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My Dear Friends,

Greetings of love and peace.

Like people all over the world, and especially our sisters and brothers in
the Middle East, I have followed the Palestinian election with intense
interest and great hope that the results would lead toward a secure, just and
prosperous peace for the Palestinian and Israeli people.

Both people have suffered far too long. Both people, if we believe the
results of public opinion polls over the past several years, yearn for peace
and are prepared to see their governments reach a peace accord.

So what do I make of the emerging results this election that would remove
the Fatah party from power and replace it with Hamas?

To be honest with you, I don't know.

I would like to continue hoping for the best. Hamas has won an obviously
strong following among the Palestinians. Some attribute this following to
Hamas' success in providing social services for the people; others say it
is a reaction to Fatah's corruption and ineffectuality. Both of these
motivations to support Hamas seem positive.

And yet it is easy to be seized by despair. Hamas continues to avow the
destruction of Israel, not a starting point for peace. And there are concerns
that they may attempt to create a Palestinian society governed by an extreme,
conservative practice of Islam. Many in the international community,
including in the Israeli government, want nothing to do with Hamas.

The months that lie ahead will reveal much about both the near and long
term prospects for peace in the Middle East. I pray those prospects grow
better and better as the days and weeks pass.

I pray that Hamas will disavow its stated commitment to destroy Israel and
cease from all violence against innocent civilians.

I pray they will build on their successes providing a better life for the
Palestinian people, that they will eliminate corruption from the government
and commit to an open society where people are free to practice their
religion as they see fit.

I pray that Israel's leaders find a constructive way to engage the new
Palestinian government, a path that leads away from unilateralism and
violence, forging a true partnership to establish a just and sustainable
peace.

I pray that leaders and people of the other nations of the world will do
all in their power to help create the necessary conditions for such a
peace.

It is said that as Benjamin Franklin watched the often tumultuous
deliberations of the Constitutional Convention that would determine the
future of the United States, he was alternately filled with despair and hope.
He found himself looking at the chair sat in by George Washington, who
presided at the convention. On its back was a half-sun, either rising or
setting. During those deliberations, Franklin often wondered if the sun and
the convention were setting into the darkness of division, or rising on a new
day of a shared, positive destiny.

By the end of the convention, he determined that the sun was, indeed,
rising.

So, today, as we watch the events unfolding in the Middle East, it is easy
to wonder if the sun is setting into the darkness of deeper violence and
division, or rising on a new day where violence ceases, old enmities are
healed and the Israeli and Palestinian governments and people move forward
together in peace.

For my part, I will pray that the sun is rising.

Love,

Charles

The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs
Executive Director
United Religions Initiative

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Peace and Conflict, Editorial and Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.