Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Excellent essay by Dexter Van Zile that relates to the themes in Will Spotts' series of posts: The U.S. Presbyterian Church's Renewed Attack on Israel. Here's the executive summary:
- The 2006 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church repudiated the anti-Zionist narrative affirmed by the previous gathering of this assembly in 2004. This repudiation, however, did not stop the denomination's elected officials, staffers, and so-called peace activists from using the church's resources to demonize Israel. In March 2010, anti-Israel partisans on a Middle East Study Committee (MESC) created by a vote of the denomination's 2008 General Assembly released a 172-page report that demonizes Israel and downplays Arab and Muslim hostility toward Jews and their Middle Eastern homeland. This report, which will be on the agenda of the PC(USA)'s General Assembly scheduled for July, is nothing short of a full-scale assault on Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state.
- The report effectively restates the narrative affirmed by the PC(USA)'s 2004 General Assembly: that Israel is in control of the violence directed at it and hence can unilaterally bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict through concessions and peace offers. The one-sided nature of the report should come as no surprise given the composition of the MESC, which numbers several pro-Palestinian activists including a former Presbyterian missionary to the Middle East who has expressed support for a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In its deliberations the committee failed to meet with people willing and able to challenge the biased outlook of the committee members.
- In addition to voting on the MESC report, delegates at the PC(USA)'s upcoming General Assembly will debate a number of proposals, including a resolution declaring Israel guilty of apartheid and another calling on the denomination to condemn Caterpillar for continuing to sell products to Israel. Delegates will also vote on an overture calling on the denomination to affirm a dishonest "Kairos" document issued by Palestinian Christians in late 2009. This document explicitly blames Palestinian violence on Israel and obliquely characterizes suicide bombings against civilians as a lawful form of "resistance." Taken together, these resolutions and the MESC report will put Israel in the judgment seat at the PC(USA)'s General Assembly.
- The obsessive way in which the PC(USA)'s peace activists have attacked Israel, and the failure of the denomination's leaders to offer a word of correction, demonstrates that as a whole the church cannot be trusted to offer a fair, accurate, and comprehensive assessment of issues related to the future of the state of Israel.
PCUSA or CPUSA? Think Red.