Source: The Dayton Jewish Observer
http://www.jewishdayton.org/page.html?ArticleID=146969
The bombings, the incensed politicians and the grieving mothers make the headlines. What you don’t see on television is the quiet work being conducted in the Middle East using faith — the very thing that seems to divide — as a foundation for peace.
A new initiative by the non-partisan, nonprofit Center for the Study of the Presidency is working quietly by using America’s heritage of religious tolerance as a tool to aid those in the Middle East working for peace.
Tony Hall, former U.S. representative (D-Ohio) from Dayton and ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, is one of those heading the initiative.
"I’m not under any illusion that we’re going to solve the problems in the Middle East," he said in a phone interview from his office near Washington, D.C., "but we’ve got to try."
The center announced the initiative in March. David Abshire, the center’s president, said in a statement that the initiative complements the U.S.’s renewed efforts to bring about a Palestinian state. Hall will work with U.S. Rep. Frederick Wolf (R-Va.) and other lay leaders and clergy on issues of faith, not politics.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has pledged $1 million to the project through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Hall has experience using faith to forge relationships.
During his days in Congress, he said he joined men and women who came together across party lines to pray. Once you build up trust, it’s amazing the similarities different people find on the issues that matter, like justice, poverty and peace, he said.