Several Jewish organizations have cancelled participation in the next meeting of a Christian-Jewish Roundtable.
The meetings were to be held with several mainline denominations that have been critical of Israel and some companies that do business with the Jewish homeland. Mark Tooley of The Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD) tells OneNewsNow the Jewish groups took the action after the Christian groups sent a letter to the U.S. Congress.
"In effect they're questioning U.S. military aid to Israel and urging investigation of ostensible Israeli human rights violations," Tooley explains.
Jewish groups feel the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Methodist Council of Bishops are blaming Israel exclusively for the absence of peace in the Middle East.
"They see this as a very biased and unjust stance -- calling into question whether or not they can continue to be interfaith partners with these churches," the IRD president notes.
But he goes on to point out that those denominations have a history of being anti-Israel -- "in terms of their pronouncements from their spokespersons over the last 30 years, very much so."
While cancelling the meeting, the Jewish groups have asked for a special summit with leaders of the denominations so that Jewish leaders can share their stances. But Tooley thinks "it's unlikely that the elites of these denominations are going to shift course in terms of their anti-Israel stance."