Occasionally, the bias of the staff embarasses even the denominational leaders. In October 2004, a delegation of the PCUSA's "Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy" foolishly met with the Hezbollah terrorists. (This is the Iran-supported group which, in 1983, killed 241 US marines by a suicide attack in Beirut and later bombed our embassy.)  One delegate added insult to injury by praising Hezbollah's "goodwill towards the American people" He also made an invidious comparison between the ease of dealing with Islamists and the difficulty of dealing with Jews. (A more perceptive person would have realized that such difficulties are the product of our church's ongoing attacks on the Jewish homeland.) This episode led to the dismissal of two staff members, but not to any change of heart. Instead, PCUSA delegations have continued to meet with these murderers and to assure them that they oppose the policies of the American government.  

As I write this on Dec. 3, 2005, I receive the shocking news that the PCUSA refuses to prohibit its agents from meeting with Hezbollah or other terrorist groups. According to Rev. Dr. Rock, “there will not be policies for or against meeting with any group, but we do have policies against the use of terrorism in any form.”  In other words, we can sup with terrorism as long as we engage in a meaningless denunciation and a ritual washing of hands  afterwards.

5. PROTESTS ARE IGNORED
The church hierarchy has been impervious to both reason and  protest. An on-line petition of more than 11,000 Presbyterians has been ignored. The internationally respected Weisenthal Center has requested that the divestment campaign be deferred in light of the improved potential for negotiation. Our own denomination's committee on Presbyterian and Jewish relations objected to the resolution for singling out Israel "inappropriately and unjustly" and was scolded by the hierarchy for its opinion. Despite all these concerns, the divestment campaign plods mindlessly forward. It now targets equipment useful against terrorists, such as night goggles and general military equipment such as helicopters and wireless communication.  In fact, the list of targeted companies (Motorola, ITT, Caterpillar, United Technologies) shows that the real agenda is to cripple Israel's overall defense forces and anti-terror capacity. Nothing but doubletalk links this group of companies specifically to the occupation.

6. THE CHURCH’S INCONSISTENT POSITIONS
The illogic of our leaders has caused them to take multiple positions that are inconsistent to the point of incoherence. Officially, we still support a “two-state solution” in which there  would be a Jewish state and an Arab state. However PCUSA calls for the “right” of millions of alleged refugees to “return” to the Jewish state. For practical purposes, therefore, we are supporting a “two-Palestinian-state” solution in which Jews would become a persecuted minority in their homeland and would be defenseless against both internal and external threats. Furthermore, the church allies itself with its Palestinian "partner," the Sabeel Center, whose leader seeks a “one-state solution” that would immediately extinguish the Jewish homeland.

Our churchmen are equally confused on the subject of boundaries. In a notable exchange of letters, fourteen US Congressmen (seven from each party) pointed out to our stated clerk that every responsible blueprint for peace envisions changes to Israel's former boundary. (The so-called "Green Line" of the 1949 armistice, across which Israel has been repeatedly attacked).  Indeed, UN Security Council Resolution  242 acknowledges Israel’s right to “secure and defensible borders,” not a return to the indefensible Green Line. The congressmen made it clear that these facts are inconsistent with the church’s demand that Israel retreat unilaterally to the Green Line. In his response to the congressmen, Rev. Kirkpatrick rambled for ten paragraphs but failed to address this precise and trenchant point.

Confusion is redoubled by the claim of the church and its partners to support the peace plan known as the Geneva Accords. Even that dovish plan recognizes that any hope of a negotiated peace requires the Palestinians to abandon or drastically minimize the so-called "right of return." The church commends the Geneva Accords, but continues to endorse the "right of return." Similarly, the Geneva Accords would modify the Green Line, yet the church simultaneously approves the Accords and demands a withdrawal to the Green Line.

Discrimination against Israel appears plainly in our church’s choice of associates. Two of the foremost are Sabeel, an organization of Palestinian Christians with a plain anti-Israeli agenda, and the “Churches for Middle East Peace” (CMEP), which is actually supported by the PCUSA and many other denominations. Their eulogies to Yasser Arafat are sufficient evidence of the dubious company that our leaders are keeping and that our contributions are financing. When the aging terrorist died, the CMEP sent “Condolences to the Palestinian people; we join them as they mourn the loss of their historic leader.” Sabeel was even more fawning in its “Word of Respect for and Esteem for a Great Leader, President Yasser Arafat…[who] stretched out his hand for an honorable peace.”

These laments are for the villain who did more than anyone else in history to institutionalize terrorism (by which I mean the random slaughter of innocents) as a means of political agitation. Thanks to Arafat, every continent, with the possible exception of Antarctica, is faced with the specter of mass and unpredictable murder. He spent his final years embezzling and presiding over a corrupt thugocracy that brutalized his own people. In 2000-1, his cowardly refusal to even counter Israel’s offers at Camp David and Taba derailed the most promising chance for peace in a generation. The most charitable description of his admirers at Sabeel and CMEP is that they are clueless. A more likely interpretation is that they share his desire for the ultimate extermination of the Jewish homeland.




 

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