Presbyterian’s Embrace of ‘Amman Call’ Overshadows Defeat of Divestment
The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed deep concern over the embrace of the ‘Amman Call’ at last week’s Presbyterian Church (USA) biennial General Assembly (GA) in San Jose,California. That document, produced by the notoriously anti-Israel World Council of Churches, calls for a two-state solution in the Holy Land but includes a call for the “right ofreturn” of Palestinians. “The Jewish community is deeply distressed by this move, particularly as the same assemblage rejected resolutions calling for divestment from Israeland the end of US Military aid to the Jewish state”, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “Further many members of PCUSA have questioned how thesupport for this poison pill fits in with the Overture 11-06, passed on the same session which mandates that Presbyterians be fair and balanced in the pursuit of peace in theMiddle East, without taking sides!
“The so-called ‘right of return’ means a flood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that would inevitably make Jews a minority in their own country and mean the end of theJewish State”. With the failure of their anti- Israel divestment initiatives, those committed to the destruction of Israel have hit upon a new ploy. They call for two states– but neither of which will be Jewish. Any real partner for peace must express their explicit support for a democratic Jewish state of Israel .”
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Center’s Interfaith Director, who testified at the General Assembly at key committee hearings warned that “unfortunately, there are individualsextremely hostile to Israel entrenched in the church hierarchy who resist any calls for fairness and balance on the Middle East.”
“The lights at the San Jose Convention Center had hardly gone out before the Israel/Palestine Mission Network issued a press release claiming that calls for neutrality had beendefeated. They conveniently failed to mention Overture 11-06, approved on the GA floor, which required PCUSA officials to be ‘nonpartisan advocates for peace’ who will‘not over-identify with the realities of the Israelis or Palestinians’ and to ‘avoid taking broad stands that simplify a very complex situation into a caricature of reality whereone side clearly is at fault and the other side is clearly the victim.’ It will take constant vigilance from our indefatigable friends within the church to insure that the will ofthe people is not ignored by the PCUSA leadership,” Rabbi Adlerstein concluded.
As Presbyterians gather in San Jose, SWC warns,"PCUSA backsliding on anti-Semitism and Israel; damages interfaith relations"
SPEAKING OUT The Presbyterians Giveth, the Presbyterians Taketh Away Revised document shifts focus from PC(USA) anti-Semitism. Rabbi YitzchokAdlerstein | posted 6/20/2008 09:15AM
Think back some 40 years to the release of Nostra Aetate, the revolutionary Vatican document that inexorably changed the nature of Catholic-Jewish relations. Itfirmly confronted old church attitudes and teachings that Jews suffered under for centuries. It unequivocally asserted the historical and theological dignity of the Jewishpeople.
Imagine if, a week later, Pope Paul VI stood on the porch of Castel Gandolfo and announced, "There has been a terrible misunderstanding. All we meant is that when wecomplain, as we must from time to time, about price-gouging around Christmas by pushy Jewish merchants (by that we only mean some of them, of course), we should not go sofar as to blame them for the crucifixion. That hurts their feelings."
In May, the Presbyterian Church (USA) released "Vigilance against Anti-Jewish Ideas and Bias." Jewish organizations were effusive in their praise. The last decade has seena spike in violent anti-Semitic hate crimes in Europe. The document could not have been more welcomed and well timed.
It would be hard to construct two more dissimilar documents with similar titles. The original pointed directly to problematic PC(USA) overtures and materials, such asovertures "declaring that the Jewish people are no longer in covenant with God … or to blame for the crucifixion." It was a startling and honest mea culpa thatdirectly addressed Jewish concerns about a steady pattern of criticism of Israel that had morphed into derision of Jews. (The latest U.S. State Department annual report onhuman rights offered, "The distinguishing feature of the new anti-Semitism is criticism of Zionism or Israeli policy that — whether intentionally or unintentionally — hasthe effect of promoting prejudice against all Jews by demonizing Israel and Israelis and attributing Israel's perceived faults to its Jewish character.")
