Moodey News: "Such are the wages of Christian triumphalism and anti-Judaism"

Having an interest in Jewish-Christian relations, I note for the benefit of like-minded readers a current article by the Christian scholar Dexter Van Zile regarding the views of the CEO of the British NGO Embrace the Middle East, Mr Jeremy Moodey, who's been mentioned by me from time to time; for instance here

Dexter Van Zile's analytical piece pays due tribute to the NGO's laudable aims, but pulls no punches in questioning Mr Moodey's stance towards Israel. 

It concludes:

"Moodey's summary judgment of Israel fails to take into account a number of factors such as Israel's efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the past few decades, the failure of Palestinians to negotiate in good faith, and the disastrous consequences of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It also fails to take into account ongoing anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian society. 

Israel is not perfect. But by way of comparison, Israel treats its enemies, minorities and dissidents with greater humanity than any other country or political movement in the Middle East. Israel has a vibrant civil society and human rights community (whose activists show more concern for Palestinian welfare than Palestinian leaders do). Israel maintains these institutions despite having been under attack almost continuously since its founding in 1948. This is due largely to Israel's commitment to Jewish principles that Moodey incessantly uses to indict Israel. 

Moodey's merciless failure to acknowledge Israel's efforts to achieve peace, coupled with his unwillingness to confront the misdeeds of his adversaries is indicative of more than a troubling double-standard. His polemics suggest that he views Israel's enemies, who are intent on destroying Israel, as an instrument of God's wrath against the Christ-denying Jews of Israel and therefore unworthy of condemnation.

Alleged obduracy on the part of Jews has been used to justify violence and hostility toward the Jewish people for centuries and sadly such arguments survive even today when we have the leader of a Christian charity in enlightened Britain no less, making similar arguments that give theological aid and comfort to enemies of the Jewish state in the Middle East.

Such are the wages of Christian triumphalism and anti-Judaism."

Read all of Dexter Van Zile's article here

Meanwhile:

See here and here

Incidentally, Mr Moodey is one of the 118 Facebook friends (they include such luminaries of the anti-Israel movement as Jenny Tonge and Ben White, and the now vanished Stephen Sizer) of the funny fella who calls himself Harriet and spends his time writing strange stuff about Zionists (and belittling Dexter Van Zile) in obscure corners of the internet. 

Mr Moodey  may wish to reconsider his Facebook friendship with "Harriet"; look at the company "Harriet" keeps:

And there's plenty more where that came from.

What did British celebrity David Baddiel write only last month about men who indulge in conspiracy theories?

Ah, yes!:

"Conspiracy theory ... is how idiots get to feel like intellectuals.... And ... it creates a way into something else that’s becoming increasingly popular these days: antisemitism....

Why do so many conspiracy theories boil down to: it’s the Jews wot done it? ...

Those who have always felt that Jews were powerful, controlling and out to destroy the world can now point in the direction of the Middle East and say: there you are.

But for the conspiracy theorists, even the most appalling political and military machinations of Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defence Forces – of Israel itself – are far less important than the creation of what David Aaronovitch, in Voodoo Histories, describes as a new kind of super-Jew: the Zionist. This is not, for the conspiracy theorist, the straightforward hate figure of the left. Rather, it is a character, or more importantly a group, to which all western governments are secretly in hock: unbelievably rich and powerful, and dedicated unswervingly to its own project, which is nothing less than the complete control of the world..."

 Better take up another hobby at your Place, Harriet!

Call For Anglican Superiors To Act Against Stephen Sizer: "There Is Simply No Way Dr Sizer Can Square His Participation In This Conference With His Promise Not To Promote Anti-Semitism"

From the Press TV website, complete with an accompanying video that briefly shows the Reverend Stephen Sizer (pictured, left; he's the clean-shaven one) in full flood:
  
'2nd New Horizon Conference kicks off in Teheran.

Its goal is to unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics; the second international New Horizon conference gathers senior investigative journalists, authors, filmmakers and renowned political activists from the United States, Europe and Iran around one table; in an event which rarely seems possible in the West.

And what of the Iranian politicians who persecute and hang Christians and dissidents, vicar?

