Monday, October 24, 2011

JALIL-LIBYA WILL BE SHARIA STATE RUN

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

An MEP in Tunis: Women, Islamists do well in election
Today OCT 24,11 @ 11:57 By Andrew Rettman


The first post-Arab Spring election has boosted the profile of women in Arab politics and is likely to yield an Islamist winner, according to an MEP who monitored the vote.Portuguese socialist deputy Ana Gomes told EUobserver from Tunisia on Monday (24 October) that based on information from her monitoring group, the US-based National Democratic Intsitute, out of the 110 parties which ran, about six will make it to parliament and the moderate Islamist Ennahda party will get the most seats.The official result is due late on Monday or on Tuesday.There will probably be few women MPs. But women played a prominent role in the vote - each party had to put up 50 percent female candidates and women made up the bulk of the 13,000 domestic election observers.Attendance was massive, massive ... between 80 percent and 85 percent. It was very orderly and peaceful. It's a great statement about the Tunisians. People are very proud, very conscious of the impact this will have beyond their country, to encourage all those who are fighting for democracy, Gomes said.She noted the democratic maturity of Tunisian society comes from its history of secularism, high levels of education and from its strong links with Europeans through the Tunisian diaspora and the tourism industry.She added that the strength of Islamist groups in the region, including in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is in part a reaction to the Western legacy in Iraq and its support for old Middle East dictators, as well as due to money from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.Gomes, the EU parliament's rapportuer on Libya and a former Portuguese abassador to Indonesia, said she was not happy to hear Libyan rebel leader Abdul Jalil this weekend call for sharia law in Libya.

She voiced confidence that Libyan elections, due in eight months' time, will be free and fair, however: Having seen how open the Libyans are to advice from abroad and from those who have gone through the same experience, including Tunisia, I am sure the process in Libya can go well.She noted the Tunisian example has already prompted Egypt to send out invitations for Western election monitors despite previous reluctance.But she was less confident that Egypt's vote, due in November, will go smoothly.Egypt will be a more difficult challenge ... In Tunisia, the faith that ordinary people had in the independent electoral committee was extremely important. In Egypt, I am sorry, but I am not so optimistic,she said.The difference is in the attitude [of openness to Western advisors and to the Tunisian model]. In Egypt I haven't seen much of this.

LIBYA WILL BE A SHARIA ISLAMIC STATE SAYS JALIL.THIS IS HOW ALL THE ARAB -MUSLIM COUNTRIES TAKEN OUT BY THE WEST WILL TURN OUT.ALL ISRAEL-AMERICA RADICAL HATERS.
Abdul-Jalil laid out a vision for a new Libya with an Islamist tint, saying Islamic Sharia law would be the basic source of legislation, and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.

ARAB ONLY OF THE SPEECH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhcL2ud4vro&feature=player_embedded
ENGLISH OF JALIL SPEECH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFPrKC2bJYI

23 October 2011 Last updated at 16:49 ET
Libya's new rulers declare country liberated


Libya's transitional government has declared national liberation before a jubilant crowd in Benghazi, where the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi began.National Transitional Council (NTC) leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil urged Libyans to put civil conflict behind them for the sake of the country.Gaddafi's capture and death on Thursday came as Nato-backed NTC forces pursued loyalists in his stronghold, Sirte.The NTC has come under pressure to investigate how he died.A post-mortem carried out on the former leader's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.The body itself, along with that of Gaddafi's son Mutassim, has been put on public display in a cold storage facility in Misrata.Thousands of people were killed or injured after the violent repression of protests against Gaddafi's rule in February developed into a full-scale civil war.His government was driven out of the capital, Tripoli, in August.However he refused to surrender or leave the country, urging his followers to resist the country's new leaders.

United brothers

NTC deputy head Abdul Hafez Ghoga announced from the stage that Libya had been freed, declaring: Declaration of Liberation. Raise your head high. You are a free Libyan.Thousands of voices echoed him chanting, You are a free Libyan.Mr Abdul Jalil bowed down to thank God for victory before making his speech.(THIS IS NOT JESUS-GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE WORLD JALIL IS BOWING TO ITS A MOON GOD ALLAH).There is a lot of joy at the big parade ground on the edge of Benghazi that they have renamed Victory Square.The new Libya faces a lot of challenges. Hating Colonel Gaddafi has been a great unifier. Now he is dead, the differences within the broad coalition that overthrew him are going to be much more noticeable.The transition to the promised democracy will not be easy. And some national reconciliation between former rebels and former supporters of the regime will be necessary. But Libya has oil money, as much foreign help as it needs and a sense that they own their revolution - even though they could not have done it without the help of Nato and Qatar.The biggest challenge - building a new system of government from the bottom up - could become their biggest advantage. Unlike Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries, they do not have to worry about the survival of parts of the old regime. Here in Libya, it has been smashed.He thanked all those who had taken part in the revolution - from rebel fighters to businessmen and journalists.

Today we are one flesh, one national flesh. We have become united brothers as we have not been in the past, he said.I call on everyone for forgiveness, tolerance and reconciliation. We must get rid of hatred and envy from our souls. This is a necessary matter for the success of the revolution and the success of the future Libya.Mr Abdul Jalil said the new Libya would take Islamic law as its foundation. Interest for bank loans would be capped, he said, and restrictions on the number of wives Libyan men could take would be lifted.He wished anti-government protesters in Syria and Yemen victory.US President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans, saying: After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise.Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also welcomed the declaration of liberation, but added that Nato would retain its capacity to respond to threats to civilians, if needed.UK Foreign Secretary William Hague greeted Libya's historic victory, and urged the country to avoid retribution and reprisals.Elections are due to be held by June of next year, Libya's acting Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said earlier.The new elected body, he added, would draft a constitution to be put to a referendum and form an interim government pending a presidential election.

Death questions

The US, UN, major human rights groups and others have called for a transparent investigation into how Gaddafi died.A post-mortem carried out on the former leader's body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.The commander of the forces that captured Gaddafi has given details of the Libyan ex-leader's last moments to the BBC.Omran al-Oweib said he had been dragged from a drainage pipe and had taken 10 steps before he collapsed amid gunfire between NTC forces and Gaddafi supporters.I didn't see who killed, which weapon killed Gaddafi, Mr Oweib said.NTC spokesman Mustapha Goubrani said Gaddafi's body would be handed over to people from his tribe for burial.Mr Jibril told the BBC's Hardtalk programme he would have preferred to have Gaddafi alive, to face prosecution for his crimes, and added that he would welcome a full inquiry into his death.One of Gaddafi's best-known sons, Saif al-Islam, as well as his security chief both remain at large.Another son who escaped to Niger, Saadi, was shocked and outraged by the vicious brutality shown towards his father and dead brother, his lawyer told Reuters.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Lieberman: PA State Means Rockets on Gush Dan-Kassam rockets will strike metropolitan Tel Aviv if the Palestinian Authority becomes a state, Foreign Minister Lieberman warns.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/24/2011, 5:34 PM

Kassam rockets will strike metropolitan Tel Aviv if the Palestinian Authority receives an independent state, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Monday.
Speaking to media prior to a discussion on Wednesday with the Quartet – the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations – the plain-speaking and often outspoken Foreign Minister declared, The moment that they [the Palestinian Authority] receive an independent country, there will be Kassam rockets on Kfar Saba and Herzliya [parts of metropolitan Tel Aviv] within a year.The question is if we will see them over Gush Dan, and the answer is, yes – not 100 percent, but 200 percent.If we reach a stable agreement with the Palestinian Authority, I am prepared to go with it, but right now all that I see is the opposite. The moment that they receive an independent country, there will be Kassam rockets.He castigated PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, whom he labeled the biggest obstacle to an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and us.Lieberman charged that Abbas is threatened by what he sees happening to all of his colleagues – Qaddafi, Mubarak and others… This is not just a threat – it also is a blessing [because] anyone who follows him would be better.He deals only with his private agenda and the only thing that is important to him is his place in history and how he will spend the rest of his life in leisure and luxury.As for another American-backed building freeze in building for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, he said it won’t happen.

Jerusalem Police Stand Down from Terror Alert-Helicopters, ground forces and medics are on high alert after intelligence officials warn of an imminent attack in Jerusalem.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/24/2011, 3:06 PM

Israel's Jerusalem District Police commander announced the city had returned to normal security levels after being on high alert on Monday. The General Security Services, however, are continuing their to pursue intelligence related to the matter.
Earlier Monday, helicopters, ground forces and medics are on high alert after intelligence officials warned of an imminent terrorist attack in Jerusalem.A large number of police were deployed at entrances to the capital as helicopters over overhead. The warning focused on the neighborhood of Romema, located near the Central Bus Station at the western entrance to Jerusalem.Pictures of the suspected terrorist were distributed, and police searched areas of the Belz Yeshiva.Security forces and volunteers responded to the security alert of a terrorist attack on the heels of last week’s release of 477 terrorists and security prisoners in exchange for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Nearly 600 more prisoners and terrorists will be released in two months in the second stage of the arrangement.Since the release, terrorists have staged at least three stabbing attacks, one of them seriously wounding a teenage boy in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on the Sabbath.An Arab terrorist earlier this year killed one tourist and wounded approximately 20 others in a bomb attack at the Jerusalem Convention Center, located on a street parallel to the bus station.

Hundreds of Officers: Stop Political IDF Officers' Petitions-An IDF petition to end political IDF petitions. Officers blast recent petition that called for Shalit's release.By Gil Ronen First Publish: 10/24/2011, 2:00 PM

Hundreds of IDF officers have signed a petition protesting the use of petitions signed by officers like them for furthering political causes.The officers are angry at a recent document called the Officers' Letter that features demands by IDF officers that the government act to release IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.In a democracy, the anti-petition officers say – it is strictly forbidden to face off with the Prime Minister or Knesset in order to affect political matters, while using one's military identity. We, IDF officers in mandatory service, in the reserves and in retirement, from all parts of the political spectrum, right left and center, greatly oppose the phenomenon in which certain officers – be they few or many – unite under the heading the officers' letter and use this title to demand that the government and sovereign Knesset act in a political way that they support.The officers contend that their own letter is apolitical and is signed by people who care first and foremost about democracy.

Op-Ed: Prime Minister Netanyahu, It's Your Job
Published: Sunday, October 23, 2011 9:49 AM


Prime MInister Netanyahu decided to run for his difficult position. Accordingly, he has to withstand pressure for Israel's longterm good. He didn't.Rachel Sylvetsky, A7 Man. Editor

I am really angry at Binyamin Netanyahu.I did not want to be Prime Minister of Israel. He did. I even worked hard to make that a reality.I don’t have to commiserate with the pressures he is under, I don’t want that thrust upon me as an explanation for what he did to us in paying for Gilad Shalit’s release with 1027 terrorists.He wanted those pressures. That is what he decided to take upon himself, I didn’t.Accordingly, I have expectations of him that I don’t have of myself. I cried to see Shalit’s father hugging him. I would also have cried had Noam Shalit said nobly that he doesn’t want the price for freeing his son to endanger other Israelis, but that only happens in stories of heroes like the 13th century Maharam of Rotenberg.I want to see my Prime Minister act like a statesman, a stalwart leader, standing up to media pressure, as he is capable of doing, as he did when the economy was the problem, for the longterm good of the country and its citizens.

He has the responsibility to look farther afield than popularity ratings, he has the duty to take the long view rather than using results of populistic polls to create policy, and he is not allowed to let emotions affect his rational thinking.I want to know why he did not tell the Shalits that he will not meet with them until they pack up their tent and stop raising Hamas’ price for him by using the media and a public relations firm to promote their son’s release.I want to know why he did not call - along with them – for endless protests in front of Amnesty International, Red Cross, UN offices and other agencies whose mandate it was to pressure for Shalit’s freedom. It is their failure. We are not the ones who should have been pressured.That is why I would like to know how he had the gall to decide that all the mothers I know can have sleepless nights about what might happen to their children now that there are hundreds of murderous and unrepentant terrorists on the loose, now that countless budding terrorists have received encouragement from the deal.And what about the frightened youngsters themselves? One is already in the hospital fighting for his life after being stabbed as he sat on a bench five minutes from my Jerusalem home.We all know that it is only a matter of time…after all, to paraphrase Santayana. we have not learned from the lessons of our own short history here when it comes to freeing terrorists, so we are doomed to repeat it.

Netanyahu’s decision tells us that freeing Gilad Shalit by freeing terrorists is worth the price of putting our children in tangible danger.His decision, more infuriatingly, says that cutting off electricity, gas and water to Gaza until we get Shalit back, and having to bear international and leftist condemnation, is worse than putting our children in tangible danger.It means that that our Intelligence Services, who should be capable of finding someone who is several kilometers away from Israel’s borders, can rely on public pressure to save them the trouble.It seems that rescuing Shalit, possibly endangering him and the IDF soldiers whose sacred task it is to protect our children, was not an option, but putting our children in tangible danger is an option.Certainly Israel occupied the moral high ground in world opinion when it showed that it values one soldier’s life at a ratio of 1000 to 1. But it also showed that it doesn’t value life at all by putting our children in tangible danger.And I wonder, after Israel thanked Egypt profusely for its help and even had good words for Erdogan, how much the crucial issue of timing – supposedly before the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt – had to do with the deal, and how much US pressure at this time, aimed at showing the possibility of a continued relationship between Israel and those two countries at any price, had to do with it.

It’s a done deal. Now that Gilad is home, we are all happy. But we should not have had to juxtapose his life with 1027 terrorists’ opportunities for evil. Our Prime Minister should have been there for us.
FREED MURDERER WANTS CHILDREN TO BE MARTRS
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149017#.TqWKwnLw04o

Saturday, October 22, 2011

ISRAELI YOUTH BRING SIMCHAT TORAH TO COMMUNITIES

FED’s Backs BoA’s $75 Trillion Toxic Assets: Nightly News Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khEmx4jtxMo&feature=player_embedded
Subliminal Messages Exposed Infowars Nightly News October 22, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlhPIEbHjL0&feature=player_embedded
GILAD SHALIT RETURNS HOME 1,000 + MURDERERS FREED INFO PAGE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Tag.aspx/9455

Jerusalem Teen Stabbed on Sabbath in Ramot-A teenage boy was stabbed by a terrorist Saturday in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot. Police are hunting the attacker.By Chana Ya'ar First Publish: 10/22/2011, 7:26 PM

An 18-year-old boy was stabbed on Saturday afternoon by a terrorist in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood.Medics from the Magen David Adom emergency rescue service treated the youth at the scene before rushing him to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in the capital city.The youth was stabbed twice, in the stomach and back. He is currently sedated and is on a respirator, unable to breathe on his own.Police have launched a manhunt for the terrorist. A dragnet has been thrown around the area and a helicopter is scanning the city.Tzion Regional Commander Chaim Blumenfeld said the terrorist fled across the nearby riverbed, towards the village of Beit Iksa. Blumenfeld said police spoke with eyewitnesses and gathered evidence at the scene of the attack.Last week the IDF's Kfir Brigade foiled an attempted stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction by a young Palestinian Authority Arab woman.The would-be stabber raced towards the bus stop, pulling out a knife and shouted, Allahu Akbar (G-d is Great) and Death to the Jews! One of the soldiers guarding the intersection spotted the woman, pointed his gun at her and shouted in Arabic at her to halt, prompting the would-be murderer to throw down her knife and lay down on the ground.No one was injured in the incident, which came the day after 477 PA Arab terrorists were freed in exchange for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza. Shalit, who was held hostage for more than five years, has since returned home with his parents.

Report: UN Security Council Shuffle to Favor Israel-A scheduled shuffle of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council will cost the PA one of its supporters - Brazil.By Gavriel Queenann First Publish: 10/21/2011, 2:41 PM

According to Bloodberg, A shuffle of the 15-member United Nations Security Council could impact Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' statehood bid at the world body.PA officials have said at least eight council members - Russia, China, Gabon, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon and India - will vote Yes.Nine votes - including positive recommendations from all five permanent members - are needed for Abbas' application for membership as a member state to be passed to the General Assembly.But on January 1 the 193-country General Assembly will replace five of the ten rotating members of the Security Council. An unopposed Guatemala will receive the Latin American seat, replacing Brazil.This election won’t help the Palestinian cause,Jeff Laurenti, a UN analyst at Century Foundation, told Bloomberg. Guatemala will be in favor of everything Palestinian until the Americans tell them otherwise. They can be persuaded to abstain.That cloudy forecast may lead PA officials to push for a vote as soon as the Security Council reconvenes to discuss Abbas' bid on Nov. 11.

