The Rev. Samuel Kobia will soon be leaving the post of General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. It’s a good thing, since he’s overstayed his welcome on the world stage. He made his final report to the WCC’s Central Committee on Wednesday. Part of it was about Israel, and it contained a whopper:
Occupation along with the concomitant humiliation of a whole people for over six decades constitutes not just economic and political crimes but, like anti-Semitism, it is a sin against God. [Emphasis added.]
“Over six decades” is a reference, not to 1967, but to 1948, the year of Israeli independence. The year the newly established Jewish state (established, one might add, by United Nations action) was invaded by five Arab armies and almost destroyed in infancy. Somehow, in one of the most amazing military feats of all time, those armies were beaten off, and a new nation was born.
So, the effect of Kobia’s statement is to say that Israel’s “occupation” and “humiliation” of its Arab neighbors goes back to its very founding. This is another way of saying that the very existence of the state of Israel is “a sin against God.” He also claimed that the West Bank, Gaza (now run by Hamas, and from which all Jews have departed), and East Jerusalem constitute a “full-blown apartheid system complete with its brand of “Bantustans.”
At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Samuel Kobia’s next gig will be at Al-Jazeera, or maybe the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Information. All I can say is, go away, Sam, just go away.
(Via Naming His Grace.)
August 28, 2009 at 11:11 am
Might as well go out the way he always led…as a deceiver.
August 29, 2009 at 11:58 am
A better job them me David-
“So, the effect of Kobia’s statement is to say that Israel’s “occupation” and “humiliation” of its Arab neighbors goes back to its very founding. This is another way of saying that the very existence of the state of Israel is “a sin against God.”
You got straight to the point.
August 29, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Nothing wrong with Kobia that a good kick in the tuchus wouldn’t solve.
August 29, 2009 at 11:34 pm
John E my question is at which end of the back bone would Kobia’s tuchus be?
August 30, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Fred,
Where his brains are.
John
August 31, 2009 at 11:49 am
Kobia reflects a very common (institutionally favored) WCC and UCC(C) opinion. In much of the denominational commentary on Israelis and Palestinians, Israel is guilty of the original sin of existing. At least, as a Jewish state.
The bias in this is jarring – and indeed racist and antisemitic, but, in my view, it is basically accepted by the members of these ‘communions’. Otherwise they would disallow people from speaking on their behalf in this manner.
September 2, 2009 at 1:08 pm
[...] against any compromise–is the height of folly. One might even suggest, to use the words of a recently departed WCC bureaucrat, that it is a “sin against [...]