How JVP colluded with the U.S. Presbyterian Church

Several months ago, JVP ran a rather silly little campaign to “beat” AIPAC in the number of likes on its Facebook page.  Using email blasts, social media and targeted ads on Facebook, they were able to increase their numbers. Glancing at their Facebook page, it appears they’ve achieved this milestone in their usual manner- through deceit and manipulation.   Does anyone really believe  “Joos for Palestine”  or "Net Workdood" represent actual people? 

There was a reason for the campaign.  This group, which represents an outside fringe of American Jewry used its social media stats to gain credibility for its extremist views, and to bolster its claim that it speaks for the American Jewish Community.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When the Rabbinical Council of the Jewish Voice for Peace  penned  an open letter supporting Presbyterian  divestment. it had been signed by only 8 rabbis, 4 rabbinical students, and a cantor. Contrast that with the 1700 rabbis and cantors who signed  the letter opposing divestment.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism has written in Haaretz regarding the Presbyterians divestment vote, and the collusion of JVP

How a radical anti-Israel Jewish group colluded with the U.S. Presbyterian Church

The Presbyterian leadership is not naïve. It has been working with the Jewish community for decades on a range of issues and has been engaged in dialogue with Jews on divestment concerns since 2004. It knows how the Jewish community is organized. It knows who has a grassroots presence and who does not. And any suggestion that there is significant Jewish support for divestment or that Jewish Voice for Peace represents any more than a tiny sliver of Jewish opinion is simply preposterous.

My view is that the church desperately wanted Jewish backing as cover for their pro-divestment position and Jewish Voice for Peace became the instrument for providing that backing—or, perhaps, a means for church leaders to delude themselves into thinking that Jewish backing really exists.

Either way, none of this would have worked without the collusion of Jewish Voice for Peace, which has a tradition of cloaking extremist principles in ambiguous language.

Consider the disparity between the church's resolution and the views of Jewish Voice for Peace. The church wanted to pass a "selective divestment" resolution without seeming too extreme. The Jewish community, to say the least, was not convinced; it concluded that the church's action suggested anti-Israel attitudes. Nonetheless, the final resolution passed by the general assembly called for selective divestment in specific companies while also reaffirming Israel's right to exist, endorsing a two-state solution, and refraining from aligning with the global BDS movement.

Jewish Voice for Peace, wanting to play the hero and stay in the good graces of the church leadership, had nothing to say about these three points; an uninformed observer might think that it supports the church in the final wording of the resolution. But it doesn't. As anyone who has read its mission statement and literature knows, it supports BDS, does not endorse a two-state solution, and while it does not call for Israel's destruction, does not affirm her right to exist either.

 Rabbi Yoffie continues:

In short, those young people in black T-shirts represent a radical anti-Israel position that goes far beyond the "selective divestment" that the church professes to call for.

He is right, of course. For all of JVP's  attempt at a socially acceptable veneer , they've admitted that they support "full" BDS ("occupation" is just a red herring)

 Rabbi Yoffie concludes with a suggestion to Presbyterian leadership

Get your information about the Jewish community and the Jewish tradition from a source other than Jewish Voice for Peace. And if you want, as I do, to see a reconciliation between the church and the Jews, put an end to an alliance that is leading you astray and generating resentment in the Jewish world.

Tomorrow, JVP has planned its first Congressional briefing. Lets hope Congress is smarter than the Presbyterian leadership.

Presbyterians visit Soda Stream, declare it "Good for Peace"

We've known it for years. Not only is the home carbonation device Soda Stream great for the environment, its great for peace.  More political, cultural, and economic interactions are the key to peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Not isolation and boycotts.  And now the Presbyterians know it , too. The  Soda Stream factory employs 1300 employees. 500 are Palestinian Arabs. 450 are Israeli Arabs and Jews The company sees its factory as an oasis of peace, and provides full benefits, and equal wages for all its employees.

 From Arutz Sheva

 A delegation of 14 leaders from the Presbyterian clergy, a church that in the past supported boycotting Israeli products manufactured in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), arrived last week to visit Israel.

The visit was organized by the America-Israel Friendship League (AIFL); the delegates' goal was to discover Israel personally and to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Representatives from the Presbyterian Church, which has an estimated six million followers, visited the Soda Stream factory which is located in Maaleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem. They spoke to representatives from the management and several employees.

 The Presbyterian delegates told representatives from Soda Stream that the visit to the factory strengthened their belief that the location of the factory enhances the business as well as the interpersonal relations between the Israelis and Palestinians and that they will express their support of Israel to the church administration and followers.

Is this why normalization is such a dirty word for anti-Israel activists?  Are they terrified that people will see the real Israel, and that the house of cards they've built on a foundation of lies will crumble?

Ruby Shamir, Executive Director of AIFL Israel, stated, "These days when there are many voices calling to boycott Israel both in the business and academia regions, it is crucial to bring leaders and influential figures to change these ideas and to help form a positive and supportive opinion about Israel. This is yet another step towards the mission of the AIFL which is to strengthen the relationships between the American and Israeli people."

Fake Mandela Quote Gets Past Eight PC(USA) Forums

From Dexter van Zile at CAMERA

"The Presbyterian Church (USA) is currently holding its biannual General Assembly (GA) in Pittsburgh, Penn. The GA committee charged with dealing with issues related to the Middle East is faced with 14 proposals, most of them dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Violence against Christians in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria does not feature prominently in the resolutions before this committee. A list of the resolutions before this committee can be found here. (Click on “Committees” and then click on Committee 15 – “Middle East and Peacemaking Issues” and you will see links to all the overtures before the committee.)

One overture (15-01) before this committee accuses Israel of practicing apartheid. This resolution, introduced by the Presbytery of Muskingum Valley in Ohio includes a damning quote attributed to former President of South Africa, Nobel-prize winning Nelson Mandela. According to the resolution, Mandela said:

"Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children."

There's just one problem. Mandela never said it. The quote was in fact written by Arjan El Fassed, an activist affiliated with Al Awda, which the ADL describes as a “grass roots organization that opposes Israel's right to exist.” The original article in which the quote appears can be seen here. For more background about how this quote falsely attributed to Mandela, has been used by anti-Israel activists, see this brief report by Richard Landes.

Despite the inclusion of a fake quote in the text of the overture, the resolution was approved by four other PC(USA) presbyteries in the run up to the General Assembly.

It was also approved by the PC(USA)'s Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns. Two other committees commented on, but did not explicitly endorse the resolution. Neither of these two committees – the General Assembly Mission Council nor the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy– warned the GA about the presence of a fake quote in the overture.

In other words, the fake quote made it past a total of eight PC(USA) voting bodies (five presbyteries and three committees) before it appeared on the agenda of the denomination's General Assembly.

The overture will presented to the General Assembly's Committee on Middle East issues on Tuesday, July 3, 2012."

Read the original article here, at CAMERA

Still think the Presbyterians care about truth or justice? I'm beginning to wonder, myself