Any member of the 15-member council member can call for a vote within 24 hours at any time. Lebanon, as the only Arab member, is the most likely candidate.Adding to the pressure to act is a deadline set by Quartet mediators to renew negotiations, which PLO officials have obdirately refused, saying Israel must first accept the pre-1967 lines as a basis for talks and re-freeze construction in Judea, Samaria, and the parts of Jerusalem united with Israel after 1967.Israel, which has agreed to the Quartet proposal to renew talks with a goal of a final status agreement by December 2012, has refused preconditions saying it froze construction previously to satisfy an identical demand by PA officials to bring them back to the table only to be met with more preconditions - and the present unilateral bid at the UN.Adding to the complications is this week's exchange of 1,207 Israeli security prisoners - some 450 of them terrorists - for Gilad Shalit. Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the EU, US, and Israel has scored a major PR victory over rival Fatah and is seen by Arabs as the face of the Palestinian cause.Analysts say Abbas misjudged trends in the Security Council, where a promised negative recommendation by the United States, a permanent member, has effectively rendered his application a dead letter.The rise of Hamas to the forefront of world consciousness, they say, can only further knock the winds from Abbas' sails.

Youth Bring Simchat Torah Joy to Struggling Communities-Youth from the Jerusalem area leave home to strengthen struggling northern communities with joy, dancing on the holiday.By Maayana Miskin First Publish: 10/21/2011, 2:42 PM

Youth from Beit Shemesh and Beit El decided to use their Simchat Torah vacation to bring joy to others as well this year.Instead of spending the holiday at home, hundreds camped out in community centers in order to celebrate with struggling Jewish communities in Israel’s north.Two main destinations were the city of Natzrat Illit and the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa. Both communities are home to many immigrants to Israel and growing Arab populations, and have seen their religious populations dwindle in recent decades; both are also home to Garin Torani groups - young national religious couples who move as a group to towns where they work hard to raise the level of religious and general education and run social welfare programs, such as clubs to keep youth off the streets.Teenagers from the Ichud Leumi (National Union) youth groups and the Ariel youth group in Beit Shemesh spent the day in Natzrat Illit, where they joined in traditional dancing and song at local synagogues. Residents were thrilled to see them, they reported; many of the teens were stopped at random in the street by locals seeking to shake their hands and thank them for coming.

Many local residents told the youth that their presence encouraged them to remain in Natzrat Illit despite recent difficulties.On Thursday evening, more than 2,000 people – hareidi, religious-Zionist and secular – turned out for a second round of hakafot dancing in the streets of the city.Similar scenes were seen in Haifa, where teenagers from the Beit El yeshiva and from various youth groups flooded local synagogues that often struggle to find a minyan (prayer quorum of ten) and filled them with joy and song.Hundreds joined the enthusiastic second hakafot celebration held Thursday at the local Gan Binyamin Park. Among the revelers were Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, head of the Jewish Home (Renewed Mafdal) party, and both the mayor and Rabbi She'er Yashuv Cohen, venerable Chief Rabbi of Haifa, who all came to show their support for Hadar - a neighborhood which is being rejuvenated by Garin Torani young families.

Terror Victims' Org to Launch Death Sentence Campaign-Almagor campaign to call for a return to the spirit of Yoni Netanyahu, commander of Entebbe raid.By Gil Ronen First Publish: 10/20/2011, 11:20 PM

Terror victims' group Almagor demanded Thursday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak immediately publish the conclusions of the Shamgar Committee, which was appointed to set rules for cases in which soldiers and/or civilian citizens are abducted by the enemy.Its conclusions have not yet been made public because the committee met after the Shalit abduction and did not want to influence activity that might have already begun to free him.The group also announced plans for a new campaign calling for a return to the spirit of Yoni Netanyahu, brother of the prime minister. Yoni was commander of the Sayeret Matkal elite IDF commando unit and was killed in the raid that freed the hostages of an Air France flight forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. At the time, Israel refused the demands of the terrorists to free prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
The slogan will be Let us return to the spirit of Yoni Netanyahu! – We will not let Bibi destroy the spirit his brother led.We will not let Bibi [Netanyahu] and Barak continue to hide from the public the principles set by the Shamgar Committee even if they are contrary to the way they chose to act. Otherwise we will turn to the High Court,warned Almagor chairman Meir Indor.There are already MKs who are in favor of turning the Committee's recommendations into law, he added.

Another of Almagor's planned campaigns will demand a death sentence for terrorists.
Channel 2 TV reported over the holiday that the Shamgar Committee called for tough guidelines that would limit the freedom of governments to use their own judgment in future negotiations over abducted citizens.The members of the committee are to meet next week with the officials who negotiated Glad Shalit's release. They will question the negotiating team, which was led by David Meidan, and receive their recommendations and conclusions.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

GILAD SHALIT FREED AFTER 5 YRS IN HAMAS MURDERER HANDS

Video: First Pictures of Shalit Freed
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148877#.Tp1asnLw04o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avIYhlMMipU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90bDIBu5npM&feature=player_embedded

Shalit: I Was Told a Week Ago I Will Be Free-Gilad Shalit told Egyptian media he was told a week ago he would be freed. I was happy to hear it, but I was suspicious, he said.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:25 AM

Gilad Shalit told Egyptian media he was told a week ago he would be freed. I was happy to hear it, but I was suspicious, he said. I waited years, but I believed I would find myself free.He said the first thing he wants to do when he gets home is to be with my family and meet my friends and speak with them. I want to tell people about my experience.Despite his having been in captivity without communication with the outside world for more than five years, Egyptian media asked him difficult and loaded questions.Asked if the captivity and release gave him a stronger will, Shalit answered, A deal could have been arranged sooner.Questioned whether he will help campaign for the release of 4,000 more Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, Shalit reפlied:I will be happy if they will be freed and return to their homes if they do not return to terror.He expressed the hope that Israel’s freeing of 1,027 terrorists and security prisoners will help it make peace with the Palestinian Authority.IDF doctors examined Shalit before his return home, and he was confirmed to be in good and stable health.

Netanyahu is at Tel Nof Air Base-Gilad Shalit will be driven through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and taken to Tel Nof where he will meet his family.By Gil Ronen First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:58 AM

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrived Tuesday morning at the Tel Nof Air Base near Rehovot.Netanyahu entered the room in which the Shalit family is waiting for its son and told the family: I am glad that we made it to this day. In a short time, Gilad will return to you.The prime minister told the family members that the process of returning Shalit was going forward without a hitch so far. At about 10:00 a.m. Netanyahu was reportedly in the situation room, along with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the IDF Chief of Staff.Gilad Shalit will be driven through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, close to where he was abducted 5.5 years ago, and taken to Tel Nof, where he will meet his family.

EU to celebrate Shalit swap despite concerns
Today OCT 18,11 @ 08:04 By Andrew Rettman


The EU is set to cheer the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, expected on Tuesday (19 October), despite concerns it could pave the way for military strikes on Hamas and Iran.Hamas poster. The 25-year-old is to be reunited with his family after five years and four months of complete isolation (Photo: Tom Spender)According to plans negotiated by Egyptian, German and Israeli intelligence, Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militant group Hamas five years ago, will be handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza before noon local time.The NGO will take him via the Rafah crossing point to a secure area in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for 15 to 20 minutes and then to Israel via the Kerem Shalom point. Israel will at each stage of the process release tranches of 477 Palestinian prisoners. A second set of 550 prisoners is to be freed in December.The deal was finalised by Egyptian security chief Murad Muwafi and the new head of Israeli military intelligence Yoram Cohen. But the blueprint for the handover was drawn up by Gerhard Conrad, currently the chief of staff in the German intelligence service, the BND.BND spokesman Dieter Arndt told EUobserver Conrad worked on the plan for the past two and a half years. Almost the whole draft of the contract was done by Conrad. It was a long term involvement, but the final glory belongs to Egypt alone, he said.Arndt noted that Conrad took off his BND hat for the work before returning to the service: It was a personal thing. He was not acting on behalf of the federal government of Germany or the BND, but on behalf of all sides, Israel and Hamas, for the whole time the negotiations were going on. EU governments are banned from negotiating with Hamas because it is on the union's blacklist of terrorist entities.

The EU last week endorsed the deal on humanitarian grounds. I warmly welcome the news that Gilad Shalit will soon be able to return home after five years of captivity, putting an end to the long ordeal that he and his family have endured, foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton said.An EU diplomat earlier told this website Shalit's release could help with EU endorsement of Palestine's bid to upgrade its UN status and reopen the question of delisiting Hamas from the terrorist register.But despite the atmosphere of good will, some commentators believe the Shalit swap spells trouble for the region.Speaking as someone who has been involved in these things [Israel-Hamas prisoner swaps] in the past, I don't think we are moving toward any kind of reconciliation between Israel and Hamas. What usually happens afterwards is that the Israeli government gives Hamas a whack to show that it's still strong. If I was Hamas, I wouldn't leave any of my top leaders out in the open after this, one former EU diplomat said.For his part, Israeli journalist Alex Fishman, reputed to have close ties to Israeli security chiefs, in an op-ed last week said the Shalit deal is designed to clear the desk of the Israeli government for a strike against Iran's alleged nuclear bomb facilities. The Europeans will be applauding us, and no less importantly it will boost the national consensus and the prime minister's image ahead of the next challenge [Iran],he wrote.Some recent developments on the international stage support Fishman's line.US President Barack Obama at the UN general assembly in September gave Israel carte blanche for action against security threats. The US and the EU have upped anti-Iran rhetoric by accusing it of helping Syria to kill protesters and by exposing an alleged plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington. They have also backed the rebellion against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, Iran's main ally.Alon Ben-David, a senior Israeli defence journalist, cast doubt on the Shalit-Iran link, however.He said the US and the EU are planning to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran. If these do not stop Tehran's nuclear programme, the next opportunity for military action will come only when the weather improves in spring next year. Iran is an extremely serious issue. Whether Israel launches an operation against Iran has nothing to do with Shalit,he told EUobserver.Ben-David agreed that Israel is likely to strike Hamas after the Shalit swap to show who is boss. But he noted the new Egypt-Hamas-Israel mechanism bodes well: I don't think this will be used for anything political. But all parties have developed more trust. We have a new mechanism for negotiating humanitarian issues if there is a military clash.

Arabs Riot as Terrorists Are Freed-Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs throw rocks at Israeli soldiers as terrorists are freed at a checkpoint. The IDF fired smoke bombs.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/18/2011, 11:59 AM

Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs threw rocks at Israeli soldiers as terrorists were freed at the Betunia checkpoint. The IDF fired stun grenades, tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse the rioters.Most of the rioters carried Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners and arrived at the checkpoint to welcome approximately 100 terrorists and security prisoners who were among those being allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria.The IDF did not anticipate a riot, and soldiers fired a heavy barrage of riot-dispersing weapons. At least one person was wounded.
Israel pardoned and freed 477 terrorists and prisoners early Tuesday in the first phase of the deal in which a total of 1,027 will be released as Gilad Shalit returned home after more than five years in captivity.Of the 477 terrorists released Tuesday, 132 are being allowed to return to Gaza, but one of them, Amna Muna, decided to remain in Egypt after her release rather than face likely revenge in Gaza for her brutal treatment of fellow inmates.Forty terrorists will be deported outside of Israel.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

US-ISRAEL AIR DRILL GOING ON IN ISRAEL NOW

PSALMS 91:7-11
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

ISRAEL-GODS LAWS ARE 1,000 ISRAELIS TO 1 GENTILE PERSON.ISRAEL USE ARE CONFUSED RIGHT NOW,READ YOUR BIBLE.IN WAR IT WILL BE 10,000 GENTILES DEAD TO 1 ISRAELI.ISRAEL THIS HAS TO STOP.1,000 FREED MURDERERS TO KILL MORE INNOCENT ISRAELI CHILDREN,WOMEN AND MEN.GOD SAYS DESTROY YOUR ENEMIES IN THE BIBLE,NOT HAND OVER 1,000 MURDERERS TO THE PEOPLE THAT MURDERED THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF ISRAELIS AND SHOT 12,000 PLUS MISSLES INTO ISRAEL SINCE 2005.THIS IS NOT A JUSTICE FOR THE INNOCENT BLOOD OF ISRAELIS FROM THE PAST OR IN THE FUTURE.STOP THIS NONESENSE ISRAEL (BENJAMIN NETANYAHU).

AND ONE OTHER IMPORTANT FACT THAT HAS TO DO WITH ISRAEL.IN ISRAEL SUKKOT IS GOING ON WHEN ISRAELIS LIVE IN TENTS FOR THE WEEK.AND WHATS HAPPENING IN THE GENTILE (WORLD NATIONS)PEOPLE ARE PROTESTING AND LIVIING IN TENTS IN CITIES AROUND THE WORLD,PROTESTING THE FED AND NEW WORLD ORDER POWER BROKERS TAKEOVER OF THE WORLD.DON'T TELL ME PROPHECY IS NOT ON AN UPTAKE AND TO NOT TAKE THE BIBLE LITERALLY.GODS WORDS ARE BEING FULFILLED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES AT BREAK NECK SPEED.


More than 900 Life Sentences of Terrorists Annulled-The first list of 477 terrorists to be freed Shalit includes dozens serving 924 life terms for murdering or organizing the murder of Jews.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/16/2011, 8:10 AM

The first list of 477 terrorists to be freed Tuesday for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit includes dozens serving 924 life sentences for murdering or organizing the murder of Jews.The other terrorists were sentenced to a collective total of hundreds of years in jail, but all of them will see the light of day on Tuesday in the unprecedented exchange for Shalit, who is expected to arrive in Israel in Tuesday.
Hamas still might torpedo the arrangement with demands for the release of more terrorists, but heavy international pressure may prevent any attempt to abort the deal.Among the terrorists to be freed, barring an unlikely successful appeal to the High Court by terror victims and their families are the murderers of Nachshon Waxman, Effie and Yaron Unger and Yosef and Hannah Dickstein.Also to be released are those responsible for the massacres at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv the Sbarro Restaurant in Jerusalem and the Park Hotel on the eve of Passover in Netanya.Included on the list who will be allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria or Jerusalem along with another 40 who may do so but are subject to limitations.

Among those to be freed are:
— Idris Rajbi, involved in an attack that killed 22 Israelis;
— Bassam Snineh, who murdered a yeshiva student Kerman fourteenth;
— Jihad Irmor, who kidnapped and murdered Wachsman;
— Husam Badran, one of those responsible for bombings at the Dolphinarium, Sbarro and the Park Hotel;
— Abed Amro, a member of the terrorist squad that sent a suicide bomber to the Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem;
— Omar Sarhan, the knife murderer of three Israelis in 1990; and
— Fahd Lodi, involved in the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Yaron Chen.

US on High Alert, Conducts Drill in Israel and Saudi Arabia-The US holds a large-scale aerial exercise in Israel and Saudi Arabia; a navy fleet sails to the region in preparation for terror attacks By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/16/2011, 1:19 PM

The United States is conducting a week-long large-scale aerial exercise in Israel and Saudi Arabia as a navy fleet sails to the Mediterranean in preparation for any surprise flare-ups in the Middle East as Israel and frees 1,027 terrorists and security prisoners in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.Intelligence officials have said that terrorist groups, particularly Hizbullah and those based in Gaza, will try to stage attacks on American and Israel targets in the Middle East while the exchange takes place.The U.S. Transportation Command and its Air Forces Transportation will be testing its ability to provide a rapid strategic airlift response to major crises and contingencies, according to DebkaReport.The American, Saudi and Israel armies are on high alert following last week’s American accusations that Iran plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.The United States also reportedly is sending the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It provides combat support for ground troops and can plant mines on coasts of Middle East countries.

