Meanwhile, the Presbyterians took a giant step backwards by voting to designate Israel an "apartheid state" and divest.

. . . leaders of the largest Presbyterian denomination officially equated the Jewish state with apartheid South Africa and have voted to stop investing in Israel. With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (USA), the church, boasting nearly 3 million members, is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel. It is the first Christian denomination to do so, according to Sister Patricia Wolfe, executive director of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 275 Christian denominations.

. . . Leaders of Presbyterian Church (USA), a mainline Protestant church, approved several other anti-Israel resolutions at their gathering in Richmond, Va., and also refused to halt funding for "messianic congregations" that target Jews for conversion.

Ann Hafften, coordinator of Middle East Networks for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),understands that some Lutherans are content to work within the church's system, but others need to engage issues in less traditional ways. . . . individual Lutherans have joined secular groups like one in Texas that is trying to launch a boycott of Caterpillar tractors, the U.S.-made equipment the Israeli army uses to demolish Palestinian homes on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

The Presbyterian Church apparently thinks that now is the time to pile on Israel

Needless to say, the Presbyterians� resolution against Israel is entirely silent on the subject of Palestinian terrorism or suicide bombing, or the incitement to martyrdom and Jew-killing in the Palestinian media, mosques, summer camps and official government statements.

. . . . Like other liberal Christian churches (the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the Unitarians, the Quakers) the hatred and condemnation of Israel has grown so strong that advocates for Israel are not permitted to even make presentations to these congregations any more. and force it to �behave better� with the Palestinians. The Church strangely did not pass any resolutions at their General Assembly this year about the slaughter of black Muslims in the Sudan by Arabs, and they never passed any resolutions in prior years, when the Sudanese Arabs chose to slaughter black Christians. They were silent when the Rwanda genocide occurred as well. But hey, what�re a few million black African lives worth when olive trees are being cut down near the �green line�?