The United Church heeds the call of antisemites

United Church minister Karin Brothers at al Quds Day rally in Toronto. 

Inspired by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, antisemites the world over 
gather on al Quds Day to protest the presence of Jews in Jerusalem. More here.

The United Church of Canada has formally voted to align itself with the antisemites. In a historic vote on August 17, the church passed a motion calling for a boycott of goods produced by Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

This is a betrayal of the United Church’s claims to friendship with the Jewish people and a betrayal of its own membership, 78% of whom want the church to stay out of the issue or remain strictly neutral (see here).

The UCC is not boycotting Syria where the government is slaughtering its own citizens by the thousands, or North Korea where the government starves its own people, or any of the dozens of murderous tyrannies around the globe. Only Israel. Because, says the UCC, Israel is a democracy (more on this rationalization here) and because the church’s partners in the Middle East have called for a boycott.

But these partners are nothing but a rogues’ gallery of Israel-haters and antisemites.

First, there’s the Middle East Council of Churches. Like every one of the United Church’s Middle East partners, the MECC seeks the dissolution of Israel. The MECC insists on the so-called “right of return,” which means that Israel must open its borders to the five million descendants of Palestinians originally displaced by Arab wars against Israel.

In other words, the MECC’s prerequisite for peace is to replace Israel with a majority Palestinian state.

On closer inspection, the MECC looks even worse. The Syrian Orthodox Church is represented on the MECC’s executive council by George Saliba, the Archbishop of Mount Lebanon and an open Jew-hater.

According to Saliba (here), Jews incite unrest in the Arab world in accordance with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – an infamous antisemitic tract much admired by Hitler that describes how Jews supposedly conspire to rule the world.

Next, there’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna, one of the authors of the Palestine Kairos Document, which the UCC vigorously promotes in Canada (more here).

In the Kairos Document, Hanna and the other authors talk about the need to end the occupation, but for Hanna all of Israel is occupied Palestine. Speaking at a Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem in 2003, Hanna said:

“Palestine is from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river. … We emphatically refuse any concession on [even] a grain of the land of our precious homeland…. The Zionist Jews…should go somewhere else in the world to establish their state and their false entity… They must leave their homes.”

Nor is Hanna shy about the use of violence. In the same sermon, Hanna said: "We do not believe in so-called 'peace with Israel' because peace cannot be made with Satan… The Palestinians' rights will be restored only by resistance. What was taken by force will be restored only by force… We encourage our youth to participate in the resistance, to carry out martyrdom attacks.” (See here.)

Given Hanna’s enthusiasm for violence, it’s no surprise that in the Palestinian Kairos Document, which the United Church has so enthusiastically embraced, Hanna and the other authors defend terrorism as “legal resistance.” (Much more about Archbishop Hanna here.)

Pastor Naim Ateek of the Sabeel Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem is another United Church partner and co-author of the Kairos Document. Statements issued from the Sabeel Center are more two-faced on the subject of violence.

On the one hand, Sabeel always calls for non-violent resistance, and on the other hand, praises the violence of others. So for example, Sabeel lauds the Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli towns as “a blow to the arrogance and hubris of the Israeli government.”

Although these rockets are directed exclusively against civilian targets, Sabeel insists this is not terrorism, and though their rockets strike at homes, schools and hospitals, Sabeel says the Hamas killers “are seeking justice and freedom.”

And as in the Kairos document, Ateek insists that “international law gives them the right to resist and to defend themselves.” He doesn’t explain how shooting rockets at innocent civilians can possibly be described as “defence.”

Similarly, in an essay on suicide bombing, Ateek condemns the practice, but does so while heaping praise on the bombers.

According to Ateek, these “healthy, beautiful and intelligent young men and women” murder Jews in a “noble” cause because the world “has not heard their anguished cry for justice.”

Ateek doesn’t mention that Hamas has been responsible for most of the terrorism and that Hamas regularly explains that its purpose is to destroy Israel.

