In a landmark decision today, the Supreme Court of Israel ratified a settlement between twelve Messianic Jewish believers and the State of Israel, which states that being a Messianic Jew does not prevent one from receiving citizenship in Israel under the Law of Return or the Law of Citizenship, if one is a descendent of Jews on one's father's side (and thus not Jewish according to halacha).

Jerusalem Institute of Justice mail-blast, April 17, 2008

Walid Shoebat came to public attention by becoming an ardent critic of Islam and supporter of Israel, after he became a Christian and became a popular speaker within pro-Israel Evangelical Christians. He describes himself as a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization who took part in terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.

In this report, the Jerusalem Post says that Shoebat's claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place. 

The Post reports that the Walid Shoebat Foundation's working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat's claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney's Office.

Jorg luyken , THE JERUSALEM POST, March 30, 2008

Today we are again at a pivotal moment in Christian-Muslim and Western-Muslim relations. However this time the outcome is not going to be determined by military might, but on the strength of moral and ideological convictions. Unfortunately, that is exactly why the West is in danger, for while Islam is weak militarily it is strong on conviction, the West is strong militarily but weak on conviction. The West will either buckle, surrender and submit, handing Islam the ascendancy, or it will brace itself and stand firm for what it believes (if in fact it can remember what that is).

By his very public Easter baptism of the high profile Egypt-born Italian journalist and Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, Pope Benedict has made a decisive and very courageous statement in defence of religious liberty, specifically a Muslim's right to convert.

By Elizabeth Kendal, World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East.

Raymond Ibrahim, National Review Online, March 25, 2008

The Middle East isn't known as a breeding ground for comedians. So it was no loss to the region when stand-up comic Nazareth Rizkallah emigrated to America when he was 19.

He's performed all over the United States. Everywhere he goes, evangelicals love him.

But he's careful to play down his Palestinian roots among his audience of fundamentalist pastors and congregations, at least until the show is over. The churches he performs in are largely ignorant of their Palestinian brethren, while ironically sending political and financial support to Israel.

Josh Dulaney, March 22, The Sanbernandino Sun

Police and sappers were once again dispatched to Ariel's IDF Street during the Purim holiday Friday morning. A few minutes earlier, a man had knocked on the door of the Leibovitz family home and left a cardboard box with the boy who answered the door. "It's mishloach manot, a Purim gift basket," explained the visitor before disappearing.

The boy and his older brother trembled with fear. Their parents, who were out of town, ordered the boys by phone to get away from the package and call the police. In another residential building, 50 meters away, a bomb planted in a Purim gift basket had exploded the day before.

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz, March 24, 2008

Christian pilgrims from around the world on Sunday flocked to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem's Old City where many believe Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion 2,000 years ago.

Thousands of faithful filled every nook and cranny of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a cavernous labyrinth of chapels and crypts built on the site where most churches believe Jesus to have been crucified and buried.
"It's great to be here where it happened," Manuella Anduku of the Philippines told AFP after attending the chaotic service inside one of Christianity's most revered sites. "It seems more real."

by Joseph Krauss, AFP, Mar 23, 2008