Episcopal Press and News
Presiding Bishop Griswold Thanks Secretary of State Powell for His Peace Efforts
Episcopal News Service. June 22, 2001 [2001-166]
James Solheim
(ENS) In the wake of a June 7 meeting of church leaders with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold wrote to Powell expressing support for his peace efforts in the Middle East.
"We want to support your careful efforts on this agonizing issue while carefully articulating what we believe our faith requires of us," Griswold said in the June 21 letter. "While we adamantly support Israel's right to exist and to be accepted by neighboring states, we support with equal vigor a just outcome for the Palestinians who are now the victims of Israeli Occupation. Our government's role in rectifying the Occupation will test its resolve to end this conflict that cripples the region's development and threatens its future."
Reflecting on the conversation, Griswold raised the difficult issue of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians in the closing days of the Clinton Administration, when Prime Minister Ehud Barak made a proposal that President Yasser Arafat rejected.
"There was a belief among a number of Middle East watchers that Israel and the United States thought the Palestinians would be more ready to agree to deep compromises to UN resolution 242 than was just or fair to expect," Griswold said in the letter.
"We hope both sides can set aside blame and motive for the collapse of the peace talks," he continued. "Neither side was prepared to compromise as much as the other expected, and therefore the process needs to continue."
Noting that President George W. Bush has invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the White House, Griswold urged the Administration to "invite President Arafat for a meeting as soon as possible in order to demonstrate U.S. resolve to treat both sides fairly."
The letter concluded with gratitude for Powell's leadership. "Please know that we are pledged to walk this difficult road of peacemaking to which Christ calls us," Griswold wrote.
The delegation of church leaders is preparing a statement addressed to Arafat and Sharon that will be sent and made public next week.