15-Sep-16: Justice, peace, terror, truth - and the World Council of Churches

Like the WCC, these German activists , in their own distinctive way, stood
for "democratic, non-violent actions for justice 
and peace" in the'Thirties [Image Source]

We pay more attention in our blog to what the World Council of Churches says and does than many other bloggers. (Click for our earlier WCC posts.)

This is absolutely not because we subscribe to their dogma. By dogma, of course, we don't mean theology. Actually, theology appears to be one of the least distinctive aspects of the WCC. We mean their political viewpoints as espoused for decades by the WCC's leadership. (From experience, we know those viewpoints are rarely shared by their church-going members.) Politics far more than religion in the conventional sense is what serves as the raison d'etre of the World Council of Churches

We pay them attention because of our annoyance at the mild halo effect that unjustifiably accompanies a religious-sounding global alliance's frequent pronouncements. As we have noted here in the past, the WCC (with annual income in 2014 of 29.4 million Swiss Francs, about USD $30 million) is not just any religious-sounding alliance but 

a roof body that purports to speak for the world's major protestant churches. Here's where they list their members. In Australia, they include the Anglican, Churches of Christ and Uniting Church in Australia. In the UK, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church in Wales, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church of Wales and others. In the United States, they include the Quakers, the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and many others. That's a lot of worshipers. Do they know how their religious faith is being exploited by a small coterie of self-perpetuating, Geneva-based bureaucrats? ["17-Apr-14: Christian solidarity with unrepentant murderers: where's the outrage?"]

And

the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity... breaking down barriers between people, seeking justice and peace ["About us: What is the World Council of Churches?", on the WCC website]

The WCC's Geneva-based secretary-general [Image Source]

(If you're not sure whether they presume to speak on behalf of your house of worship, we posted the names and websites of all the WCC member churches at the time in this blog post: "23-May-14: On the dignity of murderers and their victims: An appeal to Christian friends".)    

In a public call datelined September 15, 2016 (today), the WCC bureaucracy has just launched once more into a full-throated assault on Israel and Israelis, calling in the name of Christianity for more terror, more "Kauft-nicht-bei-Juden"-style boycotts of Jewish businesses and more disregard for justice and the rights of Jews and Israelis. 

Some direct-quote World Council of Churches excerpts:

1. They... called for the US to end what they described as a "wave of legislative efforts" to penalise the use of non-violent economic measures to influence policy in Israel, noting that churches have used such strategies to "advance the rights of people and further the cause of justice both domestically and internationally for many years"...
2. [They] noted that the unresolved conflict in Israel and Palestine is "primarily about justice, and until the requirement of justice is met, peace cannot be established"...
3. "Too often the structural and permanent violence against a whole people is ignored. But keeping an entire population under occupation and even in a closed area, such as Gaza, in prison-like conditions is a grave and unsustainable situation. 
4. We are also well aware that Israel is the occupying force and has commanding power over the people of Palestine and, thus, bears special responsibility for taking the initiative."
5. They called for an end to the "occupation and to settlements on occupied land, with all its grave and deteriorating dimensions for the Palestinian people, but also for Israel and the whole region beyond".
6. "We ask for full respect and protection of human rights defenders, for the rights to tell the truth, to express concern, and to take democratic, non-violent actions for justice and peace... 
7. "We are deeply concerned by Israeli legislative and other measures to curtail the work of Palestinian and Israeli development and human rights organisations, as well as the lack of transparency concerning investigations into international humanitarian (including faith-based) organisations in the Gaza Strip and the possible negative consequences to delivering critically needed aid to this besieged area."

That's a lot of euphemisms and irresponsible double-talk.

