My wife just sent me a cynical New Year greeting for 2016, saying she is not coming back to home to Israel, with our daughter, but is remaining in Italy with her family. She is Roman Catholic, and Italian. I agreed that she could fly out with our child to spend Xmas and the New Year with her family. What can I do?

Bring Hague Convention civil child abduction proceedings for your daughter's return to Israel. Both Israel and Italy are bound by the convention covering child abduction, including cases like yours, of wrongful retention, whereby you agreed to your wife taking your child out of Israel, her place of habitual residence, for a visit only, but you did not agree to her leaving Israel and relocating, permanently, to Italy. Her non-return without your consent is known as "wrongful retention" and is a form of passive child abduction. The proceedings will be held in Israel but it may be useful to get a declaratory judgment from an Israeli court to prove that Israel is your daughter's country of habitual residence.