Arab Policemen Arrest Jews for Bowing Down on Temple Mount-Arab policemen arrested two Jews, including a prominent Yesha spokesman, for allegedly bowing down and praying on the Temple Mount.By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/16/2011, 11:22 AM

Arab policemen arrested two Jews, including a prominent spokesman in Samaria, for allegedly bowing down and praying on the Temple Mount Sunday morning.Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Spokesman David Ha’Ivri told Arutz Sheva, We were in a group of 25 men performing the mitzvah of being seen on the Temple Mount during the Sukkot holiday.Suddenly, two policemen said a friend and I were bowing down, which they say is forbidden. Ha’Ivri said the policemen were non-Jews and, responding to Arutz Sheva, identified them as Arabs.I told the policemen, Look, there are Arab watch guards here, and they are not making a fuss about it.The policemen replied,It is forbidden to bow down, and we are just doing our job.He added, Can you imagine being indicted for bowing down? Ha’Ivri said he has ascended the Temple Mount several times a year for the past 20 years and was arrested only once, many years ago.
Abiding by known rules issued by Muslim clerics, Ha’Ivri and the other members of the group did not carry with them any prayer books or religious items, which are forbidden by Jews to being with them when going up to the Temple Mount.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND ISRAEL

by Dexter Van Zile Published August 2011-The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs - No. 109, 1 August 2011 / 1 Av 5771 Broadcasting a Lethal Narrative: The World Council of Churches and Israel.The author dedicates this essay to the memory of Rev. Dr. Landon Tracy Archer Summers.Dexter Van Zile

The World Council of Churches, an umbrella organization for 349 Protestant and Orthodox churches founded in 1948, has expressed concern for the safety and wellbeing of the Jewish people but has largely been hostile to their state, particularly during times of conflict. At these times, WCC institutions demonize Israel, use a double standard to assess its actions, and in some instances delegitimize the Jewish state. They have also persistently denied the intent of Israel’s adversaries to deprive the Jewish people of their right to a sovereign state.While the WCC’s pronouncements are portrayed as the result of studied and prayerful consideration, politics plays a central and decisive role in determining whom the WCC will criticize and whom it refrains from criticizing. While the Middle East Council of Churches has prevailed upon the WCC to condemn Israel, the Russian Orthodox Church was able to prevent the WCC from condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.Like mainline churches in the United States, the WCC’s anti-Israeli campaign escalated significantly after the start of the Second Intifada. This escalation was particularly evident in the WCC’s Central Committee, which, in addition to endorsing divestment, established two bodies – the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) – that both have the singular purpose of ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.The WCC has devoted a substantial amount of resources to broadcasting its one-sided narrative about the Arab-Israeli conflict, but has failed to create an effective response to an ongoing campaign of terror against Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The WCC regularly dialogues with Muslims, but fails to address the issue of anti-Jewish and anti-Christian rhetoric in Islamic teachings head-on. Consequently, Muslim extremists can engage in a slow, grinding campaign to eliminate Christianity from the Middle East without challenge from the World Council of Churches.

Introduction

Founded in 1948, the World Council of Churches is one of the more vocal and prominent nongovernmental organizations operating in the international arena. Serving as the umbrella organization for 349 Protestant and Orthodox churches in 110 countries, the WCC works to promote Christian unity with the ultimate goal of creating one eucharistic fellowship” among all Christians. In addition to promoting unity among churches, the WCC seeks to generate a common Christian witness to the problems facing humanity.[1] Over the course of its history, it has promoted the causes of nuclear disarmament,[2] concern for religious freedom,[3] women’s rights,[4] and more recently, concern for the environment, with a particular emphasis on climate change.[5] The organization also issues pronouncements about various conflicts taking place in the world with an eye toward bringing these to an end.[6].These pronouncements come from a number of different sources including the organization’s Assembly, which meets every seven years,[7] its Central Committee, which meets every twelve to eighteen months,[8] and its Executive Committee, which meets twice a year.[9] When speaking on issues related to war and peace, the WCC bodies typically rely on reports produced by WCC staffers working in Geneva and on other institutions within the WCC, most notably the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA).Additionally, the WCC and the institutions it supports produce other statements and publications related to Christian theology, interfaith relations, and international relations that seek to give its member churches a framework for understanding the issues facing humanity. Individuals working for the WCC also use their position to affect world opinion. For example, the WCC’s general secretary and the director of the CCIA speak, from time to time, on the issues of the day.WCC pronouncements are often distributed by the organization’s member churches, which present WCC statements as if they are the result of prayerful and studied deliberation by the staffers who uttered them and the delegates who approved them, and of objective research by the staffers who briefed them.[10] The WCC imprimatur for a particular cause or agenda provides an aura of credibility rooted in knowledge, deliberations, and good intentions.

The WCC and Israel

Haim Genizi, professor emeritus of history at Bar-Ilan University,[11] offered a sympathetic assessment of the WCC in a recent issue of Studies in Contemporary Jewry.[12] Genizi describes the WCC as having supported the Jewish people and their right to a state of their own.[13].This support, Genizi concedes, is undermined somewhat by a deep-seated theological ambivalence on the part of some member churches with regard to Judaism and the Jews. Genizi reports that this ambivalence has caused the organization to exhibit an equivocal attitude toward Israel.[14] Moreover, the WCC’s sympathy for Third World liberation movements, combined with the constant pressure of Middle Eastern churches dominated by Arab church leaders, together influence the WCC to take a sympathetic approach toward the Palestinians.[15] The result is a fair number of statements that are highly critical of Israel, which Genizi recounts in some detail. Yet, despite the WCC’s critical attitude toward Israel, Genizi concludes that… one should bear in mind that the WCC has always recognized the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to live with secure borders; condemned anti-Semitism and the equation of Zionism with racism; and initiated successful dialogue with Jewish leaders.[16].Genizi’s benign assessment fails to take into account the WCC’s obsession with Israel’s alleged misdeeds, which plays itself out on the organization’s website. A brief perusal of the site[17] will yield a large volume of statements and articles regarding Israel, the vast majority of which portray it in a harsh light while giving its adversaries a pass. Further examination will reveal that the behavior of the Jewish state is so offensive to the WCC that it has established not one, but two bureaucracies singularly devoted to assailing Israeli policies. The first of these is the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), founded in 2001. Like the Mennonite-founded and supported Christian Peacemaker Teams, the EAPPI sends activists into the West Bank to confront and draw attention to Israeli soldiers and settlers, without drawing attention to or confronting Palestinian terrorism.

The second of these bureaucracies is the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) founded in 2007, which has helped publicize a number of one-sided statements about the Arab-Israeli conflict, such as the Kairos Palestine Document, a statement released by Palestinian Christians in 2009 that was denounced by the Central Conference of American Rabbis as supersessionist and anti-Semitic.[18].The websites of both of the EAPPI and the PIEF are chock full of anti-Israeli polemics that fail to hold Israel’s adversaries accountable for their misdeeds. They serve as a ready-made archive of all of Israel’s alleged misdeeds.There is another reality that Genizi missed:the WCC’s prophetic witness is corrupted by the interests of its member churches, which either seek to protect the regimes under which they live from criticism or demonize the enemies of such regimes. This corruption, which was evident during the Cold War, has been particularly notable in the WCC’s depiction of events in the Middle East. Israel is a safe and easy target for the WCC to lambaste. Authoritarian regimes get much lighter treatment because open criticism of these would jeopardize Christians who live under them.A cursory examination of the WCC’s historical record indicates that the organization has not merely espoused an equivocal attitude toward Israel and a sympathetic attitude toward Palestinians. During times of conflict, WCC governing bodies, staffers, and activists have, to varying degrees, promoted a patently hostile attitude toward Israel and a permissive and appeasing attitude toward its enemies.Indeed, when looked at in total and in context, the WCC’s witness of the Arab-Israeli conflict passes the 3D Test enunciated by Natan Sharanksy in his 2004 essay about the new anti-Semitism.[19] To be precise, the WCC’s governing bodies, staffers, and activists have over the course of its history engaged in anti-Semitic discourse by demonizing Israel, applying a double standard to its actions, and in some instances delegitimizing the very notion of a Jewish state. In light of the WCC’s witness about the Middle East, it is necessary to consider adding yet another D to Sharansky’s test of anti-Semitism – downplaying or denying hostility toward the Jews and their state. The WCC has denounced anti-Semitism in the abstract but has offered little if any criticism of Muslim anti-Semitism, which has had such a lethal impact on life in the Middle East.

Historically, not every part of the WCC has assailed Israel to the same extent.[20] WCC voting bodies such as its Assembly and Central Committee have used one standard to assess Israel’s actions and another to assess the actions of its adversaries, but do so in diplomatic and circumspect language. Individual bureaucrats and WCC activists, however, are much more likely to make use of demonizing and delegitimizing rhetoric toward Israel.In sum, the WCC institutions have broadcast a lethal narrative[21] that justifies continued violence against Israel and its citizens. Through a combination of default and design, the WCC behaves as an ideological adversary of the Jewish state and an ally of its adversaries in both the Middle East and the West. It also provides religious and intellectual cover for others to do the same.

The WCC’s Founding and the Jewish People

The Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches, which did the preparatory work leading up to the WCC’s founding assembly in Amsterdam in 1948, struggled with issues related to the Jewish people.[22] At its meeting in Geneva in 1946, the Provisional Committee passed two resolutions concerning the Holocaust. The first, written in response to the ouster of Christians of Jewish descent from German churches in the 1930s,[23] affirmed that all Christians who have Jewish antecedents should be assured of a full share of the rights and duties pertaining to the fellowship and service of the Church.The statement added that Christians of Hebrew ancestry should be assured that the church will always be a refuge for them and that her ministries of both material and spiritual relief will be exercised on their behalf.[24].The second resolution concerned the church’s relationship with Jews in General. It expressed the Provisional Committee’s deep sense of horror at the unprecedented tragedy which has befallen the Jewish people as a result of the Nazi attempt to exterminate European Jewry.The resolution also expressed its sympathy for the Jews who had survived the Holocaust, thanked those Christians who had given them shelter, and acknowledged that the church had failed to overcome in the spirit of Christ those factors that contributed to anti-Semitism. The resolution called on Christians to combat anti-Semitism by testifying that it violates the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ, and by, among other things, supporting efforts to find acceptable homes to [sic] Jews who were displaced by the Holocaust.[25]

Sympathy but Not Sovereignty

These expressions of remorse over the Holocaust and sympathy for the Jewish people did not translate into support for Jewish sovereignty when the WCC had its First Assembly in 1948, however. This gathering denounced anti-Semitism and admitted that the church had helped to foster an image of the Jews as the sole enemies of Christ, which has contributed to anti-Semitism in the secular world.[26] But when it came to Jewish sovereignty, the First Assembly balked, declaring:The establishment of the state Israel adds a political dimension to the Christian approach to the Jews and threatens to complicate anti-semitism with political fears and enmities.On the political aspects of the Palestine problem and the complex conflict of rights involved we do not undertake to express a judgment.[27]In response to the first sentence, Paul Merkley aptly noted that if it means anything at all, it must be that Israel has only itself to blame if more anti-Semitism should now appear in the world.[28] The second sentence indicates that the destruction of European Jewry coupled with the threats by Arab leaders to finish the job in the Middle East was not enough to convince the WCC and its member churches that the Jewish people were entitled to a state of their own. The organization was willing to express sympathy for the Jews after the Holocaust, but was reluctant to acknowledge their right to self-determination.The text of this resolution clearly undermines Genizi’s assertion that the WCC has historically supported the Jewish people and their right to a state of their own. In 1948, when the cause of Jewish sovereignty was in most need of support, the WCC voted present and even blamed the state for future expressions of anti-Semitism. This indicates a circumspect but undeniable attempt to delegitimize the notion of Jewish sovereignty.Similar ambivalence was evident at the WCC’s Second Assembly. Held in 1954 in Evanston, Illinois, its theme was Jesus Christ, Hope of the World.Isaac Rottenberg reported that at this assembly

[a] group of prominent theologians concluded that this would be an appropriate occasion to say something about Israel as a sign of God’s faithfulness in history and, therefore, in some sense, a source of hope. Their proposal was voted down after the Assembly had received a telegram from the Christian statesman Charles Malik in Lebanon, urging the delegates to say and do nothing that might give offense to Arab Christians.[29]To its credit, the WCC’s Central Committee was able to acknowledge Israeli fears in a statement issued a few months after the Six Day War, but even this failed to properly frame the issue. Meeting in Greece, the Central Committee adopted a statement that said in part:The present crisis has developed in part because the rest of the world has been insensitive to the fears of people in the Middle East; the fears of the people of the Arab nations because of the dynamism and possible expansion of Israel, and the fears of the people of Israel who have escaped from persecution on other continents only to be threatened, at least by word, with expulsion from their new home.[30]To begin with, Israeli Jews had not merely escaped from persecution on other continents but were victims of a ruthless genocide. Persecution simply does not do justice to this reality.Second, the statement falsely suggests that there was an equivalence between Arab and Israeli fears before the Six Day War. The notion that the Six Day War was rooted in Arab fears over Israel’s possible expansion ignores Arab leaders’ numerous calls for Israel’s destruction in the years and months leading to the war. Their statements do not reveal concern over Israel’s intentions but, rather, outrage over its existence. The war did not erupt because of Arab fears but because of Arab desires to destroy Israel, which, under any moral rubric, are unjust.Moreover, in its misplaced affirmation of Arab fears over the possible expansion of Israel,the Central Committee ignored an important fact of Israeli politics: in the years before the Six Day War, Israeli leaders regarded the 1949 armistice lines as sacrosanct and had no designs on territory beyond them.

Gershom Gorenberg points out that before the Six Day War, conquest was not on the Israeli military agenda and that a five-year development plan produced sometime in 1967 presumed that Israel could ‘realize fully its national goals’ within the armistice lines.[31] Gorenberg also notes that in the years before the Six Day War, irredentism – claims to territory beyond the borders – receded from political debate in Israel.[32] At the forefront of this trend was the ruling Mapai Party, but even the militant Herut party of Menachem Begin, with its roots in the radical nationalism of the European right between the world wars, softened its irredentist claims in return for respectability.[33] Gorenberg observes further that the shift went beyond political platforms.He continues:A growing number of Israelis had grown up or arrived in the country after independence. In the Hebrew literature created by young writers of that time, notes Israeli historian Anita Shapira, there was no hankering for some ancient historical agenda with Biblical sites and vistas….[34]The following year, the WCC Assembly issued a bland statement that said the menace of the situation in the Middle East shows no sign of abating.It continued:The resolutions of the United Nations have not been implemented, the territorial integrity of the nations involved is not respected, occupation continues, no settlement is in sight and a new armament race is being mounted.[35].In 1946, the WCC Provisional Committee insisted that Jews who had converted to Christianity were entitled to the same rights as any other member of the Christian church. Twenty-two years later, however, the same body could not affirm in any meaningful way that the Jewish state, a member nation of the United Nations, had a right to be free of threats to destroy it.

Correspondence with the PLO

The WCC’s unwillingness to respond to attacks on Israel’s legitimacy is also evident in the organization’s correspondence with the Central Committee of the PLO during the early 1970s. In letters sent in response to terror attacks perpetrated by PLO constituent organizations, WCC officials wrote in a patronizing tone, telling PLO leaders that kidnappings, hijackings, and murders harmed the PLO’s chances of achieving self-determination for the Palestinian people – as if PLO leaders were too stupid to know the consequences of their actions and could not assess for themselves whether or not they achieved the goals they wanted.This patronizing tone was particularly evident in a letter sent by WCC general secretary Eugene Carson Blake in September 1970 after a spate of hijackings by the PLO.[36] After lamenting how the world community has not yet been able to satisfy your demands for justice and self-determination and expressing sympathy for the PLO’s desire to focus world attention on the plight of the Palestinians, Blake reported that the WCC must nevertheless strongly condemn reckless acts of anarchy which disregard the basic human rights for which you are striving. Blake continued that it was in the PLO’s best interest to refrain from further indiscriminate bombings, attacks and hijackings which increasingly threaten innocent civilians.Here Blake attributes benign motives to the PLO, portraying the organization as if it was striving for human rights when, in fact, its charter expressed an obvious intent to deprive the Jewish people of their right to self-determination.A similar obtuseness was also evident in the letter sent to the PLO Central Committee from CCIA director Leopoldo J. Niilus on 2 June 1972. It was in response to the Lod Airport massacre perpetrated by the Japanese Red Army on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Referring to an attack that left twenty-six people dead and scores injured, Niilus said the massacre was in sharp contrast to the hijacking operation of September 1970 because it deliberately involved a large and indiscriminate slaughter, many of the victims of which had no connection whatever with the Middle East.Consequently, the attack cannot but be strongly condemned by all humane men.In less than two years, the hijackings went, in WCC correspondence, from being reckless acts of anarchy which disregard human rights to something not so bad because at least nobody got killed as they did in subsequent attacks.Niilus also stated actions such as these do the greatest possible disservice to the cause of the Palestinians which your Committee seeks to serve. The WCC’s tendency to treat PLO leaders as errant children is also evident in another letter, this one sent on 6 September 1972 in response to the massacre of eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich by the PLO’s Black September faction. In this letter, Blake stated that the repetition of indiscriminate acts such as those at the Lydda [Lod] Airport and the senseless terrorism most certainly does injustice to the cause of the Palestinians and may nullify all of the more positive steps which have been taken by you and others on their behalf.If Blake were to have written with a bit more candor, he might have said: After all we’ve done for you, you do this?