Ominously, the main focus of the new document is no longer anti-Semitism, but Presbyterian responsibility in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Anti-Semitism has becomeessentially a sideshow to the main event, which seeks "to call an end to the Israeli occupation … to criticize Christian Zionism … to speak out against the placement ofthe separation barrier." (Perhaps the denomination might convince Hamas to end its daily barrage of lethal rockets directed at civilians. That might be easier if thedenomination would begin by mentioning them, but don't look for such mention in the document.) PC(USA) members are now cautioned to mind their Ps and Qs as they pursuetheir one-sided quest for peace. They are urged to be vigilant against slipping into the language and imagery of anti-Semitism while all references to PC(USA)'s ownmalfeasance have been purged.
Whereas the old document treated such language as inherently wrong, the new one shifts the blame to the Jews. Using crucifixion language in regard to Israeli soldiers isproblematic only because Jews "inevitably construe" such imagery as anti-Jewish. Rather than commit to fight the scourge of exploding worldwide anti-Semitism, the PC(USA)now adds to the one-sided demonization of Israel ("the oppressive force in the Israeli-Palestinian situation") that fuels it.
To the vast majority of committed Jews, the land of Israel is inseparable from their identity as a people. The May document recognized the "particular gift of land to theJewish people." Remarkably, in the very section that criticizes supersessionism, the new document terminates the lease, and awards the land to "the Jewish people and allthe descendants of Abraham … [without condoning] an interpretation of the Bible as providing a blueprint for the modern state of Israel."
The PC(USA) has long been an enigma to Jews. From where we sit, no Protestant denomination has as many vigorous and outspoken loyal critics within its ranks as do thePresbyterians. Websites and publications that offer alternative views to those of church officialdom abound within the PC(USA), whereas they do not in other denominations.Organized, vocal friendship for Israel and the Jewish people is stronger than in any other mainline denomination.
At the same time, no other denomination has a group of apparatchiks — at both national and committee levels — that so consistently and undemocratically thwarts theexpressed will of its laity regarding the Middle East as does the PC(USA). When the 2006 General Assembly was on the verge of undoing the damaging divestment-from-Israelresolution of 2004, an 11th-hour move by Louisville leadership desperately tried to forestall it. When that failed, it spent the next two years trying to deny what clearlyhad been the will of the people: to move to greater balance and evenhandedness in its attitudes toward Israel.
Sadly, it is time for Jews, along with proud friends and allies within the PC(USA), to take off their gloves. Part of our struggle will be to contend with those who canfind room to support the national liberation aspirations of every group on earth but the Jewish people.
In a long footnote to the new document, the authors express a revealing howler. The note describes the variegated landscape of contemporary Zionism, from settlers tosecularists to Palestinian-rights advocates. Amazingly, it also includes "religious Jews who view human efforts to restore Jewish nationhood as a misguided usurpation ofGod's messianic design." The reference, of course, is to the Neturei Karta lunatic fringe group that equates any kind of Zionism with apostasy, and embraces (literally)Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
How could the folks in Louisville confuse the staunchest anti-Zionists on the planet with Zionists and elevate them to mainstream status? When it comes to Israel, somepeople in the PC(USA) have little patience for facts, let alone nuance and context. They demonize Israel as an aggressor state, and don't like to be reminded aboutinvading Arab armies, spurned peace offers, the expulsion of Jews from every surrounding Arab country, terrorist attacks, and the loathsome way that every Arab governmenthas used Palestinians as pawns while denying them the assistance that could have meant meaningful lives for three generations of their brethren. They certainly don't wantto hear about Jewish roots in the Holy Land and a continuous presence for thousands of years.
Which is precisely why the world needed the first document. And precisely why the biases they won't own up to moved them to rescind it.
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is interfaith director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles.
Opinions expressed in Speaking Out do not necessarily reflect the views of Christianity Today.
