by Julian Mann, TCW
WHY is the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, so keen to criticise Israel but deafeningly silent on the mass slaughter of Christians by Islamists in Nigeria?
After he accused Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza, the Church of England’s second most senior cleric now faces the formidable intellect of Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.
Sir Ephraim wrote on X after Archbishop Cottrell made the comments this week in an interview with the Church Times: ‘The Archbishop of York has spoken of the need to be “painfully honest” about the conflict in Israel and Gaza. But it is simply not possible to do that without faithfully seeking to understand more than one perspective. It saddens me greatly that his irresponsible approach, reaching for the incendiary and morally inverted accusation of “genocidal acts”, will serve only to foster yet more enmity and division. I will be writing to the Archbishop to set out my concerns in detail.’
Unfortunately for Archbishop Cottrell it is most unlikely that he will turn out to be the David to Sir Ephraim’s Goliath in this intellectual duel.
Sir Ephraim’s missive will likely prove as devastating intellectually to the archbishop’s leftist anecdotal meanderings as Israel’s exploding pagers were to Hezbollah terrorists militarily in 2024.
Is not the reason why Archbishop Cottrell is so focused on Israel rather than on the plight of Christians in Nigeria quite straightforward?
The globalist elite of which Archbishop Cottrell is an ecclesiastical representative cannot stand Israel because it believes in itself as a sovereign and independent nation and is prepared to defend itself.
The globalists are not very bothered about persecuted Christians, particularly when Islamists are doing the persecuting, because Christianity is the legacy religion of the West.
It takes a patriot rather than a globalist to stand up for persecuted Christians, as Simon Caldwell so ably chronicled on this site on November 3: