This article comes from Spero News.
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Catholics question America Magazine's posture on Israel
Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East is concerned about what it views as "America Magazine's continued e-sided [sic] criticism of Israel." In the May 24 issue, Fr. Drew Christiansen criticizes the harassment of an American Rabbi in response to his support for the Goldstone Report. But, according to a press release, this criticism segues into America's a denunciation of the Jewish state for failing to be "a 'light to the nations.'"
"Just as Fr. Christiansen rightly complains about uncritical support for Israel, I am troubled by America's uncritical support for condemnation of the Jewish State," says Fr. James Loughran, S.A., Director, Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute. "We also have to challenge America's use of Jewish voices to express disdain for Israel. If Fr. Christiansen really is a believer "in the dream of a Jewish homeland" as he says, this seems incompatible with the one-sided criticism of the Jewish State in the myriad articles on this topic printed in America Magazine."
"America's uncritical trumpeting of the Goldstone Report is particularly troubling," according to Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, Esq., Fair Witness National Director. "The report is so filled with prejudice and lack of due process that while its allegations should not be summarily dismissed, neither can its conclusions be accepted. There is propaganda on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. By ignoring the blatant flaws in Goldstone, which it uses as a weapon against Israel, America postures itself not as a publication seeking real answers, but as another peddler of propaganda."
"People of good will condemn the violence in Israel and Palestine and call for an end to mindless bigotry fueled by the editorial/political positions such as found in America," says Rev. Msgr. Dennis L. Mikulanis, pastor of San Rafael Parish, San Diego, California. "While America continues to slam Israel every chance it gets one rarely if ever reads of America's call to end the atrocities committed by Hamas, suicide bombings in Israel by radical Muslims or the incredible pressure placed on Christians by Palestinian Muslims. More people must be willing to search out the truth and not be content merely to spout rhetoric."
"America's uncritical trumpeting of the Goldstone Report is particularly troubling," according to Sr. Ruth Lautt, OP, Esq., Fair Witness National Director. "The report is so filled with prejudice and lack of due process that while its allegations should not be summarily dismissed, neither can its conclusions be accepted. There is propaganda on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. By ignoring the blatant flaws in Goldstone, which it uses as a weapon against Israel, America postures itself not as a publication seeking real answers, but as another peddler of propaganda."
"People of good will condemn the violence in Israel and Palestine and call for an end to mindless bigotry fueled by the editorial/political positions such as found in America," says Rev. Msgr. Dennis L. Mikulanis, pastor of San Rafael Parish, San Diego, California. "While America continues to slam Israel every chance it gets one rarely if ever reads of America's call to end the atrocities committed by Hamas, suicide bombings in Israel by radical Muslims or the incredible pressure placed on Christians by Palestinian Muslims. More people must be willing to search out the truth and not be content merely to spout rhetoric."
