June 9, 2009
By Lucy Chumbley

WASHINGTON, DC – "It is the best of times and the worst of times," said Warren Clark, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, opening the organization's annual conference, "Israeli/Palestinian Peace: Hope For Things Unseen," held June 7-9 in the U.S. capital.

"We are meeting here this year at an extraordinary time," he told the 155 conference participants, who represent 22 national churches and church bodies, including Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations. "A time of great fear, great anxiety and great hope," he said.

Clark, an Episcopalian from the Diocese of Washington, described how the Gaza conflict, the election of conservative Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ongoing expansion of Israel's settlements has caused the situation to deteriorate over the last year. "Things seem to be grimmer than ever, and yet there's a great deal more hope today than there has been for a long time," he said.

This sense of hope can be largely attributed to one thing, he said: President Barack Obama's expressed commitment to pursuing Middle East peace and a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Obama's appointment of George Mitchell as Envoy for Middle East Peace and the President's well-received June 4 address at Cairo University to the Muslim world are promising signals that there can be a new beginning, Clark said.

"There will be more politicking on this issue in this town in the coming months than there has been for a very long time," he said. "[Obama] must have political support. That support comes from the Congress, and the Congress must hear from its constituents – from me and from you."

Conference participants offered their support for a two-state solution when they fanned out across Capitol Hill to meet with government representatives during CMEP's June 9 Lobby Day.

"Your voice as America's largest and most influential ecumenical Christian group is heartening," Philip Wilcox, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and former U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, told participants on June 8. "Things are moving in the right direction. I am more encouraged than I have been in a long, long time."

In remarks titled, "Is Failure Reversible?," Amjad Atallah, co-director of the New America Foundation's Middle East Task Force, said Obama's Cairo speech represented a "tonal change" from that of the previous administration. The foundation is a Washington-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that addresses policy challenges currently facing the United States.

"There's great promise in that but also great peril," he said, describing the work that must take place as "not only extremely important, but extremely urgent."

Daniel Levy, who serves as co-director of the Middle East Task Force, stressed the need for organizations like CMEP to be visible and vocal during this critical window of opportunity.

Atallah said the President was right to address the issue of settlements, and Levy stressed the need to "pivot from this conversation on settlements to the conversation on borders."

"The Obama administration is of course very concerned about how they're going to sell this in the U.S.," Atallah said. "And this is where CMEP comes in. The question is, who's going to back this up, and how?"

American involvement is essential, he added, as it's the "only catalyst that could change this all around … The promise for peace today doesn't rest in Ramallah and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – it rests here in the United States."

Atallah asked conference participants to imagine what the Holy Land might look like in two years' time if the Arab states were to open embassies in Jerusalem; if Palestinians in Gaza were able to move about freely; and if Israel was safe and secure, "because it actually has acceptance from all of the countries in the region."

"Imagine," he continued, "that the U.S. is not viewed as a colonizer, occupier, supporter of a conflict. Imagine that we're actually seen as a liberator. Imagine Jerusalem and its holy sites open to everybody. And it's sanctified, because there is peace."

Hana Kirreh, a Palestinian teacher, peace activist and member of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, said she could not imagine such a future – but she wanted to.

"It's like a poor kid having millions of dollars," she said, describing herself as "really skeptical" after experiencing so many disappointments with the peace process. "I want it, but I could not imagine ... Hope is really something very unseen. But we shouldn't kill the hope ... If we don't see this dream that Atallah implanted in my lifetime, I would like my children to enjoy it and live it."

In addition to Kirreh more than 40 Episcopalians from around the country attended this year's conference.

Episcopal Bishop of Maryland Eugene Sutton preached at the conference's opening worship service, calling on all Christians to be bridge builders.

Sutton, who is married to a choir director, led the congregation in a harmonious rendition of the African American spiritual, "I Know the Lord's Laid his Hands on Me," before preaching on Corinthians 5:17: "Behold, all things are become new."

"If we're wondering what we are to do as followers of Jesus, Paul answers it: Be reconcilers," Sutton said.

Noting the strong Episcopal turn-out, the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of the Episcopal Church's Advocacy Center, said his church has been "one of the major players in the organization."

"We see it as one of the most effective ways to further the goal of our church – seeking a two-state solution," he said.

"I think it is such an important organization for us to be part of," said CMEP board member and former president Maureen Shea, director of the Episcopal Church's Washington, D.C.-based Government Relations Office.

Episcopal News Service
Lucy Chumbley is editor of Washington Window, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.