I covered this at my blog the last few days.
In short:
The Vatican doesn't need to kowtow to the Israelis or bother apologizing. Though the Secretariat of State in the past may have been slacking off in condemning attacks against Israel, the Israeli foreign minister has no business stating that a lack of condemnation equals implicit approval of the 'killing of Jews'.
Besides, the Israelis don't have the cleanest hands nor do they bother to even attend scheduled negotiations with the Holy See as required by a treaty that was signed years ago.
You raise good points, Jacob. And You have a good summary at your page. I wouldn't say they should Kowtow to Israel, but I am inclined to think that the Vatican would want to assign top priority to building up Catholic/Jewish good will, especially given all the strains which that relationship has been under.
I was wondering how you'd handle this John. I think what Israel took issue with was that the Vatican had words about all the other attacks that week and left out ONLY Israel. That looks bad. It's not kowtowing. I repeat, that looks bad. Israel had every right to take issue with it.
If your reason for not saying it is because Israel retaliates, that's plain weird. Trust me, if they found the entity to retaliate against, Egypt and London would have been bombing the Hell out of their enemy. Israel shows amazing restraint considering what they are put through.
Agreed, Esther. London and Egypt would do the same. So would the U.S. for that matter. When you say it's just plain weird that the Vatican would leave Israel out, you are trying to hint that there has to be something more.
If the Vatican has decided that the Palestinians somehow deserve a break regarding terrorist violence because they are "freedom fighters" in an occupied territory, or because they are somehow repressed by the presence of the security barrier, then the folks in Rome would be making a grave mistake.
Actually, I'm not sure I meant anything more than weird. It just seemed odd that they'd leave Israel out. Does it make me think there's more about it? I would have thought it just didn't occur to them, giving the benefit of the doubt. BUT, when it was pointed out, I would have expected them to say, "Oh sorry! You're right. Israel too." That wasn't the reaction. Instead, they got defensive. I don't get that.
I'm sorry, Esther. I didn't mean to misinterpret you.
I think Jacob at Vatican Watcher (http://vaticanwatcher.blogspot.com/2005/07/
israel-protesting-just-what-exactly.html) provides a clue to the way the Vatican bristled up.
He quotes an article from the Jerusalem Post:
Nimrod Barkan, director of the Foreign Ministry's World Jewish Affairs Bureau, called Vatican Archbishop Pietro Sambi into his office to protest what Israel believes was not just an innocent oversight.
Barkan said not condemning terrorism in Israel had been Vatican policy for years, and "now that there is a new pope, we have decided to deal with it."
"We feel that now that there is a new pope, we need to turn over a new leaf and change the fact that the Vatican refrained in the past from condemning attacks here," he said. "They need to help the moderates in the Middle East, not the extremists."
Barkan said that during the reign of pope John Paul II, Israel "quietly" protested in Rome the pope's lack of condemnation of attacks in Israel. He said Israel had now decided to go public with the matter to change an entrenched but negative mode of conduct.
In other words, Israel seems to have launched a diplomatic offensive to change how the Vatican deals with their nation in general. They seem to be doing this by submitting a complaint regarding how the previous pontiff dealt with Israel while apparently ignoring the unprecidented outreach which JPII practiced towards their nation and towards the Jewish world in general.
I haven't researched the issue of Vatican responses to anti-Israeli terrorism and really can't comment intelligently on that issue, but I think what we are observing is some diplomatic sparring over just what the relationship will be between the new pope and the state of Israel. The Israelis are seeking greater recognition and sympathy for their position with regard to the Palestinian terrorists and the Vatican (presently) resisting any change on that issue.
Commenting by HaloScan
