http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/close-presbyterian-vote-o_b_1654705.html
Thursday night, by what the *Christian Science Monitor*called the "thinnest of margins<http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0706/Presbyterians-reject-call-to-divest-over-Israel-s-West-Bank-occupation>" the General Assembly of the 1.9 million member Presbyterian Church USA failed to approve a resolution requiring the church to divest its $20 million investments in Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard over the ties of these companies to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. The vote at the PCUSA's General Assembly in Pittsburgh was 333-to-331. In percentage terms, 49.85% were in favor of selective divestment from the Israeli occupation and 50.15% were opposed. No doubt many among what Peter Beinart calls "the American Jewish establishment<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/failure-american-jewish-establishment/>" celebrated the result. They had pulled out the stops to block the Presbyterians' selective divestment move. 1300 rabbis and 22,000 other Jews wrote<http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/07/06/3100021/presbyterians-narrowly-reject-divestment> to the Presbyterians, falsely seeking to characterize the proposed move as "the use of economic leverages against the Jewish state<http://engage.jewishpublicaffairs.org/c/627/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10797> ." Yet as The Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the PCUSA General Assembly, explained in the*Washington Post*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/presbyterian-church-usa-approves-divestment-measure-at-general-assembly/2012/07/03/gJQA1X6ALW_blog.html>, the resolution was opposed to specific actions of particular companies linked to the occupation, leaving investments in many other companies doing business in Israel untouched. And therefore, claims that the Presbyterians were contemplating "divesting from Israel" or "boycotting Israel" were disinformation; disinformation that, in the short-run, may have proved successful. But as the Sergeant said<http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/web_op/pirates27.html> to the Pirate King, "To gain a brief advantage you've contrived/But your proud triumph will not be long-lived." [...] -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected]
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