wfn.org | Thank you letter from Presiding Bishop Griswold

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2001-166s

     June 21, 2001

     The Honorable Colin Powell
     Secretary Of State
     Department of State
     Washington, DC  20520, DC

     Dear Mr. Secretary:

     I write with my deep thanks and to convey to you the gratitude of my colleagues 
for the opportunity of our recent meeting with you.  We are grateful for your 
hospitality, candor and willingness to listen to our concerns. The representation of 
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant voices in the meeting, as well as 
those who signed the letter, was an extraordinary demonstration of a deep common 
concern. We hope we have established the beginning of a helpful conversation with you.

     As a consequence of our meeting and in response to your request, we will shortly 
issue a statement in support of an end to the violence from both sides.  We want to 
support your careful efforts on this agonizing issue while carefully articulating what 
we believe our faith requires of us. We hope we might be able to continue to share with 
you the perspectives informed by our faith as we work to promote an Israel at peace 
with security and a Palestinian state free from Occupation.   

     There are particular moments when we are acutely aware that our current actions 
will later have to stand the judgement of history.  Our government's largely uncritical 
support for Israel will mark this as one of those moments.  While we adamantly support 
Israel's right to exist and to be accepted by its neighboring states,  we support with 
equal vigor a just outcome for the Palestinians who are now the victims of Israeli 
Occupation.  Our government's role in rectifying the Occupation will test its  resolve 
to end this conflict that cripples the region's development and threatens its future. 

     I would like here to offer some reflections on our conversation. You noted that 
peace was almost achieved with the offer of 95 percent of the territories to be given 
over to the Palestinians, including parts of Jerusalem.  I share the disappointment in 
the outcome of the negotiations.  However, we know that had Mr. Arafat accepted the 
terms offered by President Clinton and P.M. Barak, there would have been a violent 
rejection by the Palestinian people. Many of us familiar with the peace effort felt 
that the Camp David summit was convened prematurely and without adequate preparation of 
either the Israeli or Palestinian publics. There  was a belief among a number of Middle 
East watchers that Israel and the United States thought the Palestinians would be more 
ready to agree to deep compromises to UN resolution 242 than was just or fair to 
expect.  

     You observed quite rightly that some Israelis point to the collapse of the 
negotiations to "prove" that the Palestinians really only want to "push Israel into the 
sea."  Our careful listening gives us confidence that the majority of Palestinians have 
recognized the state of Israel as established by UNSC resolutions 181 and 242.  We have 
also heard many Palestinians say they believe Oslo was an attempt by Israel and the 
United States to gain additional Palestinian land, and strait jacket the Palestinians 
into a surrogate, second-class state totally dependent on Israel.  We hope both sides 
can set aside blame and motive for the collapse of the peace talks.  Neither side was 
prepared to compromise as much as the other expected, and therefore the process needs 
to continue.

     We are heartened by your expression of support for the Mitchell Report and the 
emerging cease fire. We urge your full support of the committee's caution that this 
security cooperation cannot for long co-exist with settlement activity. 

     I must add a note of disappointment that President Bush will receive Prime 
Minister Sharon but not extend an invitation to President Arafat to visit.  I fear this 
decision will be interpreted as confirmation of a further shifting U.S. bias in favor 
of Israel which can only undermine U.S. credibility in the peace process. I urge the 
Administration to invite President Arafat for a meeting as soon as possible in order to 
demonstrate U.S. resolve to treat both sides fairly.

     Mr. Secretary, I am most particularly grateful for your comment that none of us 
can give in to discouragement and despair but rather, we must hold up hope.  We give 
thanks that you, given the burdens you carry, are imbued with this quality of mind and 
heart. I am also grateful for your own faithfulness which has been made manifest over 
many years of public service. Please know that we are pledged to walk this difficult 
road of peacemaking to which Christ calls us. I look forward to our continuing 
conversation.

     Sincerely yours,

     Frank T. Griswold
     Presiding Bishop and Primate