1. When they advocate "non-violent economic measures", they mean the bigotry-rich program of boycotts, divestment and sanctions or BDS, in which the World Council of Churches takes a lead advocacy role. It's an aggressive campaign initiated by a cluster of Palestinian Arab groups 11 years ago that "disincentivizes the Palestinian leadership from negotiating with Israel at present, is antisemitic [and] promotes the delegitimization of Israel" [Wikipedia]
2. Don't expect the conflict "in Israel and Palestine" (a narrow way of looking at the state of war declared by the Arab states in 1948 and in large measure still continuing) to get resolved or the terrorism conducted by the two Palestinian "states" to end so long as "the requirement of justice" for the Arabs, not for the Israelis, not for the Roths, continues to be unmet. In other words, the Arabs alone are the side to whom injustice is being served. Resolving this doesn't depend on them.
3. Gaza is prison-like, suffering "structural and permanent violence". Those tens of thousands of Hamas rockets fired at Israeli homes? The enforcement of Arab poverty by an Islamist leadership residing luxuriously in Qatar and Dubai? The ongoing misappropriation of foreign aid to ensure endless Gazan misery? All totally absent - as if they never existed. If there is a wicked person in this Bible lesson, the WCC leaders know he's not an Arab.
4. Only the Israelis as "the occupying force", the "commanding power", have the responsibility to do something peaceful. In the pseudo-redemptive theology of the WCC's preachers, the Palestinian Arabs get a permanent free pass. Though not Christians, the insiders in the two Palestinian Arab regimes understand this parable to mean: "Don't change, don't cease fire, don't consider being flexible. Just keep going while we provide protection". 
5. This exceedingly strange thing - "occupation" - is said to be not only at the heart of the Arab/Israel conflict but also the "grave and deteriorating" state of "the region beyond". Serious-minded Christians might be thinking of today's Iraq, Libya, Syria and Lebanon. Like us, are they wondering what the Christian leadership in its Geneva office complex, witness to the rapid and violent end of two thousand years of Christian life at the hands of Islamists, along with savagery on a scale that challenges the worst nightmares, are smoking?
6. Rights, justice, peace. Are both sides entitled to these? The answer is obvious.
7. This refers to Israel's recently-announced arrest and prosecution of a Hamas agent inside World Vision, and reports that additional charities active in the Palestinian Arab domains have been similarly penetrated and pillaged. The WCC has said not one word about the allegations of massive abuse of Christian charity by the bigoted, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish Islamist forces. Nor about the Gazan housing construction budgets misappropriated to the construction of attack tunnels and rockets and mortars.

We believe in dialogue. We know a person cannot be completely well-informed without hearing the opposing side's case. In April 2014, when the World Council of Churches came out with an earlier public call that involved actual praying for the freedom and dignity of Palestinian Arab prisoners, almost all of them were and are behind bars because of the anti-Jewish terrorism in which they engaged, we blogged these two posts: "17-Apr-14: Christian solidarity with unrepentant murderers: where's the outrage?" and "22-Apr-14: Attention World Council of Churches: Will you now follow your own advice and speak up for the Arabs tortured and imprisoned by the PA?"

Right after that, we sent a letter to the then (and still) WCC secretary general, Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, on April 24, 2014. We were ignored. So we sent the same again, along with copies to a number of WCC insiders, a few days later. Still ignored. Then we had a tiny flurry of exchanges with the WCC's Director of Communications. He seemed willing to engage, but then changed tacks complete. Here's the full text of his letter to us dated June 5, 2014:

Dear Mr. Roth, Yes, I believe we would have nothing further to say.  Best wishes to you and your family. Mark Beach, WCC Director of Communication

The context and additional detail are in our post: "6-Jun-14: Fear and loathing at the World Council of Churches". Here's how we summed it up: 

So take it from this non-Christian, non-Moslem couple: there's something seriously wrong with a major global-facing church roof-body that wishes freedom, justice and dignity for convicted murderers but rolls down the shutters when a family devastated by the actions of those very murderers engages them in serious, albeit critical, discussion.

We are in the midst of the Jewish season for thinking hard about sin and about the truly redemptive value of forgiveness and repentance. In that spirit, here'a a repeat of a World Council of Churches thought we expressed here in the past

We'll sign off with a word to the WCC management team sitting there in Geneva: it's never too late to do sincere repentance and to come back and openly discuss these very serious life-and-death issues - even with people as marginal as we are to your mission. ["11-Jun-14: Where does this strategic deafness and moral blindness at World Council of Churches lead?"]

And this epilogue:

We know from experience that the world has many, many Christian believers whose abhorrence of terrorism, rejection of cries for the murder of innocent children, and belief in the central role of justice and morality in 21st century life differ hugely from the messages being advanced by the WCC. We don't share their theological outlook but we feel we have a great deal of common ground with their humanity. But finding common ground with church leaders for whom calls to prayer and "acts of solidarity" that "restore" to the convicted, unrepentant murderers of innocent children "their freedom with justice and dignity” - that truly feels like mission impossible. ["6-Jun-14: Fear and loathing at the World Council of Churches"] 

UPDATE Sunday September 18, 2016: Please check out "Five Things You Need to Know About World Council of Churches" by Dexter Van Zile. Brief and highly recommended.

