas and other drinks containing caffeine that can act as diuretics.

Drink consistently throughout the day; don’t just guzzle as much as you can in quick binges when you run back into the house. If water usually isn’t your first choice of beverage, spruce it up with a couple of slices of lemon or orange. Or for something off the beaten path, try cucumbers or mint. Most spas use this and it’s quite refreshing.

Even though you’re not basking in the sun on your beach blanket, you will be exposed to the sun, and it doesn’t take much to do damage. Use a sunscreen with enough SPF for your skin type.

Follow the advice here and this years spring cleaning will do more than make your home sparkle: it will start a lifetime of fitness that can improve every area of your life.

Cleaning Out the Kitchen

Toss the cookies, chips, sodas—the usual suspects—and replace them with prepared fruits and vegetables. If they are in the store bag at the very back of the fridge, no one will eat them. Have them prepared and sitting in front so they’re the first things seen when the door is opened. Buy lean meats, chicken, and fish. An easy way to cook these is with aluminum foil bags; you can throw the pouches on the grill or in the oven with some veggies inside.

If you have a sweet tooth, look for healthier alternatives, those that are low in calories, fat, and particularly sugar. The trade off in fat-free foods is typically a high sugar content, so watch both as well as the serving size. It doesn’t do much good if a serving is one tiny cookie and you eat 15 at one sitting. Keep things simple and consistent.

Dino Nowak holds some of the highest levels of certifications with the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise, and the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. He has advised and trained celebrities in the television, film, and music industries, in addition to those of all ages who have struggled with health and fitness challenges. He is the former general manager of Equinox Fitness in Los Angeles and the author of The Final Makeover: Your 40 Day Guide to Personal Fitness. He has been interviewed by major media outlets. His official Web site is .

Israeli leaders intend to ask U.S. President Barack Obama to act militarily to stop Syrian arm shipments to Hezbollah, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Sunday. In return, the U.S. president will likely ask Israel to make progress in the peace process, the newspaper reported.

“Israel will use President Obama’s visit on Wednesday to try to persuade the U.S. to carry out air strikes on Syria if there is evidence that Syrian missiles are to be handed over to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” the report said.

It said Israel would, at the very least, seek an American green light “for Israeli military action” to stop game-changing weapons from reaching Hezbollah.

According to The Guardian, Israel also wants to use Obama’s upcoming visit to bridge differences on Iran, whereas the U.S. would prefer to focus on the peace process with the Palestinians.

“Obama will come under Israeli pressure to lower the U.S. threshold for military action against Iran,” the report said.

“The U.S. president will try for an Israeli commitment to a peace process with the Palestinians. Neither side is likely to be successful, leaving Syria as the most promising arena for agreement.

“[Israel] would like the U.S. and Israel to jointly draw a notional ‘red line’ that in practical terms would prevent Iran [from] having even the capacity to build a warhead. Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s office concedes that it is more likely to succeed in securing U.S. support over Syrian missiles than to persuade Obama to share the Israeli prime minister’s position on Iran.”

American officials have recently stated that the U.S. will intervene in Syria only if the country’s biological or chemical weapons are used by the regime or fall into the hands of terrorists.

According to foreign press reports, Israel hit a Syrian weapons convoy in late January before it crossed the Lebanese border. The convoy was reportedly carrying surface to air missiles.

“These missiles are not just a problem for Israel,” a senior Israeli official told The Guardian. “They include [anti-ship] missiles, and who has the biggest navy in the Mediterranean?” He was referring to the U.S.’s Sixth Fleet.

The paper also quoted a Western diplomat as saying, “What I hear over and over again from Israeli generals is that another war with Hezbollah is inevitable.”

For the original article, visit .

A well-known cliché declares, “All that women really want is to be loved, and all that men really want is to be respected.”

Generalizations are seldom ironclad, but it follows that men who love their wives tend to be respected, and that women who respect their husbands tend to receive love. It’s also true that the best way to get what we need from our wife is to both give her what she needs and to give her what we need.

Respect is a huge issue for men in 21^st-century America, and when men don’t feel respected, they don’t always handle it well. Mostly, respect is something we have to earn. It can’t be taken, and it doesn’t just fall out of the sky. Here are 7 ways to earn your wife’s respect.

