Presbyterian Church gets it right — finally

Score one for sanity.

This week, the Presbyterian Church (USA) finally buried its long-threatened move to divest its holdings in companies that do business with Israel. For longer than we care to contemplate, the church seemed poised to become the largest American Christian denomination to take that fateful -- and wrongheaded -- step.

Considering that in 2004 the church's general assembly voted in favor of divestment — though never followed through — the new vote was remarkably lopsided: 483-28.

That tells us most mainstream Presbyterians were never strongly supportive of divestment. It also tells us the Presbyterian ministers realize that divestment is an unfair, one-sided and ultimately destructive form of protest against perceived Israeli injustices.

The resolution passed Wednesday, June 21 calls for "corporate engagement" with Israel and the Palestinians. True, the language is imprecise in places, and could even be interpreted as opening the door to divestment at some future date. But several Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, the Reform movement's Religious Action Center, and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council — which lobbied Bay Area ministers — were delighted with the result.

That's good enough for us.

This reversal owes its success in small part to the Jewish community's efforts to persuade church officials to re-examine the headlong drive toward divestment.

But, reassuringly, the Presbyterians' about-face was almost entirely due to pressure from within the church itself. Those leaders who thought that divestment -- or hobnobbing with Hezbollah terrorists, for that matter -- were good ideas, were far outnumbered by parishioners who clearly felt otherwise.

It seems obvious to us in the Jewish community that this "corporate engagement" is the most sensible approach to the issue, working positively and constructively with all sides. Yet for at least four years, the church had taken multiple steps that could have led inexorably to divestment. Thank goodness it ultimately did the right thing.

This particular battle appears to be over, with a positive resolution for Israel and the Jewish community. But the war against divestment goes on.

Antipathy toward Israel on the part of a few other Christian denominations remains a serious problem. Divestment has long been one of the weapons of choice to break down Israel and worldwide Jewish resolve.

Fortunately, it rarely seems to get any traction when it's crunch time.

We applaud the Presbyterian Church's general assembly for taking a positive step toward peace and reconciliation.