It has nothing to do with justice. On the contrary, Hamas’s founding charter looks forward to the day when the very trees of the land will call out, “There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him.”

Ateek is also notorious for reviving Christian antisemitism. He favours the image of Jews as Christ-killers, and his sermons feature lines such as: “In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians all around him.”

Are Jews really so evil? Do we crucify thousands of innocents? Do we nail up Jesus every year at Easter time? For two millennia such lies were used to justify persecuting Jews. Ateek is doing his best to bring that all back.

Such are the United Church of Canada’s partners in the Middle East. The United Church claims it rejects antisemitism, claims it seeks peace, claims and it doesn’t consider the Jewish people its enemy. 

I doubt they're fooling anyone but themselves.

This piece was previously published in the Jewish Tribune in Canada and at Harry's Place in Britain. 

The archbishop of antizionism praises Syria; endorses terrorism and ethnic cleansing against Israel

Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna has long been an embarrassment to the Greek Orthodox Church. Back in 2002, Irineos I, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, fired Hanna from his post as spokesman for supporting terrorism (see here) and wrote a letter to the Israeli president assuring him that Hanna doesn’t represent the Orthodox Church.

But western churches that imagine they’re progressive don’t have so much of a problem with Hanna – he’s one of the authors of the Palestine Kairos Document, which calls for a boycott against Israel and which has been warmly embraced by liberal churches.

In Canada, for example, the United Church has been urging its members to study the Karios Document and recently passed a motion calling for a boycott against Israeli settlements. (More here & here.)

But while Archbishop Hanna wants the world to boycott the Zionist entity, he doesn’t call for a boycott against Syria. On the contrary, he’s a big supporter of the Assad regime.

According to news reports, Assad is busily killing his own people by the thousands. According to Hanna, the Syrian revolt against their brutal dictator is a “heinous conspiracy,” a “US-Zionist scheme.”

Hanna is straightforward in explaining his support for the murderous Assad regime: “Syrian is the only resistant country in the region which stands by the Palestinian cause,” Hanna told the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Syria has indeed long been a strong supporter of the most murderous terrorist groups, providing funding, safe haven, and training. No wonder Hanna is upset by the prospect of the Syrian people overthrowing this regime.

And after all, Assad is a man after Hanna’s own heart: they’re both big believers in the use of violence.  Speaking at a Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem in 2003, Hanna said:

"We do not believe in so-called 'peace with Israel' because peace cannot be made with Satan… The Palestinians' rights will be restored only by resistance. What was taken by force will be restored only by force… We encourage our youth to participate in the resistance, to carry out martyrdom attacks.”

And Hanna is perfectly clear about his goals:

“Palestine is from the sea to the river [i.e., from the Mediterranean Sea to Jordan River – the entire land of Israel]. … We emphatically refuse any concession on [even] a grain of the land of our precious homeland.

"The Zionist Jews … should go somewhere else in the world to establish their state and their false entity… They must leave their homes.”

To me, “They must leave their homes” sounds distinctly like a call for ethnic cleansing.

In the Palestine Kairos Document, Hanna and his fellow authors are less clear. They call the occupation a sin – the original sin, really, at the root of the conflict, they claim. But in the Kairos document, they’re coy about exactly what territory they consider occupied.

Similarly, in the Kairos Document, they’re more two-faced about terrorism. They endorse non-violence. But then they also define terrorism as “legal resistance.”

Assad isn’t the only murderous thug Hanna praises. This March, Hanna took part in a conference in Beirut on Jerusalem. Besides himself, there were representatives from Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – organizations united by the desire to commit genocide against Jews.

Hanna was the only Christian invited to address this select group.

Considering the participants, there was of course talk at the conference about “the necessity of activating the Palestinian armed resistance,” and a corresponding disdain for “the policy of negotiations.”  

And according to Al-Manar: “The Iranian ambassador called upon all Muslims to unite and stand together to face this ‘cancerous tumor’ [Israel] which Imam Khomeini said must be wiped off the map.”