Treat her with respect. Make sure your wife knows how much you value and appreciate her. Don’t take a chance on this.  Express it often. Take a look at this All Pro Dad Article for tips on how to Tune In To Your Wife.

Never demand respect. When we raise our voice, berate, bully, and otherwise posture or attempt to coerce respect, then we’re moving in exactly the wrong direction.

Be a servant-leader in your home. When men demonstrate humility, grace, and mercy at home, the strength of character that defines them as servant-leaders commands the kind of respect that is rooted in love and appreciation.

Consistently put other people first, including her. Leaders who act like they are the most important person in the room get both obedience and rebellion. But leaders who put others first tend to be followed and loved. Are you putting her first? Read here on how to tell what’s most important to you. 

Always follow through on your promises. One indicator of integrity is a consistent level of follow-through when it comes to keeping promises. And a byproduct of integrity is respect. If your wife knows where you stand, and she can expect you to follow-through, then respect is part of the package.

Volunteer in the community. Help organize a neighborhood cleanup, become active in the PTA, join a team at church, help out with your kids’ sports teams. Take consistent time and trouble to lift others up.

Carry your weight around the house. Quietly, yet consistently, be a more visible, viable, and valuable member of your own household. That might mean taking responsibility for the kids’ homework, staying on top of the laundry backlog, being a leader in terms of respecting on-time dinner, organizing cleanup every other day, or being “chores king” every Saturday. The possibilities are endless, but the principle is the same.

Here’s an article to help remind you What Your Wife is Worth. 

All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative and unique program for every father. Their aim is to interlock the hearts of the fathers with their children and, as a by-product, the hearts of the children with their dads. At , dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting. Resources include: daily emails, blogs, Top 10 Lists, articles, printable tools, videos and eBooks. From fathers can join the highly engaged All Pro Dad social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Is it finally over? Is it safe to finally blog about?

Every time I sat down to write a finale to this election season in Israel, it never seemed to actually be over. It’s been months and months of campaigning, then voting, then coalition building. But now, as of Friday afternoon (Israel time), I think there’s finally a deal.

I wanted to write so much about the individual players—about my disappointment in Prime Minister Netanyahu and the political games he’s been playing. I wanted to write about newcomers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, who have shown such integrity and conviction; and about the ‘ultra-orthodox’ politicians who have shown the exact opposite with their hate-filled and anything-but-godly rantings and threats.

Other political observers much smarter than myself have been and will continue to write about that much better than I could.

Instead, I’ll just say: “Bravo, Israel!”

Why “bravo?” It’s because we really proved to the world that we are a true and genuine democracy. We are not a monarchy, we are not a dictatorship; we are the real deal. The voters had their say. The politicians made their dealings. It wasn’t pretty. It was “sausage making” at its most gruesome. But it was real honest-to-goodness democratic governing at its best.

It’s so easy to take that for granted, especially for our readers in America or Europe. But it’s actually a really big deal.

Look at the people of Syria. They are so desperate just to have a say in their own destiny. But, they’re being slaughtered by the very men who were supposed to lead and protect them.

Look at the people of Egypt, spinning round and round in a tizzy of protests because they so long for something genuine in their leaders. It’s something so elusive, but inherently craved by us all.

Look at the people of Iran, on the verge of another election. It’s been four years since beautiful Neda lay bleeding to death in the streets of Tehran as she and thousands of others watched the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad rob them of their votes and their voice.

And on and on, from Venezuela to China to North Korea to Cuba … people longing for freedom, longing to choose their own fate. But, they find themselves trapped by maniacal men who are obsessed more with their own power, than with the peace and prosperity of their own people.

So, bravo to you, Israel. I’m proud to be a citizen. We have no tanks in the streets, no revolutionary guards going door-to-door. We are imperfect, but we are once again fulfilling our calling as a light to the nations.

I have no doubt that even those who publicly claim to hate the existence of the Jewish nation secretly watch us in awe. They see us casting our ballots in peace and getting the governments we the people demanded.

We must never take this for granted.

“It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.”(Prov. 31:4-5)

Chaim Goldberg is the Director of Media for Maoz Israel Ministries and writes a weekly column for Charisma Media’s Standing With Israel.

Understanding the heart of a woman is an oxymoron. 

