Are the mainline Protestant denominations uniformly pro-Palestinian?
No. There are still many Protestant clergy and laity who feel powerful connections to Israel, from personal experiences or a commitment to maintain friendly relations with their Jewish neighbors. In some ways I think that’s the fruit of the seeds we planted in strengthening inter-group ties over the past generation. That is why the decision of the Presbyterian Church’s national leadership to selectively withhold investments in companies that support Israel came as such a shock–and the decision was made without prior conversations with the Jewish community. Was there a breakdown in communications? Actually, there was a lot of conversation going on, on both the local and national levels, but there wasn’t much conversation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel was such a flashpoint, such a source of disagreement, both sides made a tactical decision–sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit–to focus on the things we agreed on. And that tactic came back to haunt us. Do you think the p
