For mainstream American Jewish groups, it has long been an article of faith that strong alliances with liberal Protestant denominations with whom they shared a common agenda on domestic issues is integral to the safeguarding of the security and the rights of the Jewish community. That has been tested in recent years, as some of their liberal Christian partners debated supporting efforts to boycott, divest and sanction the state of Israel. But the latest instance of liberal Christians attacking Israel ought to cut the cord completely.
As the Times of Israel and JTA report, the leaders of several of the leading American Protestant denominations and one small Catholic group have signed a letter calling for a congressional investigation whose purpose would be to end U.S. aid to Israel. The letter alleges that Israel is involved in crimes that violate U.S. law that should prevent the sending of aid or arms to the Jewish state. These charges are a tissue of deceptions, distortions and outright lies that are the product of Palestinian propaganda. (Though some of it is supported by radical leftist Jewish groups like B’Tselem, whose leaders own ambivalence toward Zionism has been documented in COMMENTARY.) The main focus of the letter is to delegitimize Israeli self-defense and to ignore the reality of Palestinian intransigence and opposition to peace. However, the reaction of Jewish groups to this latest development should not be ambivalent. To its credit, the Anti-Defamation League has said it will withdraw from a national Jewish-Christian dialogue event. They should not be the only Jewish group to do so.
The point here is that the letter, as well as the divestment activities of some of these churches, is nothing less than a declaration of war on the Jewish state. So long as these religious groups dedicate themselves to promoting libels against Israel, denouncing the security fence that has saved countless lives from Palestinian terrorism and seeks to isolate Israel and cut it off from its only ally and source of military aid, business as usual between them and American Jewry must end.
Some Jews see such dialogue efforts as an end in itself, but this is a fallacy. Any interfaith program must be based on mutual respect and any church group that aligns itself with Israel’s enemies lacks respect for Jewish life. Dialogue on those terms is a sham.
That these church groups couch their letter in language that seeks to portray their efforts as those of “peacemakers” is all the more offensive. Far from promoting peace, these anti-Zionist clerics are actually fomenting violence by undermining Israeli defensive measures and thereby encouraging Palestinians to think they can succeed in isolating Israel.
The letter, signed by, among others, the leaders of the National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, United Methodist Church, American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., the American Friends Service Committee, and other groups, including the Catholic Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, is also particularly vile since it seeks to extend the BDS movement from church investments to the instruments of American foreign policy. It is nothing less than a manifesto seeking to sever the U.S.-Israel alliance and therefore cast the still-besieged Jewish state adrift in a hostile region bent on its destruction.
That the groups should have sent the letter only days after Iran repeated its latest slanders and threats is ironic but no coincidence. Despite their protestations of a desire for peace and non-violence, these churches have been remarkably silent about the religious persecution going on in Iran. It is only little, democratic Israel that is beset by enemies seeking its destruction that attracts their passionate opposition.
It should be specified that in most cases, these positions are largely the work of a small group of left-wing activists that dominate the public affairs policy work of their churches. Most rank-and-file members of Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist churches are, like most Americans, strong supporters of Israel and have little idea that this assault on Israel is being done in their name. But it is incumbent on them as well as other decent church leaders to denounce this letter and other BDS activities. Until they do, no American Jewish group should have any dealings with the signatories or the groups involved in this letter.
For too many American Jews, especially those pompous court Jews who fantasize they represent super powerful organizations with great influence, when they are spat upon they just think it is raining.
They don;t even think it's raining. A light misting . . . perhaps . . . at the worst . . .
If they boycott Israel, then the Jews should take Rabbi Jesus out of Christianity……. fair play !
It might be instructive to see what happens, if aid is cut off and Israel "radicalizes". The anti-Zionist hypocrites of the Church of the Unreconstructed Liberal might not get what they bargained for. There are lower-cost alternatives to very expensive defensive fences.
The Protestant establishment likes to crucify Jews! I wonder if they are descended from the Romans, who did major crucifixions.
