Rev. Dr. Alexander Keith, Scottish “Christian Zionist” In the face of fierce Jewish criticism, the Church of Scotland is rewording its draft report—“The Inheritance of Abraham”—denying that Jews have a claim the land of Israel rooted in either the Bible or the Holocaust. The draft still favors the BDS’s anti-Israel boycott. Calvinist Scotland—which transplanted Presbyterianism to the U.S.—was once the redoubt of “Christian Zionism.” First appearing in a review of a book by Reverend Alexander Keith (pictured here), the slogan—“a land without people and a people without a land”—was published in the “Scottish Free Church” magazine in 1844. Times have changed in Scotland where the English still stereotype Scots but no longer as thrifty—or cheap—“like Jews,” and the Church is hemorrhaging members while secular Scottish nationalism, fronted by Sean Connery, waxes strong. Maybe the Scotttish Presbyterians are desperately trying to reassert their relevance by taking up the cause of another “oppressed people”—this time, not Jews but Palestinians. The Church of Scotland’s report flirts with the Christian Palestinians’ “Kairos Palestine Document,” published on the World Council of Churches website, which revives “replacement theology” consigning Judaism to the dustbin of history and denying Israel’s right to exist. In 2004, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCUSA) voted to “initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.” However, the American Presbyterians voted in 2012 to reject disinvestment by a vote of 333 to 331. The pending vote by the Church of Scotland—likely approving the still-biased report—may inspire the Presbyterian Church of America (PCUSA) one again to take up divestment.