Movements prod U.S. on Mideast

Leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements joined an interreligious peace coalition in urging the Bush administration to make Arab-Israeli peace a priority.In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative For Peace in the Middle East called on the United States to work toward a comprehensive cease-fire in Gaza and the West Bank, and to undertake active diplomacy in support of the Arab peace initiative. The coalition’s policy concerns are drawn from a December 2006 statement in which it places responsibility on the United States to “provide creative, determined leadership for building a just peace for all in the Middle East.”Among the rabbis signing the letter were Rabbi Eric Yoffe, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; and Rabbi Toba Spitzer, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.