In addition to being vile and anti-Semitic, these leaders and organizations that they represent are violating IRS regulations with their evil war on Israel and Judaism. It is a war that results in murder of innocent Jewish children and adults. They should be fought against as necessary. One way among others is to be certain that they pay the taxes due from political activities.
For those of you who don't know, Maryknoll has always been left wing fringe. Doesn't really surprise me that they're taking this anti Israel stand – they've also been quite supportive of Central and South American Marxist regimes. Daniel Ortega has always been one of their favorites.
I've said this for years. All this interfaith bullshit has been, for the Jews, nothing more than Protestants and Muslims telling us to kiss their ass.
There was a reform Rabbi in Montreal who delighted in inviting Palestinians in to the sanctuary to address the congregants on the Palestinian 'narrative'. n nIt is to throw up into one's mouth, a little bit.
The Jewish democrats bring this on themselves and weaken the Jews. nWhat about the "Shahada ring" that Pr. O wears on the left hand!!!!!!!
Some of these church groups are passionately anti-Zionist and bigoted. But Israel is inciting them by asking for and accepting $3 billion in subsidies. n nThere is no shame in asking a friend for help when in need, but nowadays Israel has a first class economy. She ranks 17th among 187 world nations on the UN's Human Development Index. She has 4.8% growth and a $250 billion GNP. n nShe is not justified in holding out the palm of a mendicant. It demeans her and hurts rather than helps the country. One example is how it feeds the ire of those looking to feel contemptuous and indignant.
Gevaltism and Chicken Little thinking is not in order here. Most Americans–Catholic and Christian alike– support Israel to one degree or another and this is merely a noisy fringe. We only serve their cruel purpose by reacting with hysteria. n nThat said, some basic facts are in order. n na) This action is driven by a Christian leadership that does not remotely represent its congregation. n nb) This Christian leadership is not revolutionary; rather it is profoundly reactionary and represents a well established religious tyranny. n nPogrom is a commonly known word whose detail is much overlooked. After sunup to sundown labor for six days a week in the fields and mines, the ordinary East European peasant had neither the inclination nor the energy for a torchlight procession to the Jewish ghetto for a riotous night of assaulting and murdering Jews. He had to be aroused and inflamed from the pulpit. n nHis priests taught the ordinary peasant that his contemporary European Jewish neighbors were enemies of God condemned by their own mouths every one of them, man, woman and child, for all generations for causing the suffering and death of Christ. n nHow divergent this preaching and teaching was from the ordinary peasant’s view may be judged from the not infrequent visits—always after dark–to the rabbi’s home in this or that town or village, by an afflicted peasant with a live goose or similar rustic offering in hand. For all the preaching of hatred from learned priests, the ordinary European peasant could not be turned from the conviction that, though they cruelly tortured and murdered his only begotten son, God still pays special heed to the prayer of Jews. Hence, the appearance at the rabbi's door after dark of the humble peasant begging for the prayers of the rabbi and his congregation on behalf of a sick or otherwise suffering loved one. n nIt was on Christmas Eve that pogroms traditionally took place and it was fiery preaching by a drunken priest that brought these mass-murdering outrages about. The illiterate peasant who followed his holy priest to the ghetto to wreak vengeance on the eternally and irredeemably evil Jews for their torture and murder of the innocent Prince of Peace was drunk on vodka and classic Christian Juden-haas. n nContemporary Anti-Semitism is overwhelmingly a Christian and Muslim phenomenon. Buddhists and Hindus who owe nothing religiously or culturally to the Jews don’t reflexively and vehemently detest Jews and Judaism. The triumphalist need to annihilate and eclipse Jews and Judaism is powerfully felt only among Judaism’s patericidal competitors whose jealousy of Jews and Judaism is livid continually. Ordinary American Christians, like Buddhists and Hindus of any stripe, are not obsessed with personal and professional jealousy of Jews and Judaism. n nTruly Virulent Jew-hatred is the traditional realm of ministers, priests, imams and ayatollahs. And most Americans don’t share in it. n n