Free Republic

The Palestinianization of reality continues to escalate. Wherever one turns, Israel is being demonized, boycotted and isolated. This is certainly true in the Islamic world which, under Iran's Amadinejad, has turned nuclear, and among Palestinians who have just freely elected a terrorist group to lead them. But it is also true internationally and in the West. For example, certain kinds of "accidents" keep happening. At the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, Divest-in-Israel literature, penned by Mazem Quimseyeh, was "accidentally" disseminated. The American Association of University Professors who were about to meet at Bellagio, Italy to focus on academic boycotts,...

LONDON - The Church of England decided Monday to suspend all its investments in companies it described as "profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land," British newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday. According to the report, heads of the Anglican Church voted in favor of removing funds from such firms, particularly a 2.2 million pound investment in Caterpillar, which manufactures tractors used to demolish Palestinian homes as well as in the construction of the security fence. The vote, which was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, stands in contradiction to the stance of former Archbishop Lord Carey, who...

Synod in disinvestment snub to Israel By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, for Times Online The Church of England is expected to face condemnation from Jewish leaders after it voted to disinvest from companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the occupied territories. In a surprise move, the General Synod voted to back a call from the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East for "morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories". In particular, the Synod backed the Jerusalem church's call for the Church Commissioners to disinvest from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation", such as...

(IsraelNN.com) Norway’s Finance Minister, Kristin Halvorsen issued an apology on Friday after calling on Norwegian citizens to boycott Israeli products. According to an Israel Radio report, the senior minister issued a formal apology after Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called on Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store to clarify his country’s position. It was explained that while the finance minister and her party may support such a move, it in no way reflects the policy of the Government of Norway.

Despite 9/11 and the almost numbing frequency of suicide bombings in Iraq, Israel, London. Madrid, Istanbul, Bali, and elsewhere, some people continue pedaling two discredited arguments: 1) that blame for these attacks ultimately lies with the policies or mere existence of the victims’ governments; and 2) that we must listen and can learn something of value from the terrorists themselves. Most Americans realize that "it’s not us, it’s them," in other words, it is the terrorists, not the victims of terrorism, who are to blame. Accordingly, it is the terrorists, not us, who need to change or to be stopped....

Watching the ball drop, twirling a noisemaker, kissing your sweetheart, and making a resolution that rarely comes to pass -- everyone looks forward to the memory of a new year. But one group will be ringing in the New Year a little differently…through a children’s jihad retreat, with a guest speaker who exalts terrorists and another who is linked to al-Qaeda. The majority of Islamic organizations within the United States have, at one time or another, been cited for their connections to terrorism, whether by support of terror groups or through actual terrorist activity carried out by its members. Two...

The pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church has sent a letter to Chicago's 50 aldermen formally distancing himself from the decision of a denomination leader to meet with representatives of Hezbollah, an anti-Israeli group with terrorist ties. The City Council last week passed a resolution condemning the meeting and expressing "dismay" with Rev. Bob Reynolds, head of the Chicago Presbytery. Reynolds was part of a church group that met with Hezbollah leaders during a trip to the Middle East last month. During the debate on the resolution, two aldermen also threatened to oppose a zoning change sought by Fourth Presbyterian Church...

Hezbollah official Nabil Qawuq is undoubtedly a busy man. As Hezbollah’s commander in Southern Lebanon, Qawuq is responsible for leading the bulk of the Shi’ite terrorist group’s combat forces, while frequently overseeing attacks on Israeli positions and attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians. A confidante of Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, Qawuq is also a fixture on Al-Jazeera and Lebanese television, his appearances generously mottled with calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Nevertheless, Qawuq recently found the time in his busy schedule to meet with -- of all things -- a church group. On October 20th, a...

First rule of getting out of a hole: quit digging. Now that Jewish groups have stepped up their criticism of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has been forced to defend the denomination in the wake of its latest delegation to visit Hizballah. ironically enough, on the front of the PCUSA website is an article for the "Say NO to torture" Epiphany gathering and an article where Kirkpatrick restates PC(USA)'s opposition to capital punishment. However, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States can only find weasel words to condemn a foreign terrorist organization with an unambiguous track...

The Democratic National Committee came out against efforts to divest from Israel or the Palestinian areas. The DNC executive, meeting Monday in Phoenix, passed a resolution declaring “its opposition to efforts to boycott, divest from, or otherwise single out companies for their work in Israel or the Palestinian Authority, and commends members of the Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other faiths who courageously continue to work together to attain a peaceful negotiated settlement to any conflict in the Middle East.” The resolution called efforts to divest from Israel “counterproductive.” Susan Turnbull, a DNC vice-chairwoman, told JTA that the initiative arose out...

