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Presbyterian
Church USA Criticizes Israel, Ignores Christian Persecution
by Raymond Ibrahim
CBN News
July 27, 2014
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The
Presbyterian Church USA recently withdrew $21 million worth of
investments from Israel.
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Days before the recent Israel/Hamas conflict erupted, the Presbyterian
Church USA withdrew $21 million worth of investments from Israel because,
as spokesman Heath Rada put it, the Israeli government's actions
"harm the Palestinian people."
Soon after, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on
NBC's "Meet the Press" and was asked if he was
"troubled" by the Presbyterian Church's move. Netanyahu responded:
It should trouble all people of conscience and morality because
it's so disgraceful. You know, you look at what's happening in the Middle
East and I think most Americans understand this, they see this enormous
area riveted by religious hatred, by savagery of unimaginable
proportions. Then you come to Israel and you see the one democracy that
upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities,
that protects Christians—Christians are persecuted throughout the Middle
East. So most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of
civilization and moderation. You know I would suggest to these
Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel
for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to
Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give
them two pieces of advice, one is, make sure it's an armor plated bus,
and second, don't say that you're Christians.
It's difficult—if not impossible—to argue with Netanyahu's logic.
Indeed, several points made in his one-minute response are deserving of
some reflection.
First, the obvious: why is it that self-professed Christians
completely ignore the horrific Islamic persecution of fellow Christians
in the Middle East, while grandstanding against the Jewish state for
trying to defend itself against the same ideology that persecutes
Christians?
And he is absolutely right to say that the persecution of Christians
in the Mideast has reached a point of "savagery of unimaginable
proportions." Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the
atrocities Mideast Christians are exposed to—the slaughters, crucifixions,
beheadings, torture and rape—is the absolute silence emanating from
so-called mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.
Note also the nations Netanyahu highlighted for their brutal
persecution of Christian minorities: Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Indigenous
Christians were markedly better off in all three nations before
the U.S. got involved, specifically be empowering, deliberately or not,
Islamist forces. Now, according to recent studies, Christians in all three
nations are experiencing the worst form of persecution around the globe:
- Libya: Ever since
U.S.-backed, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists overthrew Gaddafi, Christians—including Americans—have been tortured and killed (including for
refusing to convert) and churches bombed. It's "open season" on Copts, as jihadis issue a
reward to Muslims who find and kill Christians. This was not the
case under Gaddafi.
- Syria: Christians
have been attacked in indescribable ways—wholesale massacres, bombed and desecrated
churches, beheadings, crucifixions, and rampant kidnappings—since the
U.S.-sponsored "Arab Spring" reached the Levant.
- Iraq: After the
U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely
attacked and slaughtered, and dozens of their churches were bombed
(see here for graphic images). In the last decade, Christians
have been terrorized into near-extinction, with well over
half of them fleeing Iraq.
If the Presbyterian Church has problems with governments that
persecute people—in this case, the Israeli government's purported
treatment of Palestinians, hence the Presbyterian Church's divestment
from Israel—perhaps it should begin by criticizing its own government's proxy war on fellow Christians in the Middle East.
Christians are also being targeted in the P.A. territories—by the very
same elements the Presbyterian Church is trying to defend.
In 2012, for example, a pastor noted
that "animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled
by the P.A. continues to get increasingly worse. People are always
telling [Christians],Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam." And in
fact, the kidnapping
and forced conversions of Christians in Gaza is an ugly reality."
More recently, nuns of the Greek-Orthodox monastery in Bethany sent a
letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to respond to the
escalation of attacks on the Christian house, including the throwing
of stones, broken glass, theft and looting of the monastery property.
"Someone wants to send us away," wrote Sister Ibraxia in the
letter, "but we will not flee."
Sadly, the hypocrisy exhibited by the Presbyterian Church is not
limited to that denomination. Some
time back, fifteen leaders from various U.S. Christian
denominations—mostly Protestant, including the Lutheran, Methodist, and
UCC Churches—asked Congress to reevaluate U.S. military aid to Israel,
again, in the context of supporting "persecuted" Palestinians.
Yet nary a word from these same church leaders concerning the rampant
persecution of millions of Christians at the hands of Muslims in the
Middle East—a persecution that makes the Palestinians' situation pale in
comparison.
Other "leftist" Protestants do find time to criticize Muslim
persecution of Christians—but only to blame Israel for it. Thus, Diarmaid
MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, wrote an article in the Daily
Beast ostensibly addressing the plight of Mideast Christians—but only to argue that the source of Christian
persecution " in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved
conflict between Israel and Palestine."
In reality, far from prompting the persecution of Christians, the
Arab-Israeli conflict is itself a byproduct of the same hostility Islamic
supremacism engenders for all non-Muslims. The reason hostility for
Israel is much more viral is because the Jewish state holds a unique
position of authority over Muslims unlike vulnerable Christian minorities
who can be abused at will (as fully explained here).
Little wonder, then, that more Arab Christians—double the number of
each of the preceding three years—are now joining the
Israel Defense Forces.
They know they can count on basic human rights protection from Israel
than from many of their fellow Christians in the West. After all, beyond
the sophistry, distortions, and downright lies emanating from some of
these Christian denominations, the fact remains: both Jews and Christians
are under attack from the same foe and for the same reason: they are
non-Muslim "infidels" who need to be subjugated.
Raymond
Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum
and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified
Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (2013) and The
Al Qaeda Reader (2007).
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