NGO Monitor reveals new report by church seeking to actively promote economic attack on Jewish state while downplaying Arab terror.
By Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva.
A new report by an official committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) shows how the church is actively promoting the BDS movement seeking to economically cripple Israel, and downplaying Palestinian Arab terrorism at the same time.
The report, “Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace,” was released by the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) on February 25, and was analyzed by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor on Thursday.
“This report, based on selective claims, myths and distortions from anti-peace NGOs promotes boycotts under the guise of religious responsibility,” said Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor.
“For years some factions of the Presbyterian Church have echoed calls by radical anti-peace NGOs promoting discriminatory attacks against Israel, while ignoring murderous Palestinian terror. Last year, these groups convinced the PCUSA to vote to join the BDS attack.”
The NGO Monitor report: Presbyterian Church (USA)’s New Document Promotes BDS, Distorts Conflict
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The louisville sluggers need to stick their growing real estate side business, and leave this issue to those who actually know what’s going on!
I’m sure they view this as a marketing ploy. They do everything else.
If I remember right, this ‘study’ was commissioned by the last GA as one of the ‘initiatives’ suggested by the ACSWP itself.
These ‘Advisory Committees’ initiatives are just another way to justify their reason for existing, and another way to spend per capita funds that should be going to expand the Kingdom.
When you have a denomination of 10,000 congregations that has a ‘celebration’ because they commissioned 10 missionaries vs a denomination of 300 congregations that commission 30 or more each year, something is wrong in it’s priorities.
I’m not sure the Louisville Sluggers will be any better at real estate management than they have been at the management of the denomination. But one thing is crystal clear: whatever they touch or promulgate ultimately leads to some type of death.
“So why does the PCUSA hate Jews?
The question was addressed to me during a study I was leading on the Middle East and PCUSA policy at the church. My response was nuanced. In that as a post-Christian entity, the PCUSA is not so much informed by Scripture or tradition, as it is by secular forces and politics. In the matters of Israel-Palestine the PCUSA takes its cues from academia and the new Left which see Israel much like a South Africa during he apartheid era. Hence the push to demonize, isolate, economically punish the Jewish state. And much like their embrace of the terrorist ANC, so they embrace the terrorist-death cults of Hamas and the PLO and in essence give them a free pass to knife, murder, terrorize as they see fit. As they gave a free pass to the Castro brothers or a Chavez or a Mugabe in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
The PCUSA is not an antisemitic organization by design or intent. But in their embrace of the “Zionism=Racism” oversimplification it has allowed elements and seeds of classic antisemitism to take root. Blaming Jews for a host of ills and injustices simply because they are Jews.
The so called “two-state” solution is built on that framework. People of faith and good conscious have two choices, either support that line of reasoning or not, and act accordingly with their money or their feet.
Actually James they do know what is going on. The cry of anti-Semitism is a way to deny the awful way Palestinians are treated. It gets old.
And they should also stick to discussing and obsessing on their monthly financial investment portfolio performance.
Where does the financing for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness come from? It would seem that the money expended on this absurd, useless report could be better spent elsewhere.
Wonder if the notorious, and wealthy, Muslim Brotherhood has written any checks to these friendly, ‘kindred spirits’, or indirectly financed any of these wacky causes? I see today, March 9, a number of Muslim/Palestinians went on rampage in Tel Aviv and other places at the urging of Palestinian leaders, including the murder/stabbing of an innocent American scholar.
In the late summer of 2001 around 2 in the afternoon, a 23 year old Hamas terrorist walked into a busy Sbarro pizza restaurant just west of the Old City in Jerusalem and blew himself up, killing 15 people and wounding 130 more…just a day earlier I had been in the very square where this explosion happened. Every year Israelis are subjected to acts of terror, political stabbings, kidnappings, and murders, and rocket and mortar attacks which result in permanent states of physical and psychological stress.
If by “awful” you mean the continual offense to Palestinians that Israel exists, that it refuses to cease existing, and that it maintains a permanent vigilance against all efforts whether politically, militarily, or violently that threaten that existence…then yes, the Palestinians are being treated awfully.
The Palestinians have refused three peace initiatives with Israel with Israel conceding to virtually every demand the Palestinians asked for, including the two-state solution in exchange for an end to the the conflict and the establishment of peace. In 2000 Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to withdraw from 97 percent of all occupied territories, allow Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital, and dismantle 70 West Bank settlements….but to declare an end to the conflict without Hamas’ stated goal of achieving the end of Israel as a sovereign state is non negotiable. The destruction of Israel is at the center of Palestinian national aspirations.
The PCUSA has become quite bold in allying itself with Palestinian terrorist organizations. It’s anti-semitism denies Israel the right to defend itself and to take proactive measures to maintain the safety and security of its people in the face of open hostility and violent rhetoric from its Arab neighbors while at the same time rationalizing the use of terror used against it.
The PCUSA has lost its moral bearings and authority. It is adrift and will only continue to suffer from turning away from the faith in favor of false forms. So no sir….The PCUSA does not know what it is going on, and if it does….it has become malevolent if not evil in its position.
To quote you James, “The cry of anti-Semitism is a way to deny the awful way Palestinians are treated. It gets old.” And James, Hamas is one of the Palestinian ruling parties and is a terrorist organization created by the Muslim Brotherhood (who is also an arm of Al-Qaeda). They hate Christians and they want to kill us. They are listed by the USA as a known terrorist organization. What truly “gets old” is the fact that people are more anti-anything instead of being Pro-Jesus.
And for my favorite part in the report…”Nonetheless, we must recognize the unpleasant facts of the situation and make our own determination of what we can do, resulting in the least harm and the most good. If some discussions result in awkward situations with our friends here and abroad, we may remember that some of the truth-telling in Jesus’s ministry also pushed people out of their comfort zone.”
Seriously James? Did you read it? Least harm…most good?
So glad to hear that “comfort zones” are part of the Gospel, as if we didn’t know. Perhaps prayer may play a part in the whole thing? Just so you know, the word “prayer” made it into the 56 page report a whole two times.
James, that is why we are persecuted. It’s because we are telling the truth.