WALL OF SHAME
The United Church and the Jews
The behaviour of the leaders of the United Church causes me great pain. As a believer in the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, prophetic law and social justice, I have no moral choice but to say, "Shame on the United Church of Canada." It is using its moral authority to absolve the Palestinians of all blame for a lack of peace in the Middle East while laying the blame at the feet of the Jewish state of Israel. This working proposal now before the United Church is its fourth call for sanctions against Israel in six years.
The United Church never asked, over dozens of years, for the boycott of Sudan (Darfur) China (Tibet), Turkey (northern Cyprus), or Russia (Chechnya). They show no concern for the atrocities in Syria.
As for their alleged concern for the fate of the Palestinians,the United Church does not appear to care about Arabs or Palestinians when their “brothers” slaughter or expel them, or about the Christians killed around the world. The United Church is loud and clear when it comes to demeaning and disrespecting the Jews. They have been doing this for decades including throughout the Nazi era.
Israel unilaterally left Gaza and in return has bombs falling on its citizens. The United Nations, through Unesco has endorsed the Islamic University of Gaza. In May, Subhi Al-Yaziji, dean of Koranic studies at the university, called for the Islamic conquest of Spain and the Vatican. "We place our hopes in Allah and trust that the day will come when our triumph will not be restricted to Palestine. "
The authors of the paper "believe that Israel can and should be held to a higher standard than surrounding undemocratic countries or authoritarian regimes. It is precisely because of Israel's close identification with democratic ideals that is needs to be challenged."
Does that mean that we should turn a blind eye to atrocities in authoritarian countries-because they are authoritarian? It is acceptable for Gaza to bomb Israel, or for Palestinians to deny Israel's very existence?
I don't recall any objections from this church when Canada's response to the desperate request from Jews in Europe to come to Canada was "none is too many." And now that the Jewish people have a safe haven the United Church report says the state of Israel has a right to exist but the status as a "Jewish State" is not at all clear and adds that Palestinians shouldn't be pressured to "accept Israel as a Jewish state as a pre-condition for continuing negotiation."
Put into the context of 2000 years of Jew-hating, Jew-bating, expulsions, pogroms, Crusades,blood-libel,and the Holocaust, this attitude of those in the United Church proposing such actions cannot be viewed any other way than anti-Semitic.
We should all be grateful for and proud of the nine Senators, members of the United Church, for calling on the leadership to retract their biased working paper on the Middle East.
Read more http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/05/07/united-church-pastor-breaks-ranks-on-israel-denounces-radical-agenda/