13-Apr-16: Arab elites, Israeli medicine and a dose of hypocrisy

Abbas, now in 12th year of a presidential term that
expired in 2009: Man of principle [Image Source: EPA]

People who expressed deep hostility to Jews and to Israel used to be termed antisemites. 

But life got more complicated and nuanced; ugly labels started becoming burdensome. So the haters updated their language. They adopted poses that masked the bigotry in fancier words that vaguely hinted at higher principles.

None of this is new to anyone following the evolution of BDS, the political-sounding bigotry that tries to disguise a passion for eliminating the world's one Jewish country by the use of words - boycotts, sanctions, divestment - that make it seem like a New Age business strategy. 

But a closer look at who does it and how they do it soon uncovers the hypocrisy and lying that animate it. It's simply the world's oldest hatred in social media garb, and no one should be surprised that Jews are involved in it too. The passions motivating BDS map to deep, visceral and tragically familiar hatreds and resentments.

But even as the BDS herd pours its scorn on Israeli cosmetic companies, Israeli packaged-salad purveyors, Israeli academics and their universities, Israeli chocolate makers, life-saving and life-enhancing Israeli medicines, there's one demographic that isn't playing along: the political and business fat-cats of the Palestinian Arab world. Buying into BDS as if they really meant it would simply be too uncomfortable.

Today's news: "Brother of PA president hospitalized in Israel" [Source]

The brother of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was on Monday hospitalized in Tel Aviv in serious condition, Ynet reports. His arrival at and admission to the hospital took place in secret. Abu Louai, who lives in Qatar and who turned 81 last month according to Ynet, was admitted to Assuta Medical Center, where Abbas' wife and brother-in-law have previously been treated. Recently diagnose with cancer, Abu Louai chose to receive treatment in Israel. Abbas' brother initially began his treatment at Assuta, an expensive private hospital, before returning to Qatar after a stay of several days at the hospital. Now, ahead of his next treatment, he has once again been admitted to the Tel Aviv-based medical center, arriving via Jordan. In summer 2014, Abbas' wife, Amina Abbas, was admitted to Assuta for an operation on her leg. She returned to Ramallah after several days at the hospital. Six months ago, just as the current escalation in violence was beginning, Abbas' brother-in-law — Amina's brother — was hospitalized at Assuta for life-saving heart surgery.

The great thing about principles and standards when you're a hypocritical despot? You can have so many of them - a different one for every occasion.

For some context, see some of our earlier related posts:

• 13-Aug-15: What their choice of health care providers says about terrorists and their lackeys
• 20-Oct-14: Sincere wishes for a complete and thorough recovery as soon as possible
• 18-Nov-13: When Hamas insiders need the best care around, to which Zionist Entity do they turn?

We wish the PA President-for-Life's brother a speedy and full recovery. And, as we have done before, we express our hopes that the Palestinian Arabs will manage to eventually achieve a complete and rapid separation from an iron-fisted, ideologically-crazed leadership which has never hesitated to impose cruel hardships on its own society while reserving to well-connected insiders the privilege of engaging with the Zionist Entity when it suits them personally.

13-Aug-15: What their choice of health care providers says about terrorists and their lackeys

Assuta Medical Center in Tel Aviv [Image Source]

We developed a real antipathy to certain expressions that some reporters and editors like to use when describing the conflict in our area. One of the most offensive is "two sides of the same coin". We hear it a lot. The idea: as bad as we say the other side are, our side is no better. And our arguments and justifications sound just like theirs.

It's self-evident that the "two sides, one coin" cliche obscures far more than it clears up. We object whenever we hear it.

When a person considers the hideous allegations - genocide, apartheid, racist - routinely hurled at Israel and its people, it's evident that this is being done in at least two different ways. One of them is what the Arabs - not only, but principally, the Palestinian Arabs - do. When the extravagantly wild allegations of war crimes and conspiracies come from them, it all looks and feels like psychological warfare. They themselves, at multiple levels of their society and culture, are deeply engaged in terror. Thus, there's a strategic imperative to be able to hurl something no-less-noxious back at their opponents. So we get, for example, the lunatic and deeply offensive claims about how Gaza is the world's largest concentration camp, its people subjected to genocide, and how Israeli chewing gum is loosening Arab girls' morals.

