Code Pink Slings Mud — Dead Sea and Otherwise

What does Code Pink have in common with IRD? Under normal circumstances, I would say “Absolutely nothing, thanks be to God!”

Code Pink woman “busts big banks.”

But later this month, the flamboyant, aggressive women of the Leftist activist group and the intrepid, quietly efficient staff members of the Institute on Religion and Democracy will be at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Pittsburgh, June 30-July 7.

Code Pink Anti-War Protestor Attacks U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a Capitol Hill hearing.

Code Pink began in 2002 as a protest of the U.S. “invasion” of Iraq. It was founded by such Leftist icons and media hounds as Susie “Medea” Benjamin (is it just me, or is anybody else reminded of  “Fieval” in “An American Tale”?), Jodie Evans, the wife of a late billionaire/venture capitalist Max Palevsky, Diane Wilson, and a Wiccan who calls herself “Starhawk.”

According to a report from Human Events, Evans was a bundler who raised over $50,000 for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. The report also reveals that Code Pink raised $600,000 and delivered it to the families of Iraqi terrorists in Fallujah, whom they called “insurgents” just fighting for them homes.

Perhaps the most despicable thing that Code Pink does is appear outside the Walter Reed Army Hospital where wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving treatment or target the children of military families. Holding signs that say such things as “Maimed for a Lie,” and “Enlist here and die for Halliburton” at Walter Reed, they have waged a psychological war against the troops and their families. You may also remember Code Pink’s assault on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as part of their opposition to the U.S. “occupation” there.

Code Pink says that it chose its name as a play “on the former Bush Administration’s color-coded homeland security alerts — yellow, orange, red — that signaled terrorist threats.” While Bush’s color-coded alerts “were based on fear and were used to justify violence,” Code Pink explains that their alert “is a feisty call for people to ‘wage peace.'” Or maybe a creepy call for people to take off their clothes, as Code Pink is wont to do. I wouldn’t think that would go over very well at the Presbyterian General Assembly.

In addition to all of its anti-war/anti-America/pro-Marxism activity, Code Pink works with other anti-Israel groups that are waging war against Israel’s economic stability. Code Pink explains that “The Israeli assault on Gaza at the end of December 2008 and into January 2009 was a tipping point for many with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The group “led several humanitarian delegations to Gaza, in March and June of 2009” where, they said, they “witnessed the devastating wake of Operation Cast Lead, and saw the debilitating effects of a two-year blockade on the people of the Gaza Strip.” (Perhaps they ran into Green Helmet Guy. That Hezbollah scene designer whose green-helmet-topped face popped up in every photograph during the July 2006 war with Lebanon, was reportedly also seen assisting Hamas with stage setting in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead as well. He seems to have the same flair for the dramatic as Code Pink.)

So they are bringing the battle to the Presbyterian General Assembly, joining pro-Palestinian Presbyterians who are attempting, once again, to pass overtures (resolutions) demanding divestment and boycotts. Loving as much camera time as they can get on their petulant faces and other body parts, the Code Pinkos are focusing boycott activity on their “Stolen Beauty” campaign against the Israeli Ahava company.  Stolen Beauty claims that Ahava’s products come from “stolen Palestinian natural resources in the Occupied Territory of the Palestinian West Bank and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem.”

Maybe Code Pink thinks that the Palestinians should take over Ahava, as well and efficiently as they did 3000 beautiful and productive Gaza greenhouses that were purchased in August 2005 for the Palestinians from the departing Israeli settlers by a group of American Jewish philanthropists. The Jewish donors made a $14 million gesture of goodwill to the incoming Palestinians, and a month later, mobs of Palestinians, after burning down the Gaza synagogues, totally trashed and looted at least half of the greenhouses.

Code Pink’s mud slinging at Israel consists of claims whose factual accuracy is hotly disputed. Attorney Ted Belman has explained, the “occupied Palestinian territories” are not only “not occupied, in a legal sense,” but they are not, nor have ever been, “Palestinian lands, in a sovereign sense.” Belman defends the legality of the Israeli settlements and adds, “The U.S. has traditionally, with the Carter administration being the only exception, refrained from describing the settlements as illegal and instead called them obstacles to peace. In September 2009, Obama went before the United Nations and declared, ” America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.” This is closer to Carter’s position but falls short of declaring them illegal. Nevertheless, it prompted John Bolton to say, “This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making.”

A recent email from Code Pink to its network boasts of the damage that their Stolen Beauty campaign is doing to Ahava around the world. It also claims success for their boycott activities at the United Methodist General Conference that recently took place in Tampa. Stolen Beauty’s mother-ship, the BDS Movement, spun the Methodists’ decisions as extremely positive. But IRD and others worked to stop passage of divestment from three U.S. companies that do business in Israel. In his article “United Methodists Reject Divestment,” IRD President Mark Tooley pointed out that the Methodists from Africa were key in stopping the divestment action, just as they were in other issues.

Let’s see if IRD and its allies, such as Presbyterians for Middle East Peace, can stop both the divestment and boycott agenda of Code Pink and its cohorts at the Presbyterian General Assembly. Palestinians, particularly Christian Palestinians, do indeed live with occupation and terror — from Hamas and other Islamists attempting to not only push Israel into the sea, but create a Caliphate in the Middle East. American Church members and their governing bodies should not participate in efforts that cooperate in the gagging of Middle East Christians. They should not thus tacitly agree with the farce that Palestinian Christians are forced to play out, that Hamas and even the Palestine Authority are strong defenders of religious freedom. Instead, American churches should pray for the peace of Jerusalem, speak the truth that those beleaguered Christians and other Middle Eastern people yearning for freedom cannot speak themselves, and support responsible and effective peace-making policies for Israel and the Palestinians.