Blake then remarked:I understand that your London representative has unofficially disassociated the PLO from these most recent acts. I sincerely hope that you will do so officially and that you will take all measures available to you to restrain the members of the Black September group and any others who may be involved in these activities to desist from them immediately.Instead of calling for the PLO to accept responsibility for the actions of its members, and punish them, Blake calls for the organization to disassociate itself from the attacks, as if this is a sufficient moral response from responsible political leaders. A more robust reaction would have been to demand that the PLO condemn the attack and assist in the prosecution of the perpetrators.The WCC’s inability to hold the PLO to account is rooted in a failure to discern the PLO’s stated intent to destroy Israel. At no point in these letters did WCC officials acknowledge that the PLO’s explicit goal, enunciated in its charter approved in 1964, was the liberation of Palestine, which logically meant Israel’s destruction. This same charter declared Zionism an illegal movement and outlaw[ed] its presence and activities in the territory the PLO sought to liberate. This is clearly a rejection of Jewish self-determination.[37] Because of the WCC’s inability to acknowledge this reality, the organization failed to understand that acts of terror were not motivated by a desire to achieve self-determination but were an attempt to deny Israeli Jews the ability to live a normal national life in a Jewish state.Blake reached the height of moral obtuseness when he sent a telegram to Israeli president Zalman Shazar after the Munich massacre that indicated a fundamental inability to discern the difference between victim and perpetrator.[38]
In the opening sentence of the telegram, the WCC general secretary expresses his shock and dismay at the senseless killings of members of the Israeli olympic [sic] team, their abductors and German officials that have taken place in Munich – as if there was an equivalence between the Israeli victims, the German police who tried to rescue them, and the terrorists guilty of murder. Blake then asserts that responsible Arab and Palestinian bodies have disassociated themselves from the attack; he did not seem aware that they thereby gave PLO leaders cover to evade blame.

Blake says he prays that this tragic event will not give rise to reprisals and revenge from any quarter, but that in the midst of sadness and the sense of outrage, reason and repentance will prevail and no more lives will be needlessly sacrificed. As a Christian organization, the WCC must proffer words of peace, but the admonition to Israel not to respond with reprisals raises some obvious questions: how exactly was Israel supposed to respond to the massacre of its Olympic athletes in Munich? If Israel was supposed to treat the attack as a matter to be adjudicated by an international or domestic court, should not the WCC have, in its correspondence with the PLO Central Committee, called on the PLO leaders to turn the perpetrators over to the relevant authorities? Blake then states that the barbaric attacks are “especially sad” because they obstruct the cause of peace. This, however, raises another obvious question: did Blake honestly believe that the PLO was interested in the cause of peace in the Middle East? Since its founding in 1964, the PLO had been engaged in an ongoing war with Israel. Even in an expression of condolence for a terrible massacre, the WCC could not refrain from advancing its political agenda.

The WCC’s Response to Violence in Lebanon

The WCC’s response to events in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s was equally obtuse.[39] In their declarations, WCC staffers and decision-making bodies failed to hold the PLO accountable for its actions but vociferously condemned Israel. In particular, the WCC offered vague and diffuse condemnations of massacres in Lebanon in those decades, failing to provide details about either the identity of the victims or the identity and motives of the perpetrators. But when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, WCC institutions forcefully condemned Israel while attributing malign intent to it.The WCC’s Assembly and Central Committee said hardly a word about massacres perpetrated by the PLO and Christian Phalangists in 1976. On 23 January that year, the PLO murdered several hundred Christians at Damour. Writing in Arutz Sheva in 2002, Murray Kahl provides detail:Before the arrival of the PLO, [Damour] was a town of some 25,000 people, with five churches, three chapels, seven schools, both private and public, and one public hospital, where Muslims from nearby villages were treated along with the Christians, at the expense of the town.On 9 January 1976, the priest of Damour, Father Mansour Labaky, was carrying out a Maronite (Roman Catholics [sic]) custom of blessing the houses with holy water when a bullet whistled past his ear and hit one of the houses. He soon learned that the town was surrounded by the forces of Sa’iqa, a PLO terrorist group affiliated with Syria. The shooting and shelling continued all day. When Father Labaky telephoned a local Muslim sheikh and asked him, as a fellow religious leader, what he could do to help the people of the town, the sheikh replied, I can do nothing. They want to harm you. It is the Palestinians. I cannot stop them.Other Lebanese politicians, of both the Left and the Right, proved equally unhelpful, offering only apologies and commiserations. Kamal Jumblatt, in whose parliamentary constituency Damour lay, told Labaky, Father, I can do nothing for you, because it depends on Yasser Arafat. The Maronite priest then called Arafat’s headquarters, but was deferred to a subordinate, who told him Father, don’t worry. We don’t want to harm you. If we are destroying you it is for strategic reasons.[40].Despite the pleas, the violence continued against the Christians of Damour. Labaky described the final attack that took place on 23 January 1976:It was an apocalypse. They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting Allahu Akbar! God is Great! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust. They were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women, and children. Whole families were killed in their homes. Many women were gang-raped, and few of them left alive afterwards.[41]

The PLO massacre at Damour was a precursor to another massacre at Tel al-Zaatar, this time perpetrated by Christian Phalangists on 12 August 1976. The atrocity took place after a long siege during which there was no water, food, nor medical supplies for the inhabitants of the camp. Children died from dehydration during the siege, which ended in a slaughter of many of the town’s inhabitants. Newsweek provided some details:As the people of Tal Zaatar surge[d] out toward the confrontation line between Christian and Muslim Beirut, the rightists fell on them like wolves, arguing, by some accounts, over how many Palestinians each right-wing group was entitled to execute. Many young Palestinians stooped and shuffled in pitifully transparent attempts to make themselves look old and noncombatant, but it was no use; entire families were killed. Some of the luckier Palestinians were merely lined up and forced to cheer the names of Phalangist leaders and of Syrian President Hafez Assad. We all did so willingly, teacher Ahmad Maaruf told NEWSWEEK. It was a very cheap price for our lives.[42].The WCC’s Executive Committee met in March 1976 – two months after the massacre at Damour – and issued a statement that merely appealed to all parties involved in Lebanon to renounce violence, and to spare human lives through a renewed commitment to finding negotiated solutions. [43] The Executive Committee also asserted that the conflict in Lebanon is essentially political, not religious,and asked WCC member churches to do their utmost to bring a just peace to Lebanon and the whole Middle East.The statement made no mention of the slaughter of Christians in Damour.The WCC’s Central Committee met from 10 to 18 August 1976 and said nothing about the Tel al-Zataar massacre, which took place two days after it began deliberations. In a resolution on events in Lebanon, the Central Committee warned the mass media to avoid describing the Lebanon crisis as a religious conflict – despite the obvious sectarian aspects of both massacres. The killers who chanted Allahu Akbar at Damour clearly thought their attack had a religious component. And it is difficult to believe that the Phalangists did not have the Damour attack in their minds during the massacre they perpetrated.In lamenting the crisis, the Central Committee stated that civilian populations have often been the first to suffer, for example in Damour, Koura and Tel al-Zaatar, and they need immediate humanitarian relief. But such outrages can only be avoided in the future if the spirit of reconciliation in terms of forgiveness, understanding and reconstruction is revived.[44]

The WCC Assembly, which met in Vancouver in 1983, said nothing specific about these massacres in its statement on the Middle East and even failed to acknowledge the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre perpetrated by Christian Phalangists allied with Israel. Instead it said in general terms: The agony of the Lebanese war is not yet over. The integrity and independence of Lebanon are in greater danger than ever. The statement also reported that the ecumenical community shares the agony of the peoples in Lebanon who have been tragically suffering over the last nine years and who have been carrying too large a burden of the problems in the region.

Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon

The WCC’s tendency to assail Israel while giving its adversaries a pass manifested itself in its response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which began on 6 June 1982.
The PLO and its constituent groups had been attacking Israeli civilians for over a decade.[45] A WCC pamphlet released several weeks after the invasion largely ignored this fact.[46] This compendium of statements, published by the CCIA, opens with an introduction that demonizes Israel while saying virtually nothing about the actions of the PLO in the years and months before Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. [47]Written by the then CCIA director Ninan Koshy, the introduction declares that Israel’s pretext for its invasion was the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador in London.In the next sentence, however, Koshy asserts that the cease-fire was violated by Israel.[48] The PLO’s attempted assassination of an ambassador elicits no condemnation from him, but Israel’s subsequent response does.Koshy goes on to offer a blistering critique of Israeli intentions. Before the invasion, he reports, Israel expressed a desire to make South Lebanon free from the PLO; but as the war escalated, Israeli objectives also escalated.As he puts it:This was a premeditated, carefully planned, ruthlessly executed aggression. The objective was to exterminate Palestinian nationalism. The invasion was part of the Israeli attempt at solving the Palestinian problem by force both within the occupied territories and outside.[49]

The PLO comes off much better in Koshy’s introduction:Of all the liberation movements in recent history, the PLO has been one of the most viable in genuineness of motivation, grass roots appeal, organizational structure and international support and standing. Tribulations of Palestinian disinheritance and statelessness have prompted them in the past to take maximalist and unrealistic positions. But if one reads carefully resolutions of Palestinian National Councils, one can notice a movement away from maximalism, from the claims about the whole of Palestine and rejection of a mini-state, to an implied though conditional acceptance of such a state. It is likely that an Arab consensus will emerge, making possible this shift to be explicit. There will be a new political profile for the PLO. The PLO might feel that the kind of military build up [sic] it had in Lebanon probably had negative effects in terms of relations with the Lebanese.[50]Koshy simply misled his readers by claiming that the PLO had modulated its hostility toward Israel, abandoned its maximalist rejectionism of Israel’s existence, and had conditionally embraced the legitimacy of a Jewish state. In February 1982, just a few months before the invasion, Arafat said otherwise.Speaking at a celebration of the thirteen anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (the DFLP), Arafat addressed his brothers and companions of the gun in the DFLP, and told them that we are together and side by side in the march towards the liberation of Palestine, all Palestine [applause].Arafat went on to brag that it was not the PLO that had asked for the ceasefire in July 1981. In fact, he said,it was they [the Israelis] who asked for a cease-fire in the July war; it was they who asked for a cease-fire in the July war [applause].Arafat said that while the PLO agreed to a ceasefire with Israel, it was limited only to the Lebanese border, and ultimately he could never accept a ceasefire as long as there is occupied Palestinian territory [applause.] That should be obvious. No Palestinian leadership could cease fire as long as there was occupied Palestinian territory. The joint forces have cubs and flowers [male and female youth organizations] fighting and will continue to advance. We know, brothers, that Palestine was sold at the cheapest price….[51]Arafat’s speech had echoed a political platform issued by Fatah, another constituent body of the PLO, which in 1980 called for the liberation of Palestine, a full and complete liberation and the annihilation of the Zionist entity in all of its economic, political, military and cultural manifestations. The struggle, Fatah stated, will be carried on without interruption until the annihilation of the Zionist entity and the liberation of Palestine are achieved.[52] This is not the rhetoric of a movement intent on achieving self-determination for the Palestinians, but of a movement intent on denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination.

Moreover, Koshy failed to acknowledge the suffering of Lebanese living under PLO control. In the years after its arrival in Lebanon in 1975 – after it was expelled from Jordan for, among other things, attempting to assassinate King Hussein – the PLO turned southern Lebanon into an armed camp. It treated the Lebanese in this area with great viciousness and snubbed its nose at the international community by ejecting UN peacekeepers from their positions and replacing them with its own troops.
The details of the PLO’s misdeeds were exposed when the New York Times provided extensive coverage of its conduct in Lebanon. For about six years, the Times reported, until Israel invaded Southern Lebanon on June 6, the Palestinians had something closely approaching an independent state.David K. Shipler wrote that this entity had an army, a police force, a crude judicial system, an educational and welfare system, a civil service and a foreign policy. Those who lived within its rough boundaries said they were too terrified then to describe it to outsiders. Now, for the first time, they are describing what it was like, telling of theft, intimidation and violence.[53]Many of the citizens of this state within a state were Palestinian refugees who were denied the right to become citizens of Lebanon, but most of the inhabitants were Lebanese nationals…both Christians and Moslems, who said they felt powerless in their own homes. Most were willing to tell their story, Shipler reported, but others feared the PLO’s return. Those who did talk told stories similar to what Hamas and Hizballah subsequently did in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively. Terrorists used people’s homes and gardens to store weapons and launch attacks on Israel, thereby inviting Israeli attacks on their property.

Shipler also reported that the huge sums of money the P.L.O. received from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries seems to have been spent primarily on weapons and ammunition, which were placed strategically in densely populated civilian areas in the hope that this would either deter Israeli attacks or exact a price from Israel in world opinion for killing civilians.[54]On the same day the New York Times published Shipler’s account, the Los Angeles Times published a report on Lebanese Christians telling about PLO atrocities in their country. They spoke of the PLO tearing people apart by tying them to cars and having them drive in opposite directions; of the PLO throwing corpses of their opponents into vats of acid.[55]

In a Different Voice

In Koshy’s defense, it can be argued that the revelations about the PLO’s misdeeds came to light after the CCIA backgrounder went to press on 12 July 1982.[56] (The New York Times and Los Angeles Times articles were published the following day.)
Nevertheless, neither the WCC’s Central Committee, which met after the publication of these articles in July 1982, nor the Assembly, which met in the summer of 1983, condemned the PLO by name in the statements they issued.The Central Committee held a meeting in Geneva on 19-28 July 1982, well after the PLO’s atrocities were revealed to the world, and it said nothing about them. Instead of acknowledging how the PLO had mistreated the Lebanese people, the Central Committee blamed Israel for imposing pressures aimed at further dividing the Lebanese and turning them more bitterly against the Palestinians.[57] The PLO had done a fine job of souring the Lebanese people against the Palestinian cause; yet the Central Committee blamed Israel for this process.The Central Committee then reported that a WCC delegation had spoken with special urgency of the plight of West Beirut, describing its siege by the Israeli forces as horrible and scandalous. They portrayed the intolerable physical and psychological pressures on a people waiting for a final, devastating attack.And while the WCC Assembly held in Vancouver in 1983 said nothing about the massacres in Lebanon, it was very critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank, calling on Israel to withdraw from all territories occupied in 1967.The Israeli settlement policy on the West Bank has resulted in a de facto annexation giving final touches to a discriminatory policy of development of peoples that flagrantly violates the basic rights of the Palestinian people. There are fears of relocation of the inhabitants on the West Bank and their expulsion. A large number of Palestinians are under detention in the prisons on the West Bank and in camps in Lebanon.[58]The Assembly was also very critical of Israel’s supporters, calling on Christians in the West to recognize that their guilt over the fate of the Jews in their countries may have influenced their views of the conflict in the Middle East and has led to uncritical support of the policies of the state of Israel, thereby ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people and their rights.The statement also lamented the difficulty Palestinians had in gaining access to holy sites in Jerusalem, as if relations between the Israelis and the inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip did not pose serious security threats to Israelis living in that city.

