News your connection to The Boston Globe Jeff Jacoby  Criticism
gone too far  IN CIVILIZED circles it is considered boorish to
speak of Jews as Christ-killers, or to use language evoking the
venomous old teaching that Jews are forever cursed for the death
of Jesus. Those circles apparently don't include the Sabeel
Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an anti-Israel "peace"
organization based in Jerusalem, or its founder, the Anglican
cleric Naim Ateek.  Sabeel and Ateek are highly regarded on the
hard-line Christian left, and regularly organize American
conferences at which Israel is extravagantly denounced by
numerous critics. So far this year, such conferences have been
held in Cleveland, Berkeley, Calif., and Birmingham, Ala.;
another begins Friday at Boston's Old South Church.  Just as
critics of the United States are not necessarily anti-American
bigots, critics of Israel are not necessarily biased against
Jews. But Sabeel and Ateek's denunciations of Israel have
included imagery explicitly linking the