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Presbyterian Report Condemns Israel
(Washington Post) David Waters - At its July 3-10 meeting in Minneapolis, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be asked to approve a strongly worded report written by its Middle East Study Committee that calls on the U.S. to stop sending aid to Israel until it changes its policy toward Palestinians. In 2004, the PC (U.S.A.) became the first mainline Protestant denomination to approve a policy of divestment from Israel. The policy was unpopular with many Presbyterians and was later rescinded. The report is drawing sharp criticism from Jewish groups. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism claimed the report is "distinctly one-sided, traffics in troubling theology, misrepresents Jewish history," and "describes Israel as the occupying army and the major impediment to peace without acknowledging that the Israeli government has the ethical imperative to defend its citizens from terrorist infiltration."