Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant and Jerry Gordon bring back Dexter Van Zile, Christian Media Analyst of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) to address why anti- Zionism is the only unifying factor for the World Council of Churches (WCC). The umbrella world body was founded in 1948 with the mission of unifying Christian witness. However, with conflicting theologies, the only thing that it shares is political defamation of the Jewish state of Israel thus providing cover for the Palestinian Authority opposing efforts at normalization.
Instead, the WCC supports the blood libel actions of clerics like Archbishop Attallah Hanna, the Head of the Sebastia Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem condemned by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the International Committee for Interreligious Consultations. Then there is South African theologian Jerry Pillay who is running for election as the WCC leader who accuses Israel of being an apartheid state. General Secretary Fykse Tveit of the WCC has joined forces with anti-Israel Churches for Middle East Peace condemning the Trump “Peace through Prosperity Plan”. The WCC views the Peace plan as the equivalent of an act of war against the Palestinians. Thus, providing cover to corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to avoid engaging in bi-lateral negotiations persisting in holding out to occupy the space between the “river and the sea” by espousing incitement to hatred and funding terrorism. According to Van Zile, the PA relies on the WCC to promote hostility and agitation towards Israel. The Palestinians believe the WCC has access to the international media to further their agenda of incitement to hate and terrorism.
The WCC also operates in a dhimmi-like pose to Islamic supremacism in the Middle East because of threats to dwindling Christian minorities in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. The WCC is fearful of sectarian riots and pogroms against minority Christians. This comes as normalization of relations with Israel is being promoted by the Gulf Arab States, and by both Palestinian and Israeli Arabs who increasingly identify with the benefits of living under Israeli law and commerce.
Van Zile contrasts the WCC anti-Israel agenda with the pro-Zionism of evangelical groups like the 8 million strong members of Christians United for Israel. He attributes that to the founding fathers of the US who were Old Testament Scripture Protestants who recognized the contributions of the Jewish People for self-government and as America as a “chosen nation”. The vast majority of American evangelicals support and love the Jewish people and the Jewish nation of Israel. Van Zile believes that Evangelical pastors do not follow the lead of the WCC and the UN.
When the subject of the peculiar role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the WCC was brought up, Van Zile noted that during the Cold War era that it was infiltrated by the KGB and deployed Christians in international groups. The Russian Orthodox Church does whatever the current Putin regime says is policy. That includes oppressing minority Christian churches that oppose the Orthodox hierarchy.
The discussion turned to Van Zile’s human rights -based arguments against granting the Palestinians a state rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed in 1948 and modeled on that adopted by the US. Van Zile argues that by refusing to acknowledge Jewish rights to self-determination, Palestinians are undermining their own moral claim to the right of determination. He points to the so-called Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, developed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in 1990’s, that granted such rights, just as long as they confirmed to Islamic Sharia law, an act of Islamic Supremacism. Thus, violating the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.