wfn.org | Religious Leaders Urge Bush Admin to Jumpstart Mideast Road Map

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

Religious Leaders Urge Bush Administration to Jumpstart Middle East Road Map 

For Immediate Release

Washington, D.C., June 7, 2004 -- Religious leaders from Christian, Jewish
and Muslim traditions are urging the Bush Administration to take immediate
steps to pursue the full implementation of the Road Map to Peace in the
Middle East. 

In a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell on June 1 at the State
Department, a "National Interreligious Leadership Delegation in Support of
the Road Map to Peace in the Middle East" said now is the time for the United
States to jumpstart the peace process.	To do so, the religious leaders have
called for the United States to send a special envoy to Israel-Palestine.

"The U.S. has to create an opportunity for peace," said Dr. Antonios
Kireopoulos, the National Council of Churchesb Associate General Secretary
for International Affairs and Peace, who attended the meeting representing
Archbishop Demetrios the Greek Orthodox Church. "We need to refocus on this
and not allow the peace process to be sidelined by all the other issues in
the Middle East."

The June 1 meeting followed up on a November 2003 letter to President Bush
and a December 2, 2003, news conference in Washington, D.C.  See
www.walktheroadtopeace.org for more information and documentation.

According to a statement released by the delegation, "Unless the United
States makes the Road Map and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations an urgent
priority now, the cycles of violence will jeopardize prospects for a
two-state solution, further alienate our European and Mideast Arab allies,
exacerbate conflict in Iraq, and increase the terrorist threat to the United
States." 

The religious leaders also expressed to Secretary Powell their concern that
the Road Map has "effectively been put on hold until after the elections." In
the meeting, Powell unequivocally denied that the November election would
dictate U.S. action.

Although the religious leaders believed that there was a good exchange with
Secretary Powell, the major point of contention is on the timing of U.S.
action in the Middle East. According to Powell, the United States will not
send an envoy to the Middle East until the violence has ceased. The religious
delegation, on the other hand, believes intervention is needed now as the
situation continues to worsen.

According to His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Washington, "We believe that the moment is now. The U.S. is
looking for the appropriate moment but the Road Map calls for everybody to go
together. Dialogue will not happen unless the U.S. gets involved. There is an
urgent need for our government and for the world to put an end to violence in
the Holy Land now."

The delegation members also expressed their belief that unilateral action
from Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon without negotiation is
counterproductive and that the only way unilateral actions could work would
be if they genuinely facilitated a peaceful and just solution. 

In addition to sending a special envoy to the Middle East, the religious
delegation called for a special fund to be established to help Palestinians
build an infrastructure for security and self-rule. 

"We cannot lose sight of the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
to the entire Middle East situation," said Dr. Kireopoulos. "At a time when
the United States is at war in Iraq and trying to end terrorism, we feel it
is important to refocus on this central issue and on implementing the Road
Map. So much of our success in other efforts depends on resolving the
conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. We really must do this now,"
said Dr. Kireopoulos.

The religious delegation that met with Secretary Powell was composed of
members of the National Interreligious Initiative for Peace and represents a
wide range of Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups united in their support of
a viable, independent and democratic Palestinian state alongside the
internationally recognized Jewish state of Israel, with enduring peace and
security for both peoples.

Members of the delegation from NCC communions were: the Rev. Mark S. Hanson,
Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; The Rev.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Mr.
James Winkler, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society,
United Methodist Church; The Rt. Rev. Thomas Clark Ely of The Episcopal
Church; Rev. Dr. John R. Deckenback, Conference Minister, Central Atlantic
Conference of the United Church of Christ, and the Rev. Dr. Ken Booker
Langston, Co-Convener of Disciples Advocacy Washington Network, Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ). 

-end-

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Media Contact: Leslie Tune, 202-544-2350 x 11; ltune@ncccusa.org