Key word? Moron. That’s because only a moron would be arrogant enough to bloody their nose on the rock of the unthinkable.

But I am not your average moron. I am a conflicted moron on a mission. The Yin in me says to the Yang “just give up already, accept emotional kindergarten.”

But the Yang fights back and says, “the payoff dude, think about the payoff if you figure out what she wants!” The prospect of the payoff wins again and the Yin taps out. But that’s another bone of contention: the payoff. 

That certainly has changed over my 29-year dance in the shifting sands of relational intimacy. What once was the effortless and easily secured warm fuzzies of the dating years (complete with over-laughing and pretend listening) has morphed into the intentional, quasi-mature pursuit of communication and emotional intimacy. That last admission will cost me a 100-point debit off my “man card,” but I have learned that the risking for my relationships reaps “phat” rewards.  

Most guys back into relationships the same way. Immortalized in the words of that great theologian Freddie Mercury, all we had to do was “fall in love/play the game/ everybody play the game/ of love.” So we did.

Then, also like most guys, we found that the falling in love part was easy, playing the game was really self-protection or self-indulgence, and the “love” part gets ambushed by personal issues, immaturity or competing priorities. When that happens, the words of another iconic man named B.B. King come to mind: “the thrill is gone.”

That moment in any relationship is unsettling. Now what? We realize we have lost or are losing the heart of our woman and the “game” is now an inner war. My privilege for the last 20 years has been helping men win that war. 

Thousands of surveys and tens of thousands of male guinea pigs over the years at Every Man Ministries have helped us identify the winning arrows that strike the female heart dead center and give you a way to win back or maintain the “thrill” factor for your lady. These are dead center targets that hit her heart in a positive way and build super strong bonds. All require great humility, greater courage, and great leadership.

So, start being this man.

Be a man who thinks of others first. Begin with her, by the way. If you have children, there is your next field of concern. In that order, no exceptions. If you place your co-workers, buddies or acquaintances before your “inner circle” of family, you will start to stockpile a weapon of mass destruction called resentment.

Women interpret having the capacity to say “no” to yourself and “yes” to others as one of the most, if not the most, attractive character quality a man can possess. The most magnetizing man in history possessed this transcendent quality. He said, “… the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many,” (Matt. 20:28).

My advice? Get to know him and imitate him. Men who stay attractive to their women are admired and respected not for what they take up but for what they give up to serve others. More acts of service—more thrill.

Be a man who will be transparent about his private world. Men are like icebergs—they only show the tips of their lives while leaving the substance of their true feelings and selves safely below the waterline. That may work amongst the other gorillas we call our friends, because we are trained to compete versus connect with them.

But that style of being and behaving does not pass the sniff test with the woman who wears the ring you put on her finger. They live below the water line. In fact, if you don’t figure out how to communicate your insides to her outsides you have, by default, invited two unwanted guests into your relationship, my brother—suspicion and mistrust.

You can get away with “fine” and “good” as responses for buddies, but a strong relationship with a woman demands some good, old-fashioned emotional honesty. In other words, stop acting. And if that doesn’t motivate you, then know this: Women interpret silence or no transparency as rejection.

To this end, most guys don’t intend to send this message, but millions are doing this right now and allowing dark emotions to enter the hearts of their women. My advice? Take a cue from Christ and let the one you love into your private world. Jesus reached a point with those close to him where they had to go to the next level, so he flat-out announced, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant doesn’t know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you,” (John 15:15, NIV).

Private and personal knowledge was a gift he gave to the ones closest to him. Do yourself a service by doing her the same favor. More personal details—more thrill.

Be a man who is thoughtful of her and remembers her. Watch the heart of a gal named Mary explode for a man in her life, and see if you can uncover the reason why: “How I rejoice in God my Savior! … For he took notice of his lowly servant girl…For He, the Mighty One, is holy and has done great things for me,” (Luke 1:46, 49, NLT).

Notice the noticing? “He” sees her, “he” knows her, and “he” does great things for her. One follows another. More importantly, one behavior without the others is hollow to a woman, but combine them together and you have thermonuclear joy. The blast zone of that emotion leads to a welcome collateral impact on every level.

