THE General Assembly debate on the Balfour Declaration centenary contrasted with five years ago when Rev Steve Sizer (of “Israel’s 9/11 guilt” fame) was keynote speaker.

In fact the 1918 Assembly welcomed Arthur Balfour’s support for a Jewish homeland, but in recent decades the Kirk has associated itself with the hard left’s visceral anti-Israel stance.

It ignored the fact that some Jews have always been in the Holy Land; that many Israelis are refugees expelled from Arabia; that Hamas is a terrorist group aiming to obliterate Israel.

But the 2017 Assembly decision to "condemn all infringements of international law” in the area and to reject boycotts brings it back into line with its international church partners (“Kirk votes against economic sanctions but hits out at settlements”, The Herald, May 23).

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place,

St Andrews.