At the same time people of diverse faiths are coming together on the issue of the contraceptive mandate, it seems there’s a divisive battle raging between Jewish organizations and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The problems between the two faith groups  center upon charges from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), among other groups, that allege that the Presbyterians, through their  Israel-Palestine Mission Network (a missions arm), have made anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish statements.

An allegedly anti-Israel screen shot of an image that was purportedly posted on the IPMN-PCUSA Facebook page (Image Credit: CAMERA)

The JCPA, which seeks to be a unifying voice for issues pertaining to Jews, put out a press release that made its qualms with the PC(USA) known. The document, which was issued on Feb. 6, begins : The Jewish Council for Public Affairs called on the Presbyterian Church (USA) to take concrete actions to address the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and at times anti-Semitic content that has been all too common in the church’s Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN-PCUSA).  The Israel Palestine Mission Network of the PCUSA (IPMN-PCUSA) is a group chartered by the PCUSA General Assembly and advised by members of the denomination’s national staff.   IPMN-PCUSA’s policies, programs, social media and other communications are a wellspring of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel invective, according to extensive research conducted by the JCPA and the Israel Action Network, an initiative of The Jewish Federations of North America in partnership with JCPA. Naturally, one would wonder what evidence the JCPA has that its rival is being biased against both Jews and Israel. The release continues (you can read the full list of complaints and allegations  here ): For example, at an opening program of the IPMN-PCUSA annual conference, the Rev. Craig Hunter said “greed and injustice is a cancer at the very core of Zionism.”   In a 2010 letter to church delegates, the IPMN-PCUSA falsely accused the Jewish community of intimidating Presbyterians by sending a letter-bomb to the church’s headquarters and setting fire to a church. IPMN-PCUSA tweeted an article proclaiming “Jewish power + Jewish hubris = moral catastrophe of epic proportions.”  IPMN-PCUSA also has supported virulently anti-Israel resolutions including those equating Israel with Apartheid and has been a vocal supporter of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanction movement.

Another alleged screen shot from the IPMN-PCUSA Facebook page (Image Credit: CAMERA)

“We have been concerned by the transformation of the IPMN-PCUSA into a gathering place for anti-Jewish tirades,” JCPA Chair Dr. Conrad Giles said in the statement . “We cannot remain silent while a group chartered by a mainstream church tolerates language that reflects the darkest times in the Christian-Jewish encounter.  These attitudes cannot find a home in the Presbyterian Church (USA).” The American Jewish Committee, another pro-democratic Jewish group, also sent out a similar release on the same day. “When American church leaders allow extremists in their own community to dictate the direction of church activity on an issue as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they weaken the stature of the church in the eyes of all,” AJC’s director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations said in the group’s official response . IPMN-PCUSA, though, didn’t back down, retract or apologize as a result of these critiques. In fact, the group responded with a press release of its own on Feb. 8, writing : For the record, the Israel Palestine Mission Network is  not  an anti-Semitic organization. It does oppose Israeli government policy that sustains illegal occupation and violates Palestinian human rights every day. The IPMN is also a proponent of open dialogue and debate about the issues that prevent a just peace. The truth is that the JCPA, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and other “pro-Israel” organizations do not desire open and free discussion about these issues in America, and when they don’t want to talk about the facts on the ground, they resort to slanderous smear campaigns. This year the JCPA concern comes in trying to stem the unstoppable tide of a growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Presbyterians and Methodists are leading the way in the faith community, along with many other Christian, Jewish and secular grassroots organizations across the United States, to stop profiting from the Israeli Occupation. The BDS movement is saying the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is wearing no clothes; you can’t say you want a just peace and at the same time build settlements on Palestinian land at break-neck pace.

