In a speech from the floor of the GA plenary session, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the largest organization of Jewish congregations in Northern America, offered to deepen the partnership between American Jews and Presbyterians. Partnerships, of course, are built on mutually agreed upon covenants. Rabbi Jacobs pledged to deepen the covenants between the two faith communities by inviting newly elected moderator Heath Rada and Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons to join him in a face-to-face conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Quoting from his speech:
“But there is another option. I am flying to Israel tonight. I would like to invite Moderator Heath Rada and Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons to join me for a meeting I will arrange next week in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Netanyahu to express our deeply shared concerns. If we are truly partners and you disapprove this divestment overture I look forward to sitting with your leadership in the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem. You can chose partnership and engagement or you can choose separation and divestment.
We should be partners in leading the interfaith world. These high level meetings are only the beginning of our faith communities working together for a two state solution.
We are against settlements.
We are for a two-state solution, but we can’t fight alone.
We need each other,
and if you choose partnership over divestment and BDS, together we can change the world.”
Other News
Earlier this spring, Jimmy Carter switched his position on divestment and boycotts of Israel. In the past, he supported them. He now rejects them. More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/24/jimmy-carter-israel_n_5022771.html
Please keep in our prayers the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped by Hamas.