"Springfield, MO – The time has come for Palestinian leaders to stop blaming Israel for hardships experienced by their own people and to assume responsibility for developing their own independent democratic state."
David Blewett, Novi, Michigan, Executive Director of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), offered that assessment in his annual report presented today (March 8) at a meeting of the organization’s executive committee here.
The 25-year-old ecumenical body represents both Catholic and Protestant scholars and others committed to developing support for Israel.
"For too long, advocates for the Palestinian cause have been allowed to go on blaming Israel for all the real and supposed hardships that Palestinians must wrestle with everyday," Blewett said. "It is about time that we begin to challenge these speakers on their real or benign support of terrorism, homicide bombings, an educational system that perpetuates a culture of hate and antisemitism, and a so-called ‘government’ that is transparently corrupt."
The NCLCI director insisted that Israel cannot be responsible for building a state for the Palestinians. "That is a Palestinian and maybe an Arab responsibility, hopefully with help from other nations," he said. "Reality seems to indicate, however, that Palestinians are not looking for a hand up as much as they are looking for a hand out.
"Sooner or later," he added, "there has got to be some constructive Palestinian effort toward genuine nation building."
While some Christian organizations condemn Israel for building a wall to protect its people from terrorists, Blewett noted: "As unpalatable as this wall may be, it needs to be recognized that the most basic responsibility of any government is to protect the lives of its citizens.
"Israel," he said, "is no exception."
If the re-election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proved anything, it was that Israelis "no longer support concessions, let alone territorial surrender, without a complete stop to all terror and fundamental change in the Palestinian culture of hatred that fuels it.
Israel’s voters have said – sometimes shouted – that all terrorism must stop before the peace process can begin again," he added. But reporters seem not to hear that message.
"That was one of the lessons, if not the lesson, of the Israeli elections," he said. "Israelis have gone to the polls twice in the past two years and each time they have given parties on the left a solid whipping."
Blewett insisted that the fact that many of Israel’s detractors continue to refer to Sharon and the Likud party as "right wing" or "extremists" reflects one’s personal bias rather than the reality of Israel’s determination to end terrorism within its borders.
The NCLCI leader claimed that many mainline Protestant churches are "the primary advocates of the Palestinian Authority" in America, even as they "blissfully ignore all the problems and corruption that has been exposed in the Palestinian Authority."
"They regularly speak of ‘occupation,’" he notes, "but say nothing about what brought about the current situation, or how Israel has sought to end the situation."
In other action, the executive committee supported the proposal to honor Hiram Bingham IV, who was censured by his superiors in the State Department during World War II for disobeying the order to stop providing European Jews with visas to the United States.
Secretary of State Colin Powell recently gave Bingham a posthumous award for "Constructive Dissent" for saving some 2,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Efforts are now being made to issue a stamp in his honor.