A guy who thoughtfully remembers things important to a woman (showing that he was paying attention) and then delivers consistent actions demonstrating his recognition of her needs slays a big dragon. Women are used to calendar-driven gifts and obligatory celebration from guys. Mind-blowing men take mental notes, listen for opportunities, plan stuff and take action. Women report that when a man demonstrates that he has been privately thinking about and putting energy toward them, they feel safer and more secure with him.

Why is that? It’s because these behaviors message her, consciously or subconsciously, that he is not thinking about another woman in his private life, mind and actions. Again, more creative and opportunistic thoughtfulness—more thrill.

 Boom! Boom! Boom! The moron wins the girl.

Watch “Be Her Hero: How Not To Suck As A Husband” from pastor and Every Man contributor Doug Fields. 

Kenny Luck is the founder of Every Man Ministries and the men’s pastor at Saddleback Church. His 20th book, Sleeping Giant: No Movement of God Without Men of God, is the proven blueprint for men’s ministries, and was recently released through B&H Publishing. Watch and read more of Kenny’s teaching at .

Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm,) and YouTube.

A donated human liver has been kept alive, warm and functioning outside a human being on a newly developed machine and then successfully transplanted into patients in a medical world first.

A British team of doctors, engineers and surgeons announcing the achievement on Friday said it could be common practice in hospitals across the developed world within a few years, up to doubling the number of livers available for transplant.

So far the procedure has been performed on two patients on Britain’s liver transplant waiting list and both are making excellent recoveries, the medical team told a news conference.

“It was astounding to see an initially cold, grey liver flushing with color once hooked up to our machine and performing as it would within the body,” said Constantin Coussios, a professor of biomedical engineering at Oxford University and one of the machine’s co-inventors.

“What was even more amazing was to see the same liver transplanted into a patient who is now walking around.”

Currently livers destined for transplant are kept “on ice” in a process which cools them to slow down their metabolism and does not keep them functioning as they would inside a body.

This system has worked for several decades, but can also often lead to livers becoming damaged and rendered unfit for use in patients who need them.

Surgeons say keeping livers “on ice” beyond 14 hours starts becoming risky, although they can last up to 20 hours.

Hepatitis infection, alcohol abuse and drug-induced cholestasis—a blockage in the flow of bile from the liver – can all cause liver failure. Some patients with liver cancer can also benefit from a transplant.

Around 13,000 liver transplants are carried out each year in Europe and the United States, but there is a combined waiting list of around 30,000 patients who need a new liver.

Experts say up to a quarter of these patients die while they are waiting. At the same time, more than 2,000 livers are discarded every year because they are either damaged by oxygen deprivation or do not survive the cold preservation process.

The new technology, developed by Coussios together with Peter Friend, director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, preserves the liver at body temperature and “perfuses” it – supplying it with oxygenated red blood cells to keep it alive.

“This device is the very first completely automated liver perfusion device of its kind,” Coussios said. “These first clinical cases confirm that we can support human livers outside the body, keep them alive and functioning on our machine and then, hours later, successfully transplant them into a patient.”

‘I Feel So Alive’

The device can keep a liver functioning normally—just as if in a person, with blood circulating through its capillaries and bile being produced—outside the body for 24 hours or more.

The results from the first two transplants using the new technology, carried out at King’s College Hospital (KCH) in London last month, suggest the device could be useful for all patients needing liver transplants, Field told reporters.

The new device could also mean livers which would otherwise be discarded as unfit for transplantation could be preserved and made viable—potentially as much as doubling the number of organs available for transplant, he said.

“If we can introduce technology like this into everyday practice, it could be a real, bona fide game changer for transplantation as we know it,” said Nigel Heaton, director of transplant surgery at KCH and part of the team that carried out the first two transplants using the device.

Coussios and Friend have been researching the technology for the device since 1994 and are developing it through an Oxford University spin-off company called OrganOx.

The first person to receive a transplanted liver kept alive on the OrganOx system was 62-year-old Briton Ian Christie. He is still recovering from the surgery but said in a statement he was getting better day by day. “I just feel so alive,” he said.

Christie was told last year he had cirrhosis of the liver and had only 12 to 18 months to live unless he got a transplant. “I was placed on the waiting list but … I was very worried.”

Having been through the surgery, he said: “I feel better than I’ve felt for 10 to 15 years, even allowing for the pain and wound that’s got to heal.”

