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Commentary

Editorial

A Priest's Encounter
With Jew-Hatred

I

was in one of those big boxes in another city,
waiting for a prescription. After wander-
ing around for a few minutes, I sat down
across the aisle from the pharmacy on one of
the benches kindly provided by the store. I
was wearing my cassock and vest and skufia
(a priest's cap). I had attended the
New Mexico Orthodoxy clergy April
meeting and stopped on my way
home to fill a prescription.
Several people wheeled their carts
past me and said hello or made vari-
ous comments. I forget that folks are
not used to seeing clerical garb in
public any more, not even Roman
Catholic priests, so often people will
comment or ask the question, "Oh
what denomination are you?" That
affords me the opportunity for the
stock response, "I'm not in a denomi-
nation; I'm Orthodox" which may or
may not lead to further conversation.
She was wearing a flower print dress and a
matching scarf. The cross around her neck was
tasteful, not too prominent, but nevertheless was
not a mere charm; she meant it as a statement.
She was, I would guess, about 40. She did not
ask about my "denomination" She allowed as
how she had once visited an Orthodox church in
yet another city in the state, and she was curious
about something.
She asked if I wore my hat when I was at
prayer because, you know, St. Paul says that
women should cover their heads in church, but
right after that he says that men should not
cover their heads. I said that if a priest wore a
hat in church, he would take it off at moments of
prayer because that's what we do, us Orthodox.
That seemed to settle the issue.
In the next breath she quietly said something
like, "You've got to be careful who you talk
to because many people who call themselves
Christians have given up the true faith"
I realized that this might go rapidly downhill,
so I simply agreed with her on the theory that
she would wheel away at this point.
I was wrong.
She said, "You've got to be careful about the
Jews because they have taken over Hollywood
and Wall Street and all the newspapers"
At this point I looked for any exit I could fmd,
but the prescription was not yet ready. I said,
"Where do you get such slanted information?"
She replied that she did not really attend a
church because most of them were bogus, but
she trusted a handful of preachers she had found
on YouTube. They were telling the truth "like it
is:' including the stuff about the Jews secretly
ruling everything.
I asked if she remembered that Jesus was a
Jew and that the earliest church was and could
only have been made up of Jews who followed
him.
She replied that Paul and Peter had argued

38

June 19 • 2014

Maintain Palestinian
Funding - For Now

about this, that Paul had won, and the Jews
under Peter had lost, and nobody could force the
Law on us anymore.
I could see that this line of reasoning would
lead to all Roman Catholics burning in hell
because they followed Peter as the first pope,
but I didn't go there. I said that Paul
struggled mightily with the relation of
Jews and Christians under Romans —
his masterwork, particularly in chap-
ters 9-11— and that he said that God's
plan was to reunite us in some myste-
rious way at the end of time, but that
for the moment we had to struggle to
fmd our unity on the ground.
She stood upright, with a knowing
look and narrowed eyes, and told me
that I was one of those "Christians"
who had given up the faith. I heard
the quotation marks in her tone of
voice.
So I said in a loud voice, as the anger built
within me, "These people are liars, they are lead-
ing you in the wrong direction, and you had bet-
ter watch out for your soul."
At this she hastily pushed her cart down the
aisle and disappeared. My heart was pounding.
People were looking but trying not to.
I was rattled. I drove home, rolling the events
over in my mind, looking for alternative ways I
could have handled the situation. None appeared.
This incident reminded me, in a stark way,
that we have not dismantled the tide of hatred
for the Jews who "rule the world" No matter how
many decades we have had since the Holocaust,
an ocean of hostility continues, capable of rising
to tidal levels in this one woman in a store on a
sunny April afternoon.
Most unnerving is that these attitudes and
concepts and ideas are not at all perceived to be
loony, twisted or in any way prejudiced. They are
simply perceived as the truth. And that's that.
I look in the mirror and ask whether I am
guilty of perpetuating these dangerous negative
myths. I look away, confident that I personally
am not. I have devoted a great chunk of my
lifetime, energy and work to combatting such
nonsense.
But then I remember that this teaching was
not uncommon in churches for more than a mil-
lennium, and that, in my own tradition, pogroms
often happened on Holy Thursday — when
people heard that the Jews had killed Christ, and
that whole Jewish shtetls disappeared, wiped off
the face of the Earth by advancing Nazi hordes.
It was not even a century ago. On a scale of
world history, it is only moments since many of
us (not all) have given up the teaching of con-
tempt. We have no choice; we have to remain
vigilant. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy.

