(RNS) As Middle East hostilities entered its second week, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders around the world continued to press the combatants –and the Bush administration — for an immediate cease-fire.
On July 24, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches called for “an immediate cessation of violent acts by all parties,” and said the first step “is for all acts of violence to end immediately.” In a July 21 letter to Bush, signed by more than a dozen Roman Catholic and Protestant groups including the National Council of Churches, Churches for Middle East Peace told the president his leadership “and the full weight of the Untied States, acting in concert with the international community, must be applied now to achieve an immediate cease-fire and to launch an intensive diplomatic initiative for the cessation of hostilities.
“This is a necessary first step toward the diplomatic resolution of this crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the way toward a comprehensive Middle East peace,” the letter to Bush said.
Churches for Middle East Peace is an umbrella group whose board members include representatives from the Alliance of Baptists, the American Friends Service Committee, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Roman Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men’s Institutes, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.
Most Jewish groups in the United States have given the administration strong backing.
On July 20, 40 top American Jewish community leaders gathered in Washington to press Israel’s case with the administration and members of Congress. William Daroff, the United Jewish Community’s vice president for public policy, said the group “heard a unanimous bipartisan choir of support for Israel’s right to defend itself” and that there is “no discernible difference” between Republicans and Democrats on the issue.
