"'To gain a brief advantage you've contrived/But your proud triumph will not be long-lived.'"
The fact that the "American Jewish
establishment" could only muster a two-vote majority at the PCUSA
General Assembly shows what the future holds for the Likudniks if they
do not change their policies towards the Palestinians.
"Losing Middle America" is not the way Israel wants the GA Assembly
story to read. Little of that sentiment is found in the mainstream U.S.
media.
As one astute veteran of General Assembly politics observed, there
really was no vote on the majority report that came before the General
Assembly. The 333-331 vote was on the minority report.
The leaders of the pro-investment forces at the GA succeeded in
technically refusing to allow a debate on the majority report by
substituting the minority motion for "positive investment," a term
favored by the anti-divestment forces.
As a result, the substitute motion was the only resolution voted on by the GA.
This was hardly the victory for Israel and its American backers
which was claimed by main stream U.S and Israeli media. A more important
defeat for Israel came when the GA voted 457 to 180 to call on
Presbyterians to boycott Israeli businesses operating on occupied
territory.
Two Israeli companies the GA voted to boycott, Ahava and the
Hadiklaim Dates Co-op, were identified, indicating that 70% of the
delegates wanted to name names when they are Israeli names, but turned
away, narrowly, when U.S. companies targeted for divestment were named.
This is nativism, clear and unvarnished.
The Presbyterians fell far short of being social justice prophets
in the distinction they were quick to make between supporting divestment
of the church's own funds, which lost by two votes, and a boycott of
Israeli companies, which is an individual conscience thing, a strong
statement to be sure, but still not one with fiscal teeth.
Ironically, a final resolution did pass that instructed the
church's Pension Board to work out a system through which individual
pensioners could opt out of having their pensions funds used in the
targeted three U.S corporations.
That resolution was reported in some media outlets as binding,
until it was ruled out of order because the resolution ran afoul of GA
parliamentary rules.
These 2012 GA Assembly votes on Israel/Palestine were, at bottom, a
win for the church's pro-Palestinian faction. The victory is not yet
complete, however, until the GA takes action with fiscal teeth.
Fortunately, the Assembly meets every two years, unlike the United
Methodist General Conference which meets every four years. The 2014 GA
will be held in Detroit, Michigan, an urban area which has a large
number of Palestinian-American citizens.
"To gain a brief advantage you've contrived,
But your proud triumph will not be long-lived."
Note: The picture above is from the 220th General Assembly
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