A group of rabbis, heads of yeshivas from the West Bank and the Yesha council of West Bank and Gaza rabbis have issued a public call to the government to toughen its fighting policies in the territories even at the cost of civilian lives, declaring that the army should show less regard for the welfare of the Palestinians if terrorists are hiding in their midst- Christians preaching 'turn the other cheek' will not cause us to panic.

Nadav Shargai, Haaretz, Sep 7, 2004

The discovery, if confirmed, would be among the most significant breakthroughs for biblical scholars in memory.

By Karin Laub, ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 17, 2004

So ironically, Iraq and Syria, led by two of the least Muslim regimes in the Arab world, are the two most targeted by the Bush administration in the aftermath of the attacks on the U.S. by an Islamic terrorist group intimate with neither. Again ironically, these two have been particularly tolerant of their Christian communities whose existence dates back nearly 2000 years

Gary Leupp, CounterPunch, August 9, 2004

Singing such Christian songs as "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know" in Korean, the throngs of 2,300 South Korean Christians -- young and old -- walked through the streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo on Monday and crossed over "Checkpoint 300" into the Palestinian area of Bethlehem on what they called the "March for Peace"

By Julie Stahl, CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief, August 9, 2004

Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian churches in Iraq on Sunday, killing more than a dozen people and wounding many more in an apparently coordinated attack timed to coincide with evening prayers.

An Interior Ministry source said there had been four blasts at churches in Baghdad and two in the northern city of Mosul. These attacks are the first attacks on churches during the 15-month insurgency -- echoing concerns among Iraqis that they aimed to inflame religious tensions.

Edmund Blair and Maher al-Thanoon, Reuters, August 2, 2004

After days of relative calm, the Palestinian Authority was again hit by internal violence over the weekend, as Fatah gunmen abducted foreign workers. The three are members of a Christian charity affiliated with the Union Church in the United States.

Khaled Abu Tomeh, Jerusalem Post, July 31, 2004

Egyptian courts are now deciding whether the way Copts are represented in the film "I Love the Cinema" is a violation of the law that prohibits insulting religious communities.

By Zvi Barel, Haaretz, July 29, 2004

For the first time in decades Christian Arabs in Jordan and Palestine have their own magazine. The first edition of the 40 page glossy color magazine.

Al Maghtas (the baptismal) was produced in Amman this week featuring interviews, articles, and even some controversy.

By Daoud Kuttab, Special for Come and See, July 20, 2004

Sunday was an Assyrian Christian festival commemorating mass baptisms by Jesus and the apostles. Iraq's approximately 180,000 Assyrians and a large number of their Muslim neighbors celebrate the festival, called Nusardil, by splashing, if not dousing, each other with water. Many children and young adults use the occasion to mount high-spirited water wars.

By Dogen Hannah, Knight Ridder Newspapers, July 18, 2004