On the first panel at the three day event experts discussed the influence of the Zionist lobby on the West in the process of nuclear talks with Iran. American investigative journalist Wayne Madsen believes that the Zionist lobby has its grip deep into different layers of the US government. Producer of the movie operation terror believes that issues like the immergence of a new rival in the nuclear fuel market could also be a reason behind the extremist reactions to Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran is a signatory to the non proliferation treaty NPT with its entire uranium enrichment program supervised by the international atomic energy agency. However Iran has so far faced several rounds of UN Security Council and Unilateral US and EU sanctions under the pretext that its peaceful activities are not convincing.' [Emphasis added]

Also from the Press TV website, again accompanied by the same video:

"The second edition of Iran’s International New Horizon Independent Conference started its programs in the capital city of Tehran ...

A number of senior investigative journalists, authors, filmmakers and renowned political activists took part in the gala.

The participants flocked to the three-day event from the UK, the United States, and several countries of Europe.

The first panel of the event hosted the presentations of several experts focused on the influence of the Zionist lobby on the West in the process of nuclear talks with Iran.

The Zionist lobby has its grip deep into different layers of the US government, American investigative journalist Wayne Madsen stated at the conference.

The Islamic Awakening movement, the role of Zionist lobbies in the European and US crises, introducing international anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist figures, and Islamic resistance against the Zionist regime are some of the topics of the conference.

The first edition of the International New Horizon Independent Conference was presented in 2012 along with a film festival centered on the related issues.

The showcased films at the festival represented Islamic resistance against the Zionist regime, war threats against Iran and anti-war movements, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Iranophobia and Islamophobia, world without Zionism, and world without terrorism and atomic weapons.

New Horizon conference and festival is aimed at providing a platform where independent thinkers can gather together, feature their films and engage in debate and deliberation on various aspects of world and the reality of Hollywood." [Emphasis added]

A still from the video (that's Sizer at the  podium):

 Another still shows the vicar brandishing a book:

(I wonder whether that is the book mentioned here and here?)

To quote from the ADL's official blog:

'....As in the pre­vi­ous con­fer­ence, this year’s New Hori­zon Con­fer­ence has drawn the par­tic­i­pa­tion of sev­eral anti-Israel activists, anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rists and Holo­caust deniers. A new pres­ence at the con­fer­ence is the par­tic­i­pa­tion of a so called Amer­i­can anti-war activist, Medea Ben­jamin, a co-founder of CODEPINK [this ludicrous woman, tamely hijabbed for her Iranian hosts, although in some of their bizarre stunts CODEPINK women show no modesty, can be seen denouncing the USA in this new Press TV video].

In addi­tion to Ben­jamin [pictured, centre, right; regarding her BDS calls see Daniel Greenfield's exposé], the conference’s offi­cial web­site pub­lished the names of sev­eral Amer­i­can and inter­na­tional anti-Semites, anti-Israel activists and Holo­caust deniers that are expected to be in atten­dance, includ­ing Maria Poumier, a French con­spir­acy the­o­rist and Holo­caust denier; Clau­dio Moffa, an Ital­ian Holo­caust denier; Kevin Bar­rett, an anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rist and fre­quent con­trib­u­tor to Iran’s Eng­lish lan­guage pro­pa­ganda news net­work, Press TV; Garth Porter, an anti-Israel jour­nal­ist; Pepe Esco­bar, a Brazil­ian anti-Israel jour­nal­ist; and Art Olivier, a for­mer elected offi­cial from Cal­i­for­nia and 9/11 con­spir­acy theorist.

Under-dressed in public ...

More­over, Iran­ian news agen­cies have reported that a num­ber of other indi­vid­u­als are sched­uled to also attend the three-day con­fer­ence in Tehran. Iran­ian news agen­cies have reported the expected par­tic­i­pa­tion of Ali­son Weir, the  direc­tor of If Amer­i­cans Knew and the Coun­cil for the National Inter­est, two grass­roots anti-Israel orga­ni­za­tions; Ken O’Keefe, an anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist for­mer U.S. Marine and a regular contributor to Press TV; Wayne Madsen, an anti-Semitic conspir­acy theorist [he appears on the above-mentioned video]; Cyrus McGoldrick, the for­mer Civil Rights Man­ager for the New York chap­ter of Coun­cil on American-Islamic Rela­tions; Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, the French anti-Semitic come­dian and the cre­ator of the anti-Semitic “quenelle” ges­ture; and Mark Sil­jan­der, a for­mer U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (R-MI) who was found guilty in 2010 of two fed­eral charges relat­ing to his ties to an Islamic char­ity alleged to have funded ter­ror­ist groups.

