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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Dexter Van Zile discusses the United Methodist Church's calls for divestment in this week's Jewish Advocate: An untimely, unfair blacklist

The timing could not be any more devilish. In the first half of June, Hamas perpetrates a campaign of murder and political assassinations to assert control over the Gaza Strip. After the fighting, Hamas leaders reaffirm their commitment to Israel’s destruction.

A few weeks later, a task force of New England Methodists seeks to punish Israel by issuing a blacklist of companies that do business with Israel’s defense establishment. The supporting material accompanying the blacklist makes little, if any mention whatsoever of the recent violence in the Gaza Strip. Instead the documents focus entirely on the Israeli occupation as a source of Palestinian suffering and violence...

Meanwhile, in the same issue, Tom Mountain has a good suggestion. Use the Methodists' divestment list as an investment list: Invest where others say 'divest'

It’s rare that our foes in the anti-Israel camp unwittingly provide an invaluable service to the Jewish state, but that is precisely what the United Methodist Church has done by publicizing its divestment movement against Israel, and specifying which companies to divest from. Their detailed report, compiled after two years of methodical research, lists 20 companies and summarizes why each is crucial to the Israeli military.

Yet take away the obnoxious, and at times silly, Israel bashing, and the report is actually a very useful briefing on those (mostly) military contractors that reinforce the military infrastructure of Israel.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know which companies are the lifeline of Israel’s security, look no further than the United Methodist Church divestment list. It details everything from which company sells Israel what type of plane, to the necessity of modern night vision goggles for pilots. It even elaborates on the cement company that built Israel’s long security wall.
And thanks to the diligent research of the Methodists, we now know the top 20 companies that deserve our financial support...

3 Comments

Given the historic persecutions of Jews by Christians, these blacklists bear dark implications.

They cannot be seen merely as mechanisms to help the Palestinians, particularly in light of internecine Arab violence and the endless attempts to victimize Israeli civilians, including the thousands of rocket attacks on Sderot.

So while I appreciate the "investment advice" I am not particularly amused by ongoing Christian attacks on Jews.

Sadly, sinced the UMC hit list was announced in July, it has underperformed the DJIA and Nasdaq. It has slightly outperformed the S&P 500. Meanwhile, the much more modest Presbyterian hit list - including only five companies, and none quite as ludicrous as Blockbuster - almost ... but not quite - has underperformed all three indexes.

Of course, that could just mean now is a good time to buy. Personally, I'd be inclined to go with CAT because it is unjustly in everyone's sights.

As an evangelical Christian in American, I wholeheartedly disagree with the Methodist Church. They do not represent all of us.

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