The other, often expressed in more sober terms, is carried out by Westerners, increasingly in the guise of BDS, the boycotting, divesting and sanctioning campaign waged by elements deeply hostile to Jews and to Israel in North America, Australia and Europe. A close look at what many of the BDS groups say, and in whose company they say it, leads quickly to the realization that there is not much new there; they are engaged in the world's oldest hatred. The passions motivating BDS usually map to deep, visceral and tragically familiar hatreds.

But look at what the Arabs, particularly some of the Arab "elites", are saying and something slightly more nuanced and calculated seems to be going on. Yes, there's hatred enough to go round. But in non-trivial ways, they demonstrate that their slogans and blood-libels are to a great extent for the 'benefit' of others. When they say their people are suffering "genocide" at the hands of "fascists", they want desperately to be believed, but they act as if they know perfectly well how contrary to the facts it is. They also show in the clearest way - by what they do, as distinct from what they shout and scream - that this is not about two sides of any coin.

The Rajoub article in Israel Hayom today

Nayef Rajoub is a pretty good example. He's a terrorist with a senior role in one of the most evil of the jihadist death-cults as well as being the brother of the notorious Jibril Rajoub about whom we have posted quite a number of times. Turns out that Nayef Rajoub

is currently recuperating in a private hospital in Tel Aviv, apparently after having undergone spine surgery. Rajoub, who is expected to stay in the Assuta Medical Center's Ramat Hahayal hospital for the next few days, has been assigned a security detail. The hospital said it could not confirm or deny the reports on Rajoub's hospitalization, citing privacy concerns.

Assuta may be less well-known than hospitals like Hadassah, Tel Hashomer, Shaarei Zedek and Ramban. But it's impressive enough as

Israel’s largest and leading private medical services center... Assuta Medical Center offers advanced medical treatments and world-class equipment and technologies to ensure optimal outcomes for patients... Each year, Assuta provides approximately 92,000 operations, 683,000 ambulatory checks and treatments, 440,000 imaging tests (such as MRI and CT), 4,000 heart catheterization procedures and 16,000 IVF treatments. Each treatment at Assuta, whether minor or major, is conducted with the highest quality of care and proficiency... Assuta works with patients from all over the world including Europe, the UK and the United States. The staff at Assuta is dedicated to making every step of your medical treatment as comfortable and stress-free as possible, including accompaniment throughout the process with a staff member fluent in your language.

As of the time we are writing this (Thursday afternoon), the only news source reporting the Rajoub encounter with Zionist medical care is an Israeli daily paper, Israel Hayom ["Senior Hamas official arrives in Israel for medical care", August 13, 2014]. But we expect it will soon get mentioned in other media channels. That's because it has significance beyond the people involved.

Nayef Rajoub, 57, is a senior member of Hamas who was

convicted of several terrorism-related charges... In 1992, he was among the hundreds of Hamas terrorists who were deported to Lebanon after the organization killed an Israeli police officer. While in Lebanon, Rajoub began climbing the rungs of the organization until he attained a leadership position... 

He's known for

his close ties with Ismail Haniyeh, who served as Hamas prime minister after the movement violently took over the Gaza Strip and formed a separate government in 2007.

Ismail Haniyeh is an interesting case - someone who is living proof of how, when they have serious medical needs among those closest to them, the innermost of the inner elite circle of the Palestinian Arab terrorists have no problem turning to Israeli treatment options. 

We have written in the past about how this works: see "20-Oct-14: Sincere wishes for a complete and thorough recovery as soon as possible" and "18-Nov-13: When Hamas insiders need the best care around, to which Zionist Entity do they turn?"

Haniyeh is an authentic arch-terrorist. A person deeply engaged in venomous denunciations of Israel and at the forefront of demonizing Israelis and everything our side stands for, the man has nevertheless - with barely any effort at hiding what he does - so far sent 

• his granddaughter for treatment at Schneider Children's Medical Center [November 2013];
• his mother-in-law for cancer treatment at a Jerusalem hospital [June 2014]; 
• his sister, Suhila Abd el-Salam Ahmed Haniyeh, who accompanied her critically ill husband (Haniyeh's brother in law) to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for emergency heart treatment [August 2012]; 
• one of his daughters to a week in an un-named Israeli hospital in order to recover from complications arising "from a routine procedure" in Gaza according to Reuters [October 2014].

and there's no reason to think he won't keep doing it in the future if there's a need. He has made greater use of Israel's superior medical care than most Israeli citizens. It's as clear as any Hamas screaming fit could ever be about what the terrorist-in-chief actually thinks about Israel, Israeli and the essential non-sectarian goodwill towards patients - irrespective of extraneous considerations - that prevails in Israeli society. Hard to own up to, but he assumes like numerous other extremist Arab elitists that he can shut any critics up when needed.

