International, Politics, Religion

Presbyterians To Divest In Israel

Presbyterian_Church_(U.S.A.)Emblem_of_Israel.svgWe previously discussed the growing boycott of Israel by various academic, political, and business groups. On Friday, another major organization joined the movement. The Presbyterian Church voted — by a razor thin margin of 310-303 — to join the boycott. The Church only has about $21 million in investment capital so this is not a significant financial hit for the Israeli government but the vote carried obviously considerable symbolic value for the boycott movement and could further damage tourism for Israel.

The American Jewish Committee in New York responded by denounced the Presbyterians for a vote “driven by hatred of Israel.” That is not what I would have recommended as a response, particularly in such a close vote. While there are valid arguments to be made against such boycotts, it is neither productive nor accurate to accuse the 1.8 million member church of simply being anti-Israel. They were obviously motivated by what they saw as a human rights issue due to the treatment of the Palestinians. Rather than attack the church as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel, it would have been better to address that concern and counter with countervailing arguments. Indeed, some opposing divestment took a more measured approach like Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, who objected that the Church vote was unfortunate because it would as a whole is no longer be “a partner for joint work on Israel-Palestine peace issues.”

The close vote reflected intense lobbying on both sides. Notably, this included Rabbis and other members of Jewish Voice for Peace, who advocated for divestment. Those Jewish advocates believe that only divestment will change government policies. Jewish advocates also lobbied against divestment.

Source: NPR

121 thoughts on “Presbyterians To Divest In Israel”

  1. Paul,

    If you cover your eyes and say “you can’t see me” do you actually believe that you disappear?

  2. So Paul,

    Your only focus is on the actions of the Palestinian militants?

    Not the rest of the report; the majority of the report?

  4. shifrabryna: “Bob, Esq. doesn’t want to bother his pretty little head with useless details like a UN report or those pesky things called “facts”.

    U.N. Report?

    Do you mean the report that called Israel’s military assault on Gaza “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/world/middleeast/16gaza.html?hpw&_r=0

    That report?

    The one I quoted above when I wrote:

    So Paul,

    Daddy’s little girl would never

    “humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability”

    Right?

    That report?

    1. The 700+ page report that was done by the UN that found the Palestians guilty of war crimes.

      1. Paul,

        It’s useless. . .as the famous quote goes. . .Hell is a place where there is no reason. . .

        Oh wait. . .that quote is attributed to King Solomon. . .from the Book of Ecclesiastes. . .

        Better scrap that quote. . .King Solomon was Jewish. . .Bob, Esq. wouldn’t like him. . .King Solomon is one of the bad guys. . .

  5. Schif,
    Hey don’t forget to call Bob a Liberal! That’ll really hurt his feelings.

  6. Nick,

    Are you implying I’m an anti-semite?

    Am I an anarchist if I don’t believe the IRS’s explanation for Lois Lerner’s missing emails?

      1. Hey Paul. . .Bob, Esq. doesn’t want to bother his pretty little head with useless details like a UN report or those pesky things called “facts”. . .his hatred for Jews and Israel is all-consuming. . .

  8. Bob. . .”Esquire”. . .

    The offer for the bus ticket still stands. . .

    Better yet. . .I’ll pack you a lunch. . .I think you’re gonna love that bus tour of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. . .you will be crying like a little girl to have Israel come and rescue you. . .

    Oh yeah. . .I forgot. . .they are the evil ones. . .lol

  9. These posts always bring out the anti-Semites. I bet some of them have KKK robes in their closet.

  10. When someone says “Zionists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when they moved in” well, they might be an anti-Semite. At the minimum they are a liar.

  12. Most right-wingers who support Israel have no idea that Zionists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when they moved in and have been stealing land and destroying homes and farms and murdering Palestinians ever since. They know about Jews being oppressed in WWII because they have seen the movies. Where are the Hollywood movies about the Palestinian condition?

    1. doglover – hundreds of thousands? going to need some neutral citation for that.

  14. Hey Bob. . .allegedly “Esquire”. . .

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit: Cherie Cullen via Wikimedia Commons.
    (JNS.org) Speaking to a Jerusalem gathering of nearly 300 international Jewish journalists on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) for its vote to divest from Israel.
    “When the Middle East is fragmented in this horrible war, this savage, savage war between militant Shiites and militant Sunnis… the only place where you have freedom, tolerance, protection of minorities, protection of gays, protection of Christians and all other faiths, is Israel,” Netanyahu said at the first Jewish Media Summit.
    PCUSA leaders voted Friday at the church’s biennial general assembly in Detroit to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, all companies that do business with Israel, in a 310-303 vote.
    “Let’s arrange a bus tour for [Presbyterians] in the region. Let them go to maybe Syria, Lebanon, Iraq. I would give two pieces of advice, though: one, make sure the bus is an armored bus, and two, don’t say you are Christian,” said Netanyahu.

  15. So Paul,

    Daddy’s little girl would never

    “humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability”

    Right?

  16. Yes Paul.

    War crimes.

    “Systemic and deliberate” violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

  17. Karen S. “And Israel is TINY, surrounded by hostile, well armed neighbors.”

    Ah, but they have the nuclear weapons that we have denied to their ‘hostile and well armed neighbors’. Some of these ‘hostile and well armed neighbors’ had their land grabbed and taken from them after WWII. I would be a little ticked about that were I they. These surrounding countries that are ‘hostile and well armed neighbors’ have the right to defend themselves. WE are the ones who created the power imbalance vis-a-vie this conflict. WE are the ones who have created this particular situation. While it is true that there has been sectarian warfare among these countries for five thousand years, it was only because of the creation of the State of Israel by taking territory from the people that had held it for millennia and denying the other countries in the region the right to arm themselves to defend against the bully in the neighborhood, who happens to also be a nuclear power, that we have come to this point. As for the assertion that the Palestinians question Israel’s right to exist, They DO question the right for Israel to exist on the land that we took from them and they have that right.

  18. Paul,

    It’s a perfect analogy as it stands.

    Israel didn’t commit war crimes during the Gaza war; because daddy loves his little girl.

  19. “. . .AND I WILL BLESS THOSE WHO BLESS YOU. . .AND CURSE THOSE WHO CURSE YOU. . .

    Look out Presbyterians. . .G-d’s words. . .not mine. . .

  20. Paul C. Schulte

    Dredd – I thought Frisbeetarians threw a little saucer back and forth in the effort to gain knowledge. It is practiced by hippies and liberals on weekends. Some have advanced to throwing it to their dog in an effort to gain a higher enlightenment.
    =======================
    No doubt you did think that.

    But, it is just another wrong and inaccurate thought.

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