For his part, Archbishop Hanna “hailed” the stances of Sayyed Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and called for the liberation of Jerusalem, which Hanna described as being occupied since 1948, the year of Israel’s creation.

Celebrating International al-Quds Day: "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established International Al-Quds Day shortly after he came to power in 1979. Translated, Quds means Jerusalem. Khomeini – who was nothing if not a vicious Jew-hater – created the holiday to demonstrate Iran's solidarity with Palestinians and to urge them on in any efforts to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map.

In 2011, in honour of al-Quds Day, Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted: "Israel is a hideous entity in the Middle East which will undoubtedly be annihilated." 

In 2012, this jolly anti-Israel hate festival will again be celebrated throughout much of the world. In Toronto, local antisemites and Israel-haters will gather at Queen’s Park on Saturday, Aug 18, at 2 p.m. After some rousing denunciations of the little satan, our local fanatics will march to the U.S. consulate to demonstrate their peaceful nature in traditional Khomeinist fashion ….

Alibi Jews — German and Canadian

Irena Wachendorff, Alibi Jew

Alibi Jew: A Jew or person of Jewish descent who can be called on to support an individual’s or group’s antisemitism or extremist anti-Israeli position.

An example: Back in 2008, the NDP called for Canada to participate in Durban 2. Organized by the UN, Durban 1 and 2 were supposed to be world conferences on anti-racism. Instead, Durban 1 singled out Israel for condemnation and spread outright Jew-hatred, with copies of the Elders of Zion and other material more commonly found at neo-Nazi book fairs distributed.  

With Iran one of the principle organizers, Durban 2 promised to be another antisemitic conference, and Canada announced it wouldn’t be going – a position that initially received all party support.

However, the large majority of NDP members who hate Israel forced the party to reverse its stance. To provide an alibi for supporting an anti-Jewish hate fest, the call went out from NDP party headquarters: Find some Jews who support the Durban conference! Which wasn't so hard. Several dozen Canadians with a Jew or two in their family history have devoted their lives to providing alibis to anyone dedicated to wiping Israel off the map.

Fortunately, though, Tom Mulcair led a counter-revolt and forced the NDP to abandon it's support for this antisemitic conference. 

In the future, the NDP may have less need for alibi Jews. The large majority of NDP activists still hate Israel, but Saint Jack Layton, who never had a bad word to say about the Israel-haters and antisemites in his party, has gone to that socialist heaven in the sky and Tom Mulcair now runs the NDP. Mulcair hasn't tried to root out the haters, but mostly he's gotten them to shut up. 

(More about the battle for the soul of the NDP here.)

Irena Wachendorff: The German Alibi Jew 

From Heeb magazine and (starting from the 5^th last paragraph) the Jerusalem Post

We all have dreams. Uncle Junior wanted to screw Angie Dickinson, my mother wants to work in a funeral home, and Irena Wachendorff just wants to be Jewish and the daughter of Holocaust survivors so she can criticize Israel. Is that so wrong?

Up until now, Wachendorff has made a decent career of being an alibi Jew. The job is easy: If someone is accused of antisemitism, alibi Jews are brought in as defending witnesses. It’s the old “some of my best friends are pantomimes” routine, with an added speaking part for friends. In a country like Germany, where the Jewish community is only sporadically visible, being an alibi Jew can be a good gig.


If all anyone ever talks about is how Israel is the root of all global evil, people might start to ask questions. This is when the accused is able to point to the supportive alibi Jew, who in turn is able to point to his or her family history or just basic Jewishness and say something like: “What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is what the Nazis did to my parents.”


As an alibi Jew, Irena Wachendorff presents herself as the whole package: Her mother was in Auschwitz—“I grew up with the number on her arm”—her father a tzadik (a man who keeps all 613 commandments) who escaped to England. Irena herself was in the IDF during the Lebanon War. Today she’s a “German-Jewish poet” who lives in Israel six months every year to support an Arab-Jewish kindergarten. The rest of the year, she’s in Germany to act as the hazzan (prayer leader) of her congregation and to send violins to Gaza.