But demure at the conference for her Iranian hosts

The con­fer­ence was opened with remarks by the per­sonal advi­sor to Supreme Leader Aya­tol­lah Ali Khamenei, Mohsen Ghomi, who boasted that the con­fer­ence itself is “the biggest threat to Zion­ists,” and that “Amer­i­can offi­cials are pup­pets of the Zion­ist lobby who are tak­ing advan­tage of Amer­i­can igno­rance.” Anti-Israel jour­nal­ist Garth Porter said dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion on Mon­day that the Mossad and CIA are responsible for manufacturing the nuclear crisis with Iran.....' [Emphasis added]

Unlike the above, a further ADL official blogpost does not overlook Sizer's participation:

'As Iran’s 2nd New Hori­zon Con­fer­ence wraps up in Tehran, new infor­ma­tion is emerg­ing about con­fer­ence atten­dees, who included U.S. and inter­na­tional anti-Semites, Holo­caust deniers and anti-war activists.

In his open­ing speech, Nader Tale­bzadeh, the direc­tor of the New Hori­zon Con­fer­ence, explained the goal of the con­fer­ence as, “dis­trib­ut­ing the arti­cles and thoughts of top intel­lec­tu­als and philoso­phers world­wide among Iran­ian uni­ver­si­ties and artists,” and that, “The emer­gence of ide­ol­ogy of crit­i­ciz­ing the dom­i­nance of the Zion­ist lobby over the USA and EU, which is going to make some changes in the West, has made it an essen­tial and attrac­tive sub­ject to learn.” Tale­bzadeh added in an inter­view on the side­lines of the con­fer­ence to a Press TV cor­re­spon­dent that, “These are the peo­ple [the atten­dees] that are cen­sored in the West” for their views, which include pro­mot­ing anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­ries and Holo­caust denial.

Press TV also con­ducted an inter­view with Wayne Mad­sen, a U.S. anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rist, who claimed that the U.S. gov­ern­ment and Con­gress are under Zion­ist con­trol, “The Israeli agenda, which the Chris­t­ian and Jew­ish Zion­ists adopt one hun­dred per­cent, is what is sold to mem­bers of Con­gress, and that devel­ops into leg­is­la­tion, res­o­lu­tions; no one votes against any­thing [the Zion­ists] put up as far as a resolution.”

Among the speak­ers on the first day of the con­fer­ence was anti-Israel jour­nal­ist Garth Porter. In his speech to the atten­dees, Porter lev­eled accu­sa­tions against Israel, the Mossad and CIA for man­u­fac­tur­ing the Iran­ian nuclear cri­sis. Brazil­ian jour­nal­ist Pepe Esco­bar echoed Porter’s mes­sage and pre­dicted that Iran will become more active in world affairs as its stature and influ­ence in the region increases.

On the sec­ond day of the con­fer­ence, Art Olivier, a U.S. 9/11 con­spir­acy the­o­rist and film­maker, pro­moted his upcom­ing film about the life of pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Cor­rie. The film, Olivier said, will allow young Amer­i­cans “to see the real­ity of Rachel’s life which hap­pened 11 years ago and are going to real­ize the atroc­ity of Zion­ist actions against Pales­tini­ans and the peo­ple of Gaza.” Olivier also pro­moted the anti-Semitic canard that the U.S. film indus­try and Hol­ly­wood in par­tic­u­lar are under the dom­i­na­tion of Zionists.

Other U.S. par­tic­i­pants also gave brief inter­views to Farsi-language media dur­ing panel breaks, includ­ing CODEPINK co-founder Medea Ben­jamin, who told IRIB Chan­nel 1 that some of the top­ics at the con­fer­ence addressed U.S. fund­ing for war at expense of pro­vid­ing ade­quate health­care for Amer­i­can cit­i­zens, and that, “These con­fer­ences should lift the pres­sure off of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple.” Also present at the con­fer­ence was Rev­erend Stephen Sizer, a vicar in the Church of Eng­land who, accord­ing to the UK-based Com­mu­nity Secu­rity Trust (CST), has been accused of pro­mot­ing anti-Semitic links on his website.

Some of the notable panel dis­cus­sions held dur­ing the three-day con­fer­ence included “Zion­ist fin­ger­prints on the 9/11 cover-up;” “The Gaza war & BDS Move­ment against the Zion­ist regime,” which Medea Ben­jamin was part of; “US-Israeli dual cit­i­zens work­ing in the inter­est of Israel: the case for treach­ery;” and “The ‘Islamic’ State meme, its pre­cur­sors, & the US-Israel-Saudi triangle.”' [Emphasis added]

The CST's illuminating blog on this issue (from which the two lists above come) comments:

'The Rev Stephen Sizer is a Church of England vicar with a long record of anti-Israel activity. In 2012 the Board of Deputies made a formal complaint to the Church of England about allegations that Sizer had used his website to link to antisemitic material from other websites. This complaint was resolved through mediation and a Conciliation Agreement was accepted by both parties, which included Sizer accepting that “on occasions his use of language has caused offence to some and agrees that he should have reflected on his choice of words more carefully.”

Sizer also stated:

I care passionately about the safety of the Jewish people and the right of Israel to exist within internationally agreed borders*. I have always opposed racism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial as well as Islamophobia and the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination and will continue to do so.

Sizer’s presence at an antisemitic conference in Iran this week brings into question whether he is honouring the spirit of this Conciliation Agreement in good faith.

....According to Iranian state-run Press TV, the conference intended to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics.” Those attending include a host of Holocaust Deniers and conspiracy theorists.

For an example of why this is an antisemitic conference, one of the conference sessions is on “Mossad’s Role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”. This includes discussion of “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist “Public Myths”.

Sizer was scheduled to speak at several points during the conference. One of these was a panel on “The Mechanisms of Action of the Israeli Lobby and their Effects in Western Capitals”, with Sizer speaking on “The Israeli Lobby in England”. One of the other speakers scheduled for this panel was Ahmed Rami, a Swedish Islamist with a history of support for Holocaust Deniers and Nazis.

Rami has a conviction for antisemitism in Sweden and his Radio Islam website includes the full text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, plus extensive Holocaust Denial material. It is impossible to miss the antisemitism on the Radio Islam website: the first four articles listed on the homepage are “The Jewish hand behind Internet”; “Judaism – Jewish “religion” and racism”; “The Jews behind Islamophobia”; and “Al Jazeera English – under Jewish infiltration.” ....

CST Blog has written several times before about the endemic antisemitism in the Iranian government, media and wider public debate. It is inevitable that an Iranian conference on “the Zionist lobby” would feature antisemites, Holocaust Deniers and conspiracy theorists. The fact that it also featured a Church of England vicar is utterly shameful.' [Emphasis added]

(* But does he?:
The CST may be unaware of his avowal of a one-state solution as shown in my blogpost here, which contains further snippets of the vicar's apparent ill-will; if I'm not mistaken that's not the only time the vicar has expressed support for one state.)

And now, in view of Sizer's participation in this grubby conference with its grubby agenda and grubby line-up,  the well-respected Christian analyst and commenter Dexter Van Zile has called upon the Church of England to take action against the vicar (hat tip: reader Ian)

A recent link to ordure

Writes Dexter Van Zile, inter alia:

'.... [Sizer] has been antagonizing Jews and saying hateful things about Israel for years. He works a lot of his mischief on his blog and Facebook page, where he has posted links to articles that downplay or minimize the Holocaust, and accuse Jews of controlling the world and of being responsible for starting World War I and World War II.

But that’s not all. Dr. Sizer has spoken a number of times on Iranian television to condemn Israel and its supporters and has spoken at conferences in Indonesia and Iran organized by Holocaust deniers and attended by anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorists.

When Sizer is confronted about his attendance at conferences organized by Holocaust deniers, he responds by saying he is merely interested in telling his audiences about Jesus Christ.

These are not the actions of a man of peace, but of someone intent on inciting hostility toward the Jewish people and their homeland. They are also the actions of a Jew-baiter. Clearly, Dr. Sizer seems to relish the outrage his actions engender, even more than the acclaim he elicits from the anti-Israel crowd with his actions....

Dr. Sizer’s participation in this conference is a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the mediation agreement he signed with his Anglican superiors and with the Board of Deputies in 2013.

There is simply no way Dr. Sizer can square his participation in this conference with his promise not to promote anti-Semitism, even if this promise was made in the context of his postings on the Internet. Traveling to Iran to participate in a conference where Israel and its Jewish supporters are demonized is simply beyond the pale, or should be....

Now the Church of England must act and it should not require another complaint from the Board of Deputies of British Jews to do the right thing.'  [Emphasis added; read the entire article here]

 I think a commenter on one of the ADL blogposts puts the general situation rather well:

'Imagine if Western governments embraced an official policy of spreading hatred of Muslims the way that fundamentalist Islamic regimes like Iran and Saudi Arabia propagate the hatred of Jews....'

 UPDATE: See also my post here

Israel-Bashing Christian NGO Head Moodey: The St James's Piccadilly Stunt Was Not Antisemitic

Founded in 1828, The Church of England Newspaper is apparently the oldest still-operating religious newspaper in the world. I gather that, unlike Britain's other Anglican newspaper, the Church Times (a mere newcomer to the scene given its launch date of 1863) it is not easily inclined to act these days as an echo-chamber for Israel's inveterate bashers within the Anglican communion.

On 17 January The Church of England Newspaper carried an editorial critical of the disgraceful Israel-demonising stunt held for the twelve-day Christmas period in the forecourt of St James's Church, Piccadilly. 



Try as I might, I have  been unable to locate a copy of this editorial (if anyone knows of an online link I'd be extremely grateful for it.)*


However, the general thrust of the editorial may be deduced from the following letter in response from Jeremy Moodey, CEO of the NGO Embrace the Middle East (formerly known as BibleLands), who like Stephen Sizer is an arch-foe of Christian Zionism.  (Sizer features the letter on his eponymous blog, but don't bother dashing over there: the blog has no facility for comments.)

Carried by the paper on 24 January (yesterday), Mr Moodey's epistle, blithely dismissive of the role of the real separation barrier in saving lives and ignoring altogether the sheer one-sided pro-Arab bias of the stunt and the repellent antisemitic daubings that the stunt attracted, states:

As seen on Elder of Ziyon blog

"Your editorial observations on anti-Semitism in Europe (Comment, 17 January) betray some confused thinking. Any manifestation of anti-Semitism should be deplored, and people like the French ‘comic’ Dieudonné who appear to promote hatred of Jews should of course be vigorously challenged. But you also raise the boycott campaign against Israel and the ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ event at St James’ Piccadilly and imply that these too are somehow making hatred of Jews ‘fashionable’ again.

Legitimate criticism of the State of Israel for its 46-year occupation of the Palestinian territories and its ongoing violation of Palestinian human rights should not be equated with ant-Semitism, and it is mischievous of you to connect the non-violent boycott campaign, St James’s and the admirable Lucy Winkett with such a vile prejudice. You cite the definition of anti-Semitism prepared by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in 2005, and this does indeed suggest that certain types of criticism of Israel may be anti-Semitic. But this definition was only ever a draft document, and it has never been formally accepted by the EU. Moreover, the EUMC was replaced in 2007 by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, a body which has distanced itself from the draft definition of 2005. Nor has the UK government accepted the EUMC definition.

The focus at St James’s over Christmas was on justice, and how the separation barrier, a construction which has been deemed to be illegal under international law (International Court of Justice opinion, July 2004), is impacting the lives of millions of Palestinians. These include many indigenous Christians in Bethlehem, whose historic lands have been confiscated for the barrier. You cite Alan Johnson of the pro-Israel NGO BICOM as claiming that the event at St James’s decontextualized the barrier, by paying insufficient attention to its security rationale. Yet Mr Johnson himself decontextualized the barrier by not referring once to occupation or Israel’s illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, 80% of which are conveniently annexed by the route of the wall deep into Palestinian territory. How can it possibly be anti-Semitic to highlight such an injustice?

The battle against genuine anti-Semitism is devalued when it is widened to include non-violent campaigns to persuade the State of Israel to comply with its obligations under international law."

The American Christian scholar Dexter Van Zile wrote some time ago, and at some length, about the "anti-Israel tenor" of Embrace the Middle East, which he warned was in danger of being transformed under Mr Moodey's stewardship from "a bona fide Christian development organization ... into an anti-Zionist propaganda mill".

Van Zile continued:

'.... Judging from the organization’s annual reviews and reports Embrace clearly does good work in the three countries where it focuses its attention – Israel, Egypt and Lebanon.

Unfortunately, mixed in with Embrace’s good work is an alarming amount of hostility toward the Jewish state. Israel is regularly cast as the villain in the story Moodey tells about the Middle East. The undeniable misdeeds of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Middle East are selectively ignored....

Moodey ignored Hamas’s failure to protect the rights of Embrace’s primary clients in Gaza – Christians – and offered not one word of criticism for the hundreds of rockets that landed in Israel in the months and weeks prior to Operation Pillar of Defense.

No reasonable commentator can ignore the role Hamas has played in making the lives of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip miserable and its cynical use of the suffering it has caused as a tool to lambaste Israel. No reasonable commentator would fail to hold Hamas to account for the rockets it launched, or allowed to be launched into Israel.

Moodey does.

.... How about stating that Palestinians need leaders with a true vision for peace? Israel withdrew its citizens and soldiers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, only to be attacked by Hamas in 2006. Moodey insists that Israel withdraw its citizens from the West Bank, but what assurances can he give that such withdrawals will lead to peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors?

Israel has been repeatedly attacked in recent years from every bit of territory from which it has withdrawn. It has recently been attacked from the Sinai, from which it withdrew in the 1970s. It was attacked from Lebanon in 2006, from which it withdrew from in 2000. And Hamas’s primary recruiting grounds for suicide bombers during the Second Intifada were those cities and towns in the West Bank from which Israel withdrew its soldiers in the 1990s....

Another demonstration of how, under Moodey’s leadership, Embrace’s resources have been used to broadcast a partisan anti-Israel narrative is a report about the human rights of Arabs living in Israel. The report issued by Embrace on Monday, December 10, 2012, at the request of Lambeth Palace, looks at the status of Arabs living in Israel.

The report details how Arabs are discriminated against in Israeli society and asserts that Israel has yet to reconcile the tension between “its identity as a Jewish state and its claim to be a democracy with equal rights for all.”

Yes, Arabs living in Israel do experience problems with discrimination, but the humiliating reality is this: They enjoy more rights and freedom and greater opportunity than Arabs in any other country in the Middle East – and they know it.

Consequently, 35 percent of the Arabs living in East Jerusalem would prefer to live in Israel if a two-state solution were achieved. Moreover, there has been a notable increase in the number of Arabs applying for citizenship in Israel since the Oslo Accords....

And while Embrace the Middle East is obsessing about the impact of Israel’s Jewish character on the rights of its minorities the organization ignores an important fact. The Palestinian Constitution of 2003 states that Islam is the official religion of Palestine and that “the principles of Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.” This sounds a lot like the constitution of Egypt, where the Coptic minority has endured great suffering over the years....'

The vicar of Virginia Water: back from Africa and back on form

Articles describing the tragedy of Christians suffering persecution and death under the jackboot of  Islamic regimes are commonplace these days because, of course, Islamic outrages against Christians have intensified to crisis point.

The day before Mr Moodey's letter was published in the Church of England Newspaper, yet another lament for the agony of the Middle East's Christians appeared online; it's this one, by Michael Brendan Dougherty, which is aptly titled "The world's most ancient Christian communities are being destroyed — and no one cares".  The subtitle runs: "Christians in the Middle East have been the victims of pogroms and persecution. Where's the outrage in the West?"

 Disturbingly (though apparently not for those Christians who hate Israel so much that they make common cause with Christianity's enemies), among the sponsors of the St James's Piccadilly stunt that Mr Moodey insists was not antisemitic was the Islamic charity Interpal, whose chairman is the reputedly hardline Islamist Ibrahim Hewitt, about whom Harry's Place has a latest blog here.  

As Dexter Van Zile remarked in the article cited above:

The irony is this: While Embrace the Middle East has invoked Israel’s Jewish character as an obstacle to human rights, it is carrying water for Palestinian leaders who are planning to turn the territory they control into an Islamic country where non-Muslims are by definition, second class citizens under Shari’a law....

Embrace’s board of trustees has, wittingly or unwittingly, made a choice to associate the good works of their organization with a patently obvious anti-Israel agenda....

Israel sets the gold standard for human rights in the Middle East, treating its enemies, minorities and dissidents with far greater humanity than any other country, regime or political movement in the region....'

 * 28 January: I have been sent the editorial by a reader who kindly went to the trouble of copying it out for me.  I'm very grateful indeed to him for it:

Anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe

‘Fans flock to French comic Dieudonné on social media’ we are told by the BBC’s Georg Lentze of the BBC Social Media Monitoring Unit. Dieudonné has several convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech in France, and his very popular shows have recently been banned for this reason. All forms of social media are showing real spikes of interest and favour, YouTube, Facebook ‘likes’, tweets, a TV channel, all register enormous popularity. He unites the poor immigrant Muslim youth and the anti-immigrant National Front bloc. He taps into the growing anti-politics feeling rising in Europe. Dieudonné operates with a subtle ambiguity, as the New Yorker’s Alexander Stille reported: of a distinguished French Jewish journalist Dieudonné said: “When I hear him speak, Patrick Cohen, I say to myself, you see, the gas chambers … too bad.” The meaning is clear, the grammar broken up to gain deniability. He has developed a cynical inversion of the Nazi salute that has gained such traction as to have been used at a Premiership football match to bait Jewish fans. The French authorities are concerned and trying to suppress the activities of this ‘comedian’ and activist, but that suppression stokes a victim image and social media popularity.

 Hatred of Jews is now popular in France again, and barely 60 years after 1945. Dieudonné plans to use his Human Rights to free expression to overturn government bans on his very lucrative shows. The bitter irony is that the mass murder of the Holocaust was the driver for the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Dieudonné himself is a ‘holocaust denier’. In the UK there is a growing movement to boycott the state of Israel by academics who think that Israel is guilty of repressing Palestinians. The University and College Union of lecturers had invited Bongani Masuka, someone found guilty by the South African Human Rights Commission of anti-Semitic hate crimes, to speak at their conference, and the UCU Annual Congress voted against dissociating itself from his views. UCU refused to accept the definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. A Jewish academic, Ronnie Fraser, felt harassed by the UCU’s action and complained of anti-Semitism to a Tribunal, which denied his complaint.

The Tribunal likened Fraser to a rugby player who was asking to be bashed and bruised in such a game, and so was entitled to a low degree of legal protection – an astonishing argument. The Church of England is also perilously close to adding respectability to his movement, as the Sunday Programme debate between Lucy Winkett and Alan Johnson showed: fashionable St James’ Piccadilly protested at the protective wall around Bethlehem, Johnson argued this protest ignored the realities of the context. Christians should beware of singling out Israel for protest, the Israel – Palestine spat, like Northern Ireland, is just one of many contested areas in the world, and the rising tide of hatred of the Jews is a toxic movement to make fashionable – again.'

"May It Please The Kangaroo Court": Christian Scholar socks it to Britain's BDSer Methodists

Infamously, as is well-known, the pro-BDS Methodist Church in Britain (a dying church hijacked by leftists) posted some weeks ago a survey regarding BDS that has caused considerable controversy. (See a summary and the link on our old pro-Boycott pal Richard Hall's blog here.)

Among those who took the opportunity to respond was pro-Israel Nick Gray of the UK-based Christian Middle East Watch (see here).

