THE HANDSTAND

august2005

A Very Welcome Response to Israel from the Vatican
On Monday 25th July, the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem summoned the Vatican
envoy to express outrage over what it called Pope Benedict XVI's deliberate failure to
mention a July 12 suicide bombing in the city of Netanya when he condemned recent
terror strikes in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq.

``It's not always possible to immediately follow every attack against Israel
with a public statement of condemnation and (that is) for various reasons,
among them the fact that the attacks against Israel sometimes were followed by
immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the rules of
international law,'' said a Vatican statement, which had an unusually blistering tone.

``It would thus be impossible to condemn the first (the terror strikes) and
let the second (Israeli retaliation) pass in silence,'' said the statement.


The Vatican statement also expressed irritation with the reaction of the Israeli Govt. to the Pope's original comments and said it was not prepared to "take lessons or instructions from any other authority on the content and direction of its own statements". Further, the Pope's spokesman said that it was "surprising that anyone would have wanted to take the opportunity to distort the intentions of the Holy Father.