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Appeal to Presbyterians on Israel: "First, Do No Harm"
(Washington Post) David J. Michaels - On July 3, the biannual General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) convenes in Minneapolis. American Jews do not regularly weigh in on deliberations of the Presbyterian Church. However, its Middle East Study Committee report embraces a Palestinian document demonizing Israel. It minimizes the roots of the Jewish people in Israel, as well as Israelis' painful sacrifices for peace, while magnifying Palestinians' suffering, but not their responsibilities and perpetuation of violence. What emerges is a caricature whereby Israel does no right, but its adversaries are seen as doing little wrong. The report sanitizes terrorism as "resistance" to occupation, when the practitioners of terror label Israel's very existence as "occupation" to be destroyed. Peace cannot be accomplished by aiming boycotts or divestment at businesses engaged with Israel and not those operating in the most oppressive regimes around the globe. Peace certainly cannot be accomplished by suggesting that the world's only Jewish state - but not dozens of countries whose symbols are associated with majority religions such as Christianity or Islam - is inherently racist on account of this unique identity. Israel remains the region's only democracy, the sole Middle Eastern country whose Christian population has grown, and the country whose successive leaders have accepted a two-state solution and taken extraordinary humanitarian steps despite acute friction. The writer is Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs, B'nai B'rith International.