By Stanley Tiger
SAN DIEGO– Regarding the recent vote by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to join the BDS – a.k.a. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel: Perhaps the most sarcastic among us should be saying, with a quasi-sincere heart, “congratulations!”
Your organization has finally bitten the poisoned apple, a process of seduction which has been on-going for a decade. Now it is official. Your Church has gone over the edge. You are now aligned with and have become pawns of some of the darkest forces on the planet. Knowingly or unknowingly, you are validating the guiding principle of radical Islam, “Terrorism works.” Think of the ongoing reports of the slaughter and live crucifixion of your fellow Christians and the burning of hundreds of churches, let alone the incessant bombing of Israel and worse. You now carry their muddied water.
J’Accuse…!
The above phrase (French for “I accuse”) comes from the famous letter of a previous century written by Emile Zola in the defense of the French officer, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew who was railroaded into prison on trumped up charges. The case reeked with anti-Semitism (or Jew-hatred, in its less sanitized form). This BDS vote, as in the Dreyfus case, is similarly based on revisionist history and a series of trumped up charges against Israel.
J’Accuse…! I accuse you of knowingly or unknowingly, engaging in ant-Semitism. Can you not see that isolating Israel for condemnation and turning a blind eye to the serious and common acts of barbarity and torture routinely committed by the enemies of Israel is a tactic of those who hate the Jews?
J’Accuse…! I accuse you of being accomplices to criminality. When a person is the driver of a car involved in a bank robbery or drive-by shooting, the driver is also guilty of a crime. You are certainly aware that some of the most sadistic and unconscionable acts of murder and torture are committed not only against Israel and the Jews, but against the Christians and Muslims of the region as well. You have now succumbed to becoming a vehicle for the ongoing hate-driven war on Israel and the Jews.
J’Accuse…! I accuse you of being duped into believing that “in no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters,” as the moderator for the Church meeting said. How can you absolve yourself of hating Jews as individual (“brothers and sisters”) while in the same breath you validate and join those who hate Jews as a group (Israel, as a nation, consists primarily of Jews as a group).
If you truly wish to wash your hands of Israel, perhaps you should start the Boycott by casting you cell phones upon the waters. So much of the screen, chip and satellite technology comes from Israel. Likewise, you can refuse medical treatment in the form of medicines and medical devices that were developed in Israel.
If you wish to Divest – perhaps you can donate, as an act of penance, those millions of dollars held in the stock of tabooed companies. Donate to an Israeli university, where it could go to further develop ecologically sound water conservation and agriculture techniques to cause the barren deserts of the world to burst into bloom – thus partnering with Israel to help feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
Sadly, no such parallel exists among the Palestinians, who have chosen to invest their God-given creativity and imaginations in the promotion of an all-war all-the-time obsession. Think of their innovative gifts such as airplane hijackings, shoe bombs and an education system which suffers little children to come unto hatred. Specifically, the hatred of Israel and the Jews, Christians, Americans and all other manner of infidels. This latter category would include members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), despite your show of loving support.
And if you wish to engage in Sanctions; would it not be better to sanction the leaders of your Church who have sullied the crown of good name of the Presbyterian Church (USA) by leading the flock into the fog of foolishness towards the abyss of unreasonableness?
Now, in the spirit of lesser sarcasm, to thank the Church for voting for BDS: Thank you. By your actions you have caused me to ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”
I can only conclude that the answer must lie somewhere in the realm of prayer. Jesus would ask his Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters as well as all reasonable Muslims to join him in praying that the Presbyterian Church (USA) sees the errors of their ways!
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Stanley Tiger is a pro-Israel member of the Jewish Community and an independent journalist. His writing has been distributed by The New York Times News Syndicate. Email: tigers2n2@yahoo.com.
The kind of condescension and insulting tone in which Mr. Tiger addresses the decision of the Presbyterian Church to divest, not from Israel, but from three companies that profit from helping it maintain what the world and many Israelis see as an illegal occupation is, unfortunately, typical of the reactions to the church’s vote.