Isaac Rottenberg, author of The Turbulent Triangle: Christians, Jews, Israel, writes that the text of the statement on the Middle East was based on a draft formulated by a self-appointed group of partisans, financed by the Middle East Council of Churches. These partisans came to the Assembly, Rottenberg reports, not for dialogue, but to pull off a political coup. The climate they found was sympathetic (or, at least, indifferent) enough for them to succeed. Rottenberg adds that after the passage of this statement, WCC general secretary Phillip Potter was asked about the obvious biases and imbalances in the document on the Middle East.Rottenberg continues:According to press reports his response went as follows: The Jews have other voices speaking on their behalf.In other words, through our imbalance we balance the scale for the poor Palestinians and the PLO. Having no other voice, they, therefore, deserve the compassionate concern of the WCC.[59]This episode shows the WCC’s corrupt witness about the Arab-Israeli conflict in a nutshell. WCC personnel issue statements that demonize Israel. Statements from the WCC’s Assembly about the Arab-Israeli conflict are written in more circumspect and diplomatic language, but still single Israel out for condemnation at the behest of Christians living in the Middle East. The WCC downplays the misdeeds of other ruthless regimes throughout the world at the behest of local churches that live in the shadow of these regimes. Concerns over access to holy sites in Jerusalem are given greater weight than Israeli security needs. Support for Israel is portrayed as unreflective; biases in favor of its adversaries are portrayed as siding with the powerless.The difference between voices the WCC uses to address Israel and other actors in the Middle East is self-evident. In the West Bank, there is no confusion over who is responsible for the suffering (Israel) and what it must do (withdraw). But when it comes to Lebanon, where well-known actors had perpetrated unspeakable atrocities that any responsible religious leader would condemn, the WCC retreated into bland mumblings. From its statements there is simply no way to tell who is responsible for the suffering the WCC laments in Lebanon, unless this suffering can be blamed on Israel.

This problem has persisted in the decades since. The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) documented the problem in a 2004 report about mainline human rights activism, which included a section on the WCC. According to the IRD, statements about human rights issued by liberal Protestant churches and the institutions they support make it difficult to determine who, aside from Israel (and the United States), is being criticized. But when the subject of Israeli abuses comes up, mainline resolution writers frequently discover a zest for hard hitting prose. They name the victims, describe their specific sufferings, and point a finger at the perpetrator. Every detail serves to heighten the sense of outrage.[60].In sum, the WCC’s response to events in Lebanon meets two of Sharansky’s criteria for anti-Semitism when dealing with Israel. Koshy’s writings about the 1982 invasion clearly demonize Israel and apply a double standard to the respective actions of the PLO and the Israeli government. And the resolutions passed by the WCC’s Central Committee and Assembly used different standards to assess the actions of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Simply put, the WCC’s prophetic voice was badly corrupted with an undeniable obsession with the behavior of the Jewish state.

Covering for the Soviet Union

The corruption of the WCC’s prophetic voice was also readily apparent in how the organization responded to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. As noted, the WCC’s 1983 Assembly lambasted Israel for its policies in the West Bank; it took, however, a much softer line toward the Soviet invasion that killed thousands of people, many of them civilians. In its statement the Assembly made no reference to the USSR’s invasion of another sovereign country, but merely lamented that continuing fighting in Afghanistan had led to tremendous suffering for vast sections of the population, many of whom have become refugees. The UN estimates that there are more than three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran.[61]The Assembly’s statement, amazingly enough, called for an end to the supply of arms to the opposition groups from the outside – which would have effectively given the Soviet Union a free hand in the country it had invaded. The statement also called for a “withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the context of an overall political settlement, including agreement between Afghanistan and the USSR. A statement issued by the WCC’s Executive Committee soon after the invasion in 1979 was not much stronger; it merely expressed serious concern about the military action by the USSR in Afghanistan as constituting the latest direct armed intervention in one country by another.[62]Clearly this is thin gruel compared to the response of the WCC’s officers to the USSR’s suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968. In that case they called on the USSR to reconsider its invasion and to remove all its troops from Czechoslovakia at the earliest possible moment, and to renounce the use of force upon its allies.J. A. Emerson Vermaat reports that the WCC took a soft approach toward the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan because it was “forced by its member churches from Eastern Europe, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church, to come close to the official Soviet position.The issue, Vermaat reports, was discussed at two WCC meetings before the 1983 Assembly.The first was the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism, which took place in Melbourne in May 1980. At this WCC-organized event, delegates from the Russian Orthodox Church formed an alliance with delegates from Latin America to keep the invasion of Afghanistan off the table. The Latin American delegates, Vermaat reports, were working for the passage of a declaration on U.S. policies in Nicaragua and did not want the issue of Afghanistan to divert attention from their cause.[63]Delegates from the United States also cooperated with this effort, Vermaat recounts, so as to prevent the issue of Afghanistan from dividing the conference:American church delegates in Melbourne invited the Russians for a meeting…to discuss the role of the churches as agents of reconciliation.At this meeting a decision was made to exclude the matter of Afghanistan from the conference’s proceedings and to concentrate on other issues where divisions were less sharp, such as the churches’ role in proclaiming peace. Thus the Russians succeeded in effectively neutralizing most of the opposition to proposals to omit the Afghanistan issue from final documents.[64]Still, there were some holdouts who insisted that a reference to the invasion be made in the conference’s proceedings, affirming that the Afghan people had a right to self-determination just as the people in Latin America. In response, one Russian archbishop stated that the Russian Orthodox delegation represents millions of believers in the Soviet Union. We represent millions of believers in the Soviet Union. Our people share the policy of our government which purports to give the Afghan government the assistance it asked for. Another Russian delegate warned that if Afghanistan was mentioned, our position in the WCC would be subject to reconsideration.[65]

Ultimately, the conference issued a statement that spoke of foreign powers [that] are intervening militarily and governments which oppress, exploit, imprison and kill innocent people.These countries were left unnamed, the statement said, because to do so may endanger the position – even the lives – of many of our brothers and sisters, some of whom are participating in this Conference. We therefore confess our inability to be as prophetic as we ought to be, as that may, in some instances, entail imposing martyrdom on our fellow believers in those countries – something we dare not do from a safe distance.[66]Delegates from the Russian Orthodox Church were able to keep Afghanistan off the table at another WCC meeting in August 1980. At this gathering of the Central Committee in Geneva, delegates affirmed a resolution that called on the United States to halt all assistance to El Salvador and to guarantee that it will not intervene to determine the fate of the Salvadoran people. But when it came to the issue of Afghanistan, Vermaat reports, the Central Committee did not mention either Afghanistan or the Soviet Union by name; instead it referred its followers back to a statement issued by the WCC’s Executive Committee in February 1980: The Central Committee, in light of the statement Threats to Peace adopted by the Executive Committee of the WCC…expresses its deep continuing concern regarding prevailing threats to peace, including those mentioned in the statement.…[67].The same process played itself out at the 1983 Assembly. A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said that calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan by the WCC Assembly would be politically misused and his church’s loyalty to the ecumenical movement would be challenged. As a result of this lobbying, Vermaat notes, the Soviet Union was allowed to set the terms of its own withdrawal – a clear acquiescence to a form of power politics so often condemned by the WCC when the aggressor or interventionist state is not the Soviet Union.[68]
Thus, church leaders from the Middle East were able to direct the organization’s ire at Israel, while representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were able to prevent the WCC from condemning the USSR for its invasion of Afghanistan.

The Second Intifada

One of the most troublesome aspects of the WCC’s witness about the Arab-Israeli conflict is that when violence against Israel escalated after the collapse of the peace process in 2000, the organization’s polemics against Israel escalated at the same time. When Israeli civilians were being blown up by suicide bombers during the Second Intifada, WCC institutions did not play a conciliatory role but broadcast a one-sided story that served to justify Palestinian violence against Israel and undermined Israel’s efforts to defend itself. WCC statements, especially those of the Central Committee, restate the Palestinian narrative lock, stock, and barrel.The tone that the WCC was going to take in response to the Second Intifada was revealed at a meeting of the Central Committee in Potsdam, Germany, in early 2001, just a few months after the uprising began. In a minute or resolution on the Second Intifada, the Central Committee expressed its deep sadness and grave concern at the new escalation of violence in the Palestinian autonomous and occupied territories as well as Israel over the last four months that has claimed a terrible toll of human life, especially among children and youth.[69] Elsewhere the minute states:We share the frustration and disappointments of our Palestinian sisters and brothers. We are deeply disturbed by and deplore a pattern of discrimination, routine humiliation, segregation and exclusion which restricts Palestinian freedom of movement, including access to the holy sites, and disproportionate use of military force by Israel, the denial of access to timely medical assistance, the destruction of property, including tens of thousands of olive trees, and which requires special permission for Palestinians to enter areas under Israeli jurisdiction and establishes cantonization of the land, so that Palestinian lands are separated from one another – a pattern so very reminiscent of policies that the WCC has condemned in the past.

The resolution also called on the WCC’s general secretary (Rev. Samuel Kobia) and staffers to support efforts toward a negotiated peace in the Middle East and to pay special attention to the future status of Jerusalem, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the increasing number of settlements and measures to enforce all relevant United Nations resolutions, including those regarding the withdrawal from all occupied territories – the Palestine occupied territories, the Golan Heights and Shaba’a.The onus for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, then, rests solely on Israel. The Central Committee does not offer one word of condemnation or criticism of the Palestinians, as if they have no responsibility whatsoever for the collapse of the peace process.The Central Committee’s refusal to grapple with the events that preceded the uprising was evident in a background report[70] commended to WCC member churches by the Central Committee on 29 January 2001. It states:The significant compromises made by the Palestinian leadership to meet Israel’s demands had not been reciprocated by significant steps on the part of Israel to implement their commitments, but rather by reiterated delays accompanied by ever increasing demands on the Palestine National Authority to provide security, inter alia, for illegal Israeli settlers. In the view of many Palestinians, the moribund peace process was dealt a death stroke in Jerusalem with the massive show of armed force at the time of the visit of Ariel Sharon.The notion that Palestinian leaders had made significant compromises flies in the face of some well-known history: Arafat turned down an offer at Camp David in the summer of 2000, failed to make a counteroffer, and then rejected a more generous offer in the form of the Clinton parameters a few months later. What significant compromises is the report talking about? And the assertion that Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount on 28 September 2000 dealt a death stroke to the peace process fails to take into account that two Israeli soldiers were killed in the days before his visit and that Palestinian leaders had been preparing for the Second Intifada soon after negotiations collapsed.

For example, in July 2000, Arafat had a letter published in the Palestinian Authority’s monthly magazine Al-Shahuda to the brave Palestinian people, telling them to be prepared. The battle for Jerusalem has begun. And on 30 August 2000, the Palestinian Authority stated in another official publication, Al-Sabah (The Morning), that it would declare a general Intifada for Jerusalem. The time for the intifada has arrived, the time for jihad has arrived.Moreover, Khaled Abu Toameh reported that as the Camp David summit was underway, Arafat’s Fatah organization, the biggest faction of the PLO, started training Palestinian teenagers for the upcoming violence in 40 training camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.In short, the Palestinian Authority was publicly preparing for the Second Intifada months before it began, demonstrating that at worst, Sharon’s visit was a pretext for the intifada, not the death knell of the peace process.[71]In the summer of 2001, the WCC sent a delegation to Israel as part of a fact-finding commission. In addition to unofficially attending the funeral of PLO leader Faisal Husseini (grandson of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) and meeting with various representatives of Orthodox churches in Jerusalem, the delegation met with Bishops Munib Younan, Michel Sabbah, and Riah Abu al-Assal, all of whom have spent their careers assailing Israel; UN officials; and Sabeel activists Jean Zaru and Hillary Rantisi. The delegation did meet with some Israeli groups such as Bat Shalom, BADIL, Rabbis for Human Rights, and the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions.[72] These, however, are all part of the Israeli peace camp, which has embraced a narrative of Jewish self-reform leading to peace that has been disconfirmed by recent history.[73]

Given the delegation’s itinerary, it is no surprise that its report on its trip failed to take into account the role Palestinian leaders played in the collapse of the peace process.[74] Instead, the report mischaracterized the events that preceded the Second Intifada by stating that during the delegation’s meetings the territorial compromise by the Palestinians was reiterated and Israel’s right to exist within secure and recognized borders was acknowledged. The call was to struggle against occupation, not Israel’s existence.Again, it is necessary to ask, what territorial compromise is the report talking about? The delegation framed Palestinian violence with bland euphemisms and excuses, saying it was told that the offensive and defensive measures taken by Palestinians are due to the international community’s failure to respond to the impunity Israel continues to enjoy, and the present total siege imposed on the Palestinian territories.The report included a long litany of how the Palestinians were suffering but no description of the violence endured by the Israelis, nor did it mention Hamas’s efforts to derail the peace process with its suicide attacks. The report failed to address Arafat’s misdeeds altogether. With such a one-sided narrative that ignored legitimate and undeniable Israeli concerns, the WCC delegation disqualified itself from providing credible witness about the conflict.

The WCC and the Durban Conference

The WCC’s response to the events at the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that took place in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 is a tour de force of intellectual and moral bankruptcy. In a press release issued on 7 September that year, the WCC’s delegation to the conference stated that it celebrates that such a forum was held, because it falls within the WCC’s long-cherished tradition of giving space, and supporting victims [of racism] to speak publicly.The delegation also reported that it was greatly helped by the sensitive explanations and support of its Palestinian members.[75]The statement failed to address the virulent anti-Semitism that was on display at the conference. Arab and Muslim extremists from the Middle East, along with their allies from the radical left in Europe and the United States, were able to convince the gathering to affirm an amalgam of ritualistic charges of genocide, racism, and ethnic cleansing targeted at Israel.Jews were singularly denied the right to participate in the proceedings at the conference because they could not be objective. The Jewish Center at the conference was closed because of threats of violence. Protesters carried signs stating that if Hitler had finished the job there were would be no state of Israel and no Palestinian suffering.[76] During the conference a Jewish doctor was beaten by people wearing checkered keffiyehs – the symbol of the Palestinian cause – who said Jews were the cause of all the problems in the Middle East. A local Jewish leader attributed the attack to the atmosphere at the conference.[77]

The WCC’s delegation commented on none of this, but merely remarked that there are some statements in the NGO forum document which are outside the WCC’s policy framework, and which the WCC cannot support, such as: equating Zionism with racism, describing Israel as an apartheid state, and the call for a general boycott of Israeli goods. This does not detract from the WCC’s support for the document as a whole.[78]The Durban Conference turned into an anti-Jewish hatefest, and the best the WCC’s delegation could do was say it disapproved some statements that were outside the WCC’s policy framework.The delegation also asserted that to focus on some sections of the NGO Forum document is disrespectful to all other sections, which cover a vast number of issues significant to the victims of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. Those wide concerns are represented within the membership of the WCC delegation and cannot be ignored.[79]With this affirmation, the WCC’s delegation ignored a central aspect of the Durban conference: it ignored the mistreatment of religious and ethnic minorities in Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East. Walid Phares reports that at the conference, there were no representatives from Southern Sudan, Darfur, Kurds, Berbers, Copts, Assyrio-Chaldeans, Mauritanian blacks, Arabs in Iran, or other persecuted groups in the Arab and Muslim world…. Discrimination against ethnic groups within the Arab and Muslim world wasn’t even on the agenda. Organizers detailed past historical, and of course Western, racism, but didn’t utter a single word on the present-day sufferings of hundreds of millions of disenfranchised peoples from the Atlas Mountains to the Himalayas.[80]The WC affirmed this distorted agenda before the conference started. In a background paper submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 15 August 2001, the WCC exhibited an exclusive focus on the impact of white colonialism on Third World peoples without acknowledging the impact Arab imperialism and expansionist Islam have had on minorities throughout the world. The backgrounder asserts that the dominant source of this social ill [racism] is white racism against people of colour around the world.It also warns that the role Christianity has played in denigrating and devaluing Indigenous contributions to the understanding of Christianity in the context of non-Western tradition has to be acknowledged.[81]The statement did allow that religious intolerance and the political manipulation of religion and religious affiliation are on the rise in many parts of the world, and are increasingly a factor in national and international conflict, and that certain religious teachings and practices contribute to and aggravate religious intolerance, as well as perpetuate cultural and racial discrimination.It even granted that certain religious enterprises have been used as catalysts for colonization, slavery and apartheid.[82]It just didn’t say where.

