3000 years ago, the Jews had a PR problem.  It seems as though we were guilty of robbing an innocent nation of their land…sound familiar?  Well according to the king of the Ammonites the facts were plain-we used to live here and now you control the land-must be you unjustly attacked and subjugated us.  As the original text reads-The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.” (Judges 11:13)  You see all he wants is land for peace! 

Then in one of the great political speeches from the Tanach (Bible), Yiftach-the judge who was essentially in charge of Israel at the time gives the king a talking to “Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.  But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh.  Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.  Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’  Sihon, however, did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. He mustered all his men and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.  Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his men into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country.”  Ahhh, so the king left out an important detail-that Israel was actually attacked first and then won territory in a DEFENSIVE war (for which they were subsequently blamed).

Isn’t that always the rub?  People can’t stand the successful, the wealthy or the victorious and like the kid who gets a C minus on his Math test want to drag down those irritating straight A curve wreckers. 

And so now, in yet another sadly misplaced condemnation, the Presbyterian Church has decided to throw their weight behind the Israel boycott and issue a scathing proclamation which among other things “denounces Israel as a racist nation which has absolutely no historical, covenantal, or theological right to the Holy Land.”  The report calls for the United States to withhold financial and military aid to Israel and for boycotts and sanctions against Israel as well.  Nice.  Now the Presbyterians can add themselves to the ever growing list of peoples who “didn’t get it”, who blamed the victim and stood up for the rights of the oppressor.  I’m sure they will enjoy their status along with the Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans, Philistines, et al.  If you would like to express your feelings to the church directly you can do so here (888) 728-7228 or here http://www.pcusa.org/form2mail/form2mail.jsp?f2name=Sharon+Youngs&subject=Contact+OGA. 

And that brings us to Purim, the holiday that recalls our miraculous victory over the ancient Persians.  Their viceroy (Haman) was a descendant of a group of particularly pathological Jew haters called the Amalekites who would rest at nothing to see every Jewish man woman and child dead and gone.  But like the old joke goes, “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat”!

This Purim, with all the manifold threats that we Jews still face, let’s remember who we are and the promise that the Almighty made to us “He will not relinquish you nor destroy you, and He will not forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:31)