Anti-Semitism in the Anglican Church

Looks like somebody's preparing for dhimmitude:

With impeccable timing, the British Anglican General Synod -- the Anglican Church's highest governing body -- has voted for a campaign of economic attacks on Israel just as Hamas is settling into power.

The General Synod resolved to disinvest in "all companies profiting from the illegal occupation." Singled out is Caterpillar tractors, whose machinery has been used to build Israel's security wall and to level buildings suspected of being used by terrorists. (It apparently escaped the General Synod's notice that Caterpillar machinery is also used by the Palestinians.) The Church Commissioners hold about $3.65 million in Caterpillar.

The subtext behind this is that it is illegitimate for Israelis -- or, let us be frank, Jews -- to try to defend themselves from terrorism. Dr. Irene Lancaster, of the Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University, said the vote marked "a very black day for Anglo-Jewish relations... The writing is on the wall for the Jews of Great Britain, 350 years after they settled here."

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, normally the most gentle and diplomatic of men, told the Jerusalem Post that the vote made him "ashamed to be an Anglican." Lord Carey previously warned that such a policy would "disastrous" for peace efforts in the region. He said Israelis already felt traumatized by attacks on them and this would be "another knife in the back." The chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St. Albans, also attacked the vote as "unbalanced." A counter-motion by pro-Israeli Anglicans was not allowed to be put.

The Brits might want to think the whole Protestantism thing. Becket and More were made of far sterner stuff.