Methodists Attack Israel

Methodists Attack Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
It isn't enough that the Muslims have not accepted having a Jewish state in their midst. Now the Methodists of the United States are getting into the act by boycotting 20 companies that do business with Israel. Both President Bush and Senator Clinton are Methodists. They are not in agreement with the church's proclamation.

This report was from the divestment Task Force of the church's New England Conference. The boycott includes the company, "General Electric". Their reasoning to be against Israel seems to come out of Arab propaganda. Again, they are siding with the Palestinians and seem to ignore the realities of the situation. They are concerned with the Palestinians facing unemployment, malnutrition, restrictions on movement, denial of medical care or access to their agricultural lands, humiliation at checkpoints and curfews. There is no understanding as to why there is a situation, and that the Palestinians have been attacking Israel. That doesn't seem to matter to them. This report reeks of anti-semitism.

This is morally offensive stated Alan Ronkin, deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston. His group is going to meet with the local Methodists and try to educate them. This step of "divestment push" which is boycotting, and delegitimizing Israel damage any chances of progess in the Middle East.

Some individuals in the United Methodist Church find this wrong. They are calling for a balanced study of the Middle East conflict which is what the United Church of Christ is doing. I am surprised that people have waited so long to study the situation. At least Senator Obama, a member of the United Church of Christ said he strongly disagrees with the portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict presented by this church. It will be interesting to see what the follow up meeting in Fort Worth, Texas will do.

To me, this shows that people have not read or followed events. They are quick to agree with propaganda from the Arab politics. Anything that smacks of showing how bad Jews are is gobbled up as "the gospel".