What does the Vatican want? Hard to believe that they have gone back to blaming the Jews.
“Mandated by the Vatican, a special delegation of Catholic bishops from Europe and North America pledged to press their governments to act against the “injustice” of “Israel’s West Bank separation barrier”.
Eight high ranking prelates visited Christians in the Gaza Strip, Bethlehem and Beit Jala. The Vatican envoys called the world to address the “tragic situation” faced by Palestinian Christian Arabs of Beit Jala, not because of Islamist threats, but because Arabs were “displaced” by the Israeli barrier, despite the fact that in constructing the security barrier no land has been annexed by Israel, no houses have been demolished, and no-one has been required to leave their home.
In fact, the bigger truth ignored by the Western press and the Churches is that Israel’s barrier helped restore calm and security not just in Israel, but also in Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity, which terrorists defiled in 2002 to escape from the Israeli army, is now filled again with tourists from around the world.
The bishops also met Daniel Sherman from the anti-Israel organisation B’Tselem. According to the Vatican news agency, the bishops saw evidence of “the abuse taking place in the West Bank where two and a half million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation”.
Giuseppe Lazzarotto, the Pope’s ambassador in Israel, also declared: “The material walls can be cut only if you tear down the walls of the spirit. That is the essential thing. As long as you do not break down the walls that each of us carries within, you can not shoot down other walls, even if you build new ones, which is even worse”.
This was the most important mission in Israel for the Catholic Bishops since last year, when eight Catholic bishops from Europe and North America, including UK Archbishop Patrick Kelly and French Archbishop Michel Dubost, visited Gaza under Hamas control. “I asked prisoners in the largest prison in Europe (in Evry) to pray for you,” Dubost told Gazans. The inference is clear: The poor Palestinian Arabs are living in a big prison and terrified by Israel.
Today there are 50 fences in the world. Bill Clinton gave the US the wall with Mexico; Spain built fences to keep out Moroccans; India is walling off Kashmir; South and North Korea share the most heavily fortified border in the world; the wealthy Arab sheikhdoms are closing the border with dirt-poor Oman; Cyprus is divided by walls; Belfast is a fenced city of brick, iron and steel barriers, and even the ultra-liberal Netherlands built a fence around the Hook of Holland.
But only Israel’s barriers have been condemned by the Vatican, only Israel’s fences have received round-the-clock coverage on Catholic media and front page stories on L’Osservatore Romano (the Vatican official newspaper) and only Israel’s checkpoints are turned into the meccas of Christian activists.
While foreign fences keep out refugees from neighboring countries, only Israel’s fences and checkpoints have a truly humanitarian reason: to secure the civilian population’s right to life. Only in Israel barbed wire, patrol roads, sand tracking paths, cameras and electronic sensors are used to prevent a restaurant, a shopping mall or a hotel from being turned into carpets of human bodies. Jewish bodies.
None of the other fenced countries have infiltrators with the “holy” purpose of killing people. Tijuana, the symbol of the wall dividing US and Mexico, is not Qalqilya, a Palestinian Arab city 15 kilometers from Tel Aviv, ringed by a fence. It’s Qalqilya, not Tijuana, that has been called the “Paradise Hotel”, because the city was used by suicide terrorists as the jumping off point into Israel. It’s from Qalqilya, not Tijuana, that terrorists can bomb Tel Aviv’s Azrieli towers, which can be seen from the city’s hills.
The fences are Israel’s most vital counter-terrorism instrument. Unlike Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, which is a monument to the defiance of the oppressed, Israel’s checkpoints are a symbol of life. According to the IDF, some 30% of Israel’s counter-terrorism arrests took place at the roadblocks.
Israel improved the quality of life at the checkpoints with bathrooms and shaded areas. But Palestinian Arab terrorists then deliberately took advantage of Israel’s consideration. In 2004, a Palestinian woman killed four Israelis at a checkpoint in Gaza by pretending to be disabled. Because of her condition, the soldiers performed their security checks without first using a metal detector. She then detonated her explosive device.
There are 63 crossing points along the barrier known as “gates”, and “obstructions”, such as roadblocks, piles of dirt, iron gates and trenches. Palestinian Arab terrorists found it difficult to obtain weapons when the army encircles every town.
