About the last organization Walt would expect to be accused of anti-Semitism is the United Church of Canada. And yet, the Canadian Jewish Congress has just condemned the UCC for having the demerity to raise, for purposes of debate at its general meeting, the possibility of boycotts and sanctions against Israel "until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination."
For those not familiar with the Canadian religious scene, the United Church was created in the 1920s by a merger of Methodists and some of the Presbyterians. The UCC has always been on the left-liberal side of the religious spectrum, espousing ideals of liberal humanism which often seem at odds with the principles of Christianity. Many United Church clergymen -- oops, clergypeople -- express doubts about the Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Jesus and even the existence of God.
So also, when it comes to politics, the UCC seem rather a leftish lot. One sees them wearing their cords and birkenstocks heading for the polls to vote for the Few Democrats. (Catholics tend to vote Liberal and evangelical Protestants lean decidedly to the right.)
The resolutions up for debate at the UCC general meeting have to do with politics, not religion. But this hardly comes as a surprise. If the Anglicans are the Tory party at prayer, the United Church is the NDP, not exactly praying but "thinking thoughts" with the idea that God might take some notice of their thought processes...if there is a God.
The proposers of the resolutions want to push the state of Israel towards allowing self-determination for the Palestinian (Arab) people within its territory. The Jewish Congress, though, seems to feel that any attack on Israel is an attack on Judaism and Jews. Ergo, those who support the idea of Palestinian self-determination are anti-Semitic racists.
Walt asks: If arguing for a Palestinian homeland makes you an anti-Semitic racist, what does arguing for Jewish homeland make you?
Walt, with all due respect, you don't know what you are talking about. It is not anti semitic to be critical of Israel -- It is anti semetic to constantly single out Israel from all nations for special villification and contempt. Also, in the case to the UCC, the proponents of the resolutions in question prepared background papers that the UCC did not disassociate itself from (after being requested to do so) and which, by any right minded standard, contained perverse anti semitic libels not commonly witnessed in Canada. To quote a recent Ottawa Citizen editorial: "It’s not just the double standard — singling out Israel, a liberal democracy, as the world’s greatest outlaw state? — that raises old memories of scapegoating the Jews. No, it’s the language in the background materials, available on the United Church’s website, that has shocked so many people.
ReplyDeleteOne document warns that “some Members of Parliament are affiliated with the State of Israel” and “have sensitive roles in Canada.” Is this a coded reference to Jewish MPs, in an attempt to raise the ancient accusation that Jews are duplicitous and have dual loyalties?
It gets worse. The church document accuses the Canadian Parliament of harbouring MPs who are actually citizens of Israel. This is a lie. So far as anyone knows, there are no MPs who hold Israeli citizenship. But what if there were? Parliament is a multicultural and diverse place, like Canadian society generally. It’s conspicuous that the United Church is not witchhunting South Asian or Muslim MPs to out those who hold dual citizenship. Only Jews constitute an enemy within." The UCC leadership has disgraced itself and those member of the UCC who do not disassociate themselves with the hateful and really sick proponents of these resolutions will simply join the multitude of Church members who over the centuries have, regrettably, carried on the legacy of anti semitism within Christianity.
you opened a subject that drives me nuts!
ReplyDeleteIf you are not on the Jewish plan then you are anti-Semitic. No discourse allowed. They are so organized and good at quickly slinging that accusation around that the result is they have the world cowed.
A while ago I wrote a letter to the editor asking if our Jewish Congressman was working for his constituents or Israel. I was confronted at the pool later by a low voltage Jew who accused me of being anti Semitic. I asked her to be specific, what in the article she objected to. She said I can't remember but it was anti Israel!
When the Madoff scandal broke Abe Foxman of the JADL wrote a scathing letter complaining about the news mentioning that Madoff and his helpers were Jewish therefore we were being anti Semitic!