The Presbyterian Church "decided" not to divest from companies doing business with Israel by a minuscule .03% margin. If the divestment was approved, the Presbyterian Church would have decided that Israel was so evil that the only proper reaction would have to equal that which was done to the white regime in South Africa, and, by the way, was not done to Nazi Germany. This is not even something that is being done to countries like Saudi Arabia. which ban all churches and all Christians, Jews, etc.
This was not a win. Just by making it an issue, Israel made any result a defeat. What needed to be done to win is for Israel to vote a ban of all relations with the Presbyterian Church for being an antisemitic organization. If divestment was a new or unique phenomena, then it would make sense to expend time and effort on defeating this move. But it has been the contrary. The Presbyterians know it. As a consequence, they have been acting as though they still matter as a religion, which they do not.
I find it very ironic that the Jewish organizations, the usual old-line organizations that are still fighting WWII antisemitism, care this much about such a defunct and useless organization as the Presbyterians. Why? What can they do? Are they going to divest from cell phones? or IM? Not a chance. Even the Arabs decided to look the other way.
Israel must start taking charge and begin acting like a "mensch." Israel and the Jewish Community has been groveling and begging these "Christians" to please accept me, take me in, love me. It is degrading for Jews and it is unbecoming for any nation.
It is ironic because it would be impossible to get this kind of support, as a matter of fact almost any support, from these same Jewish and Israeli organizations to work at gaining support from the Evangelical Christians. Why would anyone care about a church that is going out of business, while rejecting the future direction of Christianity. The future is with the Evangelical Christians and they do not operate as monolith and by far a majority are pro-Zionist.
CUFI, Christians United For Israel, which is Pastor John Haggee's Evangelical Christian group, is so pro-Israel, they almost put AIPAC to shame. And yet, you will not find any mainline Jews or Jewish organizations supporting them. They are having there annual meeting this summer, about now, and there is not a single piece of information available anywhere about them in any Jewish magazine, journal, or newspaper. Why?
This failure of Jews to support their friends and reject antisemitism will be the 21st Century's equivalent of their bad behavior in the 1930s. The Jews love the the Presbyterians for what they used to be: a pro-Jewish religion in the 1930s. It is also still known as the academic religion because if it infusion with higher education since the Church has no set religious standards. It has become post-modern through it individual oriented theology. Many Jews love this because they realize that the Presbyterians really do not have a religion that is substantive and so they really cannot care about how substantive the Jew's religion is.
This is not the 1930s and academia is not the playing field. Israel is not a powerful state and this is being organized ont he political level, using academia; but not of it. Israel needs to provide political and international force behind the substantiation of its own legitimacy. What nation would be considered "legitimate" that cared about the support of a vanishing organization for its justification? That is how Israel is behaving.
Israel and American Jews need to take the initiative on all such issues and reject the premise that there is any consequence to whatever the Presbyterian Church decides to do. Israel and the Jews are now one and have their own Country. Thanks Presbyterians; but, this is not WWII and we will not be treated as such any longer.
JUF News : Presbyterians reject divestment from Israel.
