Read “‘Whatever is necessary’: Obama defends war, again,” a post at Vox Nova from June 24, 2010, a liberal-leaning blog on things Catholic that in this essay criticizes Obama’s commitment to the Afghan war effort.

Read “Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance,” a June 27, 2010, op-ed in The Washington Post by Andrew J. Bacevich. Bacevich is a Vietnam veteran, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, and a Catholic who often writes on issues of war and peace from a faith perspective. His book Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent […]

See a June 4, 2010, roundup by Christianity Today of Christian activist groups’ reactions to the crisis. That roundup includes: Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council blamed the Obama administration for weak leadership in the Middle East; Jim Rice, editor of Sojourners, said the crisis would not end until Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territory ended

Read a June 2, 2010, Catholic News Service story about Pope Benedict XVI’s criticism of the Israeli raid and his call for world leaders to seek just solutions for the people of Gaza.

Read a June 4, 2010, TIME magazine story, “One Year After Cairo: Obama and the Muslim World,” that cites a May 27, 2010, Gallup survey, “Some Arab Countries Make U-Turn on U.S. Leadership in 2010.”

The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog hosted a June 7, 2010 forum of posts from a variety of faith perspectives on the theme “Struggling for the moral high ground in Gaza.”

John Judis is a senior editor at The New Republic and a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He wrote an article about the influence of religion on U.S. foreign policy.

Leo Ribuffo is a history professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has written about the complex relationship between religion and American foreign policy.

Eric Stover is Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California-Berkeley. The center’s research focuses on war crimes, justice and postwar reconstruction, health and human rights, and globalization.