c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) U.S. religious leaders are cautiously optimistic about chances for what a Catholic bishop called “a just peace” in the Middle East following the recent summit meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Bishop John H. Ricard said actions taken at the summit to “end the violence and foster conditions for renewed negotiations are encouraging.”

Ricard is chairman of the international policy committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He made his comments in a Feb. 11 statement.

“We urge leaders of Israel and the Palestine Authority to seize this opportunity to make progress on resolving longstanding disputes,” said Ricard, whose diocese is Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida.

On Feb. 8, Abbas and Sharon met at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, declaring a truce and pledging “to disengage from the path of blood.”

The agreement has not won formal endorsement from Palestinian militant groups such as Islamic Jihad, but they have indicated they would abide by the de facto ceasefire.

How fragile the ceasefire is was suggested Tuesday (Feb. 15), when Israel announced it had shot two Palestinian gunmen near an Israeli settlement. Separately, Israel also announced it intends to build a new West Bank settlement for settlers uprooted by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

The settlement would violate the spirit if not the letter of the so-called “road map” aimed at bringing peace to the Holy Land.

Sharon on Tuesday (Feb. 15) said he has instructed his government to begin talks with Palestinian officials on the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The United States was not a party to the summit, which also was attended by the Egyptian and Jordanian heads of state.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the meeting “the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come.”

President Bush is expected to meet with Abbas and Sharon in March.

A National Council of Churches delegation of Protestant and Orthodox leaders visited the region for two weeks just before the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.

“A sliver of hope for peace does exist, but we feel strongly the moment must be seized now or the future will remain dim,” the leaders said in a Feb. 7 statement.

The NCC group, whose visit was at the invitation of the Middle East Council of Churches, said that for many in the delegation “this was the saddest journey to the Holy Land.”

Their statement noted, “There are far to many disturbing realities to give us confidence.”

Key among those realities is the “separation barrier” being built by Israel to thwart suicide bombers. Much of it is on Palestinian land and includes illegal Israeli settlements.

“Like any other nation, Israel has the right to build a barrier; however, one people’s barrier should not be built on the land of another people,” the NCC delegation said.

The NCC delegation said that because the barrier “is being built not on the 1967 Green Line (the one-time border between Israel and Palestinian territory) but primarily on Palestinian land, parents are separated from children, husbands from wives, farmers from their land, patients from hospitals, workers from employers, and local Christians from the holy sites.”

Among Catholic and mainline Protestant and Orthodox leaders, a key issue is whether the separation barrier and illegal settlements will prevent a viable Palestinian state from being established.

“Palestinians, like people everywhere, must have freedom of movement,” the NCC delegation said. “Palestinian land is increasingly being chopped into tiny cantons making the possibility of a sustainable Palestinian state unachievable.”

The recent statements by the Catholic bishops and the NCC build on a January interfaith effort _ the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East _ which appealed to Bush to take a more active role in resurrecting the “road map” peace process that envisions a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis.

That initiative involved a broad range of Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders and was sparked by what officials said was a new moment in the Middle East situation.

Bush “is the first president to explicitly support a two-state solution,” said Ron Young, coordinator of the NILIP.

In addition, the election of Abbas to succeed Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority and Sharon’s stated intention to withdraw from Gaza created an environment in which progress toward peace could be achieved, the group said.

The summit steps in early February and the apparent willingness of the United States to re-engage “move us further along on the road to peace,” Ricard said.

“We pray,” Ricard added in his statement, “that these leaders will have the courage and support they need to meet the inevitable challenges they will encounter along the way.”

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