CMEP Delivers Obama Letter with 17,000 Signers to White House
The Christian Call for Holy Land Peace, an ecumenical letter to President Obama, signed by 41 prominent national church leaders and over 17,000 American Christians, was delivered this week to the Obama Administration. A delegation from Churches for Middle East Peace met with Daniel Shapiro, the White House's National Security Council Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa to present the letter.
Members of the Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions joined together to support the letter's message urging President-elect Obama to make Israeli-Palestinian peace an immediate priority of his Administration. Signers from all fifty states were represented among the 17,000 signers as well as over 2,100 clergy from a wide range of denominations.
The CMEP delegation that met with Shapiro on February 11th included CMEP staff and members of CMEP's Board of Directors and Leadership Council. The group presented the Administration with the letter and details on the tremendous grassroots response from the Christian community. They expressed appreciation for the Obama Administration's early statements and actions in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace, including the appointment of Senator George Mitchell as Special Envoy to the Middle East on day two of the Administration. During the meeting, the delegation and Mr. Shapiro engaged in fruitful dialogue including being briefed on the recent trip to the region by Special Envoy Mitchell.
CMEP would like to thank everyone who took a stand for peace and signed the letter to President Obama during the Christians Call for Holy Land Peace campaign. The unprecedented grassroots response to the urgent need for securing a just and lasting two-state peace provides a strong groundwork for the advocacy work ahead. The Obama Administration's priority on peacemaking is encouraging, but the tasks are complex and formidable, and will require robust and sustained U.S. diplomatic engagement, with bi-partisan Congressional support.
In the coming weeks and months, CMEP will continue to offer opportunities for you to take an active role in advocating for Holy Land peace. Along with our periodic action alerts on important peace-related legislation in Congress (link to Mitchell alert), we hope many of you will consider taking part in home visits with your Congressional delegation during the spring recess in April or engaging your elected officials during our Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. being held from June 7-9. Thanks for all that you do on behalf of Holy Land