Ecumenical & Interfaith
Network - PCUSA

Yehezkel Dror, the founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, has written an article saying that "the imperatives of existence [of the Jewish people] should be given priority over other concerns." He considers this a tragic but necessary conclusion that would put survival over morality, human rights, or democratization.

Ha'aretz says the population of Israel at 60 is more than nine times greater than when the state was established. It says that just over three-quarters of Israelis are Jews while 20% are Arabs. See its other statistical information.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) executive director David Harris (pictured) has written a blog in which he has respond to American Jews who have given up on AJC for being "too busy protecting the Israeli government" or who conclude that Israel will not have peace because of its own problems with religious Zionists.

Results of a new survey taken for J Street, an American-Jewish pro-Israel peace effort, have been highlighted in an article published by the Guardian in the U.K. The poll looked at Jewish opinion through the lens of the up-coming U.S. elections.

Peace Now released an influential report in August 2008 giving statistics about the increase in construction in West Bank Jewish settlements. Peace Now, the largest peace movement in Israel, has an American affiliate that seeks an American Jewish community and general public who understand the benefits of "security through peace in the Middle East."

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Jews Uniting to End the War and Heal America, a grouping of well-known Jewish activists, has announced a daylong call to action on November 23 at New York City's prestigious Central Synagogue.They plan speeches, panels, and workshops as well as a keynote address by Congressman Jerrold Nadler.

Gregor Henderson, president of the Uniting Church in Australia, has called for his country to spend as much on reconstructing Iraq over a five year period as it did on its now-ended military operations there.

The Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 requires the State Department to document and combat acts of anti-Semitism. Its latest report to Congress, Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism, describes a new form of anti-Semitism as "criticism of Zionism or Israeli policy that -- whether intentionally or unintentionally -- has the effect of promoting prejudice against all Jews by demonizing Israel and Israelis and attributing Israel's perceived faults to its Jewish character." It says the new form is common in the Middle East and in Muslim communities worldwide, though not confined to these.

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The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) uses an interfaith, people approach in its two-week peacemaking trips to Iran. Applications for its February 13, 2009 trip are due on September 15.   See the story of two United Church of Christ pastors who were on the May trip.

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An international grouping of Jewish peace activisits, with support from a few others, has released a petition statement opposing an attack on Iran. The American-Jewish peace lobby, J Street, has sent a letter to Congress about Iran policy and is seeking signatures for another. Forward says that Iran is emerging as a pivotal foreign policy issue in the upcoming election that will, for many Jews, be a test of the candidates' commitments.

Organized by the Iranian Institute for Interreligious Dialogue (IID) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), some twenty Muslim and Christian women will meet in Gothenburg, Sweden, on September 4-7 to discuss ways that women can be peacemakers in society and the community. This will contribute to the WCC's efforts in the Decade to Overcome Violence. An earlier encounter in the same series occurred in Tehran, Iran. The IID is a non-governmental body (NGO) whose Iran Youth for Peace and Interreligious Dialogue group has a member who is a United Religions Initiative (URI) global trustee for 2005-2008.

Palestinian Lutheran bishop Munib Younan has said that working for justice is not political work but a biblical mandate, and Lutheran World Federation general secretary Ishmael Noko has called upon the children of the House of Abraham to "refrain from instrumentalizing holy scriptures to achieve political goals."

Shanta Premawardhana has written, "Christian Zionism is an auto-generated movement, not dependent on Jewish political Zionism. . . . We can be supporters of Israel, even Zionists, and at the same time stand against this theology" (blog entry of November 9, 2006). Presbyterian Donald Wagner says that Christian Zionism has been around since the 1600s but has now converged with trends in the U.S. fueled by 9/11 fears, end times prophecy, and political conservatism. A Jewish Daily Forward article by Michael Oren traces the story of American Jewish attitudes toward Zionism and says that Christians were previously the most ardent exponents of Zionism in the U.S.

Two important statements were adopted in 2006:

• On the Status of Jerusalem, from the patriarchs and heads of local Christian churches in Jerusalem, calls for a special open city status that corresponds to Jerusalem’s “double character, holy and universal, and ordinary and local.”
• A Declaraction on Christian Zionism, from Jerusalem church leaders, asserts that Christian Zionism is detrimental to peace in Palestine and Israel

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On this web site

• Specific Resources: general Christian-Jewish resources and Christian-Muslim resources that are not issue oriented
• General Assembly: actions on the Middle East adopted by the PC(USA) 218th General Assembly (2008) actions of the 217th General Assembly (2006) related to the Middle East and to Christian-Jewish relations; action of the 216th General Assembly on Iraq; actions of partner churches in the U.S.
• Middle East Churches: an archived resource on their ecumenical relations