This and That

Just a few links in today’s update.

First off, I wrote a feature that appeared in today’s Jerusalem Post that updates the BDS story for the last 1-2 years. Most regular readers will be familiar with the themes and stories which this piece gathers into a single location.

Will Spotts, my partner on the Bearing Witness site dedicated to fighting divestment and other anti-Israel activities at next month’s Presbyterian Church General Assembly provides recommendations on all of the Middle East related votes that will be taking place at next month’s meeting. Here’s hoping they take his advice.

Will also put me onto this story from Christian Century on some of the troubling anti-Jewish theological themes that the two authors (one Presbyterian, one Jewish – sound familiar?) found when looking over the Presbyterian’s main document on the current conflict, an troubling piece of work called "Breaking Down the Walls." I think the authors are being a bit too generous in interpreting the problems they find in “Walls” to theological excesses in an otherwise noble endeavor. As noted here, I see too much of the same political mendacity I find in most BDS campaigns to assume that this kind of critique wells up entirely from a passion for justice. That said, the theological problems the church seems to be having with my tribe are serious and worth exploring, which the Century piece does quite well.