Because things are apparently getting worse in the Middle East, the World Council of Churches has chosen now of all times to push for radical sanctions against Israel. IsraPundit has an interview with history professor emeritus Prof Paul Charles Merkley trying to puzzle it out. The hostility of liberal Protestants toward Israel is a wildly important story that gets way too little attention, and the sources of that hostility are a complicated mix of 60s activist politics, feel-good internationalism, and the psychological needs for an acceptable scapegoat. The interview is long and nuanced: don't let either its length or its depth dissuade you from reading the whole thing.