Published in the Church of England Newspaper:

Sir, The Bishop of Exeter's article entitled Faith Hope and Love (Dec 7) is a travesty.

He does not even acknowledge that the State of Israel is a sovereign state, but pretends that it is an oppressive and stealthy force, preventing Christians from living their daily life. This is how many Christians used to describe the Jews in their midst, as 'shadowy, untrustworthy' individuals.

It is perhaps not surprising that over a period of two years the Bishop has refused to answer any of my e-mails regarding his sycophancy towards Islam and disregard for Jewish sensibilities.

His article does not mention the terror of suicide bombers and more recently of Hamas, which has tried to scupper the Annapolis peace process by making it clear that the entire area is, in their view, a Muslim territory, stretching from the 'river to the sea', with no room for the Jewish population, nor by implication for the Christian community either. As the Bishop well knows, the 'Wall' as he puts it is there to save life.

The saving of life was the subject of the recent Commission of Anglican and Jewish leaders, which met in Jerusalem this summer, chaired this end by the Chief Rabbi of Haifa. The two sets of leaders agreed that the saving of life is paramount. As the Commission was set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, we can assume that he agrees with these sentiments, which are surely a tenet of the Christian faith.

Therefore, it can be assumed that the Archbishop of Canterbury at least must understand the need for such a barrier which is currently saving the life of all those who live in Israel, including the 20 per cent Arab population of Israel. It would seem therefore that the Bishop of Exeter's behaviour might be conceived of as being contradictory to the spirit of the agreement made between the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, or so it would appear by the statements that were forthcoming in both written and oral form during and after the meetings.

These are the facts about Israel. Half the world's Jewish population now lives in Israel. The State of Israel came into being by a vote which took place exactly 60 years ago by the members of the UN. Lambeth Palace has belatedly admitted this and also endorsed positively the Christian contribution to the founding of the State of Israel and before that the formulation of the Balfour Declaration (1917). Lambeth Palace has also acknowledged the eternal religious, theological, historical, cultural and linguistic ties of the Jewish people worldwide to the Land of Israel. The Bishop of Exeter, in contrast, writes in a vacuum, as if the Jewish people did not exist.

There is a phrase for this type of aloof and condescending behaviour and it is called 'replacement theology'.

Dr Irene Lancaster

But What The Jews Will Do.

I had my modern day, post-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah Hebrew patriarchs and matriarchs mixed up.

I thought it was Golda Meir who stated the above. It was David Ben-Gurion.

Lots of serious concerns abound regarding the upcoming gang-up-on-the-Jews summit at Annapolis, organized by a Big Oil-connected, Arabist-dominated American State Department and supported by a President whose family has huge petrodollar ties of its own.

Headlines in newspapers repeatedly talk of Arab reluctance to attend.

Arabs aim to relive 1948 all over again.
We hear and read constantly about the need for "painful concessions" by Israel.

It's fine for Arabs to have a 22-member Arab League, but Abbas and his fellow "moderate" Palestinian Arab participants refuse to recognize a Jewish (as in English, Irish, Danish) Israel.

Besides empty paper promises (never lived up to), what painful concessions are Arabs expected to make so that their 22nd state--and 2nd, not first, one in the 1920 original Mandate of Palestine can be created?

Today is AFI's second anniversary.  This coincides with the start of an AFI campaign to raise awareness of issues surrounding Israel and the Middle East within the Anglican community.  Details of this campaign will be posted on this site.

Simon McIlwaine, founder and co-director of AFI said today:

Anglican Friends of Israel has over the last 2 years grown into the authentic voice of mainstream Anglican support for Israel and opposition to anti-Semitism.

We wish our dear friends in the Jewish community Shana Tova!

We would like to thank our many friends and supporters who have assisted us in our work.

A Letter to The Independent

Sir,
 
The people William Garrett (letters 17 August) was referring to when he wrote of 'Zionist "boat people"' flooding into British-ruled Palestine prior to 1947, were European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.
 
I do not know which is more astonishing.  Mr Garrett's apparent indifference to the plight of the Jews fleeing for their lives, or your decision to confer respectability on such indifference by publishing his letter.
 
Yours
 
Frances Waddams
Anglican Friends of Israel

Editor's Note: The Independent chose not to publish this letter.  We acknowledge the work of Engage, who brought this story to our attention.

A Letter to the Church Times

Sir,
 
There was cause for both hope and despair in Church Times articles this week.

You gave Irene Lancaster space to inform your readers about the place of Zionism in Judaism.  Whilst Eretz Israel is not important to all Jews, Anglicans need to show much more awareness of the importance of the covenant promises about the Land of Israel, cherished over centuries of exile, to the faith of religious Jews.  Her article makes a significant contribution to that awareness.

However, Giles Fraser’s comments elicited a sigh of despair.  Talking to Hamas is simply not like talking to the IRA. Only last week, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas leader based in Lebanon, said in an interview on Al-Kawthar TV that there were no Jews living in Palestine prior to 1917: that people who moved to Israel since 1917 were not Jews at all: and that Israel should prevent members of the public from using public transport so that they won’t be blown up when terrorists target members of the IDF travelling on Israeli buses.  Presumably they should not use restaurants, nightclubs or markets either, on the same principle.

Hamdan ended his farrago of untruth and hatred with “The final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity (ie Israel) off the face of the Earth.”

When will Giles Fraser and others who put forward similar opinions, pay Hamas spokesmen the compliment of believing what they say, and accept that we should not be talking to governments who threaten their neighbours with annihilation, however they got into power?

Yours sincerely

Frances Waddams
Anglican Friends of Israel

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, Shlomo Amar and Yonah Metzger, signed a historic agreement on 5 September 2006. It contained a joint declaration that set out a framework for continual dialogue.

Dr Williams said: “This is a most significant step in developing mutual understanding and trust between the Anglican Communion and the Chief Rabbinate and worldwide Judaism.”

August  14th - 6:00 AM - Israeli based, humanitarian organization, Save A Child's Heart, welcomes its first group of children from Rwanda to be operated on in Israel at Wolfson Medical Center.

Save A Child's Heart (SACH) welcomes the arrival of its first group of Rwandan children suffering from heart disease to be operated on in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Center.  The five children, who range from just a few months old to 15 years of age, will land in Israel on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007, accompanied by a Rwandan Nurse as well as by two mothers.