According to Israel's Haaretz, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas quoted Bush saying that the next step is to solve the problem in the Middle East

Special for Come and See, July 4, 2003

In an operation that began in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday in the town of Nazareth, the Interior Ministry sent large bulldozers to demolish the foundations of the unauthorized Shehab a-Din mosque, which Muslems sought to erect next to the town's Church of the Annunciation

Haaretz, July 1, 2003

The High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected a petition by former residents of the northern village of Ikrit to return to their home, which they were ordered to evacuate during the 1948 War of Independence so they can "return when the war ends"

Residents of this Christian Village have been promised more than once to return to their homes, but the promise was never fulfilled.

By Amiram Bareket and Moshe Reinfeld, Haaretz, June 26, 2003

Gary Burge is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College & Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois, an institution often referred to as the "Evangelical Harvard."

In his just released book, "Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians," he charges that Israel disregards its own theological heritage when it violates the human rights of Palestinians?both Christians and Muslims.

Religion News, May 19, 2003

Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu has accepted the role of patron of Sabeel International, the Palestinian Christian liberation organization, in its outreach and development work around the world.

Episcopalians: News Briefs, June 18, 2003

Ancient limestone box linked to Jesus displays dubious carved inscription. A committee of archeologists and geologists commissioned by the Israeli Antiquities Authority is set to declare that the inscription on the James ossuary is fake.

By JAMES ADAMS, From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Iraqi Christians ask that Christians around the world pray that missionaries to Iraq be sensitive to the local situation and work with the local believers wherever possible

ASSIST News Service, June 5, 2003

Nearly all of the approximately 100 Messianic congregations in Israel are adding members, and many are new believers, sources in Israel say. Israel had an estimated 7,000 Messianic Jews in 2000, up from 250 in 1967, according to Operation World. There are about 332,000 followers of Christ among the world's 15 million Jews.

Religion Journal, June 1, 2003

A Greek Catholic priest from Nazareth felt the need to lead a group of Arabs and Jews to Auschwitz to understand each other.

He says:"We can't understand our conflict without understanding the history of the Jewish people, the Holocaust, and how it lives today," he said. "We cannot make peace until we understand the pain."

The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2003