Another alleged screen shot from the IPMN-PCUSA Facebook page (Image Credit: CAMERA)

And this is only a portion of the scathing press release ( the rest can be read here ). So, with neither side willing to pare down the rhetoric and angst, it seems there is a stalemate. That being said, the controversial IPMN-PCUSA Facebook page has been shut down, causing some to claim that the Presbyterian Church was well aware of the improper and allegedly offensive content that was posted. In a statement published on its web site , the church arm responded to the closure, writing : IPMN has been a presence on social media sites Facebook and Twitter over the last eighteen months, providing links to stories on Israel and Palestine that are not easily found in the mainstream U.S. media. As our “fan base” has grown on Facebook to over 2100, so have the comments, both positive and negative. At present, Facebook does not provide a setting where fans can “like” and “share” links without posting comments that need to be monitored. Since IPMN has no paid staff, we will not be able to keep our Facebook page going, until such a time as new posting settings are made available. Until then, IPMN will post links to articles, commentary, videos, etc. on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/IPMN The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)  recaps its version of the issues that have unfolded between the two sides, inevitably placing blame on the Presbyterians regarding how they’ve handled the situation: Presbyterian leaders were given multiple warnings about the problem before the JCPA went public with its concerns. Starting in 2009, CAMERA corresponded regularly with the denomination’s leaders in Louisville about this problem, but they did nothing even as the IPMN-PCUSA’s Facebook page became a focal point for anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic imagery and commentary. Eventually, the JCPA started gathering a collection of the hateful postings on the IPMN’s Facebook page for a report about the organization. The JCPA then started to distribute a draft version of its findings to members and leaders within the denomination, which apparently prompted the IPMN-PCUSA to delete its Facebook page. There’s not much room for agreement here, especially considering that both sides view their opponent as discriminatory and biased. In the end, the debate is certainly a grand one that requires more in-depth scrutiny. This latest spat, though, may be setting the stage for more drama to come.

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Jewish Groups Accuse Presbyterian Church of Facilitating Anti-Israeli & Anti-Semitic Sentiment

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Military Intervention in Syria

On February 10, 2012, in barack obama, Iraq, Uncategorized, by TwilaManozca764

From Michael Weiss, at The New Republic , ” Break the Stalemate! A Blueprint For a Military Intervention in Syria “: In the past several weeks, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other independent rebel brigades have made great strides: They have “liberated” key cities such as Zabadani, 20 miles outside of Damascus; set up checkpoints in restive areas throughout the country; and even begun to seize a few tanks and armored vehicles. For a network of ragtag militias, armed mainly with AK-47s and RPGs that defecting soldiers have given or sold them, the rebels have impressively taken the fight right up to Bashar al-Assad’s doorstep. But the rebels can only go so far. “If no one helps us, we can hit the regime painfully but we can’t topple it, not [when it has] jets and tanks,” Alaa al-Sheikh, the spokesman for the Khaled Bin Waleed Brigade in Rastan, told me. This is a fair precis of the current situation in the nearly year-long Syrian uprising, in which the Assad regime has killed 7,000 people and dispossessed and imprisoned tens of thousands more. The rebels are waging a guerrilla war of attrition designed to exhaust Assad’s army and security forces rather than defeat them: They hope that if and when external help comes, they can make quick work of whatever regime elements remain. In that way, it would be a mistake to describe the crisis in Syria simply as a humanitarian catastrophe. It is also a military stalemate—one that the West can decisively break in favor of anti-Assad forces by offering them military assistance. Going to war is a dangerous and risky business, and critics of Western intervention in Syria have understandably focused on three main hazards: the proliferation of jihadist groups, regional destabilization, and the rise of sectarianism (particularly between the Sunni majority and the Christian and Alawite minorities). But the worst fears of what might happen following an intervention have already come to pass and only threaten to grow worse with continued inaction. Continue reading . And here’s Weiss’ blueprint for intervention, ” Intervention in Syria? An Assessment of Legality, Logistics and Hazards .” The Los Angeles Times has an editorial out today opposing intervention, ” Avoiding the Syria Trap .” Check the arguments there. It’s obvious that “diplomacy” won’t work. And if the U.S. did intervene it would be against the wishes of Russia and China, and the West could risk a new Islamist regime coming to power in Damascus. But in the absence of regime change, it’s likely that Assad will continue to massacre his own people. There are no good options here.

