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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38450/full/38450/anti-israel-stance-a-misfire-by-methodists/ <br /><br /> <b>Anti-Israel stance a misfire by Methodists</b> <br /> Thursday, June 25, 2009 | by <br /><br /><p>Someone once said life is a constant shoring up. For a Jewish community shoring up Israel and her reputation in this country, the effort sometimes falters.</p> <p>The latest erosion came last week at a regional conference of the United Methodist Church. As our story this week details, attendees at the California-Nevada conference approved two anti-Israel resolutions.</p> <p>The first calls for California and Nevada Methodist churches to divest from companies doing business with Israel — at least those companies that have something to do with Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank. The other endorses a Palestinian right of return; if such a plan were ever carried out, it would mean the demographic destruction of the Jewish state.</p> <p>We strongly condemn the United Methodist Church representatives for passing these two resolutions.</p> <p>Both are toothless. The United Methodist Church already rejected five similar resolutions at its national conference last year in Texas. Moreover, local churches do not have the authority to divest.</p> <p>The second measure was nullified by an amendment affirming the right of return must be negotiated by the parties themselves, including Israel.</p> <p>But while the measures may have little real-world effect, their passage was extremely hurtful to the Jewish community and harmful to Jewish-Methodist relations.</p> <p>It’s not as if the Jewish community has no friends in the myriad Christian denominations.</p> <p>Many ministers and lay people have pushed back against the anti-Israel crowd, aligning themselves squarely on the side of fairness.</p> <p>Unfortunately, activists in the United Methodist Church and other denominations, such as the Presbyterian Church, have pushed their agendas toward similar anti-Israel pronouncements, with varying degrees of success.</p> <p>In some cases, pro-Palestinians have achieved disproportionate representation on key committees, ramming through anti-Israel resolutions and bringing them to the floor at the conclaves.</p> <p>Usually, general assemblies reject the resolutions. This time, however, whether misinformed or underinformed, the Methodists gathered in Sacramento voted “aye.”</p> <p>Fortunately, groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council have been on the ground arguing passionately against such anti-Israel resolutions.</p> <p>They will continue to fight the good fight, working with our Christian friends to quash anti-Israel resolutions before they pass, and to speak out when they do.</p> <p>Meanwhile, we urge local Methodist congregations to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if staking an anti-Israel position is really what they want. We hope the answer will be no.</p>

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