The team now plans to run a pilot trial with 20 more liver transplant patients at KCH. Coussios said successful results of that trial would allow OrganOx to apply for marketing authority, meaning the device could be on the market by as early as 2014.

I am a worrier. I can get so deep inside of my head worrying about anything and everything.

Lately, I have been consumed with the reality that my children are growing up and I can’t stop it. You see, they are young, and this harsh, broken world hasn’t beat on them that hard yet. I know that some boy is going to break my daughter’s heart, and my son will find out that his dad is not the strongest man on earth. I am terrified.

These sorts of emotions can be overwhelming, and at times, can cause us as men to become so fearful of life that we freeze. Instead of leading, we do nothing. Men who do nothing, many times, are in more danger than men who try and fail.

I want to lead. I don’t want be frozen from fear.

I want to be there, strong and steadfast, when that boy breaks my daughter’s heart. How? How do I break this cycle of fear?

Every once in a while, God will give me moments of clarity. From time to time, I will read verses in the Bible, like Psalm 8:1, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the earth,” and I get it.

God, in his loving kindness, gives His children comfort by revealing His majesty and glory.

In these moments, I can stand with David as he wrote in Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

In my life, there are three primary situations where God gives me this clarity:

1. Great family moments. These great family moments revolve around us doing some sort of activity together. A random trip up into the mountains, going to the public swimming pool, or treating the family to dinner out instead of staying in. I have to be intentional during these times. I must turn off the phone and immerse myself into my wife and kids’ lives.

2. Great brotherly moments. These great brotherly moments come when I get some time with men that I love and I know love me. Sometimes we pray for each other and have a deep conversation, and other times it looks like watching a football game together and the only real conversation is trash talk.

3. Great contemplative moments. For me, this looks like sitting in my favorite coffee shop in Boulder, by the front window, as I read my Bible and watch the people of my city walk by.

These are sustaining times. God gives me these nuggets of grace and I am thankful because without them, the fears that I have would be crushing and I don’t think I could make it.

These times do not come easily and they can go as quickly as they come. An email, a text, a wandering eye, or thoughts about what we need to do at work can steal these moments from us. We must fight for these experiences. It will take planning and intentionality on our part.

So my question for you is this: What moments does God give you to show you His majesty and glory, and are you being intentional about entering into them?

Matt Patrick is the lead pastor of The Well Church in Boulder, Colo. Before planting The Well Church, Matt helped replant a mountain town church.

For the original article, visit .

Who are the Palestinian refugees? In only a few paragraphs, let me give you a brief and factual answer to this question.

In early 1948, there was a mass exodus of Arabs living in the region that is now known as Israel. Roughly 600,000 Arabs fled. The Palestinian propaganda machine has done a masterful job of convincing many that these refugees were forced out by Israelis. However, there is overwhelming historical proof that these Arabs left for other reasons.

The leaders of the surrounding Arab nations called on these Arabs to leave their homes. The plan was to come back after the conquest (see quotes at the end of this article) and you can check this out to review the reason for the exodus.

The British were planning on leaving on May 14, 1948. The next day, the Arabs would attack. Their plan was to win, and then the Arabs who had fled would be able to reclaim their homes and the Jewish homes around them (the thought was that the Jews would be dead). The problem was the major part of their plan did not work. Israel won the war.

The Israeli victory meant that these 600,000 Arabs were now homeless. Certainly Israel was not going to welcome them back into their new state. And the Arab nations who deceived them did nothing to help them. They simply spread them out and have kept them in refugee camps until today. By keeping them oppressed in these despicable refugee camps, the political issue stays alive.

As many as 140,000 Arabs fled from Israel to Gaza alone. When the war ended, Egypt controlled Gaza and turned it into a prison. Even Al-Jazeera, the openly pro-Arab, anti-Israel news outlet, recognized how poorly the Egyptians treated their Arab cousins.

Unlike the West Bank, which was effectively annexed by Jordan in 1950 and its population offered Jordanian citizenship, Egypt maintained Gaza under military rule until a legislative council was elected in 1957. Moreover, unlike Jordan, Egypt had little ties with or concern for Gaza, and thus the Strip received little attention or investment in infrastructure between 1948 and 1967. 

