Divesting from Israel, lying about history and David Fischler's excellent information

Both the United Methodist Church’s General Conference and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) are facing recommendations to divest from companies doing business with Israel. The UMC and the PCUSA are meeting this summer; the UMC April 24th to May 4th and the GA of the PCUSA June 30th to July 7th.

Bypassing any understanding of Israel’s need for security as a nation, the recommendation for the PCUSA GA to divest from Caterpillar, Inc., Hewlett Packard, and Motorola Solutions came from Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI). A large group of mostly leftists activists and organizations are pushing on commissioners to vote for the divestments. Even members of the Communist party are involved.

David Fischler of Reformed Pastor provides both Presbyterian and Methodist commissioners with good information on those who are trying to influence both denomination’ votes. He has written three very helpful posts and will post a final tomorrow on the 19th. The three now posted are:

1. Infiltrating the Churches: Part 1

2. Infiltrating the Churches: Part 2

3. Infiltrating the Churches: Part 3

The information is very important; please read it. In the second posting Fischler writes about one of the activist groups which is really an umbrella organization for many other groups, U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, (USCEIO) among other information about this group Fischler states:

That the USCEIO marches in lockstep with the far left is no surprise. Among the organizations that are members of this anti-Israel umbrella is a veritable Who’s Who of the American extreme left. Among the member groups are long-time Communist fronts like the US Peace Council and the National Lawyers Guild, the International Socialist Organization, Code Pink, Global Exchange, the Council for the National Interest, the International Solidarity Movement, the U.S. Green Party, the Institute for Policy Studies, We Are Wide Awake (a project of anti-Semitic web site Veterans Today‘s Eileen Fleming), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the War Resisters League, If Americans Knew, the Rachel Corrie Foundation, and the U.S. Campaign fro Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.[1]

I lifted out this particular bit of information by Fischler because I want to add some further information. The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has an Advisory Board. One of the members of the board is Presbyterian Teaching Elder and former Moderator of the GA of the PCUSA, Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel. This means that in this very serious matter the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is being guided by influential Presbyterians who are a part of an organization with some very mixed and troubling agendas. Although the MRTI made the recommendations to the GA, and the GAMC voted to send a recommendation to the GA-nonetheless outside influences have prevailed.

As Fischler has shown it is important to look at the organizations within the USCEIO. One organization which he highlights is extremely troubling; that is American Muslims for Palestine. One of their members, Kristin Szremski is on the Steering Committee for USCEIO. In one resource, on the AMP web site, “Jerusalem: Reclaiming the Palestinian and Muslim historical narrative in the face of Zionist repression,” the author links the Palestinians to the ancient Canaanites, while insisting that the Ashkenazi Jews are only descendents of converts who were not really Jews.

Writing of the Jewish people exiled from Arab lands after the birth of the State of Israel the author writes, “Contrary to popular notions, Jews in Arab lands immigrated to Israel – not because of harassment and persecution by Muslims – but because of covert operations by the CIA and the Mossad in Cairo and Baghdad.” But the historical data contradicts this with exacting firmness.

Another resource, “The Catastrophe El Nakba: How Palestine Became Israel,” casts the whole story of the birth of the Jewish State of Israel in an untruthful historical narrative. The word Holocaust never appears, the understanding that the Palestinians as well as the Jews committed atrocities is not told, and reading the material one would not know that five Arab states attacked the new state of Israel. Many of the political views and understandings are not only confusing they are anti-Semitic. The author does not even understand correct historical time lines. He writes:

By turn, Zionists approached the Ottomans, the British, and the United States to further their cause. While the Ottomans turned them down, the British acceded after the Zionists promised that American Zionists would push the U.S. to enter World War I on the side of England. The United States, whose major politicians like Harry Truman feared they’d lose elections if they didn’t back the Zionists, also acceded.

As Fischler has pointed out most of these organizations are insisting on a one state solution. Many of them include all of Israel in their version of occupation. And as can be seen above the historical accounts they are working from are not just faulty but are also lies. But this is only a small part of the material—click on the links above and read Fischler’s posts. They help the reader understand how absolutely driven the many leftist organizations are to bring an end to the Jewish State of Israel.

[1] if you click on Fischler's links you can go to almost every organization he has mentioned in this paragraph.