❑

Father Gabriel Rochelle is on the steering committee
of the Israel-based Shalom Hartman Institute/New
Paths: Christians Engaging Israel Project.

D

espite the suspicious nature of the new Palestinian gov-
ernment, the U.S. shouldn't pull the plug on funding the
Palestinian Authority (P.A.), a power broker of sorts, just yet.
Neither should Congress turn down the heat on pressing the Obama
administration for answers as to why America should still provide
assistance to, and work with, the interim government bridging the
Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and all of the Gaza
Strip.
Summarily cutting off U.S. aid in the wake of the unity pact
between Fatah-led Ramallah and Hamas-ruled Gaza City would hurt
ordinary Palestinians and their basic needs more so than their lead-
ers, who have other resources to draw from, at least for awhile, for
their priorities. So it's not in the best interest of Israel or the West to
abruptly abandon existing Palestinian support. Still, so many young
Palestinians have been indoctrinated to hate that it will take two gen-
erations or more to effect a lasting cultural change within the P.A.

Vote Matters

Debate continues as to who exactly is running the interim government
in advance of Palestinian elections in about six months. The just-
formed government by P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, who refuses to
recognize Israel as a Jewish state, consists of technocrats supposedly
undaunted by Hamas – a U.S.-, European Union- and Israel-declared
terrorist organization. Hamas, however, backs the government, giving
it influence by default as the party that ruled the Gaza Strip for seven
years. The elections, meanwhile, not only could elevate Hamas' stand-
ing, but also, at minimum, could thrust it into the government.
At issue will be Hamas' involvement, to any degree, in the elections.
U.S. intelligence agencies have determined Hamas, at present, has no
role in the newly constituted Palestinian cabinet. The argument should
be made that Hamas, suspected of kidnapping three Israeli teens
in the West Bank on June 12, has no place in a civilized election, so
should be barred from even running.
Israel has urged isolating the new Palestinian government given
that Hamas endorses it. But privately, Israel keeps open the door of
opportunity with the P.A.; Jerusalem still transfers some customs
duties and coordinates security services. Israel isn't negotiating with
the P.A., but only because Abbas summoned home his negotiators, not
because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a boycott
of them.
The Palestinian elections could either turn the tide toward Hamas,
giving it stature, or against it, further weakening its toehold in the
West Bank. Unknown is how Fatah and Hamas will approach the elec-
tions; any hint of embracing Hamas would doom Fatah in the judgment
of Jerusalem.
The fear is the elections will legitimize Hamas, which boasts a
missile-armed military wing, and create what U.S.-based Middle
East observer Jonathan Schanzer called, according to JTA, the
"Lebanonization" of the Palestinian way of governing, a reference to
Hezbollah's armed guard in Lebanon.

Mining Millions

The Fatah-Hamas unity pact that came in May was more an accord of
convenience than one of allegiance to one another. The U.S. allocates
$440 million each year in direct aid to the P.A. It awards another
$225 million to the P.A. through the United Nations.
Big bucks are at stake – American taxpayer dollars. We know P.A.
corruption has diverted some of this precious funding. And we know
Congress is on record threatening to stop support if the P.A. persists
in courting Hamas and seeking statehood outside of talks with Israel.
Still, it's prudent for the U.S. to maintain aid to the P.A. while
Congress quizzes the Obama administration on its Israeli-Palestinian
strategy for moving forward. The aid, revocable at any time, has been
a factor in helping the Palestinian Authority focus more on building an
economy, which, importantly, has begun to gain traction.

❑