Hamas has announced that a Christian, who was designated tourism minister in the new government, will not be part of the government.

Tunous Abu ?Ita, a 57-year-old businessman from Bethlehem who was named the future tourism minister, excused himself from the government at the last minute and gave no reason for the sudden withdrawal. It is believed Abu ?Ita faced internal pressures that forced him to back down.

Meanwhile another Christian was appointed to the position of Tourism Minister ? Jooda George Jooda Morkus, a Coptic Christian Engineer from Bethlehem.

News agencies and Alquds, March 30, 2006

George Khoury is from Israel, but he is not a Jew.
Khoury is Arab, but he is not a Muslim.
He belongs to a Byzantine church, but is not Orthodox.
And the husband and father of three is a Catholic priest, but not a Roman Catholic one.

If all those labels are not confusing enough, the 51-year-old Khoury ? a Palestinian Christian who is a priest in the Greek Catholic Church ? is also a clinical psychologist who says there is really only one label that matters to him.

?Most importantly, I am a human being,? Khoury said.

Rapid City Journal, Jan 24, 2006

Denying a Jerusalem Post story that said he had embraced a ?dual covenant? theology, Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell said March 1 that he believes all people, including Jews, ?must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to enter heaven.?

?I do not follow this teaching of ?dual covenant? theology and I believe it runs counter to the Gospel,? Falwell said in a statement posted on www.falwell.com. "I have been on record all 54 years of my ministry as being opposed to ?dual covenant' theology.?

Baptist Press Staff, March 1, 2006

On 28 February, the deadline that an unknown Islamist group gave for blowing up the building that houses the Palestinian Bible Society's bookshop in Gaza, passed without incident.

The group demanded the bookshop close permanently.

Bible Society directors temporarily closed the bookshop, where terrorists had exploded two small pipe bombs on 3 February. "Satan wants to kill our love for the Muslims but he can't," Palestinian Bible Society Director Labib Madanat said on 28 February.

Open Doors Web site, March 3, 2006

The Vatican on Monday said it forgave the Israeli couple arrested Friday for detonating fireworks in Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation.

Three members of the same family are suspected of entering the church and setting off fireworks during a prayer service. Ensuing riots left 13 police officers and 13 civilians lightly wounded. Four cars were also set on fire, including two police vehicles.

Eli Ashkinazi, Haaretz, March 6, 2006

A Jewish extremist accompanied by his Christian wife and their daughter detonated firecrackers inside the Basilica of Annunciation in the northern Israeli Arab city of Nazareth on Friday evening, wounding several congregants and triggering a riots, witnesses said.

The three hid firecrackers and small gas canisters in a baby stroller and detonated the firecrackers inside the church during a special prayer for the opening of Lent.

The Jewish man and the two women entered the basilica compound disguised as Christian pilgrims

By Jack Khoury, Yoav Stern and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz, March 3, 2006

Palestinian educator Dr. Maria Khoury geared up for the winter chill with what was at the time a meaningless purchase: a black silk scarf with silver stripes to drape around her neck.

But now, on her daily excursions from the West Bank's Taiba to nearby Ramallah, the scarf serves as a political symbol of the changing times.

"Since Hamas took over, I cover my head in Ramallah," she says. "I don't feel comfortable."

In the largely cosmopolitan Ramallah, though they comprise some 10 percent of the population, Christians are becoming less and less visible.

LAUREN GELFOND FELDINGER, the Jerusalem Post, Feb 23, 2006

An evangelical pastor and an Orthodox rabbi, both from Texas, have apparently persuaded leading Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell that Jews can get to heaven without being converted to Christianity.

Televangelist John Hagee and Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, whose Cornerstone Church and Rodfei Sholom congregations are based in San Antonio, told The Jerusalem Post that Falwell had adopted Hagee's innovative belief in what Christians refer to as "dual covenant" theology.

This creed, which runs counter to mainstream evangelism, maintains that the Jewish people has a special relationship to God through the revelation at Sinai and therefore does not need "to go through Christ or the Cross" to get to heaven.

Ilan Chaim, The Jerusalem Post, March 1, 2006

A leading US evangelist is forming an umbrella organization under which all pro-Israel Christians in America can speak as one in support of the Jewish state.

Pastor John C. Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, is to launch Christians United for Israel (CUFI) at an invitation-only "Summit on Israel" next Tuesday at his Cornerstone Church.

By Ilan Haim, The Jerusalem Post, Feb 2, 2006