The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is aggrieved by the deadly Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla, which was carried out in international waters during the early hours of Monday morning. The flotilla was attempting to break the Israel-imposed embargo against the people of Gaza by delivering humanitarian relief and construction materials to Gaza’s blockaded port.
In the words of AFSC staff present in Gaza: “We are all shocked and feel very sad for those who have been killed and injured having bravely voiced their support to Gazans. We think about their families and children they left behind to join the flotilla. We believe this world could be a better place, but only if we all stand together, support peace and love against oppression and injustice.”
Maybe they read this blog in Geneva (I’m not holding my breath). Or maybe the general secretary of the World Council of Churches finally woke up and realized how ridiculous he looked for getting all ferocious about the Gaza flotilla and never mentioning the sinking of a South Korean warship by North Korea two months ago. In any case, Olav Fykse Tveit finally bestirs himself to comment upon the recent unpleasantness in the Yellow Sea:
It is with deep concern that I write this to you as the people of the Korean peninsula face, yet again, another precarious situation, that is, the recent tragedy of the sinking of the Cheonan in which forty-six sailors lost their lives. We pray that the Lord almighty will console the bereaved families and friends and give them hope and strength to withstand the challenges ahead.
While we join with the people and the churches in South Korea in their national grief, we also share your common concern that the unfolding events have endangered the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and also in the entire North East Asia region. The recent events confirm the fears expressed earlier by the World Council of Churches that the Korean peninsula remains a flashpoint in the North East Asia region and has the potential to ignite a major conflagration, unless the international community, especially the six-party talk nations, try to ensure lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
Experience has shown us that violence can never be the way to settle disputes either on the Korean peninsula or anywhere else. Therefore, the World Council of Churches reiterates its strong condemnation of all sorts of violence.
And that, believe it or not, is as close as he ever comes to actually naming the perpetrator of the crime. Most of the rest of this missive is, believe it or not, a restatement of the WCC’s commitment to reunification of the Koreas. There is no mention of North Korea, no righteous indignation over a blatant act of war, no siding with victims against aggressor. There is just this extraordinarily wimpy tone of, “isn’t it a tragedy, we’re so sorry, wouldn’t it be great if everyone would just play nice?”
This isn’t even a matter of contrast between the way the WCC talks about Israel and the way it doesn’t talk about the world’s most repressive regime. It’s simply a repetition of the way the WCC has always treated Communist states, wiht kid gloves so soft that they wouldn’t leave a mark if you slapped someone with them. Old dogs and new tricks.
The hits just keep on coming from the mainline churches, which might have gotten together and cribbed from one another, so little difference is there in their statement on the Gaza flotilla. Here’s the General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society:
We grieve the loss of life and injuries sustained in what became a tragic confrontation between the forces of peace and those of armed aggression,” said Jim Winkler, chief executive of the United Methodist social justice agency.
Winkler called the Israeli troops’ boarding of the “Freedom Flotilla” in international waters more than just an act of high-seas piracy….
“The violence must stop on both sides,” he said. “The time for decisive action to impose a just, peaceful resolution has never been more evident that in this tragic assault on persons whose sole purpose was to achieve peace and bring aid to an oppressed populace.”
I don’t have to replay those videos of Turkish “peace activists” beating on Israeli soldiers as soon as they hit the deck of the Mavi Marmara, do I? The idea that the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) goons who were planted among the genuine peace activists were there for the “sole purpose” of achieving peace is as willfully ignorant as anything I’ve ever heard out of a mainline official.
It is clear, however, that the deaths of civilians working to deliver humanitarian aid could not have happened absent the counterproductive Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Which is sort of like saying, “that armed robber would never have gotten killed if the police hadn’t had guns and shot him after he shot at them.”
Rather than tacitly backing an ill-advised blockade, the U.S. should work with its ally, Israel, to promote constructive new policies toward Gaza that serve the aims of peace and security. These should include continued efforts to halt violence, and credible long-term strategies to support Palestinian leaders who are actively working for peace.
Which is sort of like Rodney King plaintively asking why we can’t just all get along. Jefforts-Schori, like so many of her mainline colleagues, think that if they avert their eyes, and just ignore the the fact that Hamas doesn’t want peace with Israel, wants Israel to be destroyed, wants the Jews to die, and has done everything in its power to shut down and opposition to its murderous program in the Gaza Strip, it will cease being so.
The incident highlights the need for the United States to work for new, constructive Israeli policies toward Gaza that end the blockade and provide for the humanitarian need of those living there without diminishing Israel’s own security.
Well, that’s a nice thought. Any ideas on how to lift the blockade and still prevent the Iranians from trying to send arms to Hamas?
The Gaza flotilla incident also underlines the necessity of pressing without delay for a comprehensive agreement for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, beginning with the indirect talks now being brokered by the United States.
