Open Doors with Brother Andrew works in Israel helping persecuted believers in the region reach out with the hope of Christ. President of Open Doors USA Carl Moeller says the Christian population in Israel has been affected. "From maybe 30 to 50 percent of the West Bank and Gaza being Christian in 1950, to now about 1.5 percent and that's because of the violence that's taken place."

Mission Network News, Feb 18, 2005

The World Council of Churches (WCC) on February 21 urged its members to consider economic measures to oppose Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and praised the action of a U.S. denomination that has started a process of selective divestment from companies linked to the occupation.

"Multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes," the WCC's main governing body said in a statement adopted during a February 15-22 meeting in Geneva. They "are involved in the construction of settlements and settlement infrastructure on occupied territory, in building a dividing wall which is also largely inside occupied territory, and in other violations of international law."
by Stephen Brown, Ecumenical News International, Feb 21, 2005

THE ORTHODOX Church of Greece and Jerusalem placed a gag order on all clergy, just two days after press revelations linking Archbishop Christodoulos to a man arrested for heroin dealing one year later. The mounting church crisis, with daily revelations of bishops' scandals, is widely considered Christodoulos' greatest challenge in his seven-year ministry, and some believe it could even jeopardise his position at the church's helm.

GEORGE GILSON, Athens News, Feb 18, 2005

Amram Mitsna, former leader of the Labor Party and mayor of Haifa writes about Maghar: "The rumor alone was ample pretext for the assault on the Christian villagers, simply because they were Christians. Can it be that in Israel, the state of the Jews - a people with much experience with persecution and pogroms in the name of religion - there could be such a thing as violence committed in the name of religion?"

"In the next day the media, whose function it is to reflect reality and place urgent social problems on the public agenda, described the events as if they had occurred in some foreign country, with emphasis placed on the teenager and his concocted story, and not on the violence or the religious aspect. How would the media and the political establishment have reacted, what would the Israeli agenda look like had the people under attack been Jews?"

Haaretz, Feb 16, 2005

Another Israeli columnist writes from Washington about MK Benny Elon (National Union) and his relationship with evangelicals in the USA:
"He invests more time and effort than perhaps any other Israeli in nurturing the relationship with Evangelical Christians in the U.S. As minister of tourism during the intifada, Elon promoted visits by Evangelical churches to Israel, and he continues to attend their conferences and speak out against diplomatic compromise on the Land of Israel.

By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, Feb 17, 2005

At this critical and very sensitive time with the assassination of former President Rafik al-Hariri

Baptist leaders in Lebanon there ask for prayer that the situation will not deteriorate into civil war. They also request prayer for the recovery of the Deputy Member of Parliament and former Minister of the Economy, Dr. Basil Fleihan, sole representative of the Protestant Church in the Lebanese Parliament.

Severely injured in the attack that killed Hariri on Monday, Fleihan is now in France for medical care.

Baptist World Alliance Website, Feb 16, 2005

A 16-year-old Druze boy admitted Monday to spreading a rumor that sparked violent weekend clashes between Druze and Christians in the mixed village of Maghar in the Galilee.

Dozens of Christian businesses were burned to the ground and many Christian families fled the village during riots that began Thursday evening after a rumor spread that Christian youths had placed pornographic pictures of Druze girls on the internet.

Jacky Khoury, Haaretz, Feb 14, 2005