Peace Fellowship

New Middle East Conflict
More comments and statements

A Jewish call to end the war
[7-31-06]

Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, a woman of Christian faith who describes herself as "half-Jewish," who is one of the leaders of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, spoke to the Witherspoon/Semper Reformanda conversation before the Presbyterian General Assembly in June. She has just forwarded a statement by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which sums up many of the concerns expressed in the same Witherspoon meeting by our main speaker, Dr. Mark Lewis Taylor, as he analyzed what he termed the American imperial triumvirate: the radical Christian Right, the neo-conservatives who have been dominant in the development of American foreign policy during the Bush administration; and the high echelon of corporate power.

As Israel apparently abandons its suspension of bombing in Lebanon, this seems to offer a word that needs to be heard again. And again. And again.

END THE WAR! END THE OCCUPATION!

END STATE TERROR! END AMERICAN EMPIRE!

ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, condemns all attacks on civilians, whether by Israel, the Palestinians or Hezbollah. We recognize Israel’s ever-repressive Occupation as the main source of conflict and instability in our region. Had Israel taken the many opportunities it had to secure a just peace, the peoples of the region would never have reached this point of despair and futile violence. Israel believes it can achieve "quiet" and normalcy through military power while retaining its Occupation, encouraged and protected by the US. This is the true convergence: Israel’s Occupation in return for an active Israeli role in expanding American Empire.

Like Russian babushka dolls, Israel’s disproportionate attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon contain an agenda within an agenda, hidden within the pretext of freeing Israeli soldiers.

In its vicious attacks on Gaza in which 3000 houses were demolished in the second Intifada and as a months-long campaign of starving the local population into submission continues, Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinian people and destroy any resistance to the imposition of an apartheid regime. This is the only plausible explanation for Israel’s delegitimization of the democratically-elected Hamas government which had been moving steadily towards a negotiated two-state settlement with Israel, and for its campaign to physically liquidate Hamas leaders, in contravention of international law. The massive toll in innocent Palestinian civilian lives is to be condemned. ICAHD will work with the international courts to bring the military the political perpetrators to justice.

Although Hezbollah contributes little to the Palestinian cause and only adds to regional violence, it is merely a product of Israeli refusal to negotiate with Syria, despite repeated overtures. By creating straw enemies like Hezbollah, Israel creates the violence and instability that allows it to retain its Occupation. Hezbollah and Israel share equally in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in both Lebanon and Israel.

Israel, of course, could not have reached this point without American and European complicity. Indeed, American refusal to countenance a ceasefire only affirms Israel’s role as its military surrogate in the Middle East. Their shared aim is a Pax Americana over the region for which Israel will be allowed to keep its settlements.

The war must end immediately and all UN resolutions be implemented. All attacks on civilians must end immediately and permanently. Israel, which holds some 9000 Palestinian and Arab political prisoners, must negotiate a meaningful exchange in return for its captured soldiers. Above all, Israel must realize that there is no military solution to the conflict in our region. Relinquishing its Occupation in favor of genuine negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese is the only guarantee of Israel’s security. It must recognize that America is not its "friend," and that an Occupation sustained only if Israel does America’s dirty work will not offer it the peace and security it craves. A total end to the Occupation is Israel’s only path to peace and the only way to ensure that the Middle East conflict does not become a global conflagration.

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship responds to the violence in the Middle East

[7-29-06]

During the recent seminar at Ghost Ranch on "Economy, Ecology, and Empire," held from July 17 through 22, members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship put into words their concerns and their sense of the best way to respond to the crisis at this time. We’re happy to share it here, with thanks to PPF for sharing it with us.

For more information, or to contribute your own thoughts, you’re invite to contact two leaders of the Peace Fellowship, Rick Ufford-Chase (soon to begin service as the Executive Director of PPF) or Len Bjorkman (member of the PPF board).

And if you want to offer comments through this Witherspoon website, just send a note to WebWeaver Doug King.

A call to recognize "the things that make for peace" – and to do them

A place to stand in another time of violence in the Middle East

Once again we hear Jesus’ cry: If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!

Through tears we grieve and pray for those in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine
who live in fear for their lives who are shelled by bombs or rockets
who are captured for bargaining
who are imprisoned without trial and for all those
who have lost loved ones.

We pray for those who take the ways of violence to address the violence they have experienced, that they may find the ways that make for peace.

We reject all those actions that violate human rights or international law.

