Anyone who dives into the dark waters of the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict risks being drowned. Not drowning, but being drowned: someone will surely try to hold the poor soul’s head under water until breathing stops. And should said diver express any uncertainty about who is right and why, he or she will likely be pushed under by at least two someones. There’s no room for doubt in this pond.
So, “I am who about to die, salute you.” I can see this whole mess both ways…actually, in fact, many ways. Sorry, but it is complex, at least in my mind, with few clear good guys and, except for of the most radical, few clear bad guys, either. Just warring groups of people pumped up be religious fervor trying to find security and peace and enough to eat and drink on a small piece of real estate that happens to sit where three great continents.
Into this morass the Presbyterian Church (USA) took a dive at its General Assembly (i.e., national) meeting in June. The commissioners voted, by a hair, to withdraw the denomination’s Foundation and Pension Funds from three US corporations–Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions–that do business with Israel. The concern that guided the Assembly to take this action are the “human rights violations and suffering resulting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” (quoted from the denomination’s “Frequently Asked Questions: Divestment” link at www.pcusa.org.)
I am not going to offer more detail than that, suspecting that if you’ve read this far, you know all about the matter anyway. If you do not, go the website just cited and check it out.
I admit I am conflicted about this action. (One moment, please, while I take cover.) I understand it in many, many ways, and I believe the issue it identifies is absolutely right.
On the other hand, I am distressed when I read and hear justifications for it that barely acknowledge the threats to Israel’s existence posed by its enemies, threats grounded in rhetoric calling for Israel’s annihilation. (As in the afore-mentioned FAQ as well as in a letter in last Sunday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer by a fellow Presbyterian minister.)
The facts of Palestinian oppression are set forth with hardly a nod to the reality that much of the Palestinian leadership has turned every opportunity to solve the conflict into a means of strengthening its own military’s ability to destroy Israel, and seems to care little for the well-being of the people it is supposedly serving.
This is not to excuse Israel and its leadership for the opportunities it has missed. The illegal settlements should have stopped before they were started. It’s almost impossible to see turning them back now, which creates a corner Israel can’t get out of. But it is to make the point that the way Israel treats Palestine has happened in a context that must be recognized if there is any hope for peace.
Some of us Presbyterians apparently do not want to see or acknowledge that context. Eager to do anything, we did something. Now we justify what we did with a carefully selected set of some of the realities. If helping achieve peace with justice for all is the ultimate goal (what else could be?), then will what we did get the world there? Seems to me that if you look at only part of what’s to be seen in making a decision you risk deciding the wrong thing. In this case we risked fracturing the church for a mistake. And put us at odds with Jewish neighbors with whom many of us share long and positive relationships. To break the will of Israel and/or Hamas? To force Caterpillar, HP, Motorola Solutions to their corporate knees?
And now comes John Buchanan, editor of the Christian Century, and one of Presbyteriandom’s respected elder statesmen. Buchanan wrote a scathing editorial on the divestment decision in the July 23 issue of the Century. Two sentences in his editorial leap out at any Presbyterian who likes to think we do things “decently and in order.”
First, “The national Presbyterian Church individuals who provided resources for the committee [that considered the divestment proposal] made no attempt at neutrality but advocated for divestment at every opportunity.” Is he talking about denominational staff members here? I hope not.
And then, “Committee leadership, which is supposed to remain neutral and ensure balance, did not do its job.” True or false? If true, shame on us. If false, John Buchanan’s in a lot of trouble. These are about as damning words as one Presbyterian can say about and to another.
I am troubled by all of this, but not troubled as much as I am by the spectacle of suffering inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Israel as it seeks to root out the terrorists who are lobbing missiles its way from sites located amongst civilians. It’s a mess, and it’s getting messier. If what we Presbyterians decided to do in June makes making peace easier, praise God. If not, we will have only ourselves to blame.
