Mainline churches lobby for U.S. engagement

Christians from mainline churches lobbied for Israeli-Palestinian peace. About 150 delegates attended the annual conference this week of Churches for Middle East Peace, a group that advocates greater U.S. engagement in the region and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to reports in constituent church papers, the delegates had 65 meetings on Capitol Hill. CMEP represents 22 Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic bodies. Episcopal Life reported that during the conference, delegates gathered at a Washington church and sang, in Hebrew and Arabic, songs representing the love Jews and Muslims hold for Jerusalem – “Yerushalayim shel Zahav” and “Ya ar-Rub, as-Salaami.”