Taking stock of Israel

AS AN AMERICAN Jew, I am both alarmed and disappointed by the recent resolution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) calling for divesting from business groups operating in Israel (News, Nov. 2). Assuming that the human rights abuses that triggered such resolution actually exist, one can only wonder why Israel was singled out for such treatment when many other nations are guilty of worse conduct. Syria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China come readily to mind--and that's the short list--but I see no apparent concern in the mainline Christian community over their conduct or, for that matter, U.S. conduct in detaining prisoners at Guantanamo in violation of every existing international convention.

When Jews are singled out for criticism engaged in by others with impunity, that smacks of anti-Semitism, and it is very difficult for me to believe that a resolution of that type was passed with anything resembling good faith.

Joel Widman

Corrales, N.M.

The news item "Divestment plan could harden Israel's stance, warn peace groups" quotes only one such group, Peace Now, as expressing concern. However, PN is Zionism's in-house peace front. There are several smaller anti-Zionist groups, ranging from the Orthodox supporters of the Neturei Karta (Guardians of the City) to Trotskyists. They try to represent the 19 percent of Israeli Jews who reject Zionism on principle. And PN certainly doesn't speak for Israel's Arabs, 18 percent of its citizens.

Divestment is the minimum that Americans should do to get justice for the Palestinians and peace for Israelis. Every "Israeli" settlement that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to keep on the West Bank is for Jews only. No Arab veterans of Israel's military can live in them. Some are exclusively for Orthodox Jews. Yet bipartisan Washington grants Israel $3 billion per year. A complete cutoff of official U.S. aid is as important as divestment.

PN's head complains that divestment from Israel would be one-sided. But the divestment campaign can counter that by similarly demanding that American corporations stop investing in Saudi Arabia, which denies religious freedom to all its citizens, and rights to women. And certainly American religious denominations, or atheists like myself, should demand that the U.S. pull out the 500 military presently training the Saudi National Guard, the watchdog of the absolutist regime.

When Thomas Jefferson and James Madison separated church and state, they hoped that their America would be a light unto the world. Instead we see our bipartisan rulers intertwined with theocracies abroad. Divestment from Israel and from all such regimes is the obligatory accompaniment of a serious struggle to separate church and state at home.

Lenni Brenner

New York, N.Y.

COPYRIGHT 2004 The Christian Century Foundation
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