Religious

Published by The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2005

UPDATE:Religious Leaders Urge Bush To Take Lead In Mideast

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (AP)--Leaders of Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups Thursday urged President George W. Bush to discuss a renewed role by the U.S. in Mideast peace initiatives.

With a newly elected Palestinian leadership and Israel's plans to withdraw from Gaza, the U.S. should take a higher profile role, religious leaders said in its public appeal to the president.

"This is an unprecedented initiative that brings a powerful moral voice to a pivotal issue at a pivotal time," Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler said of the coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups pressing the president to make Mideast peace a top priority.

Coordinating with 35 national religious leaders are leaders in more than a dozen cities including Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Baltimore, Charlotte and Durham, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

"In the name of religions we have killed each other," said Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, who joined in the appeal to the president. "Maybe it's about time in the name of the very same religions we bring about peace."

-Appoint a special presidential envoy with a full-time commitment to the Mideast. The envoy would coordinate with the European Union, Russian Federation and the U.N. secretary-general to press for the plan signed by Israel and the Palestinians in June 2003. It has stalled, with each side blaming the other for violations of its provisions.

-Negotiate a timetable for specific steps to be taken by the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.

-Take the lead to mobilize increased international economic aid to build up the Palestinian Authority's ability to provide security, deliver humanitarian aid and ensure services the Palestinian people.

With Sunday's election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority, succeeding the late Yasser Arafat, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said the time for restarting Mideast peace negotiations was propitious. "If we do not grasp it now, it may not come again," he said.

Other religious leaders making the appeal to Bush included Rabbi Amy Small, president Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association; Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of Presbyterian Church (USA); Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, vice president of a Different Future; Mohammed Elsanousi, director of communications for the Islamic Society of North America; and Bishop Dimitrios Coushell, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Church .



Volume 7 Number 3 - Tuesday, January 18th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY