A Welcome New Cyber-Voice: Christian Middle East Watch

Pro-Israel Christians rally in London last year

The past fortnight has not been a happy one for Jewish-Christian relations, as church after church endorses or attempts to endorse resolutions injurious to Israel, the Church of England being the latest ecclesiastical body to show its contempt for Jewish sensitivities and Israel's security.

This latest episode may be read about here and is the subject of a searing criticism by the great Melanie Phillips.

Of some comfort, in these circumstances, is the fact that there's a splendid new UK-based pro-Israel site called Christian Middle East Watch that deserves to become well- known.  As its menu-bar indicates, it's divided into several subject sections relating to Israel and the Jewish People.  Its statement of purpose says, in part:

"We are a long overdue voice coming from the Church in Britain, seeking to bring balance and truth to the debates and issues concerning the Middle East; at the heart of which lies the seeming unending and intractible struggle between the Jewish State of Israel and her Muslim neighbours.

Christian Middle East Watch aims to be a primary source of accurate and balanced information concerning Israel and the Middle East

Great Britain, historically a Christian nation, has unique ties to the Jewish people and Israel. This is principally through her Judeo-Christian heritage, historical links, common democratic values and shared sacred scriptures. We also have many historical links to the Middle East as a whole, having governed much of it in our empire and having helped to bring down the Ottoman Empire in World War One.

In modern Britain today there has been an increase in antisemitism and unprecedented hostility against the nation of Israel, largely because of ignorance and a lack of historical understanding of the current conflict in the Middle East. By addressing the issues that follow, the CMEW is helping to reinforce Britain's Judeo-Christian heritage and the biblical morality underlying our nation's parliamentary and legal systems."

Here's a synopsis of a major article (which really must be read in its entirety) on that site entitled "The Delegitimisation of Israel as a Jewish State":

"The accusations against Israel are serious indeed. But how does the evidence match against these accusations?

No other nation has had to combat, since its birth as a state, the perpetual, aggressive attempts by Muslims to annihilate it that Israel has. The PLO, the Muslim Brotherhood and their offshoot, Hamas, and more recently President Ahmadinejad in Iran, have all sworn publicly that their ultimate purpose in the Middle East is to destroy the ‘Zionist presence’ and to rid the whole of the land west of the Jordan River from the ‘infidel usurpers’. More recently hostile campaigners have focused their resources on trying to delegitimise Israel politically in the world’s opinion. Isolation spells disaster for Israel - its survival and prosperity depend on its relations with the world in trade, science, arts and culture – all of which rely on its legitimacy in the world's eyes.

Some would argue that this is only the mind-set of extremists, but when these ‘extremists’ become the spokesmen for the whole Palestinian people, supported by delegitimisers in the west, and when Hamas and Fatah, sporadically in coalition, adamantly refuse to recognise the right of Israel to exist, then the world must judge aright in its dealings with the situation.

From the post-World War One San Remo Declaration to the State of Israel's acceptance into the UN in 1949, history shows the complete legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. Her compliance with the controversial UN Resolution 242 and her willingness repeatedly to offer 'land for peace' in binding treaties reveals Israel's heart to maintain peace and her standing in the world by peaceful means. Her record on human rights and integration of minority groups into a tiny landmass alongside her own people displays a tolerance and humanity often found lacking in neighbouring nations. Israel needs not to prove any further her legitimacy in the community of nations; her neighbours should accept and recognise this and make serious moves towards a lasting peace in the Middle East."

And here's the summary of another, entitled "The BDS Campaign Against Israel":

"Israel's detractors in Britain are waging a vicious, often underhand, war against the democratic United Nations member state of Israel. Strongly emotive language is employed, which portrays Israel as exhibiting the characteristics of some of history's most genocidal and despotic regimes. What this language claims to portray, however, is a long way from the reality of life in Israel and the disputed Palestinian territories.

In reality, the boycotts, divestment and sanctions campaign in Britain has failed in its aims to stem trade between Britain and Israel (particularly with the so-called "illegal settlements") and to force major economic players to stop investing in or operating in the country (for example, the campaign against Veolia, a participant in the construction of the Jerusalem Light Rail Transit system). What it does, however, is to poison minds already predisposed to believe the worst about Israel and to draw into the same web those who are ignorant of what actually goes on in Israel but simply believe what they read or are told without checking facts for themselves.

In our major article on the BDS campaign, we expose some of the BDS campaign's tactics and participants."

 Be sure to check this site out!