When messengers or operatives get stuck at the checkpoints, they phone. This enables Israeli intelligence to intercept a call and helps to locate the network. In the past, Israeli intelligence learned about an attack while it was already in progress. With the checkpoints, the army shut down movement of terrorists from the PA. That’s why the checkpoint of Kalandia, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, resembles an international border.
The Vatican “ignores” that there have been numerous incidents involving terrorists in the Bethlehem region and a number of suicide bombers have come from the area. That’s why Israel needs to build a fence. That’s why the IDF said that it considers the fence and the hill essential as an “observation point”. The barrier near Cremisan shields the Israeli community of Gilo.
Gilo is a special symbol of the Jewish resistance during the Intifada, when Arab snipers fired at Jews from Beit Jala, mainly populated by Christians. Gilo was turned into another Ireland. Jewish residents began to evacuate. Fear and rage dominated streets and homes. Belatedly, the Israeli government provided barriers and bullet-proof glass to protect the neighborhood’s residents. Gilo was the laboratory where terrorists sought to discover whether they could force Jews into abandoning their homes. They failed. Now the Vatican is reviving this goal by “peaceful” means.
Without checkpoints, fences and roadblocks, Israel would never be able to exist. If the Arabs disarm, there will be “peace”; but if Israel disarms, there will be a new genocide. Is this what the Vatican wants? Another looming Holocaust?
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.
the phoenix Said:
Yes they would.
Max Said:
no they won’t
I have a solution. The pope could make a grand gesture for world peace by agreeing to relocate Vatican City to an areas near Tel Aviv. Israel could allow Roman Catholicism in that one area only and the Pope could show the world his faith in Gaza etc.
Then all the world’s catholics would have a reason to protect Israel ..and of course he has to live there – in the new Vatican.
I mean a really really holy person would make this sacrifice for world peace , wouldn’t they?
The vatican does not ignore, and protestions to them fall on deaf ears for a reason. The real reason for the vatican position are still unexpressed; the reason given here are rubbish. Their agenda as a political institution is deeper. Their political power rests on their credibility and authority with their subjects. They are losing credibility both with their scandals and the Jewish ascension in the HOly Land. They cannot afford to give power to the Jews. The Jews must remain a downtrodden and rejected race in order to prove their “truth”. A serial killer has a psychological investment in justifying his killings to himself. Similarly, the 2000 year Jew killer has an investment in removing the witnesses to their lie. It is only recently that they depict JC as being a practicing Jew right up to his death(his last supper being a seder) If the subject of worship was a practicing Jew until his death how does one logically convince others to do otherwise? It is only the withholding of facts which perpetuate lies.
Samuel Fistel Said:
They are invested in anti judaism but do not wish to appear “anti semitic” at this moment.
This is what comes from a Godless hate filled religion, i.e., Roman Catholicism–which in no way is Christianity!
The bishops need to address their concerns to those responsible for the erection of the barrier:
— those who organize & perpetrate violent outrages against the Israeli population.
In a very real sense, it is THEY who built the barrier.
Israelis never wanted the barrier.
It began as a brainchild not of the Right, but actually of the LEFT.
Much (if not most) of the populace did eventually sign on
— but only because, in the words of Alexandre Dumas,
“Nothing succeeds like success.” It worked. The numbers of Israeli deaths plummeted.
And the consequent need for reprisals against Pali perpetrators likewise dropped off — leading to fewer PALI deaths as well.
When the Palis & their leadership finally get clear on the concept that terrorism is out of order — and not merely because it’s counter-productive to their interests — but also because it’s morally reprehensible
— the barrier will dissolve faster than a sand-castle at high tide.
This just in —
— Message from Ted:
long tongs belong in the ass
@ the phoenix:
Phoenix, I was only kidding about the knife. I was actually agreeing with you.
The truth never hurts, it’s the lies.
@ rongrand:
Dear Ron,
I made sure in my comment that I differentiate between Catholic people (I did say it in jest that some of my best friends are catholic as an obvious counter to the tired antisemitic preface ‘ why, some of my best friends are jewish’) and the Vatican.
I am assuming that the knife you felt is the same one I felt after reading the article .
Catholic Patriarch: Christmas Marks ‘Birth of Palestine State’
The Patriarch of Jerusalem’s Roman Catholic Church declared Christmas is also a celebration of … the birth of the state of Palestine.”