We do not enter into the debate about who has violated more human rights or international laws, or who started the present cycle of violence.

We call upon all parties to find ways to preserve the lives of all people, all who are created in the image of God.

We commit ourselves to prayer for justice and peace for all these children of Abraham.

We further commit ourselves to work in all ways possible in seeking cessation of violence and toward bringing about reconciliation of all sides.

Background for understanding

By way of background analysis, we agree with these comments by National Committee member, Dr. Henry H. Bucher, Jr., Adjunct Associate Professor Emeritus in Humanities, Austin College, written as a letter-to-the-editor of the Dallas Morning News.

Since the end of WWII, the US policy in the region, beyond support for Israel, was to fund generously selected Islamic movements, especially the conservative ones because they were the most anti-communist. We also backed monarchies for similar reasons though they needed our money less. The last example was our funding and arming the Taliban to oust the USSR in Afghanistan—now they use our arms against us in alliance with militant Islamicists elsewhere.

If the US media could move beyond the battle babble and political science analysis, the most obvious aspect of the long dance of death going on in the area is that the militant Islamicists now have the upper hand thanks in part to US policy. Whether we end up with a democratic Iraq or civil war, the majority Shia will have the upper hand and their religious leaders are trained in Shia Iran (who thank us for defeating their enemy Saddam Hussein).

In the West Bank, we snubbed the duly elected secular Arafat thus strengthening the Islamist Hamas. Then Israel and the US disregarded the election results pushing more and more moderate Muslims in the region to choose between a US/Israeli hegemony in the area, or the growing power of militant Muslims who do not think in terms of post WWI political boundaries.

Hezbollah was created in the early eighties as a response to Israel’s invasion; and now has the real power in Lebanon that their brother Islamic movement Hamas (first encouraged by Israel to be an internal enemy of the PLO) has in Palestine. Not all are Shia, but Iran (95% Shia) and now Shia-dominated Iraq are on a roll and have mostly Washington and Tel Aviv to thank. The recent move of Hezbollah on behalf of prisoners in the region can best be understood in terms of pan-Islamic solidarity.

Israel’s present military actions are less to save a few soldiers and more to stop the successes of militant Islam in the entire area, including the most recent success in Somalia. Not to have invaded Gaza would have meant to ultimately deal with Hamas.

Events will get worse before they get even "more worse," unless the US decides to reconsider our failed policies based on raw power, and on whom we want to win democratic elections in the Middle East.

A way forward through action

To take action, everyone is encouraged to contact Churches for Middle East Peace (www.cmep.org); their suggestions as of July 20 are to contact the White House and Congress with this message:

I am grieved over the tragic loss of life and suffering among the peoples of Israel, Lebanon and Gaza and am concerned about the dire humanitarian crisis that is unfolding as a result of the violence.

I support intensive US diplomatic efforts, in cooperation with parties in the region and the United Nations, to bring about an immediate cease-fire that will:
• end the escalating violence
• protect civilian lives and prevent their further displacement
• prevent the further destruction of infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza
• secure a safe return of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers and
• begin a political process that ends the current crisis and paves the way toward a comprehensive Middle East peace.

In addition, we think that Congress should conduct hearings about Israel’s use of weapons in Lebanon that may violate international law or US laws that govern the sale and use of US weapons. Hearings that would deal with violent actions by either Hezbollah or Hamas should not be allowed to exclude hearings related to how Israel makes use of US tax dollars that are provided as part of economic or military aid.

Congress and the White House should be urged not to extend the military actions in the Middle East by attacking Iran. The crisis in Lebanon and the issue of Iran’s nuclear program should not become the occasions for increasing lethal attacks by the US or Israel; diplomatic activity that emphasizes broad principles, such as the whole region becoming a nuclear-free zone, should be diligently followed.

We reiterate our conviction that violence does not lead to a just peace; and we pray and work so that Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, and we in the US, may follow the paths of justice that lead to peace.

Also ...

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship commends to our attention a statement from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is entitled "How Many More Innocents Shall We Sacrifice on the Altar of ‘Justified’ War?"

It opens:

These are profoundly divisive times, when hope for negotiations has given way to despair and bombs, and the slow and painful work of building civil society is crumbling before those who choose the language of brutality and hate. How many more innocents shall we sacrifice on the altar of "justified" war?

The full statement can be found at http://www.forusa.org/media/MiddleEastCrisisJuly2006.html