For 15 years, everyone knew that the refugee situation was caused by the Arab leaders who had called on them to leave Israel. But in the 1960s, a fictitious account began to surface: The savage Jews drove the poor Arabs out of the Land. The goal was to take sympathy away from Israel (the ones who pleaded with the Arabs not to leave) and give it to the Arabs who fled (and planned to come back and destroy Israel and the Jews).

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, wants the refugees to be able to come back, not to a newly independent Palestinian state, but to Israel! The goal here is to strip Israel of its Jewishness. A total of 3.5 million Arabs coming to live in Israel (the original 600,000 has grown to that number) added to the present Arab population in Israel would essentially strip Israel of its status as the Jewish homeland.

To allow these Arabs and their families back, many of whom emotionally identify with the terrorist Arafat and believe that Israel has no right to exist, would make Israel 50 percent Arab and 50 percent Jewish.

Furthermore, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, pleaded with these people to stay in the new state. He guaranteed them citizenship and freedom. This excerpt from Ben Gurion’s speech, Israel’s declaration of Independence, could not be clearer:

“The Nation of Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture. We appeal, in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months—to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

Still, they left, with the goal of returning to destroy Israel. To be redundant, their plan backfired when Israel defeated the invading Arab armies, thus creating the Palestinian refugee problem.

One must ask: “How did the Arab nations compensate those Palestinian Arabs who left their homes at the request of their leaders?” The answer is, they threw them in refugee camps all over the Middle East, made no effort to absorb them into their nations and economy and treated them like trash—while using them politically to show how vicious the Zionists are.

The cold, hard truth is that Israel has treated the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza far better than Egypt or Jordan did. My friend Eli used to safely and regularly travel into Gaza after the Six-Day War (when Israel captured the Gaza Strip). In their minds, they had been liberated from oppression.

Israelis flooded into Gaza bartering at fruit stands, spending their shekels, supporting the Gaza economy. My wife, Elana, used to travel 15 minutes south to Gaza City with her father. It wasn’t until Arafat came into the picture that things got ugly.

And what did he bring his people? Bloodshed, oppression and a destroyed economy—while he himself became a billionaire! The fact is, Israel has done more to help the Palestinian Arabs to boost their standard of living than Arafat or any Arab nation.

FOOTNOTE: It is interesting that from 1948 to 1952 or so, history testifies that about 600,000 Jewish people immigrated to Israel. Most of these were from Arab nations like Iraq, Iran and Yemen. In Iraq alone, Jews were forced to leave behind $30,000,000,000 in assets. Maybe that money could have been used to help the 600,000 Arabs who left Israel.

Quotes from Arab Leaders Concerning the Palestinian Refugees

The following are a collection of historical quotations relating to the Arab refugees, collected by Moshe Kohn.

• On April 23, 1948, Jamal Husseini, acting chairman of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee (AHC), told the UN Security Council: “The Arabs did not want to submit to a truce … They preferred to abandon their homes, belongings and everything they possessed.”
• On September 6, 1948, the Beirut Daily Telegraph quoted Emil Ghory, secretary of the AHC, as saying: “The fact that there are those refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously…”
• On June 8, 1951, Habib Issa, secretary-general of the Arab League, wrote in the New York Lebanese daily al-Hoda that in 1948, Azzam Pasha, then League secretary, had “assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade … Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and property, and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states.”
• In a March 1976 issue of Falastin a-Thaura, then the official journal of the Beirut-based PLO, Mahmoud Abbas (“Abu Mazen”), PLO spokesman, wrote: “The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live.”
• On April 9, 1953, the Jordanian daily al-Urdun quoted a refugee, Yunes Ahmed Assad, formerly of Deir Yassin, as saying: “For the flight and fall of the other villages, it is our leaders who are responsible, because of the dissemination of rumours exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs … they instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and property to the enemy.”
• Another refugee told the Jordanian daily a-Difaa on September 6, 1954: “The Arab governments told us, ‘Get out so that we can get in.’ So we got out, but they did not get in.”
• The Jordanian daily Falastin wrote on February 19, 1949: “The Arab states… encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies.”
• On October 2, 1948, the London Economist reported, in an eyewitness account of the flight of Haifa’s Arabs: “There is little doubt that the most potent of the factors [in the flight] were the announcements made over the air by the Arab Higher Executive urging all Arabs in Haifa to quit … And it was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.”
• The Prime Minister of Syria in 1948, Khaled al-Azem, in his memoirs, published in 1973, listed what he thought were the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948: ” … the fifth factor was the call by the Arab governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and leave for the bordering Arab countries … We brought destruction upon a million Arab refugees by calling on them and pleading with them to leave their land.”
• “Following a visit to refugees in Gaza, a British diplomat reported the following: ‘But while they express no bitterness against the Jews…they speak with the utmost bitterness of the Egyptians and other Arab states: ‘We know who our enemies are,’ they will say, and they are referring to their Arab brothers who, they declare, persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes.”

