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Note #7796 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Washington Office honors peace coalition
GA03107

Washington Office honors peace coalition

Speaker expresses hope of eventual resolution of Israeli-Palestinian conflict

by Evan Silverstein

DENVER - The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved - and the
Presbyterian Church (USA) has provided strong leadership in dealing with the
issue.

That was the message of Corinne Whitlatch, director of Churches for Middle
East Peace (CMEP), who spoke during Thursday's Washington Office Awards
Dinner during the 215th General Assembly.

Also during the event, Whitlatch was presented a 2003 Partnership in Mission:
Public Advocacy award on behalf of CMEP.

 The Washington, DC-based coalition of more than 15 national churches and
faith-based organizations, including the PC(USA), is dedicated to advocating
a faith perspective on the Middle East to the government and diplomatic
community.

 "It's just wonderful to be here," said Whitlatch, a sociologist and
political scientist from Iowa who has worked on political campaigns and
taught social studies. "It gives me an opportunity to express my appreciation
to the PC(USA) for the leadership that they have given on this issue from the
very beginning."

United States Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) also was the recipient of a
Partnership in Mission award. The Presbyterian congresswoman could not attend
the dinner, but did lend her voice to Sunday's GA worship choir. 

DeGette's pastor, the Rev. William Calhoun, of Montview Boulevard
Presbyterian Church in Denver, accepted the award on her behalf.

Calhoun said DeGette has focused on issues of family, health and poverty
relief in her work on Capitol Hill. He described her as a family-oriented
person "hungry to have her faith fed and nurtured, and be part of a community
that's active in our city, in our nation and our world."

The public policy advocacy award has been presented every year since 1997 by
the Presbyterian Washington Office, which engages in social witness for the
PC(USA) and advocates the policies of the PC(USA) General Assembly.

The honor is for an elected official, middle governing body or individual who
has advanced the cause of justice through advocacy of positions taken by the
Assembly.

Among the CMEP's principal current concerns are: the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, the avoidance and resolution of armed conflicts, human rights, arms
transfers and foreign aid. The Presbyterian church has worked through the
coalition since 1984 to see that its voice is heard by lawmakers grappling
with these issues.

	Whitlatch praised the PC(USA)'s extensive range of involvement in the
making of Middle East policy and its "tenacity" and "persistence" in seeking
a resolution of the conflict.

	"I want to thank all of those people for all of those years who spent
all of those hours in meetings to craft this language that has held up very,
very well," Whitlatch, who became involved in Middle East issues in 1978 as
an officer of the American Friends Service Committee, said, referring to
language in a PC(USA) resolution before this year's Assembly.

	The resolution calls for deployment of a international United Nations
peacekeeping force to restore order in the occupied territories; an end to
the Israeli occupation; a redoubling of the efforts of the U.S. government to
broker a peace deal; and economic assistance for the Palestinians comparable
to that given to Israel.

	Whitlatch said the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has
moved through a number of different historic phases, adding optimistically,
"It's widely recognized that it's going to be resolved." 

"This conflict means so much to so many people," she said. "Not just the
Christians of the United States, who see it as their Holy Land, but all of
the Muslim people of the world, who see it as a very important central part
of their faith, too. And of course the Jewish people who see it as really
their insurance of existence."

Whitlatch said she doesn't believe the current U.S.-backed "road map" to
peace is likely to succeed, "but what it can do is make a shift from hopeless
despair and things getting worse all the time to moving toward some newer
directions."

The road map calls for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian
state existing side-by-side in peace with Israel. The plan was drafted by the
United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, the
so-called "Mideast Quartet."

She said the plan may be able to bring about "a situation where the
President, with his popularity right now, might be brave enough to be able to
put some pressure on the Israeli government."
 
Other CMEP members include the United Methodist Church, the United Church of
Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Church of the
Brethren, The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
the Reformed Church in America and the National Council of Churches.

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