For those of us who track the hatred and stabbing/shooting/bombing warfare directed daily at us and our children by people like Haniyeh are entitled to draw inferences from the moral abyss that separates what they say from what they do and actually believe.

Jibril, the better known of the extremely unlovely Rajoub brothers, is another case study. As we noted in "8-May-13: "I am your partner. I am going to kill you now."", Jibril Rajoub personifies much of what makes the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis so intractable. By words, deeds, history and public profile, he has personally done as much as anyone we can think of to deepen the venomous and corrosive hostility towards Israelis among the Palestinian Arabs, thereby raising the body count on both sides. He has no problem declaring that if he had access to nuclear weapons, he would have used them to inflict tremendous pain on Israel (check it here).

But this man of "principle" has not the slightest problem playing the dove when, and to the extent, it suits him:

He is a perennial participant for the Palestinian Arab side in the negotiations for peace that have been part of the political landscape here for two decades. An ad campaign on behalf of the Geneva Initiative included him as one of its central media figures back in August 2010. [Source]

We're not trying to find the good in him or those in whose company he moves. There is none of any interest to us. Nor is there anything at all that civilized people can or should learn from him and them. They are terrorists. They have removed themselves to somewhere outside the circle of civilized humanity.

Europe's romance with BDS in its black-and-white days
[Image Source]

A different kind of report yesterday illustrates how the non-Arab aspect that we mentioned above operates. With our deep, ongoing, non-sectarian involvement in creating better outcomes for children with severe disabilities, we burn with fury about incidents like the one reported here:

A Norwegian film festival recently rejected an Israeli documentary on children with disabilities, telling its director that it supports the boycott on the Jewish state and will not screen Israeli movies unless they deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Roy Zafrani, the director of “The Other Dreamers,” was turned down by organizers in a decision he termed “absurd,” the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Wednesday. “I’m sorry but we can’t show this film,” a letter from the organizers to Zafrani said. “We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel so unless the films are about the illegal occupation, or deals with the occupation or the blockade of Gaza, or otherwise about the discrimination of Palestinians, we can’t show them.” ["Norwegian fest boycotts Israeli film on kids with disabilities", Times of Israel, August 12, 2015]

The film, following four Israeli youngsters with special needs as they pursue their dreams, has already been screened at festivals in the United States, Spain, Italy, Australia and India. And in case the customary alibis are trotted out by the Norwegian totalitarians

Zafrani maintained that the film received no funding from the Israeli government... "This is an entirely independent film, with zero funding from Israeli public grants, so the boycott cannot even be justified by saying that it was made with government support... This boycott is simply because it’s a film that shows a different, nice side of Israel..." [Times of Israel]

As if that were not already obvious enough.

As the Rajoub clan settle down in one of the delightful family rooms on the Tel Aviv campus of Assuta tonight, they are probably laughing themselves silly at the witless, hypocritical fools in Europe and elsewhere who do Palestinian Arab bidding with greater gusto and enthusiasm than it gets from people living in our region, and with far less to gain from doing it.

02-May-15: On a Paris street with some history, a mob of 40 'activists' attacks a pair of young Jews

Boulevard Voltaire, Paris, January 10, 2015: Four months
before Friday's racist attack on two Jews, international leaders march
in solidarity with victims of Islamist acts of murder in Paris.
Lessons plainly not yet learned [Image Source]

Ilan Halimi is the name of a French Jew who, at the age of 23 in 2006 was kidnapped on a Parisian street, then held hostage ("The Barbarians Affair") at a house in the Bagneux neighbourhood and horribly tortured for three full weeks while ransom demands were made on his parents. He was eventually released in shocking condition ("more than 80% of his body had been burned with acid, as well as gasoline") and rushed to hospital but died before getting there.

The street on which Ilan Halimi was abducted is Boulevard Voltaire, in Paris' 11 arrondissement. A French news report [here] says two young Jews were assaulted there yesterday (Friday) afternoon around 2:30 pm and injured. The attackers were... a mob of 40 people.