An Arafat Eulogy

When Yasser Arafat died in 2004, the WCC further revealed its pro-Palestinian tilt, sending a letter of condolence to Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei. Written by CCIA director Peter Weiderud, it said in part:President Arafat will be remembered for bringing the Palestinian people together and for his unique and tenacious contribution to the cause of establishing their national home.We stand with the Churches of the Holy Land to honour his commitment to their place in Palestinian society, its affairs and its future. President Arafat often made sure to mention the church as well as the mosque as core institutions of Palestinian national life. True to the customs of mutual respect among his diverse people, he celebrated Christmas with the churches of Bethlehem as circumstances permitted.On his long road as a leader, Yasser Arafat came to the recognition that true justice embraces peace, security and hope for both Palestinians and Israelis. His path has now ended, amid the rocks and thorns of occupation, at a distance from the goal he sought. As he is laid to rest the world will see – from the location of his final resting place – how far the Palestinian people must travel together.[83]Weiderud’s eulogy exonerated Arafat for his failure to protect the rights of Christians living in Palestinian areas during his tenure, his failure to negotiate in good faith at Camp David during the summer of 2000, and his rejection of the parameters a few months later. Forgotten was his indifference to the massacre of Christians at Damour, his support for Palestinian terrorism during the Second Intifada despite having agreed to put an end to it under the Oslo Accords. Forgotten was Arafat’s theft of billions of dollars of foreign aid intended to improve the lives of Palestinians and promote the creation of a viable Palestinian state.It is reasonable for an ecumenical organization to note the passing of Arafat and offer condolences to the Palestinian people, but the WCC did not have to laud the man in such a grotesque manner hearkening back to Koshy’s adulatory writings about the PLO in the early 1980s. In so doing, the WCC debased itself and its prophetic voice for peace.

Divestment

In February 2005, the WCC’s Central Committee expressed support for the divestment campaign in mainline American Protestant churches, which used a distorted historical narrative to justify singling Israel out for economic sanctions. After the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly passed a divestment resolution that stated the occupation was at the root of violence against innocents on both sides of the conflict – as if anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian society had nothing to do with the conflict[84] – the WCC’s Central Committee issued a minute lauding the decision. This action is commendable in both method and manner, uses criteria rooted in faith, and calls members to do the things that make for peace (Luke 19:42).[85]A few months later, after receiving harsh criticism from the Anti-Defamation League[86] and the Simon Wiesenthal Center,[87] the WCC issued an explanation[88] that tried to defend the Central Committee from charges of singling Israel out as a legitimate target for divestment. But the Central Committee had, in fact, done so by praising the PC(USA) for initiating a process of phased selective divestment from multinational companies involved in the occupation, making no reference to divesting from companies that profit from Palestinian violence.In July 2005, the WCC issued a press release detailing a talk by WCC general secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia at the 2005 conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews in Chicago. Kobia quoted the WCC’s 1948 Assembly statement regarding the Christian approach to the Jews and called anti-Semitism a sin against God and man and absolutely irreconcilable with the practice of the Christian faith. Nevertheless, he warned that divestment should not be compared with a call for boycott of Jewish goods and persons as in Germany in the 1930s.[89]As bothersome as it may be for proponents of BDS, the comparison between divestment and the boycott of Jewish goods is apt. Support for divestment was directed at Israel and no other country in the world, as if its actions were uniquely sinful and represented a singularly severe violation of international law. Kobia himself made this message explicit in a 2009 address to the WCC’s Central Committee, stating that Occupation along with the concomitant humiliation of a whole people for over six decades constitutes not just economic and political crimes but, like anti-Semitism, it is a sin against God.He continued: We have already said since 1948 that anti-Semitism was a sin against God. Are we ready to say that occupation is also a sin against God?[90]Kobia’s remark that We already said since 1948 that anti-Semitism was a sin against God” is illuminating. Notwithstanding the 1948 statement, anti-Semitism remains a problem particularly in the Middle East. Yet Kobia seems to think the WCC has done enough with its previous declarations and can now ignore the issue.And that is exactly what the WCC has done. While the organization has periodically issued warnings about anti-Semitism in a Christian and Western context, it has failed to address the problem as it pertains to the Middle East, where it is particularly severe as documented in a number of important texts.[91]

Response to the Flotilla

Kobia’s departure from the WCC in 2008 did not diminish its anti-Israeli polemics. On 1 June 2010, WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit issued a public statement lamenting the confrontation that took place between Israeli commandos and passengers on board the Mavi Marmara, part of the Free Gaza movement’s flotilla that attempted to bring Turkish-trained jihadists into the Gaza Strip using Western peace activists as cover. The vessel was stopped and boarded by Israeli commandos in the Mediterranean before it reached Gaza.Tveit mischaracterized the events in a particularly egregious manner, writing: We condemn the assault and killing of innocent people who were attempting to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, who have been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007. Tveit went on to denounce the flagrant violation of international law by Israel in attacking and boarding a humanitarian convoy in international waters.[92]Tveit’s depiction of events flies in the face of the videos of the incident, which show passengers of the Mavi Marmara attacking Israeli soldiers as they landed on its deck. One video even shows an Israeli soldier being stabbed. [93]Israeli soldiers, who were equipped with paintball guns, were beaten with iron bars, had their sidearms stolen, and were stabbed with knives. One soldier was thrown from one deck to another and lost consciousness as a result. Soldiers who were knocked unconscious were brought below decks to be kept as hostages. And as a boat of Israeli soldiers approached the Mavi Marmara, so-called activists attacked them with a box of plates and even a stun grenade. As a result of the fighting seven Israeli soldiers were injured, two seriously. Their adversaries were not innocent peace activists but trained jidadists using the Free Gaza movement as a cover to attack and create an international incident by achieving martyrdom. One of the so-called activists told a reporter before the confrontation: Right now we face one of two happy endings: either martyrdom or reaching Gaza.[94] A search of the WCC’s websites indicates that the organization did not update or correct its statements about the confrontation in the subsequent days or weeks. The PIEF did post, in its entirety, an article[95] originally published by the news outlet Ekklesia, which described the events as follows:Nine Turkish activists were shot dead by Israeli commandos. The IDF claimed that they were threatened and released doctored film to back this claim.Subsequent investigations have revealed that the soldiers shot first, and those on board claimed they were acting in self defence when invaded without warning.This is demonizing propaganda that passes off utter falsehoods as facts. What is it doing on a WCC website?

The WCC’s Anti-Israeli Bureaucracy

During and after the Second Intifada, the Central Committee made anti-Israeli activism part of the WCC’s bureaucracy by creating two organizations, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine Israel (EAPPI) and the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF). Created by a vote of the WCC’s Executive Committee in 2001, the EAPPI provides an infrastructure for anti-Israeli activists in WCC member churches to visit Israel and the West Bank, document the impact of Israeli security measures on the Palestinians, and broadcast a one-sided narrative to Christians outside the Middle East. The PIEF, established in 2007, serves as a platform for high-profile church leaders from throughout the world to assail Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. The EAPPI is largely devoted to helping laypeople from WCC member churches engage in anti-Israeli activism. The PIEF, on the other hand, provides the clergy from WCC member churches with the materials they can use to assail Israel and its supporters on both a theological and liturgical level.

The EAPPI

The EAPPI was created at the behest of church leaders in Jerusalem. This program, which was a central plank of the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence campaign,[96] has been a constant source of anti-Zionist propaganda. Operating in a manner similar to, and cooperating with, the Mennonite-founded and supported Christian Peacemaker Teams, EAPPI activists stand with Palestinians during confrontations with Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank. They draw attention to Israeli misdeeds but offer little, if any, criticism of the acts of Palestinian terror groups.[97] A perusal of the EAPPI’s website provides all that is needed to discern the group’s anti-Israeli agenda, which is made explicit on its homepage:The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) brings internationals to the West Bank to experience life under occupation. Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace. When they return home, EAs campaign for a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through an end to the occupation, respect for international law and implementation of UN resolutions.[98]For the EAPPI, the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is rooted solely in the occupation. For its activists, accompanying the Palestinians provides an opportunity to gather images and testimony that portray Israel as solely at fault for the ongoing existence of the conflict.[99]

The EAPPI has turned the tragic geography of the Arab-Israeli conflict into a theme park where wealthy Westerners can act out heroic fantasies and post the videos on the internet when they return home.[100] The group’s website pictures EAPPI activists standing heroically with rustic and beleaguered Palestinians who are waiting in line at checkpoints, watching forlornly as their homes are being demolished, or recovering from the effects of tear gas launched by Israeli soldiers at peaceful protests. EAPPI materials are not used to provide an accurate map, so to speak, of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but to excite the imaginations of its supporters and activists with a mythology that portrays innocent Palestinians suffering under the lash of the uniquely evil Jewish state.In a series of photos displayed on the EAPPI’s website,[101] an Israeli soldier is depicted as a Roman soldier menacing Mary and Joseph as they attempt to enter Bethlehem. Accompanying the photos is an article by EAPPI publicist Larry Fata, who reports that the confrontation was staged by the Civil Committee from the West Bank town of Sawahreh two days before Christmas in 2003. The demonstration emanated from a simple question: Would Mary and Joseph have been able to get to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus had they been traveling today? Fata continued:As the two approached the checkpoint, the idyllic Christmas-card scene was broken by the soldiers asking Mary and Joseph for IDs, by another soldier training a machine gun on us, and a third filming the whole proceeding, possibly for security purposes. The two soldiers manning the checkpoint took the whole event in their stride, asking the two actors in Arabic You’re re-creating the Mary and Joseph scene? One asked the two where they were from. As one observer in the crowed quipped Nazareth!, the two gave their true residences. This gave the answer to the basic question: Our Mary and Joseph could not cross….Why couldn’t Mary and Joseph cross in the 21st century? Our Mary has an Israeli passport and therefore cannot legally enter Bethlehem, which is part of the West Bank. Citizens of the State of Israel are not allowed to enter the West Bank for security reasons. Our Joseph has a West Bank ID and, as such, could legally go from one West Bank town to another in this area, but he didn’t have it with him at the time. Therefore he couldn’t cross either.[102].The remainder of the article describes the impact of checkpoints on the West Bank Palestinians, and how the presence of EAPPI activists serves to lower the level of tension at these checkpoints. To inoculate the EAPPI against anti-Israeli bias, Fata describes how the group’s activists work with Machsom Watch, an Israeli group that monitors the behavior of Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints. The mocking scare quotes Fata places around the word security in the above-quoted passage serve to make the Israelis look mean-spirited, foolish, and indifferent to the suffering that the checkpoints cause. In keeping with the sardonic tone of the article, published at the height of the Second Intifada, Fata does not mention the murderous campaign of suicide attacks that prompted Israel to impose security measures in the first place. For some reason, Fata, like other EAPPI activists, found this violence unremarkable.

ChainReaction

Between 2005 and 2007, EAPPI published on a quarterly basis ChainReaction, a decidedly anti-Zionist publication that portrayed Palestinian hostility toward Israel as justified and understandable and Israeli feelings of fear and hostility toward Palestinians as an irrational aftereffect of the Holocaust from which they refuse to recover. Palestinian terrorism during the Second Intifada is glossed over if mentioned at all, and usually it is not. The security barrier is depicted as a singular cause of Palestinian suffering, Palestinian children as victims of Israeli security measures, Palestinian women as mournful witnesses to their charges’ suffering, and Palestinian men as helpless but loving fathers unable to protect their innocent sons from being shot or imprisoned for unexplained reasons. Allegedly principled Jewish critics of Israel are constantly cited to lend an aura of credibility to this anti-Zionist fantasy, which at times traffics in naked indifference to the safety of Israeli Jews.For example, Rifat Odeh Kassis, the EAPPI’s international program coordinator and project manager, exhibited shocking callousness toward the Israelis who were forcibly removed from the Gaza Strip in 2005. In this regard, Kassis plays a role similar to that played by Ninan Koshy in the 1970s – a WCC bureaucrat who used the resources entrusted to him to demonize Israel and assail its legitimacy.[103] In an August 2005 editorial, Kassis wrote that he like many people was obliged to sit in front of the TV, from the 15th of August till the 12th of September, watching the drama series of the withdrawal of the settlers unfold – people who in simple terms were not supposed to be there in the first place; their presence in Gaza being contradictory to international law and considered a crime against humanity by many legal experts.[104]Calling the presence of Israeli Jews in Gaza a crime against humanity justifies violence against them pure and simple.In another editorial in 2007, Kassis assails Israel’s legitimacy. Writing that the 1947 UN partition plan was a major injustice of the Palestinian people, he asserts that the UN should instead have called for the creation of “one state where Jews and Arabs would each enjoy self-determination.[105] Kassis, a Palestinian Christian, knows well how non-Muslim minorities are treated in Muslim-majority countries and that Jewish self-determination in a Muslim-majority state is simply an oxymoron. In this same paragraph, he states that the partition plan intended the creation of two states for both nations, but…was never completely enacted.[106] In his narrative, Kassis omits a crucial fact: the plan was not enacted because while Israel accepted it, the Arabs did not. This is basic history that any honest commentator would include.Kassis is not the only source of such commentary. One particularly egregious case, titled 40 Ways to End the Occupation, appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of ChainReaction. In this article, inspired by Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, EAPPI activists list forty ways people can assail Israel. They call on people to name the true adversary – supporters of the occupation,expose the occupation, expose the evil of the wall by painting on its mural,boycott settlement products, and to support an artistic and cultural boycott of Israel.The article even calls on activists to break the law: Hack (government) websites.[107]

In addition to ChainReaction, the EAPPI published other pamphlets that focused on Israeli policies (such as the building of the security barrier) without providing any context of Palestinian violence. In 2003, the EAPPI issued Security or Segregation? The Humanitarian Consequences of Israel’s Wall of Separation,[108] which described in detail the security barrier’s impact on Palestinians without offering any information about the terror attacks that preceded the barrier’s construction. The barrier, readers are told, confiscates Palestinian land, denies farmers access to their land, prevents Palestinians from getting to their jobs in Israel, and puts villages into a no-man’s land between the wall and the Green Line. The report also laments that the West Bank town of Qalqiliya is surrounded by a concrete wall and watchtowers; and gives detailed accounts of confrontations between Israeli contractors and soldiers and West Bank Palestinians.These are realities that would-be peacemakers must take into account when addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict. The barrier does have humanitarian consequences. So did the terror attacks that prompted its construction. The barrier was not built in a vacuum but after a series of brutal suicide bombings, emanating from West Bank towns such as Qalqiliya, that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000. In the narrative offered by Security or Segregation?,the only actions that have any moral consequences are Israeli actions. Palestinians are innocent victims who are always being acted upon, oppressed, and dictated to, and are never responsible for their own deeds.A similar narrative is presented by another booklet the EAPPI published in 2005. This one, titled Sawahreh against the Wall: The Struggle of a Palestinian Village, Dealing with the Infringements on Freedom Brought About by Israel’s Ever-Tightening Occupation, details the security barrier’s impact on a town of approximately twenty-four thousand people. The previously mentioned Larry Fata wrote the introduction, which states:The village of Sawahreh is literally and figuratively up against the Wall. Situated partly in East Jerusalem and partly in the West Bank, Sawahreh is indicative of all the daily obstacles that Palestinians must endure due to Israel’s continuing Occupation. The coming Separation Wall is only the latest and most obvious symbol of the stranglehold the Occupation exerts on the Palestinian population.The route of the coming Wall, cutting right through Sawahreh, threatens to slice the village into three parts. The people of Sawahreh are protesting against the Wall while at the same time having their backs up against it. They are fighting for their very survival as a people and a culture as the government of Israel seeks to wall them in, suffocating their prospects for self-determination.[109]

No real discussion of the security barrier can take place without an honest depiction of the collapse of the peace process, the violence of the Second Intifada, and the impact this violence had on Israeli society, particularly its impact on the credibility of the Israeli peace movement. A genuine attempt at understanding the security barrier would also require an effort to assess the motivation behind the terror attacks, particularly those perpetrated by Hamas, a group dedicated to Israel’s destruction.Yet nowhere in either of these booklets, or in ChainReaction, does the EAPPI provide any information about any of these issues. While the EAPPI activists found numerous opportunities to speak with Palestinians whose lives were disrupted by the barrier, they did not even acknowledge the suffering endured by Israeli victims of suicide bombings. Their suffering is unremarkable, their stories simply not worth the time or effort to gather. Instead one is left with the impression that the Israeli people and their leaders are monsters who decided to build a barrier out of a desire to make Palestinians suffer.This is demonization pure and simple.