The above quotes were taken from .

Do you know what really made a difference in helping me become a more intentional and more engaged dad? Believe it or not, it was when I came here to the National Center for Fathering as CEO.

I know, that’s kind of a unique thing, so why would I bring it up? After all, we can’t hire all of you dads—I only wish we could. But that doesn’t mean you can’t apply the principles that have impacted me, and other guys on our staff.

Here are three things that make a difference for me:

First, being here at the Center, I think about fatherhood a lot—hours every day. I soak in great principles and inspiring stories all the time, and that has an impact on me when I go home.

With that in mind, I encourage you to spend significant time thinking about your role as a dad. Leave yourself reminders and put up photos of your family at work. Hang around other guys who are committed dads. Follow us (and other fathering groups) on Facebook and Twitter for practical tips and an ongoing, daily reminder about your role. Read blogs, books and articles that lead you to think about fathering.

Now, I also know that thinking about something doesn’t automatically mean we follow through. But it’s a good first step in the daily challenge of making your family a priority and living out Championship Fathering.

Another thing about my job: I talk about what it means to be a good dad, whether it’s at a speaking event or just in conversations with people.

Likewise, I’d challenge you to share your own passion about being the loving, committed father your children need. If you have found something useful to your fathering journey—a resource, a skill, a truth—pass it along. Pay it forward, as the saying goes.

Other dads around you will be encouraged and challenged in their fathering, and there are benefits to you as well. You probably know that we learn something better when we teach it to someone else. So, sharing your fathering convictions and best practices with someone else will help to solidify them in your own life.

Best case, you can talk about fathering regularly with other dads in a small group.

Finally, as CEO of the National Center for Fathering, I have a sense of accountability. As you can imagine, having that title comes with some pressure to actually be a good dad. If I’m not living it out at home, then it hurts my credibility big-time. So I’m really accountable to everyone around me.

But I must say all of us dads should share an even greater sense of accountability. A higher title than CEO is the title of father. It’s an awesome privilege, and we should take our responsibilities seriously because we’re in that position. Nurturing the next generation is huge! Being a father is among the most important jobs we’ll ever have! I hope that title helps to motivate you to be a good dad.

So, yeah, I’m CEO here, but more than that, I am a dad. And you are, too. So make the most of it. (And I must say, “Granddad,” is a pretty sweet title, too.)

Of course, I am also accountable to my bride and my children, my staff and a group of men that I meet with nearly every week. They all have permission to examine my life and point out areas where I might need to grow, and they help me stay on track as a dad.

I need that accountability if I’m going to be the father my children really need—and I’m pretty sure you’re like me in that way. So if you don’t have those kinds of relationships in place already, I hope you’ll have the courage to seek them out. They can be a huge factor in your success as a father.

Please help other dads by sharing. What are your secrets for maintaining a high commitment to your children? Join the discussion below or on our Facebook page.

Action Points for Dads on the Journey

• Be an effective “CEO” at home—not the head honcho who calls all the shots and expects everyone to jump at his command, but one who leads by example, listens to others and builds up every member of the team.
• Dive in and be a dad! Even if you come up against something you don’t feel prepared for, ask for help from your kids’ mom or other dads. Learn how to care for, nurture and shape your child.
• Jot down notes about each member of your family: positive traits and abilities, recent acts of kindness and so on. Then look for ways you can help them build on their strengths.
• Start a WATCH . program at your child’s school—or help promote the existing one. You’ll help other dads be more involved and boost your own commitment to your children and their education.
• Make yourself accountable to other fathers. When men talk honestly and listen to other guys about their fathering, we realize we’re all in the same boat and we gain great insight and awareness for ourselves as dads.

