Dear President Thomas,

We appreciate the clarity of your “Pastoral Letter to Palestinian Friends and Partners.” You have made the sides abundantly clear. On one side are Israel, the United States, the G8, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. All of these faulted the unprovoked murderous cross-border attacks and kidnappings by Hezbollah that have led to suffering of the citizens of both Israel and Lebanon. On the other side are Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, the UCC and John Thomas, who see things differently. We also understand why your remarks during this week of death and misery addresses only the suffering of your Palestinian friends. History teaches that silence is admittance and your silence over innocent Jewish victims speaks volumes...

... Why now? Perhaps you provide cover for Hezbollah in order to justify your previous behavior. Not too many Americans have had the opportunity of face to face meetings with Hezbollah, but when you first encountered them, as you wrote in your travel diary in 2003, you did so with an attitude of bemusement that they were in the audience. Most Americans, we think, would have bolted in distaste from those who killed hundreds of Marines in Beirut. Has Che Guevara replaced G-d in your theology, so that no "underdog" can ever be called evil, no matter what his actions or moral platform? And why have you abandoned your Christian coreligionists in Lebanon! Can you not see what even Arab heads of state and a UN resolution have noted: that the people of Lebanon are being used as human sandbags by Hezbollah and their masters in Syria and Iran?

At least you are honest. You used to rail about the pressure from the “pro-Israel lobby.” You’ve dropped the code language. It’s Jews you’re talking about, as you admit in your current letter. Your irritation is puzzling, though. You have done a near perfect job keeping those pesky Jews from your offices, and from your convention floor when resolutions about the fate of Israelis came up. If we didn’t know better, we would think you simply don’t like outside interference and pressure. But you have no problem with the pressure from organizations like Sabeel and Al-Awda, both of whom reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state, and both of whom have either partnered with the UCC, or have been listed as a resource. And you don’t mind twisting a few arms yourself, do you? Remember the infamous “midnight meeting” at your General Synod in 2005, when you didn’t like the committee recommendation to the floor, so you substituted your own language, without anyone realizing it and had delegates adopt a resolution different from what they thought they were approving?...