American religious leaders welcome Gaza ceasefire
August 21, 2014
Nearly three dozen Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders in the United States issued a statement recently welcoming a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel conflict.
The ceasefire was subsequently broken by Hamas rocket attacks.
“We call on Israeli and Palestinian political leaders to renew negotiations to achieve a two-state peace agreement, the only realistic resolution of the conflict in which both people can live in peace, security, and mutual recognition,” said the signatories, who included Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“The crucial choice leaders on both sides face now is between negotiating a two-state peace agreement with a new sense of urgency or condemning Palestinian and Israeli children and youth to continued conflict-- more violence, more suffering, and more deaths,” they added.
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Further information:
- Jewish, Christian And Muslim Religious Leaders Welcome Ceasefire, Call Urgently For Renewed Negotiations For A Two-State Peace Agreement (USCCB)
- Gaza cease-fire broken as militants’ rocket attacks spark retaliatory Israeli airstrikes (Washington Post)
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Posted by: Thomas429 -
Aug. 21, 2014 10:28 PM ET USA
We already have multiple states. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt are all states that should have accepted the refugees in 1948-9. The intransigence of the refugees and their potential ports of refuge is the root cause of the problem. Many Muslims and Christians stayed on or returned their land in Israel after the original and subsequent conflicts ended. Calling yourself dispossessed after 65 years is a but of a stretch, is it not?
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Aug. 21, 2014 5:19 PM ET USA
The future of the so-called "Two State Solution" is about as dependable as that of the already broken 'ceasefire', that is to say, it has absolutely no future at all. Why the bishops continue to beat this dead horse escapes me totally.