Newspapers have written about her work as an activist and she’s been interviewed on local TV. She frequently talks to schoolchildren about her parents’ fate. Wachendorff is also quite active in discussions on the Facebook page of leading politician Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the foreign council of the German parliament, who has come under attack for perceived “anti-Israel” feelings. Polenz often points to Wachendorff when he needs support, which she will gladly supply:

“I think I should only take seriously someone who 1) was in the IDF, 2) has lived in Israel for at least two years and 3) is even Jewish. Hello…anybody here???”


Anybody here indeed. Because Irena Wachendorff is none of those things. Via some genuine journalism, writer Jennifer Nathalie Pyka found out the true story.

Upon being asked, Wachendorff’s mother says she was never in Auschwitz—“my husband was though.” Probably not as an inmate: He wasn’t an Orthodox Jew but a Protestant officer of the Wehrmacht.

A speaker of the Israeli army can find no record of an Irena Wachendorff having ever been in the IDF. During the Lebanon war, Irena Wachendorff acted in various productions in local theaters in the Rhine region. The kindergarten she supports does exist, but there is no evidence of her ever having visited it. And finally, she isn’t a member of her alleged congregation.

This is not without precedent. Every couple of years, some fake Jew is revealed. What makes this case so interesting is that a leading German politician was fooled. Polenz has released a statement saying that he’s not responsible for the third party’s opinion, that he still supports this dubious Jewish-Arab kindergarten and he’s disgusted with this prying into Wachendorffs private life: “This is like an Ariernachweis [certificate of being Aryan] in reverse.”

It is Polenz’s association with Wachendorff when it comes to discussing Israel that turned this into a story, however. As Pyka says, “Instead of offering arguments, Wachendorff talked only about her background and her experiences in the IDF.”

Wachendorff still clings to most of her story, but is she just suffering from some dissociative fugue? Pyka isn’t sure but has called a follow-up article “The Protocols of the Loon of Remagen,” Remagen being the hometown of Wachendorff.

After the initial article, Wachendorff wrote on Facebook that she had deliberately spread false information about herself as to protect her family and her congregation. When the Jerusalem Post called her some days later, she said that she doesn’t really remember what camp her mother was in exactly and that she isn’t too sure whether that’s a number on her arm or something else. After that, she deleted her Facebook profile and hasn’t been heard from since.

But in the meanwhile, says Pyka, Wachendorff used “Six million dead Jews to serve her own publicity,” for personal and commercial gain and to damage Israel."

However, the greater villain in all this is Ruprecht Polenz, senior deputy in the Bundestag, head of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Wachendorff’s biggest fan. Coincidently, Polenz also feels warmly toward Iran and last year welcomed a group of Iranian lawmakers to Berlin.

In addition to being under fire for defending Wachendorff, critics accuse Polenz of allowing his Facebook site to be turned into a magnet for jihadists, raging antisemites, haters of Israel and extremist leftists. On Polenz’s Facebook, writers posted “that rich, industrial Jews planned the genocide on the Jewish people in order to create Israel.”

In another entry, Darwisch Salman Khorassani wrote that if “USREAL [Israel and the US] attack, I will register as a suicide bomber. Not from Islamic motives but from pure humanistic motives.”

Charming.

Union gives Toronto School Board workers $253,000 of our money

Toronto school board maintenance and construction workers have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in TigerDirect gift cards, courtesy of you and me

Moira Welsh and Kevin Donovan 

From the Toronto Star

Jimmy Hazel’s trades council has doled out hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in TigerDirect store gift cards to Toronto school board maintenance and construction workers, with at least some of the money coming from what an insider referred to as a Liberal government “slush fund.”

Hundreds of workers used the gift cards — in $300 and $500 denominations — to buy personal electronic products, cameras, DVDs and games or to put towards the purchase of computers at electronics retailer Tiger Direct. At least $253,000 in cards went out the door, though it may be double that amount.


