The Weeks Review

TERRORISM IS TERRORISM
No Matter From Where It Comes. But..........

This is troubling, yet curious:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -The Presbyterian Church (USA) has stepped up security at its headquarters and advised its churches to be on alert after receiving a letter threatening arson attacks because of its policies in the Middle East.

The handwritten letter, received Wednesday at the church's Louisville headquarters, threatened to set churches on fire while people were inside in retaliation for "anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes," Jerry L. Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian news service, said Saturday.

The letter had no return address, but it was postmarked from Queens, N.Y., Van Marter said. The letter gave a Nov. 15 deadline for the church to reverse its Middle East policies, he said.Church officials are taking the threat seriously and have contacted law enforcement authorities in Kentucky and New York, Van Marter said.

By way of disclosure, I am a committed supporter of Israel but, if this is some sort of pro-Israel terrorism I, as I believe all resonable people should, codemn it in the strongest possible terms. Terrorism and murder is terrorism and murder, no matter the cause.

There is, however, something that just doesn't smell right about this. Burning churches and random murder of innocents just doesn't seem to fit the profile of even radical pro-Israel groups. In retaliation for "anti-Israel and anti Jewish attitudes"? Israelis have been taking the wholesale murder of Jews by Palestinians for years without a hint of this type of retaliation, and now they are prepared to randomly murder Presbyterians over attitude on U.S. soil? I may be letting my pro-Israel stance cloud my views on this, but there's something here that simply does not pass the smell test. What better way to discredit the Israeli cause, in the eyes of the Americans, than to portray its proponants as just as prone to random violence as the Muslims, hmmmm?

Oh, and for some reason, I feel compelled to direct your attention to "Not just Presbyterians with Turbans", written some time ago. At some level, it does seem relevent.