The Last Christmas in Muslim Middle East?
Militant Islam is wiping out Christianity in the Muslim Middle East, according to a new study by the British think tank Civitas.
@ Samuel Fistel:
Samuel, his infallibility is with respects to faith & morals only and is not very broad. Otherwise, he can be a horses ass as anyone in politics. He is not winning many Jewish friends.
@ Samuel Fistel:
The Popes against Jewish Israel, in their own words:
(According to catholics, each pope is the physical representative of christ on earth, and is infallible in matters of religion)
Pope Innocent III (1291) decreed as follows:
“As Cain was a wanderer and an outcast, not to be killed by anyone but marked with the sign of fear on his forehead, so the Jews . . . against whom the voice of the blood of Christ cries out . . . although they are not to be killed they must always be dispersed as wanderers upon the face of the earth.”(1) Migne, Patrologia, CCXV
“Although Christian piety tolerates the Jews….. As they are reprobate slaves of the Lord, in whose death they evilly conspired (at least by the effect of the deed), let them acknowledge themselves as slaves of those whom the death of Christ has made free.”(2) Ibid., p.694
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, in response to Herzl (in 1904) asking for Vatican help to establish a Jewish homeland, told Herzl:
“I do not quite see how we can take any initiative in this matter. As long as the Jews deny the divinity of Christ, we certainly cannot make a declaration in their favor . . . The history of Israel is our own heritage, it is our own foundation. But in order for us to come out for the Jewish people in the way you desire, they would first have to be converted.”
Herzl then met with Pope Pius X, who did not recognize the right of the Jews to exist as Jews:
“The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people . . . The Jewish religion was the foundation of our own; but it was superseded by the teachings of Christ, and we cannot concede it any further validity.”
Archbishop Cicognani, apostolic delegate to the US, added in the June 22, 1943, letter:
“If a Hebrew home is desired, … (then) find a more fitting territory than Palestine. With an increase in the Jewish population there, grave new international problems would arise. Catholics the world over would be aroused. The Holy See would be saddened, and justly so, by such a move”.
Even after Israel was founded in 1948, the Vatican’s official newspaper insisted:
“Modern Israel is not the true heir of biblical Israel. … Therefore, the Holy Land and its sacred sites belong to Christianity, the true Israel”.
Just typical of the world’s vile double standards applied to the Jewish people.
I agree that Gaza is a vast prison. However it is hamas run prison.
@ RaymondF: I can’t believe anyone on this blog would dislike what I said! What’s next, Jerusalem Judenfrei?! These clerics are just a product of their overarching Christian teachings of supporting the little guy against the stronger one. Can’t they see that Israel is the David and the Arabs Goliath? Better untaught than ill taught.
RaymondF Said:
RaymondF Said:
RaymondF Said:
@ the phoenix:
phoenix, I felt the knife in my gut.
Listen, unfortunately the hierarchy of the church has a number of old European anti-Semites. Most Catholics are aware of it but we are not included in selection process.
However if included in the selection process, it’s no guarantee the likes will not happen, take the US for instance, a majority of Americans support Israel while the administration has anti-Semites.
Best bet, we keep our guns and eradicate anti-Semitism.
Hey, some of my best friends are catholic…. 🙂
nonetheless, a message to the Vatican and its nazi chief: f**k you all! Bunch of antisemite bastards!
of course every body knows that the vatican is an hypocritical anti-semitic criminal sexuelly degenerated organisation, and additionally intellctually corrupt. according to their belief, man is damned by the fault of the first man, Adam, and has no chance to escape hell by his proper means, i.e. repentence is impossible accordong to their belief. only the “grace” can save man: by accepting the “suffering of xxx”. however, man’s deeds in this world are completely irrelevent in regard to the “grace”. and more than any other human being, according to their anti-semitic belief, the Jew is damned, and only by rejecting the faith of his fathers, so they hope and claim, can he escape hell. that’s what’s written black on white in the vatican’s hallucinating “scriptures”. so, what’s their point with Israel?! “occupying” or not “occupying” the arab terrorists – what does it change?
Gaza. Judenfrei. Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Judenfrei?
“If the Arabs disarm, there will be ‘peace’; but if Israel disarms, there will be a new genocide. Is this what the Vatican wants? Another looming Holocaust?”
It sure looks that way. Unbelievable!