It’s the latest revelation in a growing problem facing the Toronto District School Board, and now the provincial government. Earlier Star stories have revealed the high cost of work by the 900-strong Maintenance and Skilled Trades Council, which has an exclusive contract with the school board. Installing a pencil sharpener was $143; a simple electric outlet almost $3,000.

Meanwhile, the public board is facing a budget crunch and must make millions of dollars in education cuts. Parents, principals and some trustees have deluged the Star with concerns. The TDSB has said it is aware of the problems but has done little in response.

Hazel told the Star in an email answering questions about the TigerDirect gift cards that the decision on how to distribute the money was made by his trades council and TDSB brass and the money was used to help workers increase their use of “information technology.” He referred the Star to the TDSB for all other questions.

The TDSB called it a “fund for professional development” and said it was to be used by “education support workers.” The Liberal government said it was up to the TDSB to make sure the money is properly spent.


An ongoing Star investigation has found that the money that purchased the gift cards originated with a special fund set up by the Liberal government. Over the last few years, the province has provided more than $17 million to school board workers across Ontario, intended to be used “to enhance professional development and training opportunities for education support workers,” according to documents obtained by the Star.

The Star has asked the provincial education ministry to provide the parameters for these payouts, but staff for Education Minister Laurel Broten did not provide an answer.

According to 2008 provincial and school board documents, the money was intended to help the members of unions who work in schools “improve student achievement.” The 2008 documents focus on training; the plan was for support workers to take courses. Some money went to social workers in schools, some to caretakers and cafeteria workers. The Liberals said in a news release at the time that the money would “reduce gaps in student outcomes and increase confidence in publicly funded education.”

Trades council chief Hazel used the money to open the doors on a shopping spree at TigerDirect, the U.S.-based electronics retailing giant that sells both online and out of stores. The trades council said in a note to workers that the money could be used to “subsidize the purchase of computer and related peripheral equipment.”

In a 2009 trades council document, Hazel announced that each permanent member of the TDSB council would receive a $300 Tiger Direct card “with their name and account number printed on the card.” TigerDirect was chosen because all TDSB staff already received discounts and free delivery from the retailer.

“You may go to any TigerDirect store and look at the products or look at their website before purchasing,” Hazel’s council note to staff read. Only the trades council’s 600 permanent workers (the others are temporary workers) were eligible. One worker interviewed by the Star said he received two of the $300 cards.

More: Popular TDSB principal backed by his association

Another, an electrician, told the Star he learned about their “gift cards” during a union meeting.

“We thought it was a present from the union, you know, the union got a nice thing for me,” said the worker, who did not want his name used because he fears repercussions from his bosses.

The electrician said he bought a camera but most of the workers used their cards for home electronics.

“I don’t think anybody ever understood that it was for professional development. That was never expressed to us,” he said.

A former TDSB chair called the money a “professional development slush fund” paid for by the Liberals. The chair, like many former and current trustees, spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears repercussions from the trades council. One principal who spoke out was threatened by Hazel that he would lose his job.

In a previous story, the Star revealed that Hazel’s trades council workers have often campaigned for Liberal MPPs and that the council has provided significant donations to MPPs and trustees.

In addition to the $300 cards which the union said it was passing out in 2009, trades council documents show that it handed out $500 TigerDirect cards in 2006. The documents do not link those payments to the Liberal government but simply describe the money as coming from the trades council’s “professional development fund.” Those $500 cards were also made available to about 600 workers.

The TDSB did not immediately respond to a question about the total value of the 2006 TigerDirect cards. Board spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz did say that the 2009 professional development amount came to $253,200.