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Military Intervention in Syria

The rise of radical Islamists in the Middle East, Bachmann says, are a result of Obama distancing himself from Israel.

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Bachmann calls Obama "most dangerous president" on Israel

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Israel’s Case for War With Iran

On February 8, 2012, in Uncategorized, by starsh1p

From Niall Ferguson, at Newsweek , ” Israel and Iran on the Eve of Destruction in a New Six-Day War .” The single biggest danger in the Middle East today is not the risk of a six-day Israeli war against Iran. It is the risk that Western wishful nonthinking allows the mullahs of Tehran to get their hands on nuclear weapons. Because I am in no doubt that they would take full advantage of such a lethal lever. We would have acquiesced in the creation of an empire of extortion. War is an evil. But sometimes a preventive war can be a lesser evil than a policy of appeasement. The people who don’t yet know that are the ones still in denial about what a nuclear-armed Iran would end up costing us all.

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Israel’s Case for War With Iran

Be Sure to Tip Your Gunrunner!

On February 7, 2012, in barack obama, Uncategorized, by McneeLanding461

There’s campaign news and talk of war in the Middle East in today’s edition of the Morning Jolt , but the two sections dealing with Obama seem the most likely to generate buzz . . . Good Morning, Mr. President! Keep reading this post . . .

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Be Sure to Tip Your Gunrunner!

At Telegraph UK , ” Syria releases the 7/7 ‘mastermind’ “: The alleged terrorist mastermind behind the July 7 London bombings is reported to have been freed from a Syrian jail by President Bashar Assad’s regime . Abu Musab al-Suri had been held in Syria for six years after being captured by the CIA in 2005 and transported to the country of his birth under its controversial extraordinary rendition programme. But he is now said to have been released as a warning to the US and Britain about the consequences of turning their backs on President al-Assad’s regime as it tries to contain the uprising in the country. Al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, was al-Qaeda’s operations chief in Europe and has been accused of planning the London bombings, in which four British-born terrorists detonated three bombs on the Underground and another on a bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700 others in 2005. More at the link .

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Syria Releases Abu Musab al-Suri, Mastermind of London’s 7/7 Terrorist Attacks

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This isn’t surprising at all, or at least the actions of Russia and China. What’s surprising is how firm — even bellicose — Ambassador Susan Rice comes across in her statements. I’m long past the point of regime change in Syria, and we don’t need the U.N to do it. At the New York Times , ” Russia and China Block U.N. Action on Syrian Crisis .”

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Russia and China Veto United Nations Resolution on Syria

Media Matters Digs In

On February 3, 2012, in Uncategorized, by Richard Riker

From Yid With Lid, ” As Criticism Over Anti-Semitism Increases – Media Matters Digs In Its Heels .”

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Media Matters Digs In

This is good. Blazing Cat Fur has the background, ” Stop Calling Me Hitler Warns Hitler .” Blazing links to the outrageous outrage at the Electronic Intifada, where we find an outraged attack on Professor Rubin Gur of the Departments of Psychiatry, Radiology and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. And the source of all that outrage? Well, it’s Professor Gur’s righteous essay at the