Now, in an absolute corker of an "open letter" to the Methodist Church's Peter Tidey,  American Christian scholar and pro-Israel advocate Dexter Van Zile characterises the survey's fourteen questions as the products of a "kangaroo court" since 

'A quick perusal of the questions indicates that the church has already concluded that Israel is solely responsible for the continued existence of the Mideast conflict, and that the Palestinians (and their Arab supporters) bear no responsibility.'

Van Zile goes on:

"Despite my misgivings, I decided to respond to your survey.

.... I am responding as a Christian who has grown disgusted with the monomaniacal focus of so-called peace and human rights activists in the West, who have hijacked church bureaucracies in their campaign to demonize Israel.

Below are my responses to your church's interrogatories.

Question One: What do you understand to be the motivation/inspiration behind the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions in relation to Israel?

The BDS campaign has, as intended by its organizers, proven to be a powerful vehicle in the effort to enlist people to the demonization and de-legitimization of the Jewish State, which represents the gold standard for human rights in the Middle East.

Israel treats its enemies, dissidents, minorities, and its own citizens with far greater humanity and respect than any other country, regime, or political movement in the region and yet it is the country that is being targeted by BDS activists both inside and outside the Methodist Church in England. Anti-semitism is clearly part of the equation in the BDS movement.

If you doubt that anti-semitism plays a role in this campaign, consider the following:

Saudia Arabia is responsible for broadcasting Wahhabism, a radical form of Islam, to other countries in the world. In addition to oppressing women and minorities, and supporting jihadis who have killed Christians in Syria, the Saudi regime has funded the construction of mosques in North America and Europe whose leaders have made it harder for Muslims to integrate into Western society. (Inhabitants of England may have some knowledge of this problem.)

Iran has oppressed religious and ethnic minorities and supports Hezbollah, an organization that has intentionally murdered civilians throughout the world. It is, by many accounts, pursuing a nuclear weapons program to provide an atomic umbrella to its proxies in Syria and Lebanon.

Syria has been the scene of a deadly civil war where more than 100,000 people have been killed in just over two years. The Assad regime has used poison gas against civilians.

Turkey brutally oppresses Kurds and has refused to accept responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, which resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million people between 1915 and 1922.

Many goods produced in China are manufactured by slave labor. The country oppresses religious and ethnic minorities and has occupied and brutally repressed Tibet.

Moreover, Christians are being ethnically cleansed in Iraq, with hardly a word of protest from their co-religionists in the West, although to be fair, people are coming around on this issue. (Just not the Methodist Church.)

Why is there no BDS campaign targeting these countries? Where is the Methodist outrage over these misdeeds?

Question Two: In your view, what would be the essential elements of any peace agreement in Israel/Palestine?

Personally, I used to think that the Clinton Parameters would bring an end to the conflict. Today I’m not so sure.

The problem we face is that the current crop of Palestinian leaders who have encouraged their people to fight against Israel for the past several decades cannot obtain anything that wasn’t already offered to them previously on a number of occasions.

If they were to accept a peace treaty now that was largely similar to what could have been achieved in 1947, 1948, 68, or at Camp David in 2000, Palestinians would ask: “What was the point of all the suffering we endured over the past several decades? Why did you send us off to war? What did we achieve with the death of our children?”

As a result of this reality, one essential aspect of peace is the departure of the current crop of aged leaders from the Palestinian scene.

Other essential elements of peace include an acknowledgement of Israel as a Jewish state by Palestinian leaders and a repudiation of the anti-Jewish hostility that has animated Palestinian public life for decades (and which has only gotten worse since the Oslo Accords).

A normalization and routinization of daily life for both Israelis and Palestinians would also be necessary. That would require the cessation of rocket and other terror attacks against Israel, which in turn, would allow the reduction of security measures that Palestinians complain about. This is not possible until Palestinian leaders of all stripes abandon their efforts to exercise a veto of Jewish national life in a sovereign state.

Peace will also likely require tolerance for the presence of Jews in the West Bank. The West Bank will not and should not be Judenrein, even if it is part of a Palestinian state. Israel has a 20 percent Arab population. Palestinians will have to tolerate the presence of the other in their state, just as Israel has.

Can the Methodist Church in England encourage Palestinians to accept the Jewish other?...."

This is impressive, highly relevant, stuff from Dexter Van Zile. Read his entire piece here