Contact:
Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.
National Director, Fair Witness
(516) 870-0335 Ext. 3

(Jericho, New York) October 30, 2006 -- Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (“Fair Witness”) is disturbed by the unbalanced manner in which the weekly Jesuit publication America Magazine and its editor Drew Christiansen have covered the on-going conflict in the Middle East.  With this lack of balance in mind, Fair Witness looked specifically at the manner in which America has applied Catholic just war doctrine to the hostilities that took place over the past year.

“In the course of our analysis we found that in their assessment of the recent round of violence between Israel and its adversaries, the writers and editors of America have exhibited a marked tendency to invoke the language of the just war doctrine to condemn Israel’s behavior without fairly applying the principles this language is meant to portray,” said Sr. Ruth Lautt.

According to Fr. James Loughran, S.A. “a fair and comprehensive application of the just war doctrine  would draw attention to the unjust goals pursued by Hamas and Hezbollah, and the manner in which these groups have pursued these goals – issues that have been for the most part ignored in the pages of America.” 

”Despite the fact that Israel was a victim of two unprovoked attacks from territory from which it had previously withdrawn, certain commentators persist in condemning Israel for responding in an allegedly disproportionate manner,” adds Dexter Van Zile. “This reveals a disturbing double standard. Fifty-eight years of non-stop aggression against the Jewish state has resulted in a selective habituation. Violence against Israel has become an unremarkable part of life in the Middle East – background noise not worth mentioning. Israeli response to this violence however, continues to provoke severe criticism.”

The full report is now available at Fair Witness’ website.

Christianfairwitness.com