Traditionally, the Methodists were the sort of Christians Jews could feel comfortable with. Like us, these non-conformists were for a long time outsiders, banished from the Establishment by the Anglican hegemony. We could relate to their simple unadorned churches, their Old Testament-inspired Protestantism, their commitment to social reform and education for all. Suffice to say the Methodists never organised a pogrom.

So the Methodist Church’s latest move to heap criticism on Israel feels like being let down by a pleasant and respected neighbour. “How could Methodists act in such bad faith?" was the Jewish Chronicle’s pained headline.

Actually, demanding a boycott of goods from “illegal” West Bank settlements and the end of the “siege of Gaza”. But Jewish response has been (over?) heated. The Methodists’ annual conference should “hang its head in shame”.

Part of the anger is directed at the distorted 54-page report that accompanied the new policy, but the deeper anxiety is the realisation that if a group as cuddly as the Methodists can call for a boycott of  “Israel” (though the settlements officially reside outside Israel) anybody can. Today the Methodists, tomorrow the Women’s Institute. The flotilla that is the Israel boycott and divestment movement has the wind in its sails and Israel’s supporters are worried.

“[The Methodists'] decision cannot be ignored. We must prepare ourselves for similar, perhaps even worse, attacks – and fight back,” declared the Jewish Chronicle leader.

Unfortunately, the “fight back” may be little more than Israel and her supporters hunkering down in the “Zion bunker”, fingers firmly jammed in the ears while bellowing out the Hatikvah.

Meanwhile, Palestine has now irrefutably become a global cause. That is certainly inconvenient for Israel and maybe unfair; it is, however, the “fact on the ground”.

As Daniel Levy a leading dovish thinker and senior fellow at the New America and Century Foundations, explained: “It is true that there will almost certainly always be unjustified prejudice toward Israel. Whatever it does, some people will always be out to get us. But prejudice is not what motivates the vast majority of those mobilizing in solidarity with the Palestinians.

“The occupation is the oxygen of their campaign, and the vast majority seek an end to it – not to Israel itself. An Israel that fails to appreciate this and which sustains the occupation is the single most proximate cause of its own delegitimization.

“It is still in our power, however, to change all of this. We can genuinely end the 1967 occupation and live up to our declared democratic ideals.”