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TechnoratiSeveral years later, in 1954, several prominent Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian leaders endorsed an appeal to President Eisenhower for a special $500 million fund for development in the Middle East, contingent on the Arab nations recognizing Israel and absorbing the displaced Arab refugees. These refugees had been “led into flight from their homes by Arab leaders, [and] they are prevented from seeking permanent rehabilitation by these same leaders, who use the existence of the problem as a weapon against the West and against Israel.” The proposal from the church officials to gain acceptance for Israel and a permanent home for displaced Palestinians never gained traction.
In 1948, shortly after Israel’s founding, New York Methodists deplored the “vacillating policy taken in relation to partition of Palestine” but “commend[ed] the action of our president in officially recognizing de facto the provisional Government of Israel. We urge the United Nations to act quickly to effect a just settlement of the conflict, both for the sake of the new nation of Israel and also for the sake of the prestige of the United Nations in the eyes of the minority groups of the world.” If the Arab states did not halt their attacks against Israel, the New York Methodists urged that the UN Security Council “treat it as a threat to peace” and that member nations withdraw their diplomats from Arab countries and impose economic sanctions against them.
Also in 1948, Methodist Bishop Bromley Oxnam led the Churchman magazine for liberal Mainline Protestants in honoring Israel for giving refuge to persecuted Jews from Europe and for “its stand on the dignity of man and equality of opportunity,” as The New York Times described it. A representative of the Zionist Organization of America received the award on behalf of Israel, saying: “The understanding and forthright support which The Churchman has consistently given to the program of the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine have been a source of encouragement.”
Twelve years later, Bishop Oxnam joined the National Committee for Israel Bond’s “Man of the Century” dinner in Chicago of 1960, which honored former President Truman for his “world wide leadership on behalf of humanitarian causes and in recognition of his friendship to the state of Israel and the Jewish people,” as a Chicago newspaper reported. But during the 1960’s, the liberal Mainline Protestant churches would be radicalized and became hostile to Israel, portraying it as a Western colonial power that oppressed its Third World victims. In the wake of the 1967 war, precipitated by Arab plans to attack Israel, the National Council of Churches blandly condemned generic “aggression” and warned against being “too exclusively ‘pro-Arab’ or ‘pro-Israel.’” It also warned that it could not “condone by silence territorial expansion by armed force,” implicitly criticizing Israel rather than the Arab states.
During the 1970’s, the influence of Liberation Theology only pushed the Religious Left even further into anti-Israel hostility and partiality to Palestinian “liberation” movements. Over the last 35 years, the Religious Left, further infuriated by Israel’s close relations with the U.S., the other favorite bête noir, has only accelerated its animosity towards Israel. But there was a time, 40 and 50 years ago, when liberal churchmen in America were more equitable when they looked at the Middle East.
Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.
