The-artist-formerly-known-as-Cat Stevens hasn't had the best luck flying to the US and Israel.

The "Peace Train" musician who converted to Islam in 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam has been twice banned from Israel (most recently in 2000) and barred from entering the US in 2004 because his name was on a "no fly" list.

(Islam has been accused of giving money Hamas groups that fund terrorism. Islam denies "knowingly" giving money to support violence and says he once collected money for a Muslim charity that may have been working with Hamas...)

So it must have seemed a bit like Lucy putting the football down for Charlie Brown to kick when Islam was invited to Israel to take part in a special 10th birthday celebration for the Shimon Peres Center for Peace.

Islam was skeptical. Israelis informed him that it would be no problem! After all, he was being invited by the president of Israel!

Well, as you can read over at Israelity Bites, it turns out it was too good to be true.

According to production officials, Peres withdrew the invitation to Islam after realizing what a mess it could create.

So much for that "Peace Train."

Meanwhile, the folks over at "Babylon & Beyond" are reporting that Hamas leaders in Tehran have declared cyber-war on Israel by offering $2,000 to any hacker that can take down a Zionist web-site.

"Babylon & Beyond" reports that the contest may be a bit of payback:

"A group of Israeli hackers recently boasted of breaking into a Hamas website and uploading the Israeli national anthem onto it. Hamas accused Israelis of breaking into one of their websites some years ago and diverting traffic to a pornography site, called 'Hot Motel Horny Sex Sluts.'"

Some people have no sense of humor...