NEW YORK, Jan 16: A coalition of American rabbis and other religious, cultural and community leaders bought a full-page ad in the New York Times, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for President-elect Barack Obama to convene an international Middle East peace conference.

The initiative was led by Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, a West Coast-based Jewish publication.

Rabbi Lerner said the group had to buy ad space because the nation’s major newspapers were not giving room for this perspective.

“Unfortunately, the media, except for Democracy Now! and Pacifica and a few other places, are obliterating the message that many, many American Jews and other religious leaders, spiritual leaders and just American citizens are outraged at the immorality of what is happening,” the rabbi said on “Democracy Now”, a public TV programme.

He said the ad was put out by Tikkun magazine, adding “we are actually trying now to get other liberal and progressive people around the country to help us. Go to tikkun.org so that we can reproduce this in the Washington Post and in other major media”.

“We’re demanding an immediate ceasefire, but we’re also asking for President Obama to take an immediate leadership in convening an international conference, because the direction that was laid out by Senator Clinton yesterday, that she said Obama and she agreed on, which would call for — would say that there are no negotiations with Hamas until Hamas recognises the state of Israel, which, of course, is not going to happen… Hamas is going to be agreeable to a ceasefire, and maybe a long-term ceasefire, twenty or thirty years, but it’s not going to recognise Israel, so this policy is a non-starter.

“It’s a stupid policy. And it’s exactly in reverse of what Obama said he would do during the elections, when he was saying he would negotiate with people, including Iran and Syria, despite the fact that he abhorred their policies.”