Provincial education ministry spokesman Grahame Rivers said the TDSB has the power to ask the trades council “how the money was spent.” {Mind you, if the province is giving a whack of money to the school boards, it’s their responsibility to make sure the boards are spending the money for professional development, not just giving it to their union friends. - Brian}

Also on the Star:

Toronto school board workers paid for loafing on the job

Gaza kindergartners want to 'blow up Zionists'

Kids at Islamic Jihad kindergarten celebrate end of year by demonstrating how Palestinian prisoners are 'tortured' in Israel. Teacher: We educate them to love resistance, Palestine

Elior Levy

YNet. Published: 06.12.12, 18:08

Children attending a kindergarten in Gaza that is run by Islamic Jihad celebrated their graduation by dressing up in army attire, waving toy rifles and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

"It is our obligation to educate the children to love the resistance, Palestine and Jerusalem, so they will recognize the importance of Palestine and who its enemy is," the kindergarten's director said.  

  

The children were dressed up in uniforms of Jihad's armed-wing, the al-Quds Brigades, and each of them received a toy rifle. Some of them held up photos of Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shaqaqi.

The event was attended by the children's relatives, some of whom belong to Islamic Jihad and other armed Palestinian factions.

  

During the ceremony the children were asked to stand next to mock coffins draped with flags of the various armed factions. The flags bore the images of "shahids (martyrs)."

One child, Hamza, said "When I grow up I'll join Islamic Jihad and the al-Quds Brigades. I'll fight the Zionist enemy and fire missiles at it until I die as a shahid and join my father in heaven.

"I love the resistance and the martyrs and Palestine, and I want to blow myself up on Zionists and kill them on a bus in a suicide bombing," he said.

During the ceremony the children "demonstrated" how Israel treats Palestinian prisoners. In the display, handcuffed children depicting inmates were placed in cages, with an "Israeli guard" standing nearby.

Another child depicting an Israeli prison guard placed the head of a "Palestinian prisoner" in a bucket of water to demonstrate how Palestinian prisoners are "tortured" in Israel.

"At every kindergarten graduation ceremony we focus on the children to represent the role of struggling and resistance in the way of Allah so they will grow up to love the resistance and serve the cause of Palestine and Holy Jihad, as well as to make them leaders and fighters to defend the holy soil of Palestine," one of the teachers said

The Moral Idiocy of the United Church

A recent high-level United Church of Canada report recommends that the United Church should confirm its hostility to Israel. Written by three prominent United Church officials, the Report of the Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy endorses Palestinian “resistance” to Israeli occupation.

The church officials do specify that such resistance should be non-violent, but as with much in their report, the call for non-violence means less than it might.

I’ve never worried that United Church ministers might strap on suicide vests and blow up busses in Jerusalem. But while officially condemning such violence on the part of Palestinians, the United Church also vigorously promotes the Palestinian Kairos Document. Written by Palestinian Christians, the Kairos Document explicitly okays terrorism, calling it “legal resistance.” (More on the Kairos Document here.)

Do ordinary members of the United Church share the anti-Israel obsession of the clique at the top? Not at all. And I think they’d be appalled if they noticed what their leaders were up to.

In the most offensive paragraphs, the report compares the Palestinians to Holocaust victims. Usually, such comparisons come from obvious antisemites. In this case, I think the church officials are simply so self-absorbed, so wrapped up in anti-Israel politics, so shuttered from reality that they’re unaware of their offensiveness, like a four-year-old who’s overheard the word ‘nigger’ and admires his own cleverness as he runs about shouting it.

On the plus side, the report does notice that the BDS movement – the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel – “sometimes” crosses the line to “delegitimize Israel’s existence,” which the church rejects.

Unfortunately, this again means less than it might. Because in truth, the only point of the BDS movement is to delegitimize Israel.

The BDS movement is purely a propaganda offensive. It has no economic effect and never will. Yet the report recommends joining the BDS movement through a boycott of Israel, specifically of “all products produced in the settlements.”

Does this mean that the United Church will boycott Agrexco, which exports agricultural products from the West Bank? The British BDS movement does – even though the Palestinians are 100 per cent dependent on Agrexco and similar Israeli companies to export their olives and other agricultural products.

While acting in a way that would crush Palestinian farmers if their efforts were successful, the boycotters get to tell themselves they’re fighting the evil Israelis. And this is what the United Church wants to be part of.

The report claims to take “seriously questions about why Israel is the only country in the world being challenged by a global BDS movement.”

