In a September 2004 National Review Online article, Eugene Kontorovich commented on the irony that the national Presbyterian Church, like Baathist thug state Syria, supports divesting funds from third-country firms doing business in Israel.
But the Jewish State is a democracy, and Syria is a brutal dictatorship.
Illinois-based Caterpillar draws specific ire from the divestment crowd, including the Presbyterian Church (USA) , likely due to it's "role" in the Rachel Corrie death. Sober-minded individuals view Corrie's death in Gaza as a tragic accident, she either slipped and fell, or refused to get out of the way of an oncoming Caterpillar bulldozer destroying an alleged terrorist hideout with escape tunnels.
Is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a complicated situation? Absolutely.
Of course the impetus for the divestment drive of the Presbyterian Church and others (the World Council of Churches followed their lead six months ago), is the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people. By "people," and "treatment" I believe that includes Israeli security and military attacks against such groups as Hamas and Hezbollah.
And as for the Palestinians, a "free" Palestine, based upon the underreported and continuing chaos following the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, is not likely to become a boring Norway-style democracy.
Want more? Then there is the issue of Palestinian treatment of non-Muslim holy sites. A few years ago, Palestinian militants turned Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity into a terrorist fortress. They left the sacred site with bullet holes in the walls--the rest of the church was for the most part scarred by piles of filth.
And earlier this month, after the Israeli Gaza withdrawal, within hours, most of Gaza's synagogues were destroyed by arsonists. Although one will be still standing, that former synagogue will become a Hamas museum.
(Hat tip to Solomonia)
True, those last atrocities took place a year after the Presbyterian Church (USA's) divestment move. But what's just happened in Gaza shows us the kind of people they've sided with when they voted with their pocketbooks against Israel and companies that do business there.
But at least one Presbyterian Church is speaking up. One of the issues the First Presbyterian Church of Bradenton, FL has proposed to the national Presbyterian Church, in support of a Mississippi church group, is the rescinding or significant modification of the Presbyterian Church divestment move against Israel.
A wise move, let's hope they win out.
It's here in the Truth in Love Network site, a Presbyterian blog.
Their proposals will be voted upon November 17 meeting of the Presbytery.
Hat tip to reader Larry Rued.
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