Iraq-US War

Supported by the Friends Committee on National legislation, the Unitarian Universalist Assn, and other religious organizations

H.R. 3797 would require the President to seek to institute a regional diplomatic plan for the Middle East.

Detailed Summary

New Diplomatic Offensive for Iraq Act - Directs the President to implement a regional diplomatic plan in conjunction with the U.N. Security Council to: (1) curtail the ongoing civil war in Iraq; (2) prevent the spread of violence from Iraq into neighboring countries; (3) prevent the establishment of safe havens for al-Qa'ida and other terrorist organizations; (4) prevent regional conflict; (5) prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity; and (6) promote a national process of reconciliation within Iraq.

Sponsors: Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

Communities and individuals of all faith traditions and spiritualities who are committed to ending the war in Iraq are holding an interfaith witness in Washington D.C. on Friday, March 7, 2008 to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the sacredness of human life. The world cries out for a common voice for peace from across religious traditions and paths.

TO GET DETAILED INFORMATION AND SIGN UP FOR EVENTS, PLEASE GO TO --
http://www.olivebranchinterfaith.org

THERE WILL BE FOUR MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE MARCH 7 EVENTS:

Dear friends,

How do we announce a major religious event, such as the October 8 Fast to move America from conquest to community, from violence to reverence?

When the steering committee of the Fast began discussing this, our first response was the conventional one in American society –- a press conference.

But then we recalled that there are ancient traditions for making the announcement of such a religious act itself a religious act. In the Talmud, for example, there is described a way of Calling a Communal Fast in Time of Calamity. (The calamity might be a drought, a famine, a war.)

Dear friends of all faiths and communities,

If you want to sign on to the Call for the Interfaith Fast, please write to Office@shalomctr.org and explain what religious congregation, organization, or community you are working with. PLEASE ALSO SIGN UP AND DESCRIBE THE EVENT YOU ARE PLANNING, BY CLICKING TO --

Http://www.INTERFAITHFAST.ORG

Shalom, salaam, peace –
Rabbi Arthur Waskow

FROM CONQUEST TO COMMUNITY,
FROM VIOLENCE TO REVERENCE:
AN INTERFAITH FAST on OCTOBER 8
TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ

We call on all Americans to join in fasting from dawn to dusk on Monday, October 8, to call for an end to the Iraq War. On this day, people of faith in local communities across our nation will act as catalysts to move America from conquest to community and from violence to reverence.

MEMORIAL DAY: GRIEVING, KILLING, OR PRAYERFUL ORGANIZING?

Dear Friends,

Memorial Day was created to mourn the dead of American wars: "That these dead shall not have died in vain; that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

The people of the United States have spoken clearly. This war is indeed "of" us – it is our young who are dying, losing eyes and legs and genitals and minds and souls. It is our schools, our firefighters, our levees, our health care, that are robbed and starved to pay its monstrous costs.

But this war is not by us, and not for us. Our soldiers are dying bravely to veil the cowardice of those who govern us. Our peoples – American and Iraqi – are suffering so those who govern us can celebrate their arrogance, their stupidity, their greed. Their idols.

Dear Friends,

Early in April (2007), I took part in the "Consultation on Conscience," a gathering the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism calls together in Washington each year for American Jews to address issues of social justice.

I was there partly because the RAC's director, Rabbi David Saperstein, asked me to speak to "What next?" after the Reform Jewish movement adopted a antiwar resolution calling on Congress to set a time table to end the Iraq War.

So let me urge “what next” action you can take RIGHT NOW, or can take after reading the rest of this report. To urge Congress to pass the new Feingold-Reid bill to redirect all Iraq-military funds to bring the troops home no later than next March 31, you can snip and paste your way to ---

Feingold-Reid bill S.1077 on withdrawal from Iraq

By Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Mr. REID, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. DODD, Mr. KERRY, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. HARKIN, and Mr. SANDERS):

S. 1077. A bill to safely redeploy United States troops from Iraq; to the Committee on Foreign Relations (introduced April 10, 2007)

The language of the legislation reads:

(a) Transition of Mission - The President shall promptly transition the mission of United States forces in Iraq to the limited purposes set forth in subsection (d).

(b) Commencement of Safe, Phased Redeployment from Iraq - The President shall commence the safe, phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq that are not essential to the purposes set forth in subsection (d). Such redeployment shall begin not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

[This essay was circulated in early March 2007 by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as an Op/Ed piece for its member newspapers of the Jewish press.]

What to do about the Iraq war has made for the sharpest and most important disconnect between the political behavior of large Jewish organizations and the opinions of the flesh-and-blood Jews who actually make up the American Jewish community.

Surveys by the American Jewish Committee in the fall of 2005 and 2006 showed about two-thirds of American Jews thought the war a mistake. The Gallup Poll reports that over a three-year span, more than three-fourths of American Jews – the most in any religious group – thought the war a mistake. The nearest there is to a grass-roots gathering of the largest organization, the biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism, in September 2005 overwhelmingly adopted a resolution vigorously critical of the war.