Carey Casey is the CEO of the National Center for Fathering, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the culture of fathering in America by enlisting 6.5 million fathers to make the Championship Fathering Commitment. NCF believes that every child needs a dad they can count on, and uses its resources to inspire and equip men to be the involved fathers, grandfathers and father figures their children need. Subscribe to his weekly email tip by clicking here: I want tips on how to be a great dad who loves, coaches, mentors and inspires my children.

1. Hit the beach! For a great many people, Spring Break=The Beach. For good reason. Winter has been cold and gray. Work and school have been rough. No place on earth relaxes the spirit like the coast. Bright sun, crashing waves and feet in the sand. Your family will have nothing but smiles.

2. The big parks. The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains … America is full of natural wonders and beauty. Somewhere within driving distance lies a national park offering endless opportunities of fun and exploration. Get out there and show your family the world is more than strip malls and endless concrete.

3. Baseball. In March, America’s great pastime begins another season. The states of Florida and Arizona host teams from all over the nation. Spring training offers fans a much more intimate experience with the sport. Small stadiums, access to the players and coaches, great weather, smiling faces … hot dogs. What could be more fun? And you don’t have to travel to Florida or Arizona for baseball thrills. Minor league baseball has teams all over the country offering the same experience!

4. The big rig. How many times have you been on the road with your family and you all see that big motor home next to you and wish you were in it? Make it happen. RV dealers rent those big rigs for surprisingly reasonable fees. There are special resorts all over the country that cater to big motor homes. Research an itinerary that works for your family and get out on the road!

5. Backyard fun. Traveling is not the only way to have a great time with the family on vacation. Turn your backyard into your very own resort destination. You can play all types of different sports, such as Ultimate Frisbee or volleyball. Maybe you’ll put down an old fashioned Slip ‘n Slide. Even a sprinkler can keep young kids entertained for hours on end. Think outside the box and come up with your own unique backyard fun.

6. Grill master. A skill your child should have as an adult is the ability to cook good food. The popularity of outdoor grilling is bigger than ever. Get in on the fun. Spend the week with your kids challenging and expanding your abilities. Become a grill master. As a family, research foods and find recipes you have never attempted. Try a new one each day. Have your kids involved every step along the way. Not only will you all have fun and eat well, you will be giving them a gift that will last a lifetime.

7. The outdoor project. Yard work on vacation? Sure! It’s the perfect time to add beauty and function to your home. Take this time to add that long-talked-about gazebo … that fountain. Maybe your wife wants a garden. Get the whole family involved with the vision and planning. Then get out there with your family and make it happen!

8. Volunteer. Spring break is a perfect time to give of yourself. Spring is the time of new life and renewed hope. Your family can join in giving nature a hand. Clean up litter in your neighborhood, pick up trash that harms wildlife around ponds and creeks. Help an elderly neighbor with yard work or house maintenance. Let your family choose the cause and then be the solution.

9. Wacky destinations. America has millions of strange and odd attractions. Most times they are free or very low-cost. The “Blowing Rock” in North Carolina, Dinosaur World in Florida. These types of places are all over. So much fun and so very silly. They offer a balance to the massive and very expensive theme parks. Yet strangely, they give the same thrills and smiles. Don’t forget your camera. That picture of your daughter standing next to the 40-foot-tall Paul Bunyan will be a timeless keepsake. A great source for this type of experience is: .  

10. The food tour. We all love to eat. What is your passion? Seafood? Barbeque? Southern cooking? Plan a road trip to discover some of the very best of the foods you love. Maybe you will drive all over Texas sampling the best of their unique beef barbeque. Or it could be a trip up the New England coast for classic seafood. How about sitting in New Orleans eating jambalaya in an open-air café? Nothing brings a family together better than food.

All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative and unique program for every father. Their aim is to interlock the hearts of the fathers with their children and, as a by-product, the hearts of the children with their dads. At , dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting. Resources include: daily emails, blogs, Top 10 Lists, articles, printable tools, videos and eBooks. From fathers can join the highly engaged All Pro Dad social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.