It's the same street that played a central role in the events described in this report from less than four months ago:

An extraordinary chain of 1.5 million people, led by a group of world leaders linking arms, marched down the Boulevard Voltaire in a show of force Sunday meant to illustrate the power of unity and freedom of expression over the sting of fanaticism and terror. After a barrage of violence that traumatized the nation and left 17 victims dead, the boulevards of Paris produced a striking counterimage: French President François Hollande, arm in arm with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and a host of European and African leaders. An estimated 4 million people nationwide — more than a third of them in Paris — mobilized [etc] ..."Paris is the capital of the world today," Hollande said. ["Massive crowds join march for solidarity in Paris" | Washington Post, January 11, 2015]

According to a French group that monitors anti-semitic attacks in France, Friday's attack mob was made up of individuals belonging to the Israel-hating BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) campaign and a second group called Gaza Firm. Police are investigating.

The writing has long been on France's walls. The question is who is reading.

23-Jun-14: Divesting Presbyterians: An afterthought

We belong to those "Jewish brothers and sisters" whom the Presbyterian Church USA leadership professes to love, and suggest this post be seen as expression of love right back.

Below, there's a video clip of a remarkable CNN interview with  the new moderator of the church. The sharp questions, dull answers and skirting around the point make it worth a few minutes of our readers' attention.

Click here for the CNN interview

Just a couple of final comments (with thanks to our friend ES): We think the true intentions of PCUSA are unmasked when they decided to divest from Motorola Solutions. What was its sin? The supply of surveillance equipment to Jewish communities. Now that equipment is entirely defensive, aimed at stopping the kind of terrorists who enter settlements and murder Jewish children in their beds. It saves lives on both sides. If Motorola needs to be sanctioned for this, what does this say about the church's view of the rights of people living in those communities to be protected from murderous thugs?

And Hewlett-Packard? Their equipment went to assist the enforcement of the embargo on  the Hamas-controlled, terrorism-infected Gaza Strip for reasons that are clear enough to most open-eyed folk. Is that embargo illegal and is that why Motorola ought to be punished, along with Israel? There are plenty of haters of Israel who say 'yes'. But a major United Nations review in 2011 found it was lawful and appropriate.

So what does Friday's PCUSA decision really say about those who voted for it, their views of the Jewish state and those who live here, and the nature of love?

22-Jun-14: Divesting Presbyterians

At the General Assembly [Image Source]

We wrote here a few days ago ["18-Jun-14: Sharing some thoughts with Christian advocates of an Israel boycott"] about the upcoming General Assembly of the of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) and the obsessive preoccupation with matters Israeli in evidence among certain of its activists. We also referred to a video statement that we made to those taking part.

It's a church in a state of serious resizing. Wikipedia numbers show it boasted 1,760,200 members in 2013. But there had been 3.1 million of them in 1984. The decline since 2000 (by our calculation) exceeds 30%, and it has been accelerating in the past few years. 

The General Assembly voted on Friday by 310 votes to 303 to divest from three US companies on the grounds that they profit from what the framers of the motions call Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. 

For the three companies - Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard - the decision to divest has close-to-zero significance. Ditto for the economy of the State of Israel. But Jewish leaders are saying it is likely to damage Jewish-Presbyterian relations for years to come. 

Strangely enough, given the effort and sweat invested over a period of years by the activists promoting last week's agenda, we have yet to hear of anyone claiming the Church decision brought peace closer.

Should that surprise or disappoint us? If not, what was this really about?

27-May-11: On boycotts and banning books - and the screaming silence of the humanitarians

Burning books in Nazi Germany, 1930's. No connection
whatsoever to the events in Scotland - none at all.

The pro-Israel blogosphere - and practically no one else from what we can see - has been agonizing over reports about a decision by the West Dunbartonshire Council, a regional Scottish local government, to ban Israeli books and other made-in-Israel goods from its realm. Other Scottish cities and local government councils are said to be planning to follow suit. The Marrickville Council in suburban Sydney, Australia, went through the same sort of process but gave it up last month when the price to be paid by its rate-payers for such selective ideological sophistry finally sank in. The Scots, we're confident,  are made of sterner stuff.

Going beyond the boycott itself, many people will find disturbing that the facts - which echo the Nazi book-burnings of eight decades ago - are barely reported in mainstream news channels. And as for a civil response, there is almost total silence on the part of the 'humanitarians' and the 'human rights activists'. Street marches? Outraged protests? The defence of free speech? Hah. Look elsewhere.