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has conducted an extensive survey of the websites of pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East and has published a guide to events planned for 2012. Some activities are focused on public relations, others have the potential to cause violence, and yet other activities seem aimed at further destabilizing Israel’s already shaky neighborhood. The Center reports : The networks waging the campaign to delegitimize Israel are planning a series of propaganda displays for 2012, some of them in the upcoming months. They intend to hold marches (promoted by Hamas), a protest fly-in to Ben-Gurion International Airport, a flotilla and propaganda events for the “Israeli apartheid week.” The most high profile event on the horizon is the Global March to Jerusalem , which is encouraging activists worldwide to gather in convoys and head together to Jerusalem on March 30th, or “Land Day” a day Palestinians mark the killing of six Israeli Arabs over a land dispute with Israeli authorities in 1976. Upon entering its website, the Global March’s logo says a lot: a map of Palestine including all territory from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, with Israel completely wiped off the map. The map is painted in green, the signature color of Islam, suggesting organizers view their struggle as a religious one. Activists plan to gather in areas bordering Israel, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. The Meir Amit Center reports: The organizers of the marches plan to send groups from several countries to Arab states bordering on Israel. The participants will attempt to cross the border and invade Israeli territory. Global March organizers describe combating the “Judaization of Jerusalem” as a key objective: The march will demand freedom for Jerusalem and its people and to put an end to the Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaisation policies affecting the people, land and sanctity of Jerusalem… The march will confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity. According the Global March’s North American website , endorsers include a mix of Palestinian and anti-war groups, as well as “United Progressives,” an anti-war group that promotes various progressive causes. Individual endorsers include Lauren Booth, a British broadcaster for Iran’s Press TV who has called Gaza a “concentration camp” and Richard Falk, an expert on the UN Human Rights Council who was derided for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog last year depicting Jews as a bloodthirsty dog urinating on Lady Justice. Falk has also suggested that the U.S. government was behind 9/11 and that the media covered it up. While American and European activists purporting to be peaceful are endorsing the Global March to Jerusalem, it is simultaneously being promoted by Hamas, a group committed to Israel’s destruction which the U.S. and European Union categorize as a terror group. Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced the march at a December 14th rally as seen in the video organizers posted: Hamas frequently invokes  its goal of “saving” Jerusalem from the “impurity of the Jews” painting the issue as a religious struggle. These hard-core Islamists decry what they call the “Judaization” of Jerusalem without any regard to the historical fact that Jews have lived for millennia in the city holy not only to Islam, but to Christians and Jews. A YouTube video promoting the Global March includes images equating Israel with “cancer” and suggesting Israel’s founding was a “great plundering.” It calls Jerusalem “a Holy City inhabited by Palestinians for centuries.” The Meir Amit Center assesses that so far, response from the West has been small. Another obstacle: activists need permission to hold marches in neighboring countries. Besides the Global March, Pro-Palestinian activists are planning protests from the sea. The Meir Amit Center reports on a planning meeting that took place in Italy in November aimed at learning lessons from the past failed flotillas whose goal is to break Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza. It reports: …the coalition sending the flotillas is also apparently examining the possibility of sending a large flotilla from several different European ports. […] The flotilla organizers are also busy raising donations for the funds necessary to purchase a large number of ships. Another protest aims to enter Israel by air. Last summer, international activists flew to Ben-Gurion Airport for demonstrations, but most were arrested and sent home on outbound flights. The Meir Amit Center examined activists’ websites and reports that this year’s “fly-in” is scheduled for April 15th, during the Passover holiday and a week after Easter: The objective of the fly-in was described by its organizers as challenging the “policy of isolation” Israel imposes on the West Bank. Fly-in participants have been requested to arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport but to keep a low profile, apparently to make it difficult for Israel to prevent them from entering the country. All these activities are being described as peaceful protests, but as history shows, there are potential flash-points. Israeli police are aware of the chance of violence, as occurred last spring when pro-Palestinian protesters marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War tried to storm the Israeli border from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The Israel Defense Forces called it a Syrian-government “provocation.” As it is, tensions are high, especially with the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks not showing any signs of progress. It’s also worth keeping an eye on Jordan — the launching point for some of the Global Marchers — a country where the “Arab Spring” has not arrived. With a majority Palestinian population living under minority Hashemite rule, it’s not unfathomable that a march ostensibly aimed at Israel could take on a life of its own to air grievances against King Abdullah’s regime. So far, demonstrations bringing together Palestinians and international activists have not been game-changing events. The Free Gaza Flotilla failed to break the sea blockade, and “Boycott Israel” activists have not impacted Israel’s economy. It remains to be seen if this spring’s “Global March” will recruit “massive” throngs as advertised, or not. Organizers say they are banking on “the spirit of the Arab spring revolutions and the determination of young people who were able to overthrow dictatorships.”  Israeli police and border patrols are no doubt preparing for the worst.

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‘Global March to Jerusalem’: Pro-Palestinian Activists Planning Protests from Land, Air, & Sea

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