A Call for American Evenhandedness in the Middle East

Fourth Quarter 2002

More than 60 evangelicals signed a letter (text below) sent on July 2 to President George W. Bush, urging him to consider the demands of justice for Palestinians as fully as for Israel. Among the signers are the Rev. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church; Gary Burge, professor at Wheaton College; evangelist Leighton Ford; David Neff, editor of Christianity Today; Cheryl Sanders, pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C.; Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action; James Skillen, president of the Center for Public Justice; and Marilyn Borst, director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU).

Dear Mr. President:

We write as American evangelical Christians concerned for the well-being of all the children of Abraham in the Middle East—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. We urge you to employ an evenhanded policy toward Israeli and Palestinian leadership so that this bloody conflict will come to a speedy close and both peoples can live without fear and in a spirit of shalom/salaam. An evenhanded U.S. policy towards Israelis and Palestinians does not give a blank check to either side, nor does it bless violence by either side.

An evenhanded policy affirms the valid interests of Israelis and Palestinians: both states free, economically viable and secure, with normal relations between Israel and all its Arab neighbors. We commend your stated support for a Palestinian state with 1967 borders, and encourage you to move boldly forward so that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for their own state may be realized.

We abhor and condemn the suicide bombings of the last 22 months and the failure of the Palestinian Authority in the first year of the intifada to stop the violence against Israeli citizens. We grieve over the loss of life, particularly among children, and the suffering by Israelis and Palestinians. The longer the bloodletting continues, the more difficult it will be for both sides to reconcile with each other.

We urge you to provide the leadership necessary for peacemaking in the Middle East by vigorously opposing injustice, including the continued unlawful and degrading Israeli settlement movement. The theft of Palestinian land and the destruction of Palestinian homes and fields is surely one of the major causes of the strife that has resulted in terrorism and the loss of so many Israeli and Palestinian lives. The continued Israeli military occupation that daily humiliates ordinary Palestinians is also having disastrous effects on the Israeli soul.

Mr. President, the American evangelical community is not a monolithic bloc in full and firm support of present Israeli policy. Significant numbers of American evangelicals reject the way some have distorted biblical passages as their rationale for uncritical support for every policy and action of the Israeli government instead of judging all actions—of both Israelis and Palestinians—on the basis of biblical standards of justice. The great Hebrew prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, declared in the Old Testament that God calls all nations and all people to do justice one to another, and to protect the oppressed, the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Finally, Mr. President, be assured of our prayers for you and your cabinet as you lead our nation in this troubled time. May the strength and peace of the Lord be with you.

[For more information about the letter and its signatories, contact Serge Duss, director of public policy and advocacy for World Vision U.S.: 202-608-1837; sduss@worldvision.org]

This letter was sent at a time of intense diplomatic efforts between the United States and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. In March, Arab leaders had put forward a comprehensive peace initiative, including the commitment of 22 Arab states to live at peace with Israel, a proposal that was welcomed by the Bush administration. Writing in the Washington Post on August 2, Jordan's foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, lauded President Bush's shift "from a purely security focus [in the Middle East] to a more panoramic vision of the endgame."

However, Muasher continued, "the one missing element [in the stepped up negotiation process] is Israeli willingness to negotiate seriously and in good faith. Israel has not presented a credible plan that could realistically address even the most fundamental of Palestinian positions. Instead, for more than 22 months, the timing of Israeli assassinations and incursions [into the West Bank and Gaza] has unerringly derailed whatever tenuous negotiations were underway. To be fair, so have suicide bombings. We continue to condemn these bombings as morally and politically wrong. But the only response we receive from the Israeli side is seizure of Palestinian land, deliberate delays to vital humanitarian relief efforts, and promises—not of a return to negotiations but of more such actions."