Burning hated non-Islamic books in Pakistan, 2000s.
Not connected to the Scottish action; not even remotely similar

The boycott decisions are also strangely selective and unbalanced. Why throw out Israeli books (which is where the West Dunbarton campaign is focused) and not throw out Israeli computer chips or medicines or drip irrigation devices or disks-on-key or software or any of the long list of Israeli innovations that are indispensable in modern society? For aspiring haters of Israel with a thirst for ideological consistency, here is one of many on-line guides to removing everything Israeli from your narrow and ever-darker lives. Warning: it's a long list.

For the rest of us, the councillors of West Dunbartonshire probably see themselves as lovers of truth and justice and we need to help them find their way. They are exposed to a rich diet of Israel-hating polemics from freedom-loving local activists: an illuminating piece headlined "West Dunbartonshire Council stands firm against demented Zionist hysteria" is representative of the genre. Though Glasgow is notoriously the home of Deep Fried Mars Bars and a balanced diet of anything may be aiming too high, we think they need to hear from us.

Otherwise how else will they know how anti-humanitarian, how anti-liberal, how anti-intellectual, how anti-freedom the banning and boycotting of books or anything else is? And how else will they get to hear about a fine piece of writing by the Italian journalist (not Jewish, not Israeli, certainly not Scottish) Giulio Meotti, called "The Scottish disgrace: Abominable Scottish decision to ban Israeli books reminiscent of Shoah era".

Please join us in informing the people on the list below of what a giant step into the dark they have taken for themselves and those they were elected to represent.

Denis.Agnew@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
George.Black@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
James.Bollan@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Jim.Brown@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Geoffrey.Calvert@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Gail.Casey@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
jim.finn@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
william.hendrie@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Douglas.McAllister@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
david.mcbride@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Ronnie.McColl@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
jonathan.mccoll@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Jim.McElhill@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Patrick.McGlinchey@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Craig.McLaughlin@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
William.McLaughlin@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Marie.McNair@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
John.Millar@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
lawrence.oneill@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Iain.Robertson@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Martin.Rooney@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
May.Smillie@west-dunbarton.gov.uk

Finally, just so that everyone is clear on where we stand when it comes to boycotts... the subject has a long and well documented history. Let no one on the BDS side say they don't know what that heritage is or where it leads.

"Kauft nicht bei Juden". BDS in the 1930s - boycotting, divesting and sanctioning
the businesses and property of a hated minority. Germany's Nazis showed the way.
This of course has no relevance to the Scottish decision to boycott, divest
and sanction Israeli businesses, property and cultural creations.  

9-Mar-09: "I was born into a Bedouin tribe..."

The myth of Israel's discriminatory "apartheid" policies is being aggressively peddled throughout the world by its enemies.

Most of those who buy this popular canard are entirely ignorant of the truth about Israeli society. They have never heard about the equal opportunities and rights enjoyed by Israelis of myriad races, religions and creeds. 

Additionally, most of those who embrace this myth are clueless about the repressive and dictatorial governments ruling in every one of Israel's neighbors. 

Worse, these critics of Israel make no effort to remedy their ignorance. And Israeli Jews who attempt to inject some truth into the "apartheid" debate are often dismissed as biased. 

 Hence, the following defense of Israel's civil rights is invaluable. It is written by a very brave and plain-spoken Arab Israeli. Unafraid of breaking ranks with most of his brethren, he publicly sings Israel's praises.

Lost in the blur of slogans
Ishmael Khaldi
Wednesday, March 4, 2009

For those who haven't heard, the first week in March has been designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.

Last year, at UC Berkeley, I had the opportunity to "dialogue" with some of the organizers of these events. My perspective is unique, both as the vice-consul for Israel in San Francisco, and as a Bedouin and the highest-ranking Muslim representing the Israel in the United States. I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11 children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the Israel Foreign Ministry.

I am a proud Israeli - along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose - educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation - Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East.

So, I would like to share the following with organizers of Israel Apartheid week, for those of them who are open to dialogue and not blinded by a hateful ideology:

1) You are part of the problem, not part of the solution: If you are really idealistic and committed to a better world, stop with the false rhetoric. We need moderate people to come together in good faith to help find the path to relieve the human suffering on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Vilification and false labeling is a blind alley that is unjust and takes us nowhere.