Seriously? The report’s rationalizations are laughably thin. It notes that the Israeli occupation has lasted a long time. Well, yes, ever since 1967 when Jordan invaded Israel and Israel occupied the West Bank in its counter-attack.

Israel has a claim to this territory, which Israelis know as Judea and Samaria, but rather than unilaterally exercising its claim, Israel has maintained a perfectly legal defensive occupation while waiting for the Arabs to negotiate.

In 1994, Jordan finally signed a peace treaty with Israel. But Jordan had previously renounced its claim to the West Bank in favour of the Palestinians, who haven’t been so reasonable.

With the exception of United Church officials who remain willfully ignorant, everyone familiar with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict knows that Israel has offered several comprehensive peace plans, but that the Palestinians have refused them all and made no counter offers.

The United Church’s report calls for an end to the occupation. Fine. But talk to the Palestinians. They won’t even discuss peace. And the United Church report doesn’t suggest they ought to.

By way of rationalizing its singling out of Israel, the report also argues that Israel is a democracy, and therefore, should be held to a higher standard than the autocracies that surround it. To me, this seems rather hard on the downtrodden people of the region.

Syrians are being slaughtered in the thousands by their despotic ruler. But the United Church’s stance is that Syria isn’t a democracy, so too bad for the Syrians.

Or what about the Palestinians of Gaza? Ruled by the despotic fanatics of Hamas, Gazans have no free speech or free press and face arrest for crimes such as dressing immodestly.

Does the United Church find this problematic? Apparently not.

The territory is ruled by a terrorist group that’s not just dedicated to destroying Israel, but openly proclaims its goal is genocide against the Jews.

Will the United Church boycott Gaza? Not a chance.

Instead, the United Church proposes boycotting Israel – because it’s a democracy. Well, so is Canada! Also, like Israel, Canada has a long-standing dispute over land claims: Israel with the Palestinians, ours with First Nations. Also, like Israel, Canada is trying to negotiate a settlement.

Seems to me that these similarities make Canada a perfect target for a United Church boycott. Unless of course the United Church really is boycotting Israel just because it’s a Jewish state.

P.S. At least one United Church minister, Rev. Andrew Love, is trying to counter his church’s anti-Israel stance. (See here.)

This piece was previously published in the Jewish Tribune. And on Harry's Place blog in Britain.


And here are the comments from Harry's Place, preserved here, because at HP, they get deleted after a week:

Commentary101

26 May 2012, 2:38 pm

Excellent piece! Wonderfully articulate and well-put. Though, I dare say, this doesn’t surprise me at all; the trend(of gratuitous anti-Israel activities) has been blatant and obvious in Methodist/Presbyterian circles(especially in America), and it seems my hopes for Canada distancing itself from the torrent have been crushed.
What surprises me still is that the congregants don’t stop it. When will we see some action, on the part of honest, well-meaning, pious church-goers?

Dcook

26 May 2012, 3:57 pm

In 1994, Jordan finally signed a peace treaty with Israel. But Jordan also renounced its claim to the West Bank in favour of the Palestinians, who haven’t been so reasonable.

Its like evicting a squatter and the squatter says that they give up the right to squat in your house in favour of their mates, when they had illegally squatted in the first place.

Paul M

26 May 2012, 6:21 pm

This is a great, well written and well argued piece. The only bit that gave me pause — maybe only because I don’t know enough about the United Church — was:

“Do ordinary members of the United Church share the anti-Israel obsession of the clique at the top? Not at all. And I think they’d be appalled if they noticed what their leaders were up to.”

To me this seems like it’s infantilizing the church’s members. Shouldn’t we show them the respect of allowing them agency? As Commentary101 says, where’s the action by churchgoers to put a stop to this? Disinterest and apathy are common human traits, but they’re a poor excuse for allowing evil to be done in your name.

hasan p

26 May 2012, 6:39 pm

To me this seems like it’s infantilizing the church’s members. Shouldn’t we show them the respect of allowing them agency?

