WASHINGTON (CNS): In meetings with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Nat-ional Security Adviser General James Jones on September 29, more than two dozen Christian, Jew-ish and Muslim religious leaders voiced support for continuing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“We refuse, now and always, to give into cynicism or despair,” they said in a joint statement presented to the US officials.
“One of the biggest obstacles to peace in the Middle East is cynicism,” chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace Bishop Howard Hub-bard of Albany, New York, said in a statement released by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops after the meeting with Mrs Clinton.
“As people of faith, we must remember that with God all things are possible.”
Bishop Hubbard was joined in the meetings by retired archbishop of Washington Cardinal Theodore McCar-rick, as well as a dozen other Christian clergy, six rabbis representing several Jewish organisations and six Muslim leaders, representing the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Centre of America, the Council of Mosques and United Mus-lims of America.
In the joint statement issued by the group, known as the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, the religious leaders called for members of their faith communities to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to support “active, fair and firm US leadership to advance comprehensive peace in the Middle East”.
They said it was imperative that peace talks continue and reiterated their previous call to halt settlement expansion, but added that they supported US efforts to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas “to reach a mutually acceptable agreement that will allow the negotiations to continue”.
Two years ago the group issued a statement declaring there was a “window of hope” for peace. Now, its members said, “we declare there is ‘new hope for the peace of Jerusalem’. It will be difficult to achieve, but peace is possible.”
The statement noted that majorities of both Israelis and Palestinians support a two-state solution to the dispute over territory, and Arab states have declared their commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative. Also hopeful, it said, were diplomatic efforts to restart Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese peace negotiations and other official and informal negotiations that have produced outlines of compromises for resolution of the conflict.
“As religious leaders, we remain firmly committed to a two-state solution to the conflict as the only viable way forward. We believe that concerted, sustained US leadership for peace is essential. And we know that time is not on the side of peace, that delay is not an option,” the religious leaders said.
“The path to peace shuns violence and embraces dialogue,” they said.
“This path can lead to a future of two states, Israel and a viable, independent Palestine, living side by side in peace with security and dignity for both peoples, stability in the region and a comprehensive peace between Israel and all her Arab neighbours.”
