Holistic Peacebuilding
CMEP advocates for U.S. policies that build inclusive peacemaking in the Middle East,
and against policies that imperil peace. For your convenience, we also offer a printable version of this page to bring to your meetings as notes for you or as a leave-behind.
Middle East Christians
Christian communities across the Middle East can be peacemakers in their countries, but at present their sustainability is in jeopardy. By ISIS attacks in Syria and Iraq, and the civil war across Syria. In Israel and the territories it occupies, that government’s policies threaten to, or facilitate attempts to, curtail religious observance and take property from Christian institutions, as well as their more general threat to Palestinian livelihoods.
CMEP engages with the Trump administration to promote preservation of Christian communities in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and across the Middle East, as well as for religious freedom for all the region’s peoples.
Yemen
6 years of war in Yemen have sparked the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and all Yemeni and foreign parties to the war are to blame. The fighting has killed some 250,000 innocent civilians, destroyed health clinics, schools, factories and farms, precipitated a severe cholera epidemic in 2019 and impedes efforts to combat the coming COVID-19.
The Yemeni parties must turn from battle to talks, and foreign powers from supporting war to diplomacy and aid. CMEP has called on the President and Congress to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen; hold all warring parties accountable; and help foster peace that Yemenis desperately need.
Iran
Iran and its allies can be a negative actor in the region. CMEP believes war is not the answer to their actions, and has supported legislation to prevent the U.S. from starting a war with Iran. Diplomacy is a better answer, starting with a U.S. return to JCPOA, and furthered with holistic diplomacy to resolve intricate sectarian disputes and human rights issues.