Monograph Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society Press Release, November 17, 2005 The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is proud to offer the following link is to Professor Justus Reid Weiner's new Monograph Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society. It is a 1.4 megabyte PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file, but it is available online without charge. www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm Following is a short thumbnail sketch of the Monograph: On the heels of the Gaza disengagement, which was intended to empower the Palestinian Authority to improve the lives...

Protesters packed a hearing Thursday on the University of Wisconsin's investment portfolio, encouraging the Board of Regents to divest from Israel. Many held Palestinian flags, as speaker after speaker called for the university to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli military. They argued, for example, that Caterpillar makes bulldozers that are used to knock down houses of families of suspected Palestinian terrorists. And Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli Air Force. "As a mother, my heart goes out to the mothers of Palestine," said Rae Vogeler, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. She brought along her 8-year-old...

JERUSALEM – Christian Zionists are teaming up to encourage greater investment in Israel, hoping to counteract a campaign by a pro-Palestinian group that has encouraged mainstream Christian denominations in the U.S. to divest from Israel. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) held its annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Jerusalem last week. The ICEJ – in conjunction with the Brussels-based International Christian Chambers of Commerce (ICCC) and the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce – urged Christians to invest in Israel at a press conference last week. The week-long ICEJ conference coincided with the holiday of Sukkot. This year more...

Last update - 15:46 20/10/2005 Evangelicals slam efforts by Protestants to divest from Israel By The Associated Press Evangelical Christians on Thursday criticized efforts by some Christian groups to divest from companies associated with Israel and said they planned to counter with a campaign of their own to create partnerships between Israel and international businesses. Several Protestant groups - including the Presbyterian Church (USA) - have looked into selling stock in companies that profit from Israeli policy in the territories. Companies targeted by the Presbyterian Church include Caterpillar Inc.; ITT Industries Inc.; Motorola Inc.; and United Technologies Corp. The Presbyterians...

CHICAGO - Some U.S. Protestant churches are turning their back on the idea of dumping investments in companies alleged to be aiding Israel's hold on the West Bank, people involved in the issue said on Thursday. Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, along with a debate over whether divestment is the right move in the first place, may have helped cool what looked like a growing trend just a few months ago. "My reading, as a central Jewish player in this, is that there never was a (general) move toward divestment," said David Elcott, director of inter-religious affairs for the...

NEW YORK, Oct. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a statement by the American Jewish Congress in response to the Episcopal Church's recommendation against divestment: Contact: Juda Engelmayer of the American Jewish Congress, 212-360-1540 or 917-733-3561, or Jengelmayer@AJCongress.org, Web: http://www.ajcongress.org The American Jewish Congress lauds the Episcopal Church's Social Responsibility and Investment Committee recommendations against divestment from companies doing business with Israel, and the church's subsequent executive counsel resolution proposing positive investments instead. As the committee's report acknowledges, divestment from Israel does not offer any positive steps toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Other churches and organizations promoting divestment-such as the...

Divesting for JesusBy Steven BernsteinFrontPageMagazine.com | October 10, 2005 In the war against the existence of Israel, the economic boycott has a long history. Now three Protestant churches have passed resolutions in support of the Palestinian intifada against Israel, pledging to divest their current holdings in some companies that do business with Israel and to call for the dismantling of the Security Fence between Israel and the West Bank. The five million member Evangelical Lutheran Church of America(ELCA), at their 9th Biennial Churchwide Assembly last year in Orlando, Florida, voted 668-to-269 to implement their “Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice...

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley mistakenly welcomed a Palestinian nationalist group whose leader denies Israel's right to exist in the Holy Land by sending greetings to a Sabeel conference at the Lutheran School of Theology. "Sabeel masquerades as a peace group, but its founder, Anglican Canon Naim Ateek, has portrayed Israel as a baby- and Christ killing nation that blocks the political salvation of the Middle East," says Dexter Van Zile, Christian outreach director of the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership and member of the United Church of Christ. "He has also denied the Jews' right to live in the...

Watch out for anti-Israel academics. They tried to boycott Israeli scholars with no success. Their university divestment campaigns have failed. Yet now they can claim a victory – not in any institution of higher education, but in the Anglican Church. In an all-too-predictable twist Middle East studies, and scholars such as American Lawrence Davidson, have been enlisted to justify an ancient manifestation of anti-Semitism revived: replacement theology, sometimes called supersessionism. This doctrine, as proposed by St. Augustine, asserts that the Jews fell from divine favor when they refused to accept Christ, and that God chose the Church to replace them....

Threat to Divest Is Church Tool in Israeli Fight By LAURIE GOODSTEIN New York Times The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. announced Friday that it would press four American corporations to stop providing military equipment and technology to Israel for use in the occupation of the Palestinian territories, and that if the companies did not comply, the church would take a vote to divest its stock in them.