Another nice thought, one which, like Jefforts-Schori’s missive above, jumps from what is desirable to…what is desirable, without ever bothering to address the obstacles: continuing rocket fire from Gaza, Iranian attempts to arm Hamas, the latter’s refusal to consider even the possibility of recognizing Israel, etc.
This crisis and its tragic consequences must not be allowed to undermine peace efforts. The United States should seize this opportunity to push hard now for an end to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has already said it plans to continue the proximity talks with Israel brokered by the United States. The United States should help Israel find better ways to enhance its security through negotiation and a comprehensive agreement for peace.
From CMEP’s lips to Hamas ears. And if wishes were beggars…
UPDATE: Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons of the PCUSA adds his two cents:
Our tradition, although not strictly pacifist, honors peaceful resistance, including nonviolent disobedience to unjust government policies and actions. We recognize that such initiatives as the flotillas to bring aid to the people of Gaza can be powerful instruments of such resistance. These actions sometimes incite violent responses, as in this case. The long-term success of this kind of resistance requires a nonviolent response on the part of the demonstrators, even when they are under attack.
As Jimi Hendrix said so eloquently at Woodstock, “Blah, blah, woof, woof.”
UPDATE: Then there’s this from Presbyterian Voices for Justice, who I assume approve of the stuff they put on their web site:
Yesterday’s Democracy Now features interviews with Adam Shapiro, founder of the International Solidarity Movement (whose wife was on the Flotilla), Amira Hass (the only Israeli journalist based in the Occupied Territories), Ali Abunimah (founder of Electronic Intifada) and Richard Falk (an international lawyer and UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories).
Hass talks about a number of protests in the West Bank (including one at which an American student and ISM volunteer was attacked by Israeli forces with tear gas canisters and lost her left eye as a result) that have called, among other things, for the PA to cease dealing with the Israeli government in either negotiations or any form of security cooperation.
Falk is especially clear that the official Israeli propaganda strategy of focusing attention on whether Israeli commandos were attacked and were acting in self-defense is morally misplaced: the Israeli government launched an unprovoked attack on an unarmed civilian vessel in international waters; the Israeli government was therefore the aggressors and its commandos had no right of self-defense. The civilians being attacked did have such a right.
So I’m guessing PVJ is now for the Palestinians cutting off negotiations wit Israel and…what? Just waiting for them to surrender, I suppose. And may I be perfectly clear: Richard Falk is a tool of the anti-Semitic left, as well as a “UN rapporteur.” But I repeat myself…
The decisive issue in the Gaza flotilla affair is that without the bloody shirt to wave, the incident would have passed without mention. The overriding fact as far as most of the world is concerned is that there are nine corpses on the deck of a ship. In retrospect, it seems clear that the object of the exercise was to produce these corpses. The Mavi Marmara incident was an exercise in the theater of horror, one suicide attack in long and sickening series of suicide attacks.
No one in Europe worried much about the constant shower of missiles from Gaza in the past. No one in Europe said a word when North Korea torpedoed and slaughtered South Koreans on the high seas. No one objected when the Iranians hijacked a British ship and humiliated the hostages.
We ourselves seem to be getting a sort of novel pass for executing scores of suspected terrorists — and anyone in their vicinity — in our new, stepped-up Predator drone assassinations.
But the Western and Islamic worlds have a preexisting furor at the Jewish state that can be tapped at will by almost any pro-radical-Palestinian group clever enough to do proper P.R. after a desired asymmetrical confrontation. The fallout from Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, the distortions around the 2002 terrorist storming of the Church of Nativity, the 2006 Lebanon war — over time, these incidents do their part, in weird fashion, to incur hatred for a liberal democracy while creating sympathy for a theocratic thugocracy like Hamas.
What explains this preexisting hatred, which ensures denunciation of Israel in the most rabid — or, to use the politically correct parlance, “disproportionate” — terms? It is not about “occupied land,” given the millions of square miles worldwide that are presently occupied, from Georgia to Cyprus to Tibet. It is not a divided capital — Nicosia is walled off. It is not an overreaction in the use of force per se — the Russians flattened Grozny and killed tens of thousands while the world snoozed. And it cannot be the scale of violence, given what we see hourly in Pakistan, Darfur, and the Congo. And, given the Armenian, Greek, and Kurdish histories (and reactions to them), the currently outraged Turkish government is surely not a credible referent on the topic of disproportionate violence.
