September 17, 2008
Contact: Christians For Fair Witness on the Middle East
(212) 870-2320

"Even a cursory reading of the article written by Donald J. Moore, S.J., reveals its unwholesome agenda," says Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College in Annandale, New York. "Fr. Moore twists and distorts facts to justify pointing the moral finger of blame directly at the Jewish state. The overall order of events in the 'cycle of bloodshed' is reversed, for example, when he reports the deaths of four Gazans last April and only later mentions Hamas rockets fired into civilian towns in Israel. With a sleight of hand that has no place in responsible Christian journalism, the article more than implies that Israel is the aggressor in this conflict," notes Rev. Chilton.

Fr. Moore continues this deceptive tactic, stating that Hamas launches its rockets into Israel "in response" to Israel's "powerful military" attacks.

Rev. Dr. Roy W. Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church (USA) in Rockville, Maryland, says "What this article in America fails to state is the fact that following its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005, Israel's military incursions into Gaza began only in response to the unprovoked and non-stop firing of Palestinian rockets into Israeli civilian towns. People of good will may question whether Israel sometimes employs more forceful military responses than necessary -- but there is no justification for pretending that Israel was the aggressor here."

"America's penchant for blaming Israel for all Palestinian suffering reveals a bias against the Jewish state and does not help the Palestinian people," says Rev. James Loughran, S.A., Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. "When Yasser Arafat turned down the chance for statehood within the Clinton Parameters a deeply flawed Palestinian leadership was unambiguously revealed. A more responsible leadership that can lead its people out of violence, despair, pervasive sense of victimhood and statelessness will only emerge when our churches and the rest of the international community start holding Palestinians accountable for their own bad behavior, as America never tires of doing with the Israelis."