The PIEF

The PIEF was established to promote inter-religious action for peace and justice that serves all peoples of the Middle East. Like the EAPPI, however, it is motivated by a singular focus on Israeli policies. In the resolution establishing the PIEF, the Central Committee instructed the forum to catalyse and co-ordinate new and existing church advocacy for peace, [and] aim at ending the illegal occupation in accordance with UN resolutions.…[110]In line with this agenda, the PIEF has focused on Israel’s alleged sins to the exclusion of virtually all other aspects of the conflict. In particular, the PIEF serves as the platform for ecumenical statements that place the onus for ending the conflict on Israel. In 2009, the PIEF helped publicize the well-known Kairos Palestine Document, and two years earlier it helped broadcast the Amman Call, issued by church leaders who had gathered in Jordan for the PIEF’s founding. This document is notable in its support for the Palestinian right of return,which, if exercised, will mean the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.[111]

In 2008, the PIEF organized an ecumenical conference titled Promised Land. The final document was quite specific in describing the motives for this conference:After decades of dispossession, discrimination, illegal occupation, violence and bloodshed in Palestine-Israel, Christians are challenged to continue to study, critique and re-vision theologies of land in order to promote life-affirming Christian visions and responses to the conflict. This process explores both the contexts in which our theologies were created and their consequences for millions of human lives.[112].In other words, Israel’s misdeeds against the Palestinians require an interrogation of Christian theology and particularly Christian Zionism, which affirms the promise made to the Jewish people in the Book of Genesis. The anti-Israeli cast of the conference is evident in its program. Not every speaker was identifiably hostile to Israel, but a sufficient number of them have assailed Israel to indicate that the goal of the conference was not to promote peace but to place the Jewish state before the seat of judgment. Greetings were offered by WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia, who, as noted, supported divestment and declared the occupation a sin against God. Greetings were also offered by Michel Sabbah, former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who in February 2002 gave a rousing defense of Palestinian suicide attacks during the Second Intifada:The situation is simply military occupation, from 1967 until today. Ours is an occupied country, which explains why people are tired and blow themselves up. The Israelis tell Palestinians: Stop the violence and you will have what you want without violence. But one has seen in the history of the last ten years that the Israelis have moved only forced by violence. Unfortunately, nothing but violence makes people march. And not only here. Every country has been born in blood.[113]Under normal circumstances, a willingness to excuse suicide bombing would disqualify a speaker from appearing at an ecumenical conference devoted to peacemaking. But not Sabbah, and not when the conference is organized by the WCC.
Another presenter at the conference was Dr. Geries Khoury of the Al Liqa Center for Religious and Heritage Studies in the Holy Land. The PIEF does not provide a written précis of his statement as it does for some of the other presenters. In his 1989 book The Intifada of Heaven and Earth,[114] however, Khoury is an anti-Israeli polemicist par excellence. In the English summary of this book, published in Arabic, Khoury promotes a theology of the Intifada in which he asserts: Herod is nowadays represented by the rulers of Israel who are behaving as he did and the newly-born babies will never stop calling for justice, truth and peace in the manner of the babe of the grotto.[115]

The cover of Khoury’s book depicts a Catholic church with the Palestinian flag attached to the cross atop the steeple, which is covered with graffiti that reads in Arabic Islamic Jihad and Allah is greatest. Biblical scholar Malcolm Lowe notes that Khoury perhaps unwittingly chose to symbolize his Palestinian liberation theology with the desecration of a Catholic church by Muslims, a desecration perpetrated in the name of the intifada that his book glorifies. This egregious slip-up is as revealing as it is absurd. It accurately typifies how the book desecrates the Christian vocabulary in the service of the Islamic jihad against Israel, regardless of the damage done to the church.[116]

The WCC and Islam

The WCC has created two organizations dedicated to assailing Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza and is willing to interrogate Christian and Jewish beliefs regarding God’s promise of land to the Jews. Yet it has no bureaucracy charged with promoting the rights of Christians living in Muslim-majority countries, and the organization has made little effort to assess the connection between Islamist ideology and hostility toward Christians in the Middle East.[117].This failure has harmed the WCC’s ability to advocate for Christianity in the Middle East except when it can be portrayed as being under assault by the Jewish state. In short, the WCC cannot address the problem of Islamist violence against Christians without pointing the finger of blame at Israel. This was clear in a statement by the Central Committee on 22 February 2011. Issued in response to two brutal attacks against Christians – one in Baghdad on 31 October 2010 and the other in Alexandria on 31 December 2010 – the statement does not name the suspected attackers, nor address in any way Muslim teachings about non-Muslims and the role these have played in fomenting violence against Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East.[118].Instead, the document does everything it can to place the onus for the attacks on Israel. It invokes the Kairos Palestine Document (which assails Israel) as a challenge to the ecumenical family and the international community to put an end to the Israeli occupation. The Central Committee also states that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and of other Arab lands remains a source of unrest and tensions in the region and beyond, and a major obstacle to achieving a just peace that can bring security, stability, and prosperity to all peoples in the region – as if there was a logical connection between what happens in the West Bank and the murder of Christians in Iraq and Egypt.As for what WCC member churches should do in response to the attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt, the Central Committee recommends that these churches study and disseminate the Kairos Palestine document and…listen and concretely respond to the Palestinian Christian aspirations and calls expressed in this document – as if listening to distorted Palestinian Christian complaints about Israel will help understand the ideology of Islamists elsewhere in the Middle East.And finally, the Central Committee warns that an equally major concern is that these incidents are being exploited by some political parties in several countries as well as by some religious groups to fuel islamophobic tendencies and negative images about Islam.In other words, when Muslim extremists killed Christians in Iraq and Egypt, the WCC’s Central Committee did not respond by condemning the attackers and their ideology but, instead, by assailing Israel and raising the specter of Islamophobia so as to silence critics of Islam.

The conclusion is inescapable: the WCC’s obsession with Israel and belief that it is the source of all the troubles in the Middle East has made it impossible for the organization to address an ongoing campaign of religious cleansing perpetrated by Muslim extremists against Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Consequently, Muslim extremists can engage in a slow, grinding campaign to eliminate Christianity from the Middle East without effective challenge from the World Council of Churches.

[1] What is the World Council of Churches? World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we.html, accessed 6 July 2011.

[2] The WCC has issued numerous statements in support of nuclear disarmament, which can be seen at Documents on nuclear weapons, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/international-affairs/peace-and-disarmament/nuclear-weapons.html, accessed 6 July 2011.

[3] Peter Weiderud, Religious Freedom and Liberty in the Emerging Context, presentation by Peter Weiderud, director, CCIA, at the EKD Working Group on Religious Freedom, Hanover, 18 December 2003, www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/international-affairs/human-rights-and-impunity/religious-freedom-and-liberty-in-the-emerging-context.html, accessed 6 July 2011.

[4] Anonymous, Women in Church and Society, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/the-wcc-and-the-ecumenical-movement-in-the-21st-century/women-in-church-and-society.html, accessed 11 July 2011.

[5] Anonymous, WCC and Climate Change, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/gr/programmes/justice-diakonia-and-responsibility-for-creation/eco-justice/climate-change.html, accessed 11 July 2011.

[6] Anonymous, Public witness: addressing power, affirming peace, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace.html, accessed 11 July 2011.

[7] Anonymous, Assembly, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/organization-structure/governing-bodies/assembly.html, accessed 8 July 2011.

[8] Anonymous, Central Committee, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/organization-structure/governing-bodies/central-committee.html, accessed 8 July 2011.

[9] Anonymous, Executive Committee, www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/organization-structure/governing-bodies/executive-committee.html, 8 July 2011.

[10] A cursory search of the websites of mainline U.S. Protestant churches will reveal numerous links to WCC documents.

[11] Professor Haim Genizi (curriculum vitae), www.biu.ac.il/JS/hy/genizi.html, accessed 16 May 2011.

[12] Haim Genizi, The Attitude of the World Council of Churches (WCC) toward the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, in The Protestant-Jewish Conundrum, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Jonathan Frank and Ezra Mendelsohn, eds., Vol. 24, published for the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by Oxford University Press, 2010, 91-105.

[13] Ibid., 91.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid., 102.

[16] Ibid.

[17] www.oikoumene.org.

[18] CCAR resolution on the 2009 Kairos Document, Board of Trustees, Central Conference of American Rabbis, 15 April 2010, http://data.ccarnet.org/cgi-bin/resodisp.pl?file=kairos&year=2010, accessed 17 July 2011.

[19] Natan Sharansky, 3D Test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization, Jewish Political Studies Review 16:3-4 (Fall 2004), www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=84&FID=625, accessed 4 May 2011.

[20] It is important not to view the WCC as a monolithic body. As can be expected from any large organization with a number of moving parts, there is some slippage between the decisions made by the WCC’s various decision-making bodies such as the Executive Committee, the Central Committee, the Assembly, the CCIA and the institutions they supervise such as the EAPPI and the PIEF. EAPPI materials, for example, are sometimes accompanied by a disclaimer that says they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the WCC as a whole. Nevertheless, the WCC holds the copyright for these materials, which are produced and broadcast by WCC staffers and activists using WCC funds. Consequently, while it cannot be said that the WCC is speaking ex cathedra through the EAPPI or the PIEF, the organization’s leaders do allow its staffers and activists to use WCC resources to assail Israel on a regular basis. The overall signal coming out of the WCC’s decision-making bodies, its staffers, and the programs it supports is decidedly hostile to Israel. This hostility became much more pronounced after the start of the Second Intifada.

[21] The phrase lethal narrative was coined by Nidra Poller to describe the story told by Muslim extremists and their allies to justify violence against the West in general and Israel in particular. See Nidra Poller, Lethal Narratives: Weapon of Mass Destruction in the War against the West, New English Review, June 2009, www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/40822/sec_id/40822, accessed 8 July 2011.

[22] The process that led to the creation of the World Council of Churches in 1948 began at a meeting of thirty-five church representatives held at Westfield College in Hampstead, England, in July 1937, just two years before the outbreak of World War II. At this meeting, the delegates approved a resolution that called for the merger of two preexisting ecumenical movements, one known as Life and Work and the other as Faith and Order,into one body. In May the following year, a group of delegates met in Utrecht to prepare a draft constitution for the organization. A meeting of the Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches in January 1939 called for the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches to take place in August 1941, but this assembly did not occur because of the fighting that broke out in September 1939. Members of the Provisional Committee continued to meet during World War II, and more churches joined the organization as the war progressed. In 1946, the Provisional Committee met to set the date for the First Assembly of the organization, which took place in 1948. (See The World Council of Churches, Its Process of Formation: Minutes and reports of the meeting of the Provisional Committee Held at Geneva from February 21st to 23rd, 1946; the constitutional documents of the World Council of Churches and an introduction by W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft [Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1946], 5-14.)

[23] For details about this process, see Robert P. Ericksen and Susannah Heschel, eds., Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999), 50-52.

[24] The World Council of Churches, Its Process of Formation: Minutes and reports of the meeting of the Provisional Committee Held at Geneva from February 21st to 23rd, 1946; the constitutional documents of the World Council of Churches and an introduction by W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1946), 33-34.

[25] Ibid., 35-36.

[26] After a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, the WCC reiterated its opposition to anti-Semitism at its Third Assembly, which took place in New Delhi in 1961. After recalling a portion of the 1948 resolution condemning anti-Semitism, the Assembly stated that it renews this plea in view of the fact that situations continue to exist in which Jews are subject to discrimination and even persecution. After calling on WCC member churches to do all in their power to resist every form of anti-semitism, the Assembly stated that the Crucifixion should not be so presented as to fasten upon the Jewish people of today responsibilities which belong to corporate humanity and not to one race or community. Jews were the first to accept Jesus and Jews are not the only ones who do not yet recognize him.These statements have not stopped the WCC from producing theological texts that include, in the words of Amy-Jill Levine, anti-Jewish obscenities. Levine reports that the WCC, along with Orbis Books, Fortress Press, numerous university presses, and others, also distributes the teaching of contempt for Judaism and Jews. The organization’s formal pronouncements stand in contradiction to what its press publishes and what its officers and clergy write.In her research, Levine discovered
new manifestations of old problems: a view of Judaism not only as misogynistic but also as filled with taboos, particularly uninformed understandings of rabbinic literature, a version of multiculturalism that praises all distinct practices except for those associated with Judaism, and a theology that intimates the ancient heresy known as Marcionism by distinguishing the God of Judaism from the God of Jesus.

See Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanfranscico, 2006), 169-171.Levine also reports that, to its credit, the WCC has admitted the problem and taken steps to rectify it. She notes, however, that there is still a problem. But, what is on the library shelves in Lagos and Lima, Nairobi and Nashville, remains fodder for anti-Judaism. In the summer of 2004, when I was living in a Maryknoll convent in the Philippines, I found such material easily available, waiting to infect another generation. See Anonymous, Preaching and Teaching the New Testament: Promoting Anti-Judaism, Anti-Defamation League, 1 November 2007, www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/newtestament.htm, accessed 13 July 2011.

[27] The First Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Amsterdam), Committee IV, Concerns of the Churches: The Christian Approach to the Jews, The Message and Reports of the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches: With Aids to Study and Discussion (London: World Council of Churches, 1948), 79. The relevant text can also be seen at

http://jcrelations.net/en/?item=1489, accessed 6 July 2011. Note that as of 6 July 2011, the WCC’s extract of this resolution posted on the internet (www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/assembly/amsterdam-1948/concerns-of-the-churches-the-emergence-of-israel-as-a-state.html) omits the crucial passage about Israel being a cause of anti-Semitism in the future.

[28] Paul Charles Merkley, Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), 45.

[29] Isaac Rottenberg, The Turbulent Triangle: Christians, Jews, Israel (Hawley, PN: Red Mountain Associates, 1989), 49.

[30] World Council of Churches Central Committee, Statement on the Middle East, Report from Reference Committee II, Minutes and Reports of the Twentieth Meeting, Heraklion, Crete, Greece (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1967), 47.

[31] Gershom Gorenberg, The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 (New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 10.

[32] Ibid., 12.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Statement on the Middle East, The Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Uppsala, July 1968), www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/uppsala-1968/statement-on-the-middle-east.html, accessed 18 July 2011.

[36] This letter is quoted at length in another letter to the Central Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Front from CCIA director Leopoldo J. Niilus, dated 2 June 1972.

[37] Palestinian National Charter of 1964, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, www.un.int/wcm/content/site/palestine/pid/12363, accessed 8 July 2011.

[38] The text of this telegram was included in Eugene Carson Blake’s letter to the Central Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Front, dated 6 September 1972.

[39] Lebanon was the scene of severe acts of violence and oppression as a result of a civil war that began with the attempted assassination of the country’s president, Pierre Gemayel, a Christian Phalangist, on 13 April 1975. In response to the attack, which left four dead, Phalangists, threatened by the PLO’s growing influence in Lebanon, attacked a busload of mostly-civilian Palestinians and killed twenty-seven passengers. This was the first of many massacres that tore Lebanon apart in the ensuing decades. The war was on, and there was no force capable of stopping it, writes Sandra Mackey in A Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), Kindle location 1050. Some, but not all of these massacres were perpetrated by the PLO.

[40] Murray Kahl, Yasir Arafat and the Christians of Lebanon, Arutz Sheva, 13 January 2002, www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/786, accessed 8 July 2011.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Fay Willey et al., The Fall of Tal Zataar, Newsweek, 23 August 1976, 49.

[43] The WCC’s Executive Appeal on Lebanon, Ecumenical Review 28-3 (July 1976): 350.

[44] World Council of Churches Central Committee, Lebanon, Minutes, Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, 10-18 August 1976, 43.

