Jewish Anti-Zionists Protest Christian Zionists
By Abraham H. Miller/JNS.org June 12, 2017CUFI's impact is not limited to the national level. Through its network of Zionist churches, it also acts on the vital grassroots level. The essence of American politics is that it is local, and CUFI clearly understands that.
The 1967 Six-Day War liberated historic Jewish holy places and made them accessible to Jews for the first time since 1948. Jordan had illegally occupied eastern Jerusalem, as it did the entire area of the "West Bank."
While Christians, many of them fundamentalists, have embraced the Jewish state and are committed to its survival, the Jewish left has found this as appalling as they have found the very existence of a Jewish state.
There is something absolutely horrifying about the idea of Jews--any Jews--entering a Christian place of worship, or any place of worship, and being disruptive. These agitators lack any knowledge of Jewish history.
To disrupt Christians in their place of worship is not just an affront to those Christians; it is an affront to all Christians and to the larger Jewish community. It should be vigorously condemned by all Jews and Jewish organizations, whatever their stand on Israel's right to exist.
Leftists--especially young ones--believe they possess the moral high ground, giving them the right to prevent fellow students from attending classes, shut down administrative offices, block emergency services and now disrupt places of worship.
The IfNotNow activists are as ignorant of American history as they are of Middle East history. The "West Bank" was taken by Israel in a defensive war from an illegal occupying power--not from a mythical Arab state of "Palestine," but Jordan. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir asked King Hussein not to join the armies of Egypt and Syria. He did anyway.
After the 1967 war, the Israelis sought to negotiate with the Arabs, seeing the "West Bank" as an inducement. Instead of negotiating, the Arabs responded with the three "no's" of Khartoum: no negotiations, no peace, no recognition.
IfNotNow has a jaundiced notion of who are the victims and who are the oppressors. The Jewish sage Hillel would remind them, "If we Jews are not for ourselves, who will be for us?" And if we were "only for ourselves," Israelis wouldn't be the first responders at every disaster in the world. Peace: "If not now, when?" Indeed.