2) You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself: You condemn Israel for building a security barrier to protect its citizens from suicide bombers and for striking at buildings from which missiles are launched at its cities - but you never offer an alternative. Aren't you practicing yourself a deep form of racism by denying an entire
society the right to defend itself?

3) Your criticism is willfully hypocritical: Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage - you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available?

4) You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace: Your radicalism is undermining the forces for peace in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. We are working hard to move toward a peace agreement that recognizes the legitimate rights of both Israel and the Palestinian people, and you are tearing down by falsely vilifying one side.

To the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week I would like to say: If Israel were an apartheid state, I would not have been appointed here, nor would I have chosen to take upon myself this duty. There are many Arabs, both within Israel and in the Palestinian territories who have taken great courage to walk the path of peace. You should stand with us, rather than against us.

This article appeared last week in the San Francisco Chronicle.

10-Sep-06: Kauft Nicht Bei Juden

The American philosopher George Santayana famously observed: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Coming on top of wave after wave of anti-Israel academic and economic boycotts in the UK (examples here), yet another Israel-bashing campaign is reported in today's Jerusalem Post. What this one achieves in terms of "justice for Palestine" (to borrow the organizers' slogan) is anyone's guess.

The silliness and ignorance of it would be nauseating even if the ambition and scope of the campaign were less important. But the fact is there's a tsunami of Israel-hating activity of this sort, comparable only with the events of Europe of the late 1930's.

Sep. 9, 2006 23:19 | Updated Sep. 9, 2006 23:49
UK designers: Ban Israel from expo
By JONNY PAUL - LONDON

A UK-based group of design professionals has petitioned the organizers of an architecture exhibition in Venice to withdraw an Israeli entry, expressing "dismay and concern" that the prestigious event has agreed to host Israelis.

In the petition, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) called on the organizers of Biennale Architettura, which begins Sunday and runs until November 19, to withdraw Israel's entry. They said, "We request that the Biennale committee consider withdrawing the Israeli entry as being provocative and counterproductive to the aims of the Biennale, and particularly distasteful in the context of the aftermath of an ugly and unnecessary war in neighboring Lebanon, and a continuing one-sided war in Gaza."

The Israeli entry, "Life Saver: Typology of Commemoration in Israel," depicts 15 structures established in the memory of those who died in Israel's wars and the Holocaust.

The APJP argues that the entry "totally excludes the Palestinians, who are the target and real victims of the seemingly unending series of wars being memorialized, and awards Israel the sole position of victim and victor."

The Anti-Defamation League praised world renowned architect Lord Richard Rogers for opposing the proposed ban of Israel.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said the British group's call for the ban, "was yet another attempt to hijack a cultural event in order to exclude one country and one country only: Israel, and conforms to a recurring pattern of unrepresentative activist groups trying to remove Israeli professionals from participation in the international academic, cultural and sporting arenas. Rogers said, "I firmly believe that Israel has the right to memorialize their dead just as the Americans, and indeed the entire world, are memorializing the terribly tragic loss of lives at Ground Zero - the victims of 9/11."

The Israeli exhibitor, Dan Daor, said the message of memorial structures was that "there are no heroes - all there is, is the eternity of Israel. All of the country is on the front, and all of us are victims."

The petition also claims the Israeli exhibit serves "propaganda purposes" and ignores the Palestinian's role as "the primary victim of the conflict with Israel."

Israeli architect Tula Amir said, "Justification of Israel's wars provides legitimization of the blood that has been spilled and is liable to be spilled in the future."

The picture above illustrates a previous boycott protest against Zionist interests. We called them Jews in those simpler times. We remember where that led. The ring-leaders of the APJP don't, or they don't care.

In a similar vein, Friday's Hebrew-language "Kol Ha-ir" newspaper (one of Jerusalem's local papers) reports on an Irish decision to prevent drivers of the new light-rail project in Jerusalem from coming to their country to undergo training. We have not seen this mentioned in any other media so far. We'll wait to see if an English translation of the report turns up. If not, we'll translate it ourselves and publish it here.

The rising tide and growing influence of these economic and academic boycotts of Jews and Israelis by Europe-based organizations, reminiscent of the events acccompanying the Nazi's rise to power in the thirties is a deeply worrying phenomenon. The bald-faced hypocrisy of the organizers, mouthing pseudo-liberal slogans while clutching action plans straight out of fascist play-books, is appalling, shameful and dangerous.

But what's far, far more appalling is the silence that greets it.