Perhaps the outrage reflects simple realpolitik — 350 million Arab Muslims versus 7 million Israelis. Perhaps it is oil: half the world’s reserves versus Israel’s nada. Perhaps it is the fear of terror: Draw a cartoon or write a novel offending Islam, and you must go into hiding; defame Jews and earn accolades. Perhaps it is anti-Semitism, which is as fashionable on the academic Left as it used to be among the neanderthal Right.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson weighs in on the Gaza flotilla, and echoes a concern that has been raised by French president Nicholas Sarkozy:
While we condemn all violence in the resolution of political disputes, this incident raises a number of questions related to the just use of force. It is not clear that, in this incident, all alternatives were explored prior to the use of military force. One tenet of the just use of force is proportionality, a principle I raised during my meeting with the chief rabbis of the State of Israel during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli incursion into Gaza which lasted from December 2008 to January 2009. This incident provides an example of how proportionality is an ongoing concern related to Israeli military action against civilians, both Palestinians and internationals.
With regard to the matter of “alternatives,” it must be noted that the Israeli navy spent several hours trying to get the flotilla to voluntarily head for Ashdod, where their cargoes could be inspected for weapons, and the genuine humanitarian supplies forwarded to Gaza. It was the flotilla’s choice to make running the blockade their primary mission, rather than the actual delivery of the supplies. That being the case, the Israeli navy was essentially forced to board the ships and turn them toward Ashdod.
As for “proportionality,” I have no real idea why Hanson thinks this is an issue, since he doesn’t say or explain why he brings it up. In just war theory, proportionality isn’t meant to insure that both sides suffer the same losses, nor does it suggest that a military operation can only take place between forces that are similarly armed. Truth be told, I haven’t got a clue what Hanson thinks the concept of proportionality has to do with men defending themselves from a mob that they thought was made up of peace activists, but turned out to be made up of men spoiling for a fight, and who came armed for such a fight. Maybe he could issue another statement, and clear it up for the rest of us.
The PCUSA’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network weighs in on Monday’s Gaza flotilla incident. One guess regarding the tenor of the statement:
The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) stands in strong support of the ”Freedom Flotilla” which was attacked by Israeli Defense Forces in international waters on May 31, 2010. We express our sympathy for the loss of life and hold those who were killed and injured and their families in prayer. We commend the people of the flotilla for taking on the delivery of aid in a show of non-violent solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza and deeply regret that a military action by the Israeli Defense Forces has resulted in violence and loss of life.
Non-violent solidarity in action:
In a press release on May 31, 2010, Mr. [Richard] Falk [UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories] said “Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians
on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas.
About which Falk apparently knows nothing. See the San Remo Manual for the details that Falk and IPMN want to ignore.
It is essential that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior, including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally accountable for their wrongful acts.”
Because as we all know, Israelis have no right to self-defense under pretty much any circumstances.
This network supports Richard Falk in his call for worldwide action to stop Israel from flagrantly and continuously violating international law and agrees with him that “it is time to insist on the end of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”
There’s absolutely nothing surprising here. Just wanted it noted for the record that the IPMN is ignoring inconvenient facts and propagandizing for the initiators of the violence aboard the Mavi Marmara. In other words, business as usual.
The World Council of Churches has long maintained that it wants to be an even-handed broker for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But as part of its “World Week for Israeli Capitulation Peace in Palestine and Israel”,” it climbs into bed with extreme far-left Jewish activists who want to see Israel destroyed:
The plight of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and the need to hold the Israeli State accountable under international law were highlighted at a roundtable hosted by the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum in Geneva, Switzerland on 31 May. The roundtable was one of the events marking the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel.
“The occupation is simply strangling the Palestinian economy”, Nathan Finkelstein added.
“The military occupation strongly influences the life and working conditions of people living under it”, said Nathan Finkelstein. He listed poor salaries, child labour, lack of social benefits and absence of legal rights amongst the consequences of the occupation on Palestinian workers.
Participating at the roundtable together with Jamjoun were Caroline and Nathan Finkelstein, two Geneva-based Jewish activists who are members of Urgence Palestine and of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
In fact, the Palestinian economy on the West Bank has been growing strongly, even in the face of a world-wide recession, but that’s not the point. The point is that the Finkelsteins are part of an organization, the IJAN, that has called explicitly for the destruction of the Jewish state:
Our commitment is to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and the ending of the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine….
The moment when the Zionist movement decided to build a Jewish State in Palestine, it became a movement of conquest….
Israel, once a vehicle for the British and French assault on Arab unity and independence, is now a junior partner in the US-allied strategy for world military, economic and political control, specifically for domination of the strategic Middle-East/Southwest Asia region. The danger of nuclear war through a US/Israeli attack on Iran reminds us that Israel is an atomic bomb that should be urgently dismantled for the sake of saving the lives of all its current and potential victims.
We unequivocally support the Palestinian Right of Return. We call for a dismantling of the racist Israeli law of return that privileges the rights of any person that the State of Israel deems as Jewish to settle in Palestine while excluding Palestinians and making them refugees.
