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07/31/2004: "PCUSA: picking and choosing"

The Presbyterian Church (USA) passed a resolution at its recent General Assembly that calls for selective divestment of church investments from companies that sell to Israel. Lawyer Jay Lefkowitz, writing in Opinion Journal, points out the selective nature of the PCUSA's morality:

A member of the Israeli cabinet who for years had been a prisoner of conscience in the Soviet gulag, [Natan] Sharansky defined one current expression of anti-Semitism by three features: the application of double standards to Israel, the demonization of Israel and the delegitimization of Israel.

The recent action by the Presbyterian Church sadly satisfies Mr. Sharansky's test. The church has singled out Israel, alone among all the nations of the world, for divestment. It has demonized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and it has delegitimized Israel's right to self-defense.

The church is not calling for divestment of its $7 billion portfolio from China, despite China's denial of the most basic political and religious rights and its particularly harsh treatment of followers of Falun Gong. It is not condemning Russia, even though Russia's policies in Chechnya are by any human-rights standard atrocious. It is not even calling for economic sanctions against Syria or Iran, whose human-rights records for their own people are egregious and whose Jewish citizens are denied the basic civil rights and liberties afforded to all Israelis, including its Arab citizens, some of whom even serve in the Knesset.

Beyond the question of whether the divestment resolution is anti-Semitic, the resolution ignores the fact that Israel is one of America's strongest and most dependable allies in the war on terrorism. Though it is far from perfect (as its own free press regularly makes clear to its citizens and its own Supreme Court recently declared to the world), Israel is the only true democracy in the region, save for the fledgling U.S.-supported Iraqi government. And like the U.S., Israel is a target of choice for terrorist attacks on civilians by the jihadists, with more than 1,000 murdered Israeli men, women and children in the past few years. So when the Presbyterian Church singles out Israel for condemnation, it offers support to those whose ideology of hatred is directed against two of the most democratic nations in the world

Well put.