CMEP Bulletin: Trip Sets Stage for Renewed Peace Efforts
weekly news update from Churches for Middle East Peace
Speaking to the Israeli People
President Barack Obama has left Israel and the West Bank and is now in his next stop, Jordan after a busy two days. Before the trip the administration had set expectations so low “you’d think he was making another visit to Ohio” but after delivering a speech to a crowd of Israeli students, suddenly he has “raised expectations sky-high that he himself is going to work to make peace possible.”
While the bulk of the president’s time was spent laying wreaths and looking at tourist sites, the speech in Jerusalem spoke directly to the Israeli people “as a friend” and contained some tough love but few details or proposals. For many supportive of a two state solution, this was the moment they had been waiting for but as is expected in the region, not everyone was pleased.
Click here to continue reading this CMEP Bulletin, including the following:
- Excerpts from the President’s speech
- Obama visits the West Bank
- 59 days until the CMEP Conference: Sign up today!
- Further reading