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Media sleuths have lined up to hear what Jews are saying about the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. General Assembly's resolution to divest investment funds from companies doing business with Israel. But they have missed the more interesting story. The much stronger and greater protest is coming from rank-and-file Presbyterians.

The resolution implies that Israel, the only democracy in the region, and a country that allows unrestricted freedom of worship to Christians, should be stigmatized as apartheid. Initial coverage of the resolution included statements by supporters predicting that divestment would be effective to bring Israel to its knees, just as it did to South Africa. (Recent attempts by Stated Clerk Clinton Kirkpatrick to smooth over this point will fall on deaf ears. In a letter to Bill Clinton in 2000, Kirkpatrick himself called Israel a place where "Palestinian Christians and Muslims [are] forced to live under a clear form of apartheid.")

Besides being morally offensive, the resolution will also be counterproductive. Instead of bringing people on both sides closer to negotiations, it will do the opposite. It will embolden both terrorists and lawless elements in the growing chaos of the Palestinian leadership, while sending a message to Israel that she had better toughen up, because even salt-of-the-earth Americans are losing their moral compass.

You don't have to be a spiritual rocket scientist to figure out that millions of Jews are upset. Because it is predictable, it is not much of a story.

Less predictable, however, is the reaction of many ordinary Presbyterians, who in far greater numbers have been expressing their vehement objections to the decision of a church leadership that may have lost touch with its own membership. I will admit to being a Jew who has both a strong love for the State of Israel and many deep friendships in the Christian community. From my listening post at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles I have picked up multiple indications of large-scale discontent within the Presbyterian community. Let's place it someplace between "significant" and a "groundswell." Here are just a few examples:

Every caller to Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated talk show who stated his or her opinion on the matter was Presbyterian, and was in disagreement with the PC moves. Callers to Stand to Reason, a Christian radio talk program, were similarly incensed.

Gregg Meister, an ordained PCUSA minister who heads up Interlink Media, told us that "the actions of the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly do not accurately reflect the beliefs and convictions of the people in the pews. We share with Israel belief in the same God and the same democratic system. No Arab state does. I am confident that the majority of people in our denomination strongly support Israel's right to exist and to defend itself."

An official voice of dissent also came from The Presbyterian Church in Canada, which announced that it would not be part of the American General Assembly's decision.

When I called the Rev. Mark Brewer, pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian, former spiritual home to Ronald Reagan, he told me that no issue has produced as much irate reaction from his parishioners as this one. An elder at a different church who is a delegate to the local presbytery told me that he intended to bring up the dissatisfaction at the next monthly meeting.

An ad-hoc group of volunteers called Los Angeles area Presbyterian churches, selected randomly from the phone book. Nine out of ten expressed discontent with the resolution.

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August (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48