You get the point. Looking at the IJAN web site, I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity of the rhetoric to that of International ANSWER and the Workers World Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the CPUSA and others on the extreme left. The fact that the Finkelsteins are Jews is incidental to their actual primary identity as agitators for the anti-Semitic left.
On a day when the General Secretary of the WCC is on his high horse condemning Israel, we need to remember just who these people are.
PS: I should also mention that the article cited above also mentioned the participation of a “Palestinian activist” by the name of Hazem Jamjoun, who has explained himself well at Common Dreams:
The push for the establishment and international recognition of an independent Palestinian state within the Palestinian Bantustan is no different from the South African Apartheid regime’s campaign to gain international recognition of Transkei or Ciskei. This is the core of the “two-state solution” idea. The major and crucial difference is that in the current Palestinian case, it is the world’s superpower and its adjutants in Europe and the Arab world pushing as well, and armed with the active acceptance of Palestine’s indigenous intermediaries.
That’s nothing more or less than a call for Israel’s destruction and replacement by a single state, presumably with an Arab majority, that could then in short order either reduce the Jews to dhimmitude, or expel them altogether. And Jamjoun and the Finkelsteins were apparently the leaders of this little soiree.
So the next time you hear the WCC talk about playing a role in the “peace process,” remember–this is who they are.
The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches has officially condemned Israel for the Gaza flotilla incident. I know this is an extraordinary surprise, but sometimes those crazy folks in Geneva just feel the need to break out of their mold:
It is with great distress that the World Council of Churches received the news that the Israeli naval forces stormed a Gaza-bound vessel carrying humanitarian aid in international waters before dawn on Monday, killing at least 10 civilians and injuring many more.
The Israelis suffered at least a half dozen casualties as a result of coming down in the middle of an armed mob, but why should that bother anyone? Got what they deserved, I tell ya.
We condemn the assault and killing of innocent people who were attempting to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, who have been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
The WCC has an odd idea of what constitutes “innocence.” The people in question were armed with iron bars, baseball bats, knives and at least two guns. They started beating on Israeli soldiers, who came with no intention of hurting anyone, before their feet touched the deck. They threw at least one soldier overboard, which at the very least counts as attempted murder. But hey, they were attempting to bring “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza, so they must be innocent, right?
We further condemn the flagrant violation of international law by Israel in attacking and boarding a humanitarian convoy in international waters.
Ignorance is bliss, I guess. The joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza is for the express purpose of preventing weapons from reaching Hamas, something the Iranians have been caught trying to do by sea at least twice. Given that Hamas is officially dedicated to Israel’s destruction, and has lobbed rockets into Israeli territory on a daily basis for years, I think it’s fair to say that a state of war exists between Gaza and Israel. That being the case, the blockade is a legitimate action in prosecution of that war, in which case the stopping and boarding of ships that have announced their intention of running a blockade, even in international waters, is perfectly legal. But at this point Olav Fykse Tveit is doing nothing more than reflecting elite European opinion, which knows no more, and desires to know no more, about the laws of war than it knows about the contents of the Koran. Just gets in the way, doncha know.
The deplorable events which occurred yesterday off the coast of Gaza remind us yet again of the pressing need for an end to the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Someone needs to wake Dr. Tveit up, and let him know it isn’t 2004 any more. There is no Israeli military occupation of Gaza–if there were, does he really think Hamas would be in charge of the territory? In any case, it isn’t the occupation of the West Bank that caused yesterday’s incident. It is the continued refusal of Hamas to demonstrate any desire to make peace with Israel, and the continuing efforts of Iran and others to smuggle weapons to it, that keeps the blockade in place. It is the actions of its Islamic supporters and Western fellow travelers who do all they can to prop Hamas up and provide it with propaganda victories, even at the cost of lives. It is the continuing willful blindness of delusional people such as Olav Fykse Tveit who give Hamas and its bloodthirsty minions hope of achieving their ultimate goal of pushing the Jews into the sea.
UPDATE: Saw a reference at Michelle Malkin‘s site to the fact that the United Nations has yet to say a word about the North Korean sinking of a South Korean ship on March 29, two weeks after an investigation demonstrated beyond a doubt that a North Korean submarine was involved. Got me to wondering, and sure enough, the WCC has yet to utter a peep about an act of war involving one of its favorite totalitarian regimes. Of course, the South Koreans weren’t “innocent”–they were clearly puppets of Western imperialism, and as such deserved what they got, too.
Occupation: Evangelical Presbyterian Church Planter
Job Title: Associate Pastor for Church Planting at Faith EPC in Kingstowne, VA
Congregation: Church of the Occoquan Valley (also known as "The Cove"), meeting for worship at 10:30 AM every Sunday morning at Yarbrough Park, 1549 Old Bridge Road, Suite 105, Woodbridge, VA (map)
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University; Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Doctor of Ministry candidate at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA
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