[45] For example, on 22 May 1970 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command) – a constituent body of the PLO – killed twelve civilians, including eight children, on an Israeli school bus traveling on the road between Avivim and Dovev. In May 1974, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) took 120 people, most of them children, hostage at Maalot for two days. At the end of the standoff, twenty-five people including twenty-two children were murdered by the PFLP. And in 1978, PLO terrorists infiltrated Israel, hijacked a bus, and murdered nearly everyone on it. The PLO also had launched numerous artillery strikes that drove Israeli civilians into bomb shelters. At the time of Israel’s invasion, the PLO was using the cease-fire to rearm and prepare for another round of violence.

[46] Commission of the Churches on International Affairs et al., Invasion of Lebanon: Christian Response in Face of the Threat to Lebanese and Palestinian Existence,World Council of Churches, 1982.

[47] All of the responses included in the compendium condemned Israel for its actions and gave the PLO a pass. For example, the WCC reprinted a telegram sent by leaders of the United Presbyterian Church to the Reagan administration on 9 June 1982. It stated that Present military actions by Israel forces have violated the sovereignty of Lebanon and broken the cease-fire arranged by Ambassador Habib between Israel and the PLO, which has been observed by the PLO for nine months. Israel seized upon the attempted assassination of Ambassador Argov as cause to mount a massive bombing of Lebanon despite PLO denials of involvement and before any evidence of PLO culpability.The United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ issued a similar statement that condemned Israel for transgressing the bounds of legitimate self-defense. A press release from the Middle East Council of Churches – which has long represented many of the dhimmi churches operating in Muslim-majority countries in the region – also condemned Israel and said nothing about the PLO’s misdeeds.

[48] Ibid., 5.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Ibid., 8-9.

[51] Arafat’s Speech to DFLP 13th Anniversary Rally, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 23 February 1982. Source: Voice of Palestine (i) in English 1500 gmt, (ii) in Arabic 1630 gmt, 21 February 1982. (The quoted section is from the Arabic translation.)

[52] Fatah political platform adopted by the Fourth Fatah Conference in May 1980, in Raphael Israeli, ed., PLO in Lebanon: Selected Documents (New York: St. Martin’s, 1983), 13.

[53] David K. Shipler, Lebanese Tell of Anguish of Living Under the P.L.O., New York Times, 25 July 1982.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Frank Gervasi, A story of PLO terror in Lebanon: Prominent Christians claim murders, rapes, mutilations are commonplace, Los Angeles Times Examiner, 13 July 1982.

[56] Commission of the Churches on International Affairs et al.,Invasion of Lebanon: Christian Response in Face of the Threat to Lebanese and Palestinian Existence, World Council of Churches, 1982, 5.

[57] Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, Statement on the Middle East, Minutes of the Thirty-Fourth Meeting, Geneva (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982), 83.

[58] Sixth Assembly Statement on the Middle East, World Council of Churches General Assembly, Vancouver, July-August 1983, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/vancouver-1983/statement-on-the-middle-east.html, accessed 19 July 2011.

[59] Ibid., 53.

[60] Erick R. Nelson and Alan F. H. Wisdom, Human Rights Advocacy in the Mainline Protestant Churches (2000-2003),Institute on Religion and Democracy, 2004, 17. In its assessment of the WCC’s witness on human rights, the IRD reported that out of the eighty-three human rights criticisms leveled at various countries throughout the world, Israel was the target of 36 or 43 percent of these statements while other nations with much worse human rights records such as Haiti, Cuba, Burma, Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe – all nations designated by Freedom House – only received a total of sixteen criticisms from the WCC (12-13).

[61] The full text of the resolution can be seen at J. A. Emerson Vermaat, The Would Council of Churches and the Afghanistan Crisis 1980-1984, Conflict Quarterly 5:3 (summer 1985): 18, http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/viewFile/14679/15748, accessed 12 July 2011.

[62] Ibid., 6.

[63] Ibid., 8.

[64] Ibid.

[65] Ibid., 9.

[66] Ibid., 9-10.

[67] When confronted with the difference between the Central Committee’s silence on Afghanistan and its robust condemnation of North Korea’s attack on South Korea in 1950, the WCC’s general secretary informed his listeners that Korea had a strong Christian community while Afghanistan had none. In fact, the country involved is strongly pagan. One cannot refer to it in the same way (ibid., 11).

[68] Ibid., 14.

[69] World Council of Churches Central Committee, Minute on the situation in the Holy Land after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising, adopted by the Central Committee, Potsdam, Germany, 29 January-6 February 2001, www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/international-affairs/regional-concerns/middle-east/israeli-palestinian-conflict-minute-on-the-situation-in-the-holy-land-after-the-outbreak-of-the-second-palestinian-uprising.html, accessed 20 July 2011.

[70] World Council of Churches, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Background Document on the Situation in the Middle East, Commended to the churches by the Central Committee, 29 January-February 2001, www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/international-affairs/regional-concerns/middle-east/israeli-palestinian-conflict-minute-on-the-situation-in-the-holy-land-after-the-outbreak-of-the-second-palestinian-uprising.html, accessed 29 August 2011.

[71] Khaled Abu Toameh, How the war began,Jerusalem Post, 20 September 2002. Toameh also reports:Imad Faluji, the PA communications minister, admitted on October 11, 2001, that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon’s provocation. He said: Whoever thinks that the intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon’s visit to Al-Aksa Mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat’s return from the Camp David negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on President Clinton. [Arafat] remained steadfast and challenged [Clinton]. He rejected the American terms and he did it in the heart of the US.

[72] Programme of Visit, World Council of Churches Delegation to Occupied Palestinian Territories/Israel 27 June-July 2001, http://web.archive.org/web/20080310190028/www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/visitprog.html, accessed 15 July 2011.

[73] For a discussion of this phenomenon, see Kenneth Levin, The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege (Hanover, NH: Smith & Kraus, 2005).

[74] World Council of Churches, Report of the WCC delegation to the Occupied Palestinean [sic] Territories & Israel June 27-July 1, 2001, 6 August 2001, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/middle-east-peace/report-of-delegation-to-israelpalestine.html, accessed 15 July 2011.

[75] World Council of Churches, Background paper on the draft declaration and programme of action, submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 15 August 2001, www.oikoumene.org/es/documentacion/documents/comisiones-del-cmi/asuntos-internacionales/united-nation-relations/world-conferences/world-conference-against-racism-racial-discrimination-xenophobia-and-related-intolerance-durban-south-africa-26-august-7-september-2001.html, accessed 21 July 2011.

[76] Michael J. Jordan, Jewish Activists Stunned by Hostility, Anti-Semitism at Durban Conference, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5 September 2001; Aleza Goldsmith, Lantos: I saw the raw face of anti-Semitism in Durban, Jewish Bulletin, 14 September 2001; Caroline B. Glick, Human Rights and Wrongs, Moment, August 2002.

[77] Doctor Beaten in S.A. by attackers chanting anti-Jewish slogans, Haaretz.com, 4 September 2001, www.haaretz.com/news/doctor-beaten-in-s-a-by-attackers-chanting-anti-jewish-slogans-1.68881, accessed 22 July 2011.

[78] World Council of Churches, Background paper on the draft declaration and programme of action, submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 15 August 2001, www.oikoumene.org/es/documentacion/documents/comisiones-del-cmi/asuntos-internacionales/united-nation-relations/world-conferences/world-conference-against-racism-racial-discrimination-xenophobia-and-related-intolerance-durban-south-africa-26-august-7-september-2001.html, accessed 21 July 2011.

[79] Ibid.

[80] Walid Phares, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), 69.

[81] World Council of Churches, Background paper on the draft declaration and programme of action, submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 15 August 2001, www.oikoumene.org/es/documentacion/documents/comisiones-del-cmi/asuntos-internacionales/united-nation-relations/world-conferences/world-conference-against-racism-racial-discrimination-xenophobia-and-related-intolerance-durban-south-africa-26-august-7-september-2001.html, accessed 21 July 2011.

[82] Ibid.

[83] World Council of Churches, WCC expresses condolences for Arafat, hopes for justice with peace, 11 November 2004, www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/browse/10/article/1634/wcc-expresses-condolences.html?tx_ttnews%5Bcat%5D=95%2C27&cHash=ce10bde8e6291d0bac91a1ceac05b3c5, accessed 21 July 2011.

[84] Dexter Van Zile, The U.S. Presbyterian Church’s Renewed Attack on Israel, Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism 98, June 2010, www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=381&PID=470&IID=3876, accessed 22 July 2011.

[85] World Council of Churches, Minute on Certain Economic Measures for Peace in Israel/Palestine, World Council of Churches Central Committee, Geneva, 15-22 February 2005, www.oikoumene.org/fr/documentation/documents/commissions-du-coe/affaires-internationales/regional-concerns/middle-east/minute-on-certain-economic-measures-for-peace-in-israelpalestine.html, accessed 21 July 2011.

[86] ADL Dismayed by World Council of Churches Decision to Pursue Divestment as Means to Punish Israel, Anti-Defamation League, 22 February 2005, www.adl.org/PresRele/ChJew_31/4652_31.htm, accessed 22 July 2011.

[87] World Council of Churches Refuses SWC Request to Rescind Israel Divestment Campaign, Simon Wiesenthal Center, 24 March 2005, www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4442249&ct=5851287, accessed 22 July 2011.

[88] Understanding the WCC Central Committee Minute on Economic Measures for Peace in Israel/Palestine, World Council of Churches, 22 July 2005, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/middle-east-peace/understanding-the-minute-on-economic-measures-for-peace-in-israelpalestine.html, accessed 22 July 2011.

[89] At Jewish-Christian gathering Kobia talks about divestment, calls for new alliances for life, World Council of Churches, 25 July 2005, www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/browse/13/article/1634/at-jewish-christian-gathe.html?tx_ttnews%5Bcat%5D=112%2C28&cHash=8d728d552032c1af818b1223d19560c6, accessed 29 August 2011.

[90] Samuel Kobia, The Courage to Hope and the Future of the Ecumenical Movement, Report of the General Secretary, World Council of Churches Central Committee, 26 August-2 September 2009, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2009/reports-and-documents/report-of-the-general-secretary.html, accessed 22 July 2011.

[91] See Robert S. Wistrich, Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger, American Jewish Committee, 2002; Robert S. Wistrich, A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad (New York: Random House, 2009); Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (Ann Arbor, MI: Sheridan Books, 2009); Tarek Fatah, The Jew Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths That Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2010).

[92] Olav Fykse Tveit, Public Statement condemning the assault on a Gaza-bound vessel,” World Council of Churches, 1 June 2010, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/statements/statement-on-the-storming-of-a-gaza-bound-vessel.html, accessed 11 July 2011.

[93] Alex Safian, Latest Video Clips: Gaza Flotilla Incident, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting, 20 June 2010, www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=81&x_article=1859, accessed 25 July 2011.

[94] Palestinian Media Watch, Gaza flotilla participants invoked the killing of Jews, 31 May 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3L7OV414Kk&feature=player_embedded, accessed 29 August 2011.

[95] Ekklesia staff writers, Women-only aid ship due to sail to blockaded Gaza,” 8 August 2010, www.oikoumene.org/de/programme/oeffentliches-zeugnis-macht-hinterfragen-fuer-frieden-eintreten/kirchen-im-nahen-osten/pief/news-events/a/article/7313/women-only-aid-ship-due-t.html, 25 July 2011.

[96] Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine Israel, Overview, www.eappi.org/index.php?id=4565, accessed 11 July 2011.

[97] Dexter Van Zile, Key Mennonite Institutions against Israel, Post Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, 83, 2 August 2009, www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=3023, accessed 12 July 2011.

[98] EAPPI’s homepage, www.eappi.org/index.php?id=4566, accessed 11 July 2011.

[99] This message is offered explicitly in an EAPPI promotional video, Ending Occupation: Voices for a Just Peace, produced by the WCC in 2002. An anonymous church leader in Jerusalem speaking off-camera states: It’s the role of the church to remind the world that the root cause of the problem in the Middle East is occupation and once the occupation ends then there will be no violence, no counter-violence.

[100] Such theme-park activism may not remain the exclusive domain of well-heeled Westerners. In November 2010, EAPPI held a training seminar for eighteen activists in Quezon City in an apparent effort to recruit accompaniers from the Philippines. The seminar was part of a larger conference organized by a Philippine activist group, Peace For Life, that inculcated attendees in the tenets of a counter-imperial faith. Rev. Dr. Everett Mendoza reportedly called on participants to denounce the royal and imperial theology that underpins the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the triumphalist religious rhetoric that grounds US foreign policy in the region. According to conference materials, The forum also agreed to support the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign. See Anonymous, Just and Lasting Peace in Palestine: A Philippine Solidarity Conference, Peace For Life, www.peaceforlife.org/news/local/2010/10-1207-philconferenceonpalestine.html, accessed 16 May 2011.

[101] Mary and Joseph Feature, http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/photo-galleries/other/maryjoseph.html, accessed 12 July 2011.

[102] Larry Fata, How would Mary and Joseph have fared at a checkpoint?, World Council of Churches, www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/browse/10/article/1634/how-would-mary-and-joseph.html?tx_ttnews%5Bcat%5D=95%2C27&cHash=47f83d7555da1d360f3006e68bc8eeda, accessed 12 July 2011. This piece was also reprinted by the Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). See http://oga.pcusa.org/perspectives/dec04/check.htm, accessed 12 July 2011.

[103] It should also be noted that Kassis played a central role in the authorship and publicity surrounding the Kairos Document.

[104] Rifat Odeh Kassis, Editorial,ChainReaction, 5, 2007, World Council of Churches, 2.

[105] Ibid.

[106] Ibid.

[107] Ronan Quin et al., 40 Ways to End the Occupation, ChainReaction, 6, Summer 2007, World Council of Churches, 23-25.

[108] Eva Balslev and Sune Segal, Security or Segregation?: The Humanitarian Consequences of Israel’s Wall of Separation, World Council of Churches, Geneva, 2003.

[109] Larry Fata et al., Sawahreh against the Wall: The Struggle of a Palestinian Village, Dealing with the Infringements on Freedom Brought About by Israel’s Ever-Tightening Occupation, World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, Geneva, 4.

[110] World Council of Churches Central Committee, Statement on the war in Lebanon and Northern Israel, and ecumenical action for Middle East Peace, 30 August-6 September 2006, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2006/reports-and-documents/final-report-of-the-public-issues-committee-adopted.html, accessed 15 July 2011. The PIEF was officially founded at a conference in Jordan in 2007.

[111] World Council of Churches, The Amman Call, issued at WCC International Peace Conference, Churches together for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, Amman, 18-20 June 2007, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/middle-east-peace/the-amman-call.html, accessed 25 July 2011.

[112] World Council of Churches, Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, Reform Churches Bern-Jura-Solothurn, Final Document, Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), International Theological Conference on Promised Land, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/middle-east-peace/bern-perspective.html, accessed 25 July 2011.

[113] Sandro Magister, The Patriarch’s Peace March, with an al-Fatah Escort, 18 February 2002, http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/6918?eng=y, accessed 25 July 2011.

[114] Geries Khoury The Intifada of Heaven and Earth (Nazareth: Al-Hakim, 1989).

[115] Ibid., page D.

[116] Malcolm Lowe, Israel and Palestinian Liberation Theology, in James Parkes, Eugene B. Korn, and Roberta Kalechofsky, End of an Exile: Israel, Jews and the Gentile World (Marblehead, MA: Micah, 2005), 276.

[117] This author contacted the WCC and asked if the organization had any plans to establish an accompaniment program for Christians in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East. Mark Beach, the WCC’s director of communications, responded, in part, as follows:The EAPPI programme exists because the WCC member churches, including the churches in the Middle East called for this. Currently the WCC member churches and partners in Latin America are considering a similar programme in Colombia where there has been a long term conflict. Concerning Christians suffering persecution in Muslim-Majority countries the WCC does work closely with the churches in Pakistan and has called for the ending of the blasphemy laws which are subject to abuse not just against Christians but others as well. There has not been a call from our member churches in other locations of Muslim majority countries to develop a similar type of accompaniment programme.Beach also stated that when addressing the persecution of Christians, Great care is taken so that WCC activities do not increase their suffering (email to author, 6 May 2011).

[118] World Council of Churches, Minute on the Presence and Witness of Christians in the Middle East, 22 February 2011, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2011/report-on-public-issues/minute-on-the-presence-and-witness-of-christians-in-the-middle-east.html, accessed 29 August 2011.