Rather than making them feel guilty or reconsider their decision, it is more likely that this kind of attitude will lead other mainline Protestant churches to follow in their footsteps.
Dear Mr. Blankfort,
Thank you for your considered response. There is a Torah principle which says that silence to a statement is tacit agreement. If you wish to remain silent while this march towards higher and higher levels of religious bigotry occurs, that is your choice. It may start with only three companies, but G-d forbid, it could snowball with silent acquiescence.
Also, many members of the Church are livid about this decision, lets give them the fortitude to respond to this outrageous action by their leaders! Thank you again.
Thanks for your response but I am unable to see how boycotting those American companies is an example of bigotry. Against whom, precisely? Moreover, is it the business of Jews to tell representatives of other religions what they should or should not be doing? I think not.
That vote, passed this time after many years of debate, was the majority’s way of expressing its opinion as to where the church will invest its money. By this time, many of those voting to divest from those three companies, have seen what their effect has been on Palestinians under occupation, particularly the use of massive Caterpillar bulldozers to demolish Palestnian and Bedouin homes which they rightly consider to be unjust.
I am not a Torah scholar but I am sure there are such scholars who would agree with my position and understand, if not vocally support, the decision of the Presbyterians.
Are you trying to start a war with Christians?
Go right ahead….you will lose…..as you always have.
Your slogan needs to be ‘Never Learns’ instead of Never Again.
Really really stupid.
Get on the side that is winning: Those of us who believe Jesus & the God of Isreal vs. the clan or murder (no big surprise they are in the church).
http://t.co/FsNJFTxkjs
Before I quickly address issues raised in the above comments, I need to thank the publishers of San Diego Jewish World, Nancy and Don Harrison, for creating a space where Jews can debate issues and differ cordially. It is a tragedy that the Palestinians and their various Middle Eastern co-religionists cannot similarly do so without the very real risk of decapitation.
– Now, let’s imagine a scenario where the Presbyterian Church (USA)(PCUSA), had voted for a motion demanding free speech rights for Palestinians, where subjugated women could express their concerns and those people who would rather live in harmony with Israel could speak openly. What vastly greater magnitudes of value that would have towards world peace than their current actions. (Unless world peace is defined as a world without Jews and Israel, as the BDS organizers believe.)
– Regarding this notion of only three companies – a bullet starts with only 3 grams of lead. Now the enemies of Israel can go to the rest of the world and proclaim that even the American Christians support their pathway to the destruction of Israel. Not good.
– The question was raised, “is it the business of Jews to tell representatives of other religions what they should or should not be doing?” When representatives of other religions side with those whose desire is to eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth, it is absolutely the business of the Jews to protest and expose such religious bigotry. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”
How I wish that the leaders of PCUSA had the intellectual depth and moral courage of this German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who participated in the attempt to assassinate his Fuhrer and opposed the mistreatment of Jews.
For further reference please see:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Bonhoeffer.html
The leaders of PCUSA would be wise to emulate such great Christians who are truly worthy of admiration, rather than giving their blessing to the snake charmers of bigotry.
Mr. Tiger, to view the PCUSA vote as “siding” with Hamas is to completely miss their motivation, which is to cease investing their money in US companies that are instrumental in maintaining what the United Nations and the International Court at the Hague have determined is an illegal occupation.
Exactly how their decision contributes to “eliminating Jews from the earth,” or contradicts Dietrich Bonhoeffer is beyond me. I think those Presbyterians who voted for the resolution see the occupation and settlements in the West Bank as an evil and the image of giant Caterpillar bulldozers destroying the homes of Palestinian civilians as unconscionable as bombing them from the air which Israel is doing this very moment in Gaza.
That Hamas has sent dozens of rockets into Israel, almost all of which have either been shot down by Iron Dome or landed in an empty field without, fortunately, causing a single fatality, if reports from Israel are true, does not release Israel from the responsibility for the deaths of civilians, including a significant number of children, they have caused and will cause.
If anything, this latest assault on Gaza is likely to convince other Protestant denominations to follow in the PCUSA’s footsteps.
Mr. Tiger responded correctly.