Episcopal Presiding Bishop lashes out against Israel. Calls for ceasefire

The truth is a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, as it would allow them to regroup and continue their rocket attacks on Israel. Holding hostages is a card Hamas is playing knowing that delay only foments more hatred of Israel. Extract as many concessions as you can from Israel before releasing a handful of hostages and then go back to the bargaining table for more. It is a tactic that is clearly working.

It is significant that the presiding bishop’s letter to Biden coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States, a visit that sparked nationwide protests and additional calls for a ceasefire. While Netanyahu was addressing a joint meeting of Congress, some 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol ahead of Netanyahu’s address, prompting Capitol Police to deploy pepper spray.

Netanyahu expostulated with this; “Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil, yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

How ironic that a secular, non-religious Jew understands the difference between good and evil, while an Episcopal bishop doesn’t seem to know the difference by siding with Israel’s enemies! And it gets worse. Israel is not only fighting Hamas and Hezbollah, she is now fighting Yemen, a third front in a proxy war with Iran. Israel’s multifront war is clearly getting tougher! Curry says nothing about this.

In his letter, Curry cited several resolutions on Israel and Palestine passed last month during the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

“Our Church recognizes the moral and legal obligations of the United States to the people of Gaza, given the role of the United States in providing military aid and diplomatic support for the war,” Curry wrote. “The Episcopal Church opposes any military aid in violation of human rights (Resolution D012), and we must be prepared to join in historic levels of aid and investment to fund the restoration and rebuilding of Gaza (D009). We call for an immediate ceasefire (D056) as well as the release of all unjustly detained prisoners with a future ensuring equal rights and peace (D007).”

So, who cares what The Episcopal Church thinks about America’s foreign policy? Is anybody in the White House or Pentagon listening to the ravings of a bishop whose geriatric denomination is rapidly dying for lack of interest in its woke take on the world and culture? TEC’s opinion on the Middle East has about as much value as TEC standing with Venezuelans, advocating for transparent elections!

From Curry’s perspective Israel is not allowed to win the war, hence Israel always is in a state of war with surrounding nations, but Curry puts all the onus on Israel to stop the war.

Curry also makes unwarranted demands that Israel end the death and suffering of innocent civilians, including children, and allow humanitarian access to Gazans.

Israel’s IDF forces have always done precision bombings of Hamas terrorists and leaders and yes civilians do die, as they do in any war. Where is Curry’s outrage about the tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians, many of them Anglicans, killed by Fulani tribesmen, or the 150,000 Yemeni’s killed by Saudi Arabia (between 2015-2019) as a direct result of military action. Not a word.

“We have expressed our horror at the loss of civilian life, Israeli and Palestinian, and have urged the U.S. government to use all the leverage it can to call for a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access, the release of hostages, and an end to the death and suffering of innocent civilians, including children,” Curry wrote in the letter.

Curry also mentioned how the church has “raised concerns again and again” about attacks against Al Ahli Arab Hospital since the war between Israel and Hamas started in October 2023. Earlier this month, the hospital, which is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, briefly closed in response to an Israeli evacuation order. The Diocese of Jerusalem also announced that a hospital ambulance had been fired on and severely damaged by a sniper; the driver was unharmed, and no patients were in the ambulance at the time.

Two things need to be said about this. A rocket attack came from a misfired Hamas rocket, not from Israel. The second time the Israeli Defense Forces rejected an allegation leveled by The Episcopal Church that it ordered the evacuation and closure of a church-run hospital in the Gaza Strip. Israeli spokespeople claim that as in all situations in which the IDF makes a “hospital incursion” it finds that Hamas use the hospital as a base for military operations. Al Jazeera Arabic journalists stated Israeli forces opened fire in one hospital. Israeli military stated they were fired upon entering the compound and released drone footage it said showed its troops being fired at.

The other lie is that Israel is starving the people of Gaza. For months, Israel has refuted libelous claims of famine in Gaza, as international organizations — especially the UN and the EU, the International Court of Justice, and mainstream media alongside NGOs such as Human Rights Watch — pushed the false, malicious narrative that Israel was causing famine in Gaza and even using it as a “weapon of war.” Israel might have saved itself the effort. No one was listening, according to the Gatestone Institute.

In May, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN claimed, without a shred of evidence, that there was a “full blown famine” in Gaza.

There was no famine, there is no famine and Israel has not been using hunger as a “weapon of war.” In its report published on June 4, the UN’s IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] concluded that famine was no longer even “plausible” and had no “supporting evidence.”

Curry then exploded with this in his letter to Biden; “We recognize your longstanding support of Israel, but call on you to recognize that we cannot continue with this level of impunity, with assurances of change but ongoing violence and killing of civilians, targeting of medical facilities and staff, and bombing of refugee camps, U.N. facilities, and hospitals. Please take this moment and use the power of the U.S. government to ensure Israel makes meaningful changes and to push forward a way of peace in the region.”

Again, all the onus is on Israel to end the war; a war which she did not start, but a war she will have to end and win for the sake of her own survival. Curry doesn’t get it. He leaves office with his denomination failing at every turn, primarily over embracing homosexual marriage, but at an even deeper level, the abandonment of the authority of scripture and a total failure to proclaim the gospel of God. In retirement he will watch as his church continues to decline and by 2040 cease to exist having no relevancy at all.

END

Episcopal Presiding Bishop lashes out against Israel. Calls for ceasefire
Israel must be held accountable for human rights abuses, violence, and illegal land seizures, says Michael Curry

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
July 31, 2024

Once again, The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop has lashed out against Israel in its war with Hamas. Bishop Michael Curry released a letter he sent to President Joe Biden saying that Israel must immediately engineer a ceasefire, support Gazans as they rebuild and hold Israel accountable for human rights abuses, violence, and illegal land seizures.

Not a single mention was made of Hamas being held accountable for its terrorist activities in the slaughter of 1200 Israelis and the hostages they took and still hold.