This passage reveals an explicit hostility toward the notion of Jewish sovereignty. The message offered here is that if the Jews who entered Palestine in 1948 had only been better behaved – and acted more like Armenians who came previously – then none of the tragic history that took place after 1948 would have happened.”

Less than a week after its full release, there’s no shortage of criticism of “Breaking Down the Walls,” the 172-page report of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Middle East Study Committee. But there are some defenders of the report as well, offering a preview of the heated debate that’s to come at this summer’s PCUSA General Assembly.

Even before the document went public, the report was panned as blatantly pro-Palestine and anti-Israel. Opposition to the report gained steam with the section-by-section release of the report in early March.

The PCUSA’s report has been criticized most recently by the Anti-Defamation League, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America and the New York Daily News. Even though the Daily News article overestimates PCUSA membership by about 850,000 members, its opinion of the report is not at all understated.

“The U.S. Presbyterian Church is on the verge of a blunder that would severely damage interfaith harmony,” the Daily News editorial said, adding that lay members must call leadership to its senses and that withholding U.S. aid implies tightening the screws until Israel stops defending itself against terrorism.