MYTH-BUSTING!

There are some popular myths connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that drive me berserk.

Myth number one: Israel not doing enough to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

A quote coming out of the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly (the committee on creating bias and anti-Israel rhetoric) is a classic.

This is what Dottie Villesvik, a church elder from Everett Washington, had to say: "I fully support a state of Israel, but I also believe Israel's peace will not come until they seek peace with Palestinians,"

Where was Dottie in the year 2000 when the Palestinians were offered peace and statehood by Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton?

Are Dottie and the Presbyterian Church aware that the Palestinians quickly turned down this more than generous offer, opting instead for war?

Where were Dottie and her friends at the American Presbyterian Church when Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip and handed it over to the Palestinians?

How did the Palestinians respond to this? By shooting 8000 rockets into Southern Israel.

If the Presbyterian church is concerned about peace, why didn’t they call on the American government (and for that matter, the world) to stop all financial and political aid to the Palestinians after their heinous response to the Gaza Withdrawal?

The Presbyterian Church and people like Dottie are not really concerned with peace between Israel and Palestinians. If these kindly folks really wanted peace, they could be doing better things than divesting of and belittling the only democracy in the Middle-East.

For instance, the Presbyterians could be really innovative -- not to mention first on the old ecclesiastical block -- by demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish State! WOW, wouldn’t that be inspirational?

Second, they would do well to grasp that they will achieve nothing by divesting from Israel or calling on the American Administration to stop aid until Israel halts building in the settlements. Instead, this type of biased, uncontrolled, borderline-racist approach to Israel merely will make Israelis of all types and political leanings afraid of making concessions.

All this policy will do is give Israel and her people new grounds for uniting, and one thing I’m sure the Presbyterian Church doesn’t want is for a huge number of Jews to stop disagreeing among themselves!