One could ask the same of union members, elected politicians and stockholders. As for the United Church, its ministers are not elected but ordained. The laity will have little influence over what is taught in theological schools and may have little influence over what their representatives say. And I very much doubt that elections to conferences have either high turnouts or that the congregations know much, or anything, about the candidates that stand in them. There certainly does need to be more action from churchgoers, but that should be done in a way that understands how the United Church works rather than just blaming them for their lack of interest.

oldpromoe

27 May 2012, 12:12 am

I was very pleased to read this article. As a Jew married to a member of the United Church, I have the opportunity to read the United Church’s monthly magazine, “The United Church Observer”. There is rarely an issue that doesn’t have at least one anti-Israel article or letter. Not once has The Observer had an article condemning Syria or the Egyptian treatment of the Coptic Christians. It makes one wonder if the United Church is merely anti-Israel or actually anti-semitic.

Brian from Toronto

27 May 2012, 2:30 am

I don’t blame ordinary church members. For the large majority, the church is just where they go to be married or buried. And I don’t see why the (small) number of regular congregants should have to pay attention to an insignificant conflict on the other side of the globe.

On the other hand, ministers are professional, paid members of the church; they really ought to notice what’s done in their name. But for the most part, they seem to be apathetic or they agree with the leadership's hostility to Israel.

However, they don’t all agree, and they’re not all keeping quiet:
http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2012/05/united-church-pastor-breaks-ranks-on.html

Osher

27 May 2012, 9:15 am

Factual error: Jordan gave up it’s claim to the West Bank in 1989 (although there wasn’t a peace treaty for a few more years).

Lamia

27 May 2012, 2:10 pm

By way of rationalizing its singling out of Israel, the report also argues that Israel is a democracy, and therefore, should be held to a higher standard than the autocracies that surround it.

Of course, many of those those who single out Israel for criticism will, when it suits them, claim piously that the Palestinian territories are also democratic (“Like them or not, Hamas have a popular mandate and are the legitimate government, etc…”), as are those paragons Iran, Egypt, Tunisia etc etc.

In fact the democratic legitimacy of Hamas is an article of faith with most ‘anti-zionists’. So the ‘we hold democracies to a higher standard’ is a feeble excuse, and demonstrate a nonsensical attitude anyway. We should hold all countries to the same basic standards re human rights, just as in individual countries we hold all citizens equal before the law and don’t give a pass to the badly behaved on the grounds that we shouldn’t expect better from them.

zkharya

27 May 2012, 2:25 pm

‘By way of rationalizing its singling out of Israel, the report also argues that Israel is a democracy, and therefore, should be held to a higher standard than the autocracies that surround it.’

Isn’t that a circular argument, tantamount to ‘Israel behaves better, so should be held to a higher account/more penalized for it?’

In a conflict, holding one party to a higher standard than the others is tantamount to taking sides in that conflict +against+ that party and +with her enemies+.

All else is moral idiocy, at best.

zkharya

27 May 2012, 2:26 pm

I mean, THINKING all else etc.

zkharya

27 May 2012, 2:30 pm

‘Israel is a democracy etc’

What does that argument actually mean, anyway?

Israeli Jews are more sophisticated, educated, western and so privileged? So that they should be more generous to their enemies?

Or Israeli Jews behave better and so, en effait, should be held to a higher account? -a circular argument, it seems to me.

In this case, Israel’s being a democracy is almost treated as though Israeli Jews have more wealth than is just, and so should share it with their enemies, who have less, and so suffer injustice.

Balderdash.

zkharya

27 May 2012, 2:34 pm

Democracy is +just+ a state in which a people comprise themselves. It may make them more vulnerable to criticism, and certainly means that citizens should have more rights than in tyrannies. But what on earth does it mean for those who would destroy their state, why does it mean that state should be held to higher account?

Palestinian Arab Muslim and Christian nationalists have been hostile to a large scale Jewish presence since the late 